Today I shan't blog about doors --- although here in India I'm picking up tooons of great material for them...
Today i'm going to put online a small exerpt from the journal i've been keeping here during my travels in India.
.... My mind frequently wadners off during mediation -- nothing new. But my mind is very clever -- again... nothing new. At first, my mind would appeal to my ego to distract me from one-pointed-ness, or focus i my meditation. It would bring up quick temptations, or brain teases such as monetary caluculations, divisions and converstions of currencies, or calculating how i would need to arrange my sleep on the way back home with the 12 hour plain ride and the time change in order to maintain my hard earned sleeping habits. Knowing that i'm a sucker for a littlemental math or logic challenge, my ego was too big not to accept --- and out would go the so ham* mantra, and in would come so and so number of rupees, per 2 weeks, divided by 14 days, converted in to canadian dollars.... for example. Again, simple, but very clever.
This would regularly occur during my first week of sitting to meditate everyday @ the same time. After I caught on to the tiny tricks of my mind and rejected its feeble (and frankly insulting!!) attempt to distract me ("he mind, look over here, a shiny gold coin" Or a monkey or whatever), rejecting these challenges once they were presented to me was no longer a problem. When I recognized my mind trying to distract my concentration with its ploys, keeping the intruding thoughts out of my mind was not difficult..
The second week of meditating my mind got hip to this and got wise. Seeing that I was determined to control my thoughts and assume my responsibility of being master of my own domain (like Plato's Republic), it decided that if it was ever to remain free to pursue all the frivolous thoughts that tickled its fancy (such a kid in a candy store -- penny patch anyone), it would have to deliver some seriously creative or thought provoking ideas to break my will of concentration. Again, simple, but bery clever.... And again a little desperate.
Introspection is truly the most adventurous journey you will /can ever take because nothing in the world outside can ever match the world within. (Note: We're not talking escapism here - but imagination. This is how Einstein discovered the theory of relativity, remember. And quite to the contracry, in concentrating your mind, you are MORE prone to a life of ACTION everyday than if you let your mind wander free like an untrained puppy. Or a free range chicken as it were.).
So to recap, week 1 my mind employs small tricks to distract me from my concentration. Week 2: Tactics of Week 1 no longer work, my mind has to pull out the big guns-- creative ideas and extremely inspiring & thought proviking concepts / ideas. The first week is but a distraction, the second week was win-win! 3rd week.... we'll see after I receive my personal mantra*."
.... Stay tuned for more progression reports on the fascinating journey of the mind. And note that we haven't even reached the unconscious or sub/super-conscious... which may take decades.
* So hum is a generic mantra used when one hasn't their own. It means >I am that> in the himalayan tradition.
