Mind Calm (8 page)
- Ultimate hidden cause: unconscious thinking
- Ultimate mind calm cure: conscious awareness
The more you think, the more you will be compelled to think. It's as simple as that. The more you judge and resist life the more you will feel compelled to find solutions to all the problems that your mind has conjured up. So, as long
as you continue to fall into unconscious thinking, your mind will gather momentum for further thinking. Tragically for some people this unfortunate cycle of perpetually thinking up new problems to solve can last a lifetime. They are never able to enjoy the pure peace that comes from being present and awake through being consciously aware. They constantly search for peace by perfecting their life on the outside, forever missing the inner calm that lives within them. For you, my hope is that you once and for all call an end to the endless stream of incessant thinking by actively playing with what I affectionately call GAAWO.
By far the easiest and quickest way to bring an end to the cycle of incessant thinking and allow your mind to become calm is by being consciously aware. When you are consciously aware you naturally step back from engaging in the mind and return to the still silent spacious aspect of yourself that is already calm. I'm going to talk much more about this in later chapters, but for now, my priority is for you to start exploring it without any more concepts to cloud your innocent experience.
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Meditation is active calmness.
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P
ARAMAHANSA
Y
OGANANDA
When engaging GAAWO you naturally become consciously aware. In doing so, marvellous things happen. Your mind immediately becomes quieter or, dare I say it, silent. When using GAAWO you may notice that there are literally no thoughts happening. Consequently, there will
be no judgement, nothing to resist, no attachment, and no concept of time. You find yourself right here, right now. Naturally experiencing what it is like to live in a âbring it on, it just is, let it go' state of being. You will find that there is no reason not to feel calm and content as you continue to be gently alert with your attention wide open. Sound good? Let's play!
Looking at this page, as you continue to read the words in front of you, relax your gaze and let your field of vision spread out to the left and right. Do not look directly at anything to your left and right. Instead use your peripheral vision simply to notice what is there. You may not be able to see it all clearly or with sharp focus, so it might be blurred. That's OK. Your intention right now is to gently let your attention open up wide to the left and right as you continue to look ahead at the words on the page.
Now, as you do this, notice what it's like to let your attention open up wide, both upwards and downwards. In your peripheral vision you might be able to see your lap and the colour of the clothes you are wearing. Above you might see the ground beyond the book and/or the wall as it extends upwards to meet the ceiling (if you're inside somewhere). Irrespective of where you are or what you can see, just gently let your attention open up wide to notice what you can see both above and below the page. What is it like to be gently alert with your attention wide open? What's happening in your mind? Is it chaotically busy or calm and quiet? Has your inner experience of this moment become more restful? Can you notice an inner spaciousness or even stillness present, as you engage GAAWO now?
When you gently engage GAAWO, you
naturally disengage the mind.
Thinking about GAAWO and actively engaging GAAWO are two different things with very different results. GAAWO will work if you just do it. Avoid over-analysing. Jump into the experience and observe what happens inside your mind, body and consciousness.
With your attention resting wide open, what it is like to do absolutely nothing, except be gently attentive to everything that's being presented to you, right now?
One of the exciting observations you might notice is that you have to disengage GAAWO in order to start thinking again. Or, put another way, you might find that if you've start thinking you probably won't have been actively employing GAAWO. This includes thinking about whether or not GAAWO is working for you. So be alert to that subtle shift in where your attention is placed, including the mind's habitual tendency to jump into judgement. If you're not conscious of your focus moving away from GAAWO, then you can immediately drop into judgement again and conclude that GAAWO is ineffective. It's not. I've found it to work for everyone who uses it as taught.
Perhaps one of the most appealing features of Mind Calm is that you can use it with your eyes open or closed. When
you use Mind Calm you will start by engaging GAAWO. So play with GAAWO as you read on and in between times when you're getting on with other things. There is more to Mind Calm than GAAWO, but using it now is a brilliant quick start to creating the new habit of calm and will make what you'll learn later much easier.
I
GAAWO!
One of my favourite aspects of my work is when I first introduce people to what happens when they are gently alert with their attention wide open. Looking into their eyes as they engage GAAWO I see a calm peace emerge from within them, and more often than not a smile appears on their face. There is something so exciting and precious about the moment when a person realizes they have a tool to attain mind calm in moments, whenever they choose.
Knowing how to calm the chaotic mind is often a turning point in many people's lives. My hope is that everyone, both young and old, can be empowered with this ability. Saying that, I also want people to experience true Mind Mastery, which is beyond solely having the ability to stop the mind. Instead Mind Mastery occurs when you engage with your mind and use it as the incredible tool that it is, and then let it go when you want to return to calmness.
