Mindful Impressions

The Myth of the Quiet Mind

7/22/2017

It turns out the operative words creating the difficulty in getting my mind quiet were "get" and "my."

I was horribly unsuccessful as I first tried to meditate some 30 years ago. Reminded of this during a recent Companion Circle from a question that arose, I reflected back to this time in my early twenties. I lasted all of about five seconds seated on the floor in my bedroom on a bright spring day.

My mind was agitated and running about a hundred miles a minute. "How do I do this? Where should I sit? How should I sit? What do I think about?"

It was so loud and uncomfortable in my mind I basically just bounced right off the cushion as quickly as I landed on it. Feeling a failure, I gave up, thinking I would never be able to meditate.

In those days, I would rarely experience moments of quiet in my mind, yet painfully yearned for it. What was it about ME that was wrong? Why couldn't I get my mind quiet?

It turns out the operative words creating the difficulty in getting my mind quiet were "get" and "my."

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The Spaces In Between

7/2/2017

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Wild lily, Tahoe National Forest, June 2017. (JoAnn Saccato)

I've recently started including the awareness of spaces in between objects as part of the centering exercise I do with clients and students. As we look at objects with a curious attention--seeing them as if for the first time through the eyes of a child--they have a tendency to come alive in a new way. A fresh crispness is experienced when our pure attention is focused.

I'm noticing that clarity to be even more pronounced when I focus on the spaces in between objects. Their three dimensional nature becomes more apparent, but something else quite fascinating happens, too.

There is a visceral connection with the object as I become aware of the spaces in between. A deeper realization that I am a part of a bigger something eventually emerges. There's a direct experience of just being an extension of the object--the object and I are one and there is no space in between.

I'm not sure any of this can make sense through the written word...These concepts are so big, that I question even writing about them...

I'm not sure any of this can make sense through the written word, but it seems to come into play with an experience I had that helped me see there is not only no space in between objects, but no time of past, present or future either. These concepts are so big, that I question even writing about them--particularly for a public audience, as they may make no sense at all. It may be one of those things that has to be experienced directly to be fully understood.

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