by Charles Day*
www.desmoinesmeditation.org or Click Here
What does Buddhism say about nature, the environment, and ecology, about caring for creation? A brief understanding of its history helps answer this question. Siddartha Gautama, the son of a royal family in Northern India, founded Buddhism 2600 years ago. His lifelong contemplative nature led him at the age of 29 to forfeit his inheritance to the throne and leave his family to search for a way to end suffering, not only for himself but also for all beings. He wanted everyone to experience the bliss and compassion of enlightenment, or in Christian terms, the grace of God and the peace that surpasses understanding.
He studied with India’s two most revered Hindu masters, learning their teachings so thoroughly that he was asked by both to become their successors. But he declined because neither was able to explain fully what caused suffering and how to end it. He also practiced with other spiritual aspirants the severe austerities, including virtual starvation, commonly felt to facilitate spiritual growth. But he concluded that these only caused more suffering. So he left his teachers and fellow seekers to meditate alone in the forests of India. And six years after he began his quest, sitting all night beneath the fabled Bodhi tree, after wrestling with the temptations of lust, greed, anger, power, and pride, he attained full enlightenment. And for the next 45 years he taught what he called the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path or the middle way to end suffering.
Buddha, the name given him after his enlightenment, meaning "awake" or "aware," taught that suffering would end only when one realizes that true happiness, contentment, and peace must transcend and can never depend upon external or internal conditions. He taught that the four divine virtues of lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity were innate but were obscured by the inevitable suffering caused by three basic conditions:
(1) Our endless pursuit of physical and mental pleasures,
(2) Our tendency to react with anger and aversion to physical pain and frustration of desires, and
(3) Ignorance of our interconnectedness with all physical and mental phenomena, resulting in an illusory sense of having an independent, autonomous, and separate self or ego that can control its own destiny.
Buddha taught meditation, mindfulness, and other practices that would lead to the wisdom, compassion, and insights necessary to end these causes of suffering.
From a Buddhist perspective, then, failure to care for creation, to be compassionate for the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, results when we separate ourselves from these domains of life. When we exploit them in the pursuit of satisfying our selfish needs and desires, and when we deny our connectedness to and interdependence upon them.
Genuine caring for creation is an ecology based on compassion and is a natural, spontaneous result of understanding that everybody and everything is connected and interdependent, that Thou art That, in Hindu terms. To hurt, harm, exploit, neglect or cause suffering to any living being, or to our natural resources, environment, or the planet is simply to hurt, harm, exploit, neglect, and cause suffering to ourselves..
This recognition has led to the development of what contemporary Buddhist scholars call engaged Buddhism. They recognize that to ultimately end our individual and collective suffering, we must consciously confront the suffering that exists on all levels: physical, mental, social, as well as ecological. I would like to quote from a couple of books: (1) The Path of Compassion: Writings on Socially Engaged Buddhism, edited by Fred Eppsteiner, Parralax Press, 1985, and (2) For a Future to Be Possible, by Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, 1993.
Zen master Philip Kapleau says, "A major task for Buddhism … is to ally itself with religious and other concerned organizations to forestall the potential catastrophes facing the human race: nuclear holocaust, irreversible pollution of the world's environment, and the continuing large-scale destruction of non-renewable resources. We also need to lend our physical and moral support to those who are fighting hunger, poverty, and oppression everywhere in the world” (1, pg. xii)." He said this in the early 1980's.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee, poet, and Vietnamese Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh is unexcelled in adapting Buddhist teachings to modern society. He advocates practicing compassion and reverence for all life by learning ways to protect the lives of, not just people, but of animals, plants, and minerals. He urges us all to resolve not to harm, let others harm, or support any act of harming in the world, in the way we think, in the way we speak, and in the way we act. (2, pg. 13).
And he advocates practicing lovingkindness and generosity by becoming "aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression" and learning "ways to work for the well-being of all people, animals, plants, and minerals" (2, pg. 20).
The Dalai Lama says "because the individual and society are interdependent, one's behavior as an individual is inseparable from one's behavior as a participant in society" (1, pg. xiv)
Author Kenneth Kraft suggests that a Buddhist "awareness of interdependence fosters a sense of universal responsibility" (1, pg. xiv). Engaged Buddhism, according to Zen Buddhist and Poet Gary Snyder, can lead to specific acts of "civil disobedience, outspoken criticism, protest, pacifism, voluntary poverty, and even gentle violence if it comes to a matter of retraining some impetuous crazy" (1, pg. xvii).