In fact, focusing on shutting the mind up is very much missing the point. It is not Mind Mastery. At best it is mind manipulation. Aiming to push the mind away often requires there to be a part of you that is concerned about what
your next thought or feeling might be. A part of you that is busy trying to keep the mind happy. This part of you is also your mind, by the way! The mind can be scared of its own shadow, as it produces thoughts about thoughts all day. That's not freedom, quite the opposite. What a waste of time and energy, and what a missed opportunity to experience the fullness of what it means to be born human. The mind can be an amazing ally for you. You can use it to achieve incredible things for yourself, and bring immense good into the lives of others and the planet.
The aim is to live a liberated life where you no longer need to push away any aspect of the human experience. You were born with a mind and it exists for good and beneficial reasons. God (or whatever you prefer to call the Divine) didn't perfect the planets, nature, biology and your soul and then run out of steam and make a mistake with your mind. It is not that your mind is bad; it is only that your relationship with your mind can become imbalanced if you lose sight of calm consciousness. Separation is an illusion. The concept of having a mind, body and soul is just that - a mental construct. Nothing is separate; every âpart' of you exists within supreme consciousness. To resist your mind is to push away an aspect of yourself fully deserving of love, too.
Stop rejecting your mind as if it were an ugly duckling;
instead rediscover the majestic swan of conscious awareness.
More useful is learning how to befriend your mind and not take it so seriously when it takes jaunts down not so positive avenues. Engage with your mind when it's useful, and be willing and able to let it go to return to still calm consciousness whenever its work is done. Cultivating this kind of liberated, loving and resourceful relationship with your mind requires a new strategy. Instead of having to tame it, change it so it is only positive. Fix it so it has no undesirable facets and make it go away so you can enjoy some peace. I'm now going to share a new way of relating to your mind that will dramatically improve the quality of life, for good.
âPeace of mind' is perhaps one of the most confusing terms used by the mainstream media and in spiritual circles today. Mainly owing to all the unhelpful images it conjures up, often including robe-clad monks sitting in full lotus with a serene look on their faces. Why so serene? It's easy to assume they have achieved an empty mind, devoid of thoughts or emotions. Making peace of mind for many living busy lives in today's modern techno-deadline-driven-highly-stimulated world, a pipe dream at best.
How many thoughts would you say you have every day? If you've been drawn to read this book then there's a high chance you're already aware that the number runs into thousands. Although the figures vary, the average person has as many as 100,000 thoughts every day - about a thought a second. Wow, no wonder you bought this book! Perhaps more worryingly, though, is having taught meditation around the globe, I'd say it is
an underestimation to suggest that at least half of these thoughts are of a negative nature. That works out at a staggering 50,000 negative thoughts every day.
By proposing this I don't mean to offend anyone, especially those who have undertaken self-improvement to think positively. But if you are ruthlessly honest with yourself, you might find a large proportion of your thoughts are less than 100 per cent positive in nature. And you'd be right to think so, as these statistics make sense when you remember that the mind operates using the Judgement Game - putting everything that has happened, is happening or might happen into mind-made boxes of good or bad, positive or negative, right or wrong, better or worse. No wonder so many people end up having ânegative' thoughts now and again.
With a desire to keep you safe and help you to be happy, it is natural for your mind to consider all the possible worst-case scenarios that could happen. It does so with your best interests at heart. Mainly so you can be fully prepared in advance for any and all potentially negative eventualities.
Negative thoughts are actually
positively intended.
Taking account of these facts and figures, relating to the quantity of thoughts and the mechanics of the mind, it makes the quest of mastering âpositive thinking' by only having positive thoughts a massive and potentially impractical task. So if you've tried to master positive
thinking but still find negative thoughts popping in, be easy on yourself. You're not failing as a human being by having negative thoughts. Instead you've just been attempting to achieve a positive pipe dream, which is not only against the natural tendencies of the mind but also a mammoth task owing to the sheer quantity of negative thoughts occurring each day.
So is it a lost cause? Should you just give up trying to be positive? Not necessarily! Occasionally focusing on positive thoughts can be very useful, especially when it comes to having a healthy body and achieving your goals. However, when it comes to enjoying mind calm together with more ongoing serenity and success, I would like to offer a practical strategy that works with the natural tendency of your mind, rather than against it.
Improving your relationship with your mind, so you can be at peace with whatever thoughts pass through your conscious awareness, is possible. Furthermore, learning to let your thoughts come and go from a more neutral viewpoint can be very liberating indeed.
Being at peace with your mind makes it feasible to maintain a state of calm contentment, even when negative thoughts are occurring in your mind. For example, this thought might pop into your mind:
What if I run out of money this month
? If you don't see the thought and let it go as fast as it came, you can end up resisting the thought. As a result, you can end up experiencing an array of emotions, including angst or fear, as the feelings associated with
resisting the thought flood your body-mind. However, if you can see the thought - by being consciously aware - you will find that the thought can be present within you without it being a problem or causing you any stress whatsoever. What a relief!
