Mind Calm (10 page)

In a bid to bring the Content-Context model to life for you, let's take the room you're currently in as an example. There might be furniture, flowers, light fittings, your telephone and other belongings. The term I use to refer to all these things is STUFF. Now, for all the stuff to exist, there has to be the context of SPACE. In fact, there has to be more space than stuff, otherwise the stuff wouldn't fit into the space. And although the stuff will eventually come and go, the space that it inhabits is constant, ever-present and unchanging.

Continuing to read these words you may become aware of SOUNDS around you. There might be a clock ticking, birds singing, the hum of traffic in the distance, the shimmering of leaves outside your window, music playing or people talking nearby. For these sounds to exist, indeed for you to hear anything, they have to happen within a context of SILENCE. Sound needs silence for it to be distinguishable. Even if you are surrounded by loud noise, there is silence so you can hear it, and that silence is permanent compared to the sounds coming and going.

Furthermore, the content of your current experience also includes MOVEMENT. The movement of your chest as you
breathe, the movement of your fingers as you progress through this book, the movement of the trees outside your window as the breeze continues to blow. Yet, again, the content of that movement happens within a context of absolute STILLNESS, a stillness that is unaffected by any movement, ever.

So we've discovered something quite remarkable during the last few paragraphs - your life, including all of the stuff, sounds and movement, all happens within a context of still silent space. Not only that, but the content comes and goes and is changing, whereas the context is constant and does not change. Incidentally the same is true within your mind; the movements of your thoughts and emotions all occur within a constant context of still silent spaciousness.

Now the million-dollar question:

Where do you tend to focus most of your attention throughout your day
– on the content or the context?

Almost everyone, when asked this enlightening question, sees clearly they have been putting most of their attention, most of the time, on the content of their mind and lives. Which is understandable, as this is what we are mainly taught to do when growing up. However, if you
want to wake up to a more serene and successful way of working and living, it is paramount to prioritize being attentive to the context. (See
the second chapter in Part II
for a fantastic Mind Calm Game for rediscovering the context called ‘Noticing Now Space'.)

There is nothing esoteric or fanciful about this. In a very real way, you feel what you focus on. Putting all of your attention on the things that are moving and changing means you will most likely experience a sense of instability and unease. Also, if you rely on these transient things as your source of success and happiness, it can be a risky strategy. You may well get possessions and prestige, as previously mentioned, but it will rarely relieve the inner itch that there must be more to life than the stuff that's filling your mind and life. You'd be right, too; there is more to life - infinitely more! So, if you want to enjoy a more sustainable sense of success, you can experience it by learning to put your attention on your inner context of life that is permanently still, silent and always abundant.

Shifting where you put your attention
– from the content to the context –
immediately reconnects you with calm, contentment, love and happiness, and, as a result, true success.

Let's continue our exploration of this model by diving further into the context of… everything! So far we have discovered that content - stuff, sound and movement -
exists within a context of still, silence space. And by putting your attention on the context you can discover an inner calm that is always present. But the benefit of exploring the context of life doesn't end there. In fact it is only the beginning! I started
Chapter 1
by asking how you know you have a mind. The answer:
Because you are aware of it.
So, by that rationale, the mind is the content and the context of the mind is your conscious awareness.

Without awareness there would be nothing to be aware of the mind. Or, said differently, you would have no way of knowing what your thoughts were if it wasn't for the conscious awareness that was aware of them. An obvious thing to say perhaps, but it is fundamental when learning how to experience mind calm.

Have you ever noticed that you still exist even when you are not having any thoughts?

One of the fun findings of playing with seeing the mind, instead of being the mind, is that thoughts come and go. Not only that but, more importantly, if you are super-alert you will notice how there is a still silent space between your thoughts and an inner spaciousness in which your thoughts take place. What is that still silent space? What continues to exist even when no thoughts are happening?
Yes, you're right: conscious awareness. This means if you want to take on board and apply what this book is all about then you need to rediscover the context of the mind.