Engaged Buddhism is a practical manifestation of caring for creation. It is a Buddhist ecology of compassion. Once we realize the interconnected nature of all people, all beings, and all things, that everything is a manifestation of God, we will recognize our involvement in the conditions we deplore and become empowered to do something about them. Until then, until we realize that everything is God, we will continue to hurt God.
Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that: "We need a person to inspire us with calm confidence and to tell us what to do. Who is that person? ....You are that person. If you are yourself, if you are your best, then you are that person. Only with such a person—calm, lucid, and aware—will our situation improve." (1, pg. xiv).
References
(1) Eppsteiner, Fred (1985). ed. The Path of Compassion: Writings on Socially Engaged Buddhism. Parralax Press.
(2) Hanh, Thich Nhat, (1993). For a Future to Be Possible. Parallax Press, 1993.
__________________________________
*Based on a talk given by Charles Day to an Interfaith Forum on Caring for Creation in Des Moines, IA, in 2003. Charlie teaches meditation and Buddhism and can be contacted at (515) 255-8398, www.desmoinesmeditation.org or charlesday1@mchsi.com to discuss meditation, Buddhism, sitting groups, retreats, or meditation experiences. w11-08
Click here to download and print this essay.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Meditation May Protect Your Brain
For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering.
Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention -- an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise....
"There are a lot of potential applications for this," said Milos Cekic, a member of the Emory research team and himself a longtime meditator. He suspects the simple practice of focusing attention on the breath could help patients suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and other conditions characterized by excessive rumination.
Meanwhile, a meditation-derived program developed at the University of Massachusetts called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is gaining popularity for treatment of anxiety and chronic illnesses at medical centers around the U.S....(continued)
Click here to read the entire article and learn about other scientifically researched benefits of meditation practice. Thanks to Jan Gipple, Des Moines, IA, for sending this reference.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment
by Jay Dixit in "Psychology Today" Magazine, Nov/Dec 2008
(Some quotes:) We live in the age of distraction. Yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present....You Are Not Your Thoughts....Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past....
When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our 'monkey minds,' as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree....
Our thoughts control us. "Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to "rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being"....
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV....(continued)
Click here to read the entire article on the "Psychology Today" website and to learn how to practice the recommended six steps to living in the moment. Thanks to meditator David Drake, Des Moines, IA, for sending the reference.
(Some quotes:) We live in the age of distraction. Yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present....You Are Not Your Thoughts....Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past....
When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our 'monkey minds,' as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree....
Our thoughts control us. "Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to "rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being"....
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV....(continued)
Click here to read the entire article on the "Psychology Today" website and to learn how to practice the recommended six steps to living in the moment. Thanks to meditator David Drake, Des Moines, IA, for sending the reference.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Who We Really Are: Buddhist Approaches to Psychotherapy*
by Kenneth Porter**
In the last 30 years Buddhism has increasingly influenced a new generation of American psychotherapists. The basic Buddhist concepts of Buddha nature, the dharma, attachment and meditation have opened up new ways of thinking about the self, psychopathology, therapeutic process, the goal of therapy, the affective focus of therapy, the super-ego and therapeutic technique. Using a Buddhist approach to group therapy we can maintain adherence to the traditional principles of group therapeutic leadership technique, while exploring the possibilities for changing group structure through meditation, increasing insight and empathy in both leader and group members, and deepening access to repressed material. This approach does not create “a new form of therapy or group therapy,” but rather might enable us to do better what it is that we already
know how to do.
It is interesting that the history of Buddhism in America, and the history of psychoanalysis, begin at almost the same moment. Although Thoreau in the 1840’s, and the spiritual movement of the Theosophists and certain Boston scholars after the 1870’s, had all been interested in Buddhism, its entrance into the United States is often dated from the arrival of the Zen teacher Soyen Shaku in 1905 – only four years before Freud’s famous Clark University lectures of 1909. Since then both movements have permeated American society.
But it was in the 1950’s that Buddhism began to enter the American mainstream.
The writers Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg embraced Zen Buddhism with a fervor. With his easy and brilliant writing style, the transplanted Englishman Alan Watts began to make Buddhism accessible to a wider audience. And at Columbia University the esteemed (and aged – he was then in his late 80’s) Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki began to teach the famous seminar that introduced Buddhism to psychoanalysis. Attended by Erich Fromm and Karen Horney (as well as the musician John Cage and others), this class led to the seminal 1957 Cuernavaca conference on Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis and to the book of the same name. This was the first attempt to bring these two powerful movements together in a scholarly fashion (Suzuki, Fromm and De Martino, 1960).
In the 60’s and 70’s Buddhism grew in popularity. Starting in 1959 another Zen master named Suzuki (Shunryu Suzuki Roshi) began to teach in San Francisco, and his collected dharma talks, later published under the title Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, (Suzuki, 1972) became a classic. In the 70’s two Tibetan Buddhism teachers, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Tarthang Tulku, also began to teach in the United States, and three young Americans, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg brought back from Asia the form of Buddhism called Insight Meditation and founded the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. Starting in the 1980’s came pioneering work in the integration of Buddhism and psychotherapy – especially the books of Diane Shainberg (Shainberg, 1983, 1993, 2000), John Welwood (1983, 2000), and Mark Epstein (Epstein, 1995, 1998, 2001), among many others....(continued)
Click here to read this complete article and to download and print it. My thanks to Ken Porter, New York, NY, for sending me his essay.
In the last 30 years Buddhism has increasingly influenced a new generation of American psychotherapists. The basic Buddhist concepts of Buddha nature, the dharma, attachment and meditation have opened up new ways of thinking about the self, psychopathology, therapeutic process, the goal of therapy, the affective focus of therapy, the super-ego and therapeutic technique. Using a Buddhist approach to group therapy we can maintain adherence to the traditional principles of group therapeutic leadership technique, while exploring the possibilities for changing group structure through meditation, increasing insight and empathy in both leader and group members, and deepening access to repressed material. This approach does not create “a new form of therapy or group therapy,” but rather might enable us to do better what it is that we already
know how to do.
It is interesting that the history of Buddhism in America, and the history of psychoanalysis, begin at almost the same moment. Although Thoreau in the 1840’s, and the spiritual movement of the Theosophists and certain Boston scholars after the 1870’s, had all been interested in Buddhism, its entrance into the United States is often dated from the arrival of the Zen teacher Soyen Shaku in 1905 – only four years before Freud’s famous Clark University lectures of 1909. Since then both movements have permeated American society.
But it was in the 1950’s that Buddhism began to enter the American mainstream.
The writers Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg embraced Zen Buddhism with a fervor. With his easy and brilliant writing style, the transplanted Englishman Alan Watts began to make Buddhism accessible to a wider audience. And at Columbia University the esteemed (and aged – he was then in his late 80’s) Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki began to teach the famous seminar that introduced Buddhism to psychoanalysis. Attended by Erich Fromm and Karen Horney (as well as the musician John Cage and others), this class led to the seminal 1957 Cuernavaca conference on Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis and to the book of the same name. This was the first attempt to bring these two powerful movements together in a scholarly fashion (Suzuki, Fromm and De Martino, 1960).
In the 60’s and 70’s Buddhism grew in popularity. Starting in 1959 another Zen master named Suzuki (Shunryu Suzuki Roshi) began to teach in San Francisco, and his collected dharma talks, later published under the title Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, (Suzuki, 1972) became a classic. In the 70’s two Tibetan Buddhism teachers, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Tarthang Tulku, also began to teach in the United States, and three young Americans, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg brought back from Asia the form of Buddhism called Insight Meditation and founded the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. Starting in the 1980’s came pioneering work in the integration of Buddhism and psychotherapy – especially the books of Diane Shainberg (Shainberg, 1983, 1993, 2000), John Welwood (1983, 2000), and Mark Epstein (Epstein, 1995, 1998, 2001), among many others....(continued)
Click here to read this complete article and to download and print it. My thanks to Ken Porter, New York, NY, for sending me his essay.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Insight Meditation and the Illusion of Self
by Charles Day
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
Meditator Cody Gough from Perth, Australia, writes: “I've been practicing the basic breath meditation for a while now and find it very rewarding. I recently encountered the idea that the self is an illusion constructed by our minds. However, I've found it hard to come to a real understanding of this. While mulling over the notion, I often have 'flashes' of clarity in which I think I understand, but these are only momentary. Do you have any advice on how I can use meditation to deepen my understanding in this area.”
My response: It sounds like you're really benefiting from your meditation practice and study of Buddhist philosophy. I've found doing both to be quite valuable, though meditating is the most important part. Buddha's unique contribution to philosophy, metaphysics, and religion was his emphasis on "anatta" or no-self or selflessness. He taught that our sense of a personal, autonomous, and enduring self-entity or ego is an illusion because all mental and physical phenomena are interconnected, interdependent, impermanent, and continuously changing.
