What We Think About
When you are not specifically concentrating on
something, what do you think about? If you are like most people your mind darts
over a range of topics in what is sometimes called a ‘stream of consciousness’.
You're walking down a road and see someone who reminds you of a person you used
to work with, then You're thinking about your last job and then how you had to
walk in the rain to get to the office then you remember you need a new umbrella….
and so on. These thoughts control you, you have no control over them. In order
to escape this inner turmoil people go to extraordinary lengths. People go to
movies or play computer games so that their internal dialogue is replaced by something
external. Other people enjoy surfing or extreme sports. When your life is at stake,
your internal dialogue stops, even if only for a few moments.
There is an easier way. It is possible to enjoy complete consciousness in every moment of your life, even whilst asleep. The key is to stop the internal dialogue, but this is much easier said than done. Meditation, done correctly, helps to slow the mind’s activity down. The idea is that whilst staring at a blank wall you still the mind. The problem is that as soon as you attempt to still the mind, thoughts come in. These thoughts should be observed as if they were conversations that you hear on a radio in another room. This requires a degree of detachment from your own thoughts. When you have developed this detachment you can observe your own thoughts even when not meditating. You observe yourself as you would a friend. When you find your thoughts have gone on a flight of fancy of their own, go back and attempt to retrace your steps. For instance, you were just thinking about umbrellas, then before you were thinking about walking in the rain in your last job and you got there from seeing someone who reminded you of someone you worked with, and so on.
The idea is that eventually meditation is not just something you for a few minutes
a day but something you practice continuously. You become the observer and the
observed and you distil what I have previously referred to as the quintessential
element ("The Quintessential Element"). You can then objectively observe your
own motives and emotional responses. When you observe these aspects of yourself
objectively you will find that they change. You don't have to actively do anything
to change them; they will simply change, in the same way as you didn't actively
have to change your reactions that you exhibited when you were a child. You used
to cry when you needed feeding. You didn't consciously stop doing that, it just
happened as part of the process of growing up. When you are able to observe yourself
you are on the way to completing the process of growing up.
