Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The workings of the mind

I have been reading (what else is new?) two books at the present. Selections from talks given by the late J. Krishnamurti, and "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. Both offer the same message from deeply personal perspectives. Both are heroic, towering works of understanding and insight into the extreme problem that the mind presents to us. Each of us. It offers concrete, real solutions to the problems affiliated with the mentation process and hence are works of vital importance to the world and to our lives. Both are direct challenges to our heavily buried true self to aid and assist us into removing the blocks to love's presence, which lies at the root of the mind and it's process, thinking. It asks us to be aware, simply and without judgement, of the actual thoughts we produce, or that produce itself. By doing this, we transcend the limited vision of our ego and come back to our eternal nature as divinity itself.
So, I did some of what was suggested today. I took time to turn off everything in my environment and just be for one hour. Sounds pretty basic, no? Just to be, without distraction of any kind for one solid hour. No talking, reading, listening to music, computer, anything with a dialogue of any kind. I didn't have to stay still, but I needed to remain silent and be in each and every activity of that hour in my apartment. I'm sure you can imagine what I'm going to say. Anyone who has tried this before knows that that was one of the most difficult hours I have ever spent in my life. Watching each activity, seeing and hearing my mind trying to wiggle out of it, running it's non-stop cinema as I like to call it. By the end of the hour I wanted to jump out the window. That's how profoundly difficult simply being is. But I found, eventually, that my mind did give in to the silence at times. It began to surrender and I found myself laughing at how strange this experience was. I also had a residual peace and contentment that I had not had prior to the experiment. It turned out that I was more centered and elastic by the evening and it carried over to my relationships out in the world (the one hour I spent at a meeting being sick).
I will continue to try intense awareness of the present moment, watching my thoughts, and seeing what happens on a daily basis to my thinking process and the alabatross that it has become in my life. No-thought is the silence of love and is the true wisdom I seek. The rest is the ramblings of my ego.

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