Moving on from the mind, let's take a moment to consider a question relating to time, namely: Where does time actually exist? To answer this, I invite you to consider how you access the past and future. Think back to when you were reading earlier in the chapter. Where does that moment exist now? It is in your mind, right? How about the moment in time when you will eventually finish reading this book? To go to that future moment, you can only go via your mind, using your imagination. This must mean that time exists in the mind. Now I agree there is clearly transition of days and nights - of physical ageing and of dates in your diary - however, any time other than right now can only be accessed via the mind and imagination.

This can be a very exciting discovery if something ‘bad' has happened in your past or if you're worrying about the future. It means that if it is not happening right now, then to feel bad about it you've had to go into the past or future by thinking about it in your mind. So learning to stay attentive to the context of this moment means you can let go of the past and future, and enjoy the serenity of this second. Furthermore, it explains why trying to think yourself present won't ever work. If you want to learn how to be in the moment, you can do so by cultivating the habit of being aware of the still silent spacious context, a practice that I like to call ‘context awareness'.

Aware of the context, you naturally become present, as your consciousness is only ever aware of now occurring. Like a silent video camera running in the background, your awareness can only ever be aware of what's happening this moment. Even if you are not aware of your awareness, owing to being distracted by thoughts relating to the past and future, your awareness remains permanently aware of now - only and always; a still watcher seeing from behind your eyes and a silent listener hearing from within your ears.

Even more exciting, being consciously aware, you naturally experience the traits of your awareness and, given the still silent spacious nature of awareness, you start to experience exactly that. You experience more calmness, peace, quietness, expansiveness and much more.

Without knowing the context of still silent spacious consciousness, it is near impossible to be present, feel fulfilled or love unconditionally.

When the mind and time get together they can have a dramatic effect on your sense of success. As we explored in the
Judgement Game in Chapter 1
, the mind uses the
past and future to compare and contrast how it was and how things could be better in the future. When it does so, we can find things that are wrong.

Judging life negatively often leads to an ‘inner no' mind-set towards life, rather than an ‘inner yes'. The inner no creates conflict between your inner and outer life experience that is detrimental to your peace and prosperity. It creates an inner sense of angst and inhibits creativity, by making you more prone to living and operating using the fight-or-flight survival areas of your brain. Life in this state becomes very black and white, and much energy and effort is often used to force life to look how you think it should.

Unfortunately the negative knock-on effects of the Judgement Game don't end there. Saying ‘no' to life events also often compels you to resist what's happened, is happening or might happen. As you've learned, this inner resistance to life not only puts unhealthy stress upon your body, but is also the hidden cause of fear, frustration, discontentment and a host of other ‘negative' emotions.

Content	Context
Stuff	Space
Sounds	Silence
Movement	Stillness
Mind	Conscious awareness
Time	Present moment
Judgement	Is'ness (Love)
Problems	Perfection
Inner no	Inner yes
Resistance	Bring it on
Emotions	Emotions

Now for some very good news! Something very magical happens when you are courageous enough to withdraw your attention from judgemental thinking by placing it on the inner context of stillness. Life stops being good or bad, right or wrong or better or worse, and you see that everything just is. Yes, on the surface things may appear to be bad, wrong or worse, at times, but there is simultaneously what can be described as a mysterious is'ness to life.

Still silent spacious awareness is always perfect, whole and complete exactly as it is. It is beyond judgement because it is beyond the mind. Amazingly, when you suspend judgement, you naturally experience love. Why? With no negative judgement there is no reason not to love.

Successful living on the context side of this model therefore looks and feels very different to the traditional ideas about success taught in school and by society. I'd say a successful life is one that is loved by the person living it. Would you agree? If you met a millionaire who was still unsatisfied with their life or a less wealthy person who loved their life, who would you say is more successful? If you shift your priorities from wanting more stuff to loving what you have, you can very quickly move into a truly successful life - one that you love.

In my experience, the more I am inwardly attentive to the context, the more I experience an inner love of life - irrespective of whether or not my mind judges life as being perfect. In fact, for the record, my mind continues to this day to judge many aspects of my life as not being perfect.
However, despite the opinions of my mind, by choosing to actively place my attention within - on inner still silent space using context awareness - I find that I do what it takes to work with whatever may arise in my life, while simultaneously experiencing the inner love and perfection of the presence residing within conscious awareness.