The Mind

When we come to meditation of any tradition, we will be asked to calm our minds, focus our minds, or even simply become aware of our minds. We can be in our right minds, out of our minds, monkey minds, or for some of us, minefields. But which mind, what mind, are we looking for? What mind are we working with?

The rational, thinking mind is the one we most associate with the brain, with intelligence. That mind excels at solving problems, gathering data, analyzing it and developing conclusions. That mind makes lists, devises strategies, positions us against the future, revisits and reframes the past. For most of us, that mind is very busy.

Another creative aspect of the mind dreams, or daydreams, slides into altered states and receives or generates images and narratives, some of which may hold meaning for us, or provide often symbolic insight into our lives and motivations. That mind can also retrieve and relive memories and fantasies.

There is an aspect of the mind, which can simply dwell in the senses and watch, listen, smell, feel.

And there is an aspect of the mind, which does none of the above, and yet connects them all – knows without thinking, dreams without leaving, senses without sensation and ultimately transcends the perceived limitations of self.

We all have access to these different states of mind and more.

Meditation is the practice of beginning to notice which state of mind one is in, to become and observer of that state as one learns to expand and relax the field of awareness to include other states. By restraining or redirecting the mind’s energy from business, lists, stories and allowing it to naturally access its fuller dimension, we begin to tap into a sense of inner calm and insight. This is not a process we can force, it is one we invite by diverting our attention away from mental activity to our chosen object of meditation – whether it be the breath, a point in our own bodies, something inside us—an object, image, etc. or the activity of our individual mind. By gently and persistently returning our attention to non-thinking, as it were, we at some point slide into the embrace of a larger more compassionate and wiser mind. We begin to touch into the consciousness of spirit and its fuller awareness. From that state we have the power to help or heal others and ourselves, receive clarity, reprioritize our long and short-term goals. In that state our perspective is altered and, if we continue over time, so will be our lives.