Do not try to come to any "real" understanding of this, Cody, because the intellect, thought, and language categorize, separate, and divide phenomena into dualistic forms of this and that, I and other. The intellect can only come up with "pointers to the moon," to that non-dualistic unity, out of which the ever-changing, interconnected whole arises, and which, according to the mystics of all religions, is inexpressible, beyond thought, beyond language. You appear to be experiencing exactly this in your “flashes of clarity,” a good way of describing what I also call "glimpses of enlightenment," or as Buddha, might say, "seeing things as they are" without an overlay of conceptual reactivity.
It can be very useful to study, mull over, and think about self as an illusion or any other idea for that matter. But remember that any idea, concept, or belief, while useful as a pointer to the moon, can be detrimental if one becomes too attached to it, especially if it is elevated to an absolute truth. This includes the idea of no-self, if believed in intellectually without being experienced intuitively and transcendentally. Just trust your "flashes of clarity" when they occur, and avoid trying to understand them intellectually, make them happen, or being disappointed when they don't. The latter would only reflect the illusory self or ego, which we all do experience, trying to assert itself by claiming credit for the flash and thinking it can make it happen at will.
To deepen your understanding through meditation of the illusory self, I suggest you intentionally practice insight meditation. Basic Buddhist meditation is often classified into two types: samatha (concentration and tranquility/relaxation) meditation and vipassana (insight) meditation. The same breath practice can be used for both purposes. By insight is meant experiencing what Buddha called the three characteristics of all reality, namely, unsatisfactoriness, impermanence, and selflessness. Your "flash of clarity" appears to be an insight into "selflessness." That the "flashes" are momentary reflects the impermanent nature of thoughts and insights prior to increased enlightenment.
Most meditators most of the time are probably doing tranquility meditation. The instruction is to focus on the breath, using it as an anchor for the attention, and to return to it when you become aware the attention has shifted to sounds, smells, body sensations other than the breath, or thoughts, feelings, images or other objects that arise in consciousness. Practicing in this manner constitutes samatha (concentration or tranquility) meditation, although it can also lead to insights. To practice insight meditation, you intentionally note and experience awareness of the unsatisfactory, impermanent, and selfless nature of both the process of breathing and the objects to which the attention shifts. When you become aware/mindful that the attention is on an object other than the breath, you experience awareness of that object's unsatisfactory, impermanent, and selfless nature as you let it go of it and return the attention to the breath. Don't think about, dwell upon, analyze, or look for these characteristics, just simply note their presence in the breath itself and in the other objects of consciousness when you let go of them
Outside of meditation, Cody, you can also occasionally experience that everything - whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, whether physical or mental - varies along the dimensions of unsatisfactoriness, impermanence, and selflessness. You can read books about Buddhism and become increasingly familiar with the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, an exquisite guide to spiritual development. On the website under Handouts is a list of my favorite books and websites. Finally, a lot can be learned by associating with a meditation center, a teacher, and other meditators in your community. Let me end by echoing the Buddha’s advice: Please ignore anything I've said that may not benefit you, experiment with the rest, and use what works to end suffering for yourself and others and to increase the happiness that is not dependent upon internal or external conditions. Peace, Charlie (charlesday1@mchsi.com, 515-255-8398)
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
Meditator Cody Gough from Perth, Australia, writes: “I've been practicing the basic breath meditation for a while now and find it very rewarding. I recently encountered the idea that the self is an illusion constructed by our minds. However, I've found it hard to come to a real understanding of this. While mulling over the notion, I often have 'flashes' of clarity in which I think I understand, but these are only momentary. Do you have any advice on how I can use meditation to deepen my understanding in this area.”
My response: It sounds like you're really benefiting from your meditation practice and study of Buddhist philosophy. I've found doing both to be quite valuable, though meditating is the most important part. Buddha's unique contribution to philosophy, metaphysics, and religion was his emphasis on "anatta" or no-self or selflessness. He taught that our sense of a personal, autonomous, and enduring self-entity or ego is an illusion because all mental and physical phenomena are interconnected, interdependent, impermanent, and continuously changing.
Do not try to come to any "real" understanding of this, Cody, because the intellect, thought, and language categorize, separate, and divide phenomena into dualistic forms of this and that, I and other. The intellect can only come up with "pointers to the moon," to that non-dualistic unity, out of which the ever-changing, interconnected whole arises, and which, according to the mystics of all religions, is inexpressible, beyond thought, beyond language. You appear to be experiencing exactly this in your “flashes of clarity,” a good way of describing what I also call "glimpses of enlightenment," or as Buddha, might say, "seeing things as they are" without an overlay of conceptual reactivity.
It can be very useful to study, mull over, and think about self as an illusion or any other idea for that matter. But remember that any idea, concept, or belief, while useful as a pointer to the moon, can be detrimental if one becomes too attached to it, especially if it is elevated to an absolute truth. This includes the idea of no-self, if believed in intellectually without being experienced intuitively and transcendentally. Just trust your "flashes of clarity" when they occur, and avoid trying to understand them intellectually, make them happen, or being disappointed when they don't. The latter would only reflect the illusory self or ego, which we all do experience, trying to assert itself by claiming credit for the flash and thinking it can make it happen at will.
To deepen your understanding through meditation of the illusory self, I suggest you intentionally practice insight meditation. Basic Buddhist meditation is often classified into two types: samatha (concentration and tranquility/relaxation) meditation and vipassana (insight) meditation. The same breath practice can be used for both purposes. By insight is meant experiencing what Buddha called the three characteristics of all reality, namely, unsatisfactoriness, impermanence, and selflessness. Your "flash of clarity" appears to be an insight into "selflessness." That the "flashes" are momentary reflects the impermanent nature of thoughts and insights prior to increased enlightenment.
Most meditators most of the time are probably doing tranquility meditation. The instruction is to focus on the breath, using it as an anchor for the attention, and to return to it when you become aware the attention has shifted to sounds, smells, body sensations other than the breath, or thoughts, feelings, images or other objects that arise in consciousness. Practicing in this manner constitutes samatha (concentration or tranquility) meditation, although it can also lead to insights. To practice insight meditation, you intentionally note and experience awareness of the unsatisfactory, impermanent, and selfless nature of both the process of breathing and the objects to which the attention shifts. When you become aware/mindful that the attention is on an object other than the breath, you experience awareness of that object's unsatisfactory, impermanent, and selfless nature as you let it go of it and return the attention to the breath. Don't think about, dwell upon, analyze, or look for these characteristics, just simply note their presence in the breath itself and in the other objects of consciousness when you let go of them
Outside of meditation, Cody, you can also occasionally experience that everything - whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, whether physical or mental - varies along the dimensions of unsatisfactoriness, impermanence, and selflessness. You can read books about Buddhism and become increasingly familiar with the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, an exquisite guide to spiritual development. On the website under Handouts is a list of my favorite books and websites. Finally, a lot can be learned by associating with a meditation center, a teacher, and other meditators in your community. Let me end by echoing the Buddha’s advice: Please ignore anything I've said that may not benefit you, experiment with the rest, and use what works to end suffering for yourself and others and to increase the happiness that is not dependent upon internal or external conditions. Peace, Charlie (charlesday1@mchsi.com, 515-255-8398)
Monday, November 10, 2008
Multi-Tasking While Meditating
by Charlie Day
Meditator Jan Gipple from Des Moines, IA, writes: "My mind keeps going on a dual track while I'm sitting -- multi-tasking, meditating and thinking on two different channels. It's as if one brain compartment feels free to think and another wants to meditate. The meditating compartment keeps allowing the thinking compartment to run amuck. Any ideas?"
My response: It just appears that you're multi-tasking, Jan. According to Buddha, consciousness can have only one object at a time but it works so fast that it feels like we are doing things simultaneously. You're just observing the rapidity with which your mind is working without realizing that attention is actually shifting nanosecond to nanosecond from object to object.
Meditator Jan Gipple from Des Moines, IA, writes: "My mind keeps going on a dual track while I'm sitting -- multi-tasking, meditating and thinking on two different channels. It's as if one brain compartment feels free to think and another wants to meditate. The meditating compartment keeps allowing the thinking compartment to run amuck. Any ideas?"
My response: It just appears that you're multi-tasking, Jan. According to Buddha, consciousness can have only one object at a time but it works so fast that it feels like we are doing things simultaneously. You're just observing the rapidity with which your mind is working without realizing that attention is actually shifting nanosecond to nanosecond from object to object.
Intention and mindfulness are evident when you're aware that the primary focus is on the breath and thinking thoughts and other sense impressions are happening in the background. Just keep your intention strong, and accept whatever the mind does, focusing and refocusing on the breath and letting go of thoughts, including any about multi-tasking, whenever you become aware/mindful that thinking has become stronger than experiencing the breath. Observe, be mindful of, and accept without judgment what the mind does. After all, it has already done what it does when you become aware of it, and there is nothing you can do about the past. Just keep the intention strong, be mindful, and accept that "what is, is," even while meditating. Peace, Charlie (charlesday1@mchsi.com, 515-255-8398)
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