Photo Courtesy of Hans-Peter Gera
A quiet mind is not a state of mind to be achieved. It’s the state we experience when there is nothing to be achieved.
Peter Russell, the Physicist and expert meditation instructor for the last forty years, was quoted saying that a few months back in the Intelligent Optimist Magazine – www.theoptimist.com. Russell is the author of a number of books and his most famous is the Global Brain: The Awakening Earth in a New Century, which he wrote in 1982.
In other words, when meditating, trying harder, is not better.
In the article titled Effortless Meditation, Peter takes a slightly different approach to meditation that I think would benefit many people who struggle with achieving the quintessential “mind like glass” state of pure calm and no-thought that is sometimes believed to be the ultimate achievement in a meditation practice. Those that practice meditation know that
getting to an absolute no-thought state is very difficult. In fact, people try very hard to achieve it, and in the process, get discouraged. The good news is that Peter Russell says that reaching that state is unnecessary. Instead, he provides three main principles to achieve Effortless Meditation:
❝ Accept your thoughts, not trying to stop thinking, not resisting it. Just let them be; don’t follow where they are going. Don’t try to focus your mind … drop back into that natural state of contentment.
The key point is that thoughts will naturally arise all the time, it is our response to them that matters. Non-attachment to the arising thoughts – just letting them pass or pushing them gently along to regain your a calm mind is the key. What you will notice over time is that the mind will quiet itself, as if realizing it can’t bait you into reacting. And if you think about it, this is what you need to do when you aren’t meditating – just going through your normal day to day routine. There will be many distractions and irritations leading to unwanted thoughts. Accept them, recognize them, and let them go on their way…
❝ Notice discomfort in your body. We often resist discomfort, we wish it weren’t there; we push it away. Or we think, It’s getting the way of meditation. But if you hear a sound, the sound itself is not the problem. It’s in your mind. When your mind says ‘that’s disturbing’, you get disturbed. Try to be friends with the resistance. Be curious about it.
Ignoring internal and external irritations is part of the process in learning how to take back control of your mind. When we don’t react to those things, they lose their control over us. Without a doubt, it’s difficult. But with daily meditation practice, you’ll find yourself achieving the goal more and more and the benefit will also carry over into the rest of your day. You are essentially training your mind to not get disturbed.
❝ Let go. We often think of letting go as getting rid of something, of a feeling or a thought. I rephrase ‘let it go’ as ‘let it be’. We want to feel ok all the time, so if there’s pain or discomfort we want to get rid of it. But the easiest way is to accept it. Then it doesn’t grip us so much. People find that in meditation if you open up to an itch, it often doesn’t matter anymore.
A priceless saying is “What we Resist, Persists”. The mind has an annoying tendency to “lock onto” things that it finds irritating. Ironically, the more it tightens its grip, the worse we feel. Letting go is the sane response to reclaiming control of your mind and your thoughts.
If you already meditate, I congratulate you. I think it’s the best thing any of us can do to regain our sense of oneness with the world and ourselves. If you haven’t started meditating or want to know more, you can find a number of good books and other materials on the Recommended Resources section of www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
Wishing you much Serenity and Peace of Mind,
~Jay Kshatri
www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
