Quiet Mind
“For the Buddhists and Hindus, the key to stilling the ‘monkey mind’ is the practice of sitting silently in meditation, or dhyana. The aim is a transformation of consciousness, bringing us to a state of awareness that allows us to penetrate the surface of our habitual thoughts and beliefs to perceive the world as it really is.”
David Ross
“Stop talking, stop thinking, and there will be nothing you will not understand.” Jianzhi Sengcan (China
I have been trying my hand at meditation of late. I’ve attempted meditation many times before only to give up because I could not keep my mind from jumping from thought to thought. My goal is not to reach Nirvana, but to simply sit still and do nothing for fifteen minutes a day. I think of it as ‘catching up with myself.’ I noticed that at the ocean the mind-clearing was much easier. The Gulf is not like either ocean that I’ve been to. Unless a storm is coming in, the waves are low and the sound is quiet. The brain entrains with the flow in and out and changes from beta to alpha-theta waves. One can sit and simply watch the water and not think thoughts. Even imagining the scene of sitting at the ocean and listening to the waves can have this quieting effect.
Another boon to meditation is to allow yourself, if you can, to wake up without being jarred by an alarm clock. When you wake naturally and then spend a few minutes in a state of alert awareness, many good things come floating through your relaxed mind. Yesterday, that period of time supplied a new way to make wall hangings using the few sticks of driftwood I brought home from the beach. Quiet mind produces images rather than words—right brain as opposed to left.
Meditating with a group also yields good results. Because of entrainment, one experienced person draws others into the deep meditative state quickly. I am learning not to fight the thoughts that invariably pop up, but just allow them to float through and after a while they slow down and sometimes even go away. Fifteen minutes spent in meditation is as restful as taking an hour-long nap—it is all about switching brainwaves from active thinking, planning, and speaking (beta) to passive, calming and imaging (alpha-theta). I am of the opinion that if everyone meditated fifteen minutes a day we would have a more peaceful world.
In the spirit,
Jane
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