September 14th, 2017
Never Mind the Mind
It's very easy to get bogged down in the stuff of mind. We imagine futures that will never happen, refurbish past events so they will be more pleasing to live with. Generally we play host to all types of fears and hopes. It's what we know. Yet if you take the time to investigate your thoughts, you begin to see there is no substance to them at all. They can change in the flicker of a second and the thought that you thought was so important just 5 minutes ago is where now?
What about the thought that tells you how great you are, only to turn against you a moment later with the opposite story? Which will you believe? Our thoughts are fickle and wholy unreliable. And if your thoughts can't be trusted, where does that leave you?
As some of you know, at the end of 2015, I spent 3 months in a temple in Thailand. It was an unusual temple, as they did not practice meditation there. In a sense, what was being practiced was a profound letting be. Thoughts will come and go. Feelings will come and go. When you do not do anything about them, they simply flow through you like a river or a waterfall. Nothing gets stuck. There is an awareness of thoughts and an awareness of feelings, but they are not given any importance. After living like this for a time, I could tell whenever I was attaching to thoughts. Usually because I felt heavy or tense in my body.
I remember explaining this to a client when I returned. She replied - "Oh - like teflon". I laughed. I had indeed been creating a non-stick environment; my inner teflon :)
This way of letting all things be and not getting involved with thoughts and feelings, in it's simplicity, is difficult. Particularly when emotions are intense, the mind gets busy creating stories and attempting to make sense of the experience. Or it gets busy as a way to protect you from actually feeling what is arising. The trick is to be able to stay connected to the feeling but not get involved with it. Next time you are experiencing an intense emotion, try to stay with the body sensations without giving it any story. Are you able to breathe and stay out of the mind stuff?
A word I came to know and love at the temple was "unwinding". When someone was experiencing difficulties, they were said to be "unwinding". In Australia we often use that term as something we do on holidays - unwind. In times of inner turmoil, I imagined the ego's armour unravelling like a ball of karmic string. This image of "unwinding" helped me remember the positive nature of experiencing intense emotions. Old patterns need to unwind for freedom to emerge.
And the reason for sharing the story of my temple stay? After 3 months of surrender, returning to the "outside world" highlighted to me the heaviness of our mind-based culture. The best description I could come up with, was the feeling that I had been living under water and now I was no longer submerged. Life was lighter and no effort was required for things to be taken care of. If understanding was needed it would come.
Eighteen months on, as much as possible I surrender to this place of emptiness and not engaging with thoughts. Modern living is an entirely different context to temple life and it is necessary and wonderful to be able to use the thinking mind. Right now I'm focused and concentrated in my thoughts to write this. The trick is how to be able to use it and then put it down again like a pen or a phone or a kitchen knife.
And if you're not sure what I mean by living in the confines of mind, and would like to experience the lightness and freedom of being?
Laughter.
The Wisdom of a Good Laugh
Laughter lands you smack-bang in the present moment. It is very difficult to be attached to any thoughts when you laugh. You come out of a good belly laugh feeling alive, invigorated and usually the mind is open and expansive. Laughter can help alter our perspective, particularly with regard to our problems, leaving us with a lighter, less serious approach to life. Laughter has also been linked to activating parts of the brain that release endorphins. How much better can it get!!
How long since YOU had a really good belly laugh?
How long since YOU had a really good belly laugh?
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