Class 2: Quiet Your Mind

Discussion

If you're like most people, your inner monologue of thoughts, judgments, worries, plans, memories and so forth is constantly filling your mind and dominating your awareness.

For better or for worse, for most people this is what it means to be human - to be fixated on chronic interior thoughtflows which in turn provoke a steady disturbance of moods and emotions.

• Meditation aims to quiet this flow of thoughts and worries and imaginations, so that we can experience inne clarity, peace and insight.

As mentioned before, I'm not saying that thinking per se is in any way negative or bad. We do need to reflect upon the past, judge situations and analyze our present condition, and make plans for the future. Thinking is not only necessary for survival, it's great fun in and of itself.

What we aim for in a meditative life is a balance between a thought-filled mind, and a quiet mind. When hearing about this idea of a balanced, inner life, many people ask, "Why is it so important to regularly quiet the mind?"

• The psychological answer is clear - we cannot focus on experiencing something new in the present moment, and focus on thinking about the past or the future, at the same time.

We are always sacrificing one for the other - experience, or reflection. And as Lao Tzu pointed out many times in the Tao Te Ching, when we let our ego-based thoughts dominate our consciousness overmuch, we lose touch with reality and become creatures of habit, rather than spontaneous spiritual beings.

We also become overly dominated by recurrent negative moods caused by fear-based attitudes and judgmental reactions. If we want to be fresh and bright and responsive to the ever-changing present moment, we simply must manage our minds so that we regularly quiet our thoughts and tune into new experience.

From ongoing studies of the brain, we now know that we have two distinct parts of the conscious mind - the left hemisphere that does the linear thinking, the cognitive analysis, and the judgmental inspection of individual details of our environment, and the right hemisphere that focuses on the whole, generates creative insights, and tunes us into the greater spiritual consciousness that transcends our thinking mind.

• When we're thinking, we're in 'broadcast mode', we're consumed in our own attitudes and thoughts. When we quiet our thoughts, we shift into 'receive mode' where we can tune into our own deeper wisdom and insight, and also into the guidance of Spirit in our lives.

Clearly, both modes of consciousness are important. And balance is key. If we habitually spend almost all our time in broadcast-thought-judgment mode, then we need to actively manage our minds so that we regularly shift into receive-insight-acceptance mode.

In your own life, do you have a healthy balance between broadcasting and receiving, between cognitive thought and intuitive insight, between ego-based awareness and spirit-based awareness?

If you want to quiet your mind, how can you accomplish this seemingly impossible task? I've actually worked with cognitive scientists who insist that the mind can never be quiet - are they right, or are they simply consumed so much in their own thoughts that they never know a quiet meditative moment in their lives?

I definitely place my bet on Lao Tzu rather than harried academic scholars. Like Patanjali in the yogic tradition, Lao Tzu over and over stated the essential value in nurturing a quiet mind. And ultimately it's a choice that we make - and an act that we take.

• Without the choice and the act, the thinking mind always wins out over the meditative mind. You must commit to quieting your mind - then you can do it!

In research over the years into the power of the spoken word to evoke inner action, it's become clear that if we want to aim our attention in a particular direction, we first need to think the thught that states our intent.

If you want a quiet mind, state this intent. In fact, go a step further and lay claim to the quality of consciousness you want. Say it - do it:

• "My mind is quiet."

Say this to yourself on the exhale, and experience how your mind focuses inward on the quality of quietness in your mind ...

This is Lao Tzu's insight - that if you focus on the busy-ness in your mind, that is what you nurture and increase. If you focus on the quiet in your mind, that is what you nurture and increase.

• What you focus on grows - what you don't focus on, decreases.

Your choice lies in assuming control of where you aim your all-powerful focus of attention, each new moment of your life. Either you assume this control, or you function as a pre-programmed organic robot.

Meditation as I understand it, centers on assuming responsibility for where you aim your attention each moment of your waking day - and learning how to aim your attention in the most worthwhile directions.

• Again, Lao Tzu clearly offered suggestions on where to aim the attention of the mind - toward the always-new experience emerging in each new moment of one's life.

In the Taoist tradition we are not individual egos distinct from the world around us. As also in the yogic understanding, we exist only as an integral part of our environment, and come into being as consciousness through our interaction with the environment.

In other words we are primarily perceptual beings, experiencing and responding spontaneously with our whole being to the present moment. Our past-future reflective mentation is important, but should not become dominant.

The meditation process I'm teaching you offers mental tools that almost instantly shift you into present-moment awareness, and in so doing, quiet your thoughts. This is meditation in action - a process you can do many times a day to regularly reclaim your vital awareness in the her and now.

1) First you make the conscious decision, the choice, to take charge of your mind and shift into present-moment meditative calm and clarity;

2) You turn your attention to experience the sensation of the air flowing in and out of your nose or mouth, and say to yourself, "I am breathing freely."

3) You expand your awareness to also include the movements in your chet and belly as you breathe (thus quieting your thoughts) and say the focus phrase, "My mind is quiet."

• Please begin to memorize this esssential process.

I have found no other method that has the power and speed of this seemingly-simple cognitive-shifting process. Even when you have just a few breaths free, you can move through this three-breath experience - and genuinely transform your quality of consciousness.

• All you need to do thusfar is memorize two short focus phrases - so that anytime, anyplace, you can effortlessly remember them in order, say them to yourself - and experience their power to shift your mood and experience into brighter, calmer, more powerful states of mind and body.

As you now move into the audio dimension of this learning process, I'll guide you through this experience so that you can feel the deep impact of the method.

Remember to return a number of times and listen to this session again and again, so that it truly becomes a new 'awareness-plus' habit!