MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK

MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK IS A WEEKLY SERIES OF EASY TO REMEMBER, SHORT AND BASIC TIPS ON MEDITATION. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, IS IT HELPFUL?

Many people think that in order to meditate, we have to rid our mind of thoughts and of the things that distract it; that we have to shut out the world in order to come to really know our mind. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Meditation isn’t about stopping thoughts or shutting anything out. It’s about being who we truly are in the midst of thoughts, in the midst of the world, in the midst of our sensory and phenomenal world.

If you get nothing more than this from this post, remember this: We’re not our thoughts!!

Thoughts are merely apparitions that appear within our mind and that, left to themselves, will disappear as quickly as they appeared. So, if that’s the case, why do we follow them? Why do we react to them? Why do we think that they’re real even when we know better?

We’re so accustomed to following our thoughts, and to believing that somehow they “exist” and that they have lives of their own, that not only do we believe them, but we end up becoming them as well.

Because we’re so unused to thinking otherwise, we take our thoughts to be very real. And, once we’ve solidified a thought into being “real,” we cobble together meaning to it, upon which we build a never-ending sequence of thoughts, to prop up our belief that our thoughts exist.

I’m sure that you get this, but here’s an example of how we can make a thought into “something.”

Suppose that I’m walking down the street and I see a car that I really, really like. Let’s pretend that this car is also an expensive car and that I don’t have nearly enough money to buy this car right now. See where I’m going? My thoughts:

• Wow what a nice car
• I wish I had a car like that
• That car must be really expensive
• I’ll never be able to afford such a nice car
• Why can’t I make more money
• Nursing is so pathetic! I work so hard, and for what? I’m not paid what I’m really worth!
• I should have stayed in computer programming back when I first started in 1979 instead of going into nursing
• Just think of my friend Sam, he makes so much money doing computer programming
• He gets to work at home
• If I worked at home I wouldn’t even have the space
• I wish I had a bigger home, but how could I afford a big home
• And, who’d take care of it? We’re too busy to clean a big house
• So we’d have to spend money to hire a house-cleaner…..yada…yada…

From one thought of a car, or person, or food, or job or…we can spiral off into an endless litany of thoughts and emotions. ALL BASED ON A THOUGHT THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY NO EXISTENCE IN AND OF ITSELF!

Try this, when you practice meditation, take a moment to watch your thoughts (you can even try this right now). Where do they come from? How long do they stay? Where do they go? Not very real are they!

For beginners, we may find that as we start to work with our thoughts, we’re able to get some “space” from them (but not spaced out!) and that we can almost watch them as we would watch a TV program. We’re almost like onlookers, observing a cinema. That’s one thing that may happen when we start to work with our thoughts.

Another thing that may happen, and this usually happens as we become more experienced but may also happen when we’re first learning to meditate, is that we may find that when we look at our thoughts, they simply disappear or dissipate. We begin to look at them and then…they’re gone. Unreal!

We don’t have to have these experiences, they’re not determinants of whether our meditation is “working” or not. Whatever happens when you work with your thoughts, remember this – by working with your thoughts, you’re working with your mind, and thus are working to tame your mind. AND, the more that you work with your mind, the more that you’ll realize that…your thoughts aren’t real!

Enjoy. Mediate well. Have a great day!