While meditating today in India at the Matrimandir, I found myself struggling with focus. Meditation teachers will tell you this is normal. The usual instruction is to come back to the breath and refocus. Many teachers talk about the "Monkey Mind". It is a Buddhist term referring to the mind's tendency to be restless, unsettled, difficulty with focus, running all over the place. Pretty much any meditator can relate. I was at the Sri Ramanam Ashram recently when a monkey jumped right on me and then off to something else and then off to yet another thing. That's is monkey mind in action.
There is a feature to "monkey mind" that is a bit different. It's not so much about a series of distracting thoughts (I forgot to take the garbage out; oh I need to call my friend, don't forget the dentist tomorrow) and not the obsessive moment (I can't believe that he/she did that to me). Rather, it's the journey down the full fantasy pathway.
A problem emerges in your mind and then you begin to set out a complex, complicated pathway to solve the problem. You work out who, what, when, where and why. You have a full fantasy under way. It is a nice way to avoid being with yourself. It can even be justified as the problem that needed working out. And what better place to do it than meditation.
The problem is that it is problem solving and not meditation. It helps you avoid being with yourself, your emotions and the self relationship. It is distraction at its best. But then, we have a natural tendency to avoid being with our emotions and observing them. It's hard to face the truth of what we feel, be neutral about it and learn from the observation that we do not need to react to things that we feel. People don't trigger us, we allow ourselves to respond.
A simple example is the day to day experience of traffic. The person who cut you off, drove a bit slower meaning you missed the light or something similar. How do you react? Many of us yell, give a finger and feel frustrated. When we step back from this, you see how little the event means and that nothing was solved by reacting.
So, in meditation, we try to learn how to observe the feeling without reaction. But then, we have to be present in the meditation and not going down some problem solving pathway.
There is a feature to "monkey mind" that is a bit different. It's not so much about a series of distracting thoughts (I forgot to take the garbage out; oh I need to call my friend, don't forget the dentist tomorrow) and not the obsessive moment (I can't believe that he/she did that to me). Rather, it's the journey down the full fantasy pathway.
A problem emerges in your mind and then you begin to set out a complex, complicated pathway to solve the problem. You work out who, what, when, where and why. You have a full fantasy under way. It is a nice way to avoid being with yourself. It can even be justified as the problem that needed working out. And what better place to do it than meditation.
The problem is that it is problem solving and not meditation. It helps you avoid being with yourself, your emotions and the self relationship. It is distraction at its best. But then, we have a natural tendency to avoid being with our emotions and observing them. It's hard to face the truth of what we feel, be neutral about it and learn from the observation that we do not need to react to things that we feel. People don't trigger us, we allow ourselves to respond.
A simple example is the day to day experience of traffic. The person who cut you off, drove a bit slower meaning you missed the light or something similar. How do you react? Many of us yell, give a finger and feel frustrated. When we step back from this, you see how little the event means and that nothing was solved by reacting.
So, in meditation, we try to learn how to observe the feeling without reaction. But then, we have to be present in the meditation and not going down some problem solving pathway.
Oh mind, Oh mind, Oh mind
Why are you so restless
I seek to tame you
And
There you go
Off again
Must I chase you?
© Peter Choate 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment