Episode 1: Introduction - A Mindful Lens
I’d like to introduce a brief meditation:
Take a moment and become familiar with your current state of mind. Relax and take a few deep breaths. Close your eyes if you are able and notice any thoughts or tension. Now imagine, at first, that your state of mind is a solitary body of water and place yourself in its center. Is it a mountain lake or a pond in the neighborhood park? Is it calm or disturbed, deep or shallow? Are there rivers or streams flowing into it? If so, how many? Is the water clear or murky? Do you sense a slight cool breeze or hot and heavy winds or something in between? Are their others in there with you? Do their activities disturb your water? Now see how these variables will alter your ability to stay afloat. Each one contributing to a sense of turbulence or calm. Are you on your back, relaxed and floating without much effort or simply trying not to sink grabbing onto anything that happens to float by? Perhaps you are nearly submerged—body stretched out, chin up and toes pointing downward searching for the bottom with your feet. Perhaps you’re frantically swimming against the tide with the shore in sight hoping for solid ground to escape all these shifting currents. Whatever state your mind is in, let it be. Feel the water all around you, accept this moment as it is and know that it will not always be this way.
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Breathe.
Now open your eyes.
Our state mind is in constant flux. If we pay close enough attention, we see that we spend a majority of our day -up there somewhere- lost in thought. Usually these thoughts are stuck on something that happened in the past or we have become anxious about something in the future. A task we may or may not want to do. A personal interaction we may be dreading. Or simply trying to get through this, just to get to that. Rarely do we take the time to be in this moment—feeling the tingling at the tip of our nose as we breathe or sensing the energy in our hands and pulsing throughout our bodies. We constantly forget that we carry with us at all times the greatest gift on the planet, the gift of life. No wonder nothing we will ever buy can give us a sense of lasting fulfillment, we are already in possession of the ultimate thing.
Understanding the structure of the mind is essential. For some reason our minds are really good at holding on to negativity and without knowing it, we use these negative thought patterns and situations to define our ”selves”, by making us right and others wrong. It feels good to be right, even at the expense of others. We are too quick to judge a person’s entire character by their worst moments, yet we know deep down that we too have not always made the best decisions. But because we are more familiar with the mental context which led to our poor choices, we are generally more understanding and forgiving toward ourselves. There is a way to extend this compassion to every situation, to every person, once we no longer feel the need to be right, once we understand that we truly do not know another’s context. All we can know is that our individual minds are shaped by our external influences—familial, societal, class, skin color, gender, trauma etc. Not to mention the ways we choose to use our attention—sports, politics, religion, and social media to name a few. At times these choices arbitrarily divide us because of geography or chance of our birthplace or upbringing. These influences are the basis of our unconscious thought patterns, and act as filters through which we interpret everything around us.
These are some of the things which cloud our waters and create turbulence making it more difficult to see the true purpose of life. They keep us from making meaningful connections while creating understanding. We are searching for solid ground, for absolute rights and wrongs, but there is no such ground to stand on. Every situation requires fluidity, a fresh look and an appropriate response. Rigidity will drown us. To some degree we can control what we allow into our minds and how we react to it, but it takes stepping back and looking at it through a clear lens. We often do what we do out of habit, unconscious of the rut we’ve dug deeper over time. As a result, we can no longer see out of it, or over it. We’re stuck in a trench of our own making. This is where mindfulness is necessary. We can learn to step back and take an honest look at what our intentions and motivations are in everything we do.
My intent with this podcast is to point a way toward living life in a mindful way through seeing clearly the workings of our mind—our body of water. For it is this very state of mind through which life is perceived. Through deliberate mindful meditation we can learn the skill of staying afloat and truly enjoying our short time in this body. We can discover that the original state of mind is more closely akin to a pristine mountain lake than to a stagnant city pond, but at present our once calm lake has been disturbed and polluted. The purity of our body of water becomes tainted as we add more garbage, more streams of recursive thought, desire, craving, expectations and judgements, even as we unknowingly fight against the natural tide and changing seasons of the mind.
While sitting in formal meditation practice, the goal is not to achieve an enlightened state. Though this may happen to some degree, it is a clear distraction if that has become our purpose for meditating. The point of mindful practice is to become familiar with the mind, so that we can be better to ourselves and in turn, to others. It’s that simple. We learn to observe our thoughts and their context, to look for their author and to let them arise and pass—just as the breath, the sun, and the tide. Everything rises and falls. After some time we don’t get carried away by our thoughts as often. We simply witness them without judgement or attachment or resistance. As we become mindful of our thoughts in meditation practice, we naturally shift this awakened state to our daily activities—expectations, observations, and interactions which at times cause us stress and mental suffering.
Using mindfulness as our guide we may begin asking ourselves why we do what we do no matter how seemingly unimportant. Why do we eat what we eat, drink what we drink? Why do we consume what we do, both mental and physical? Why do we treat people differently? Why do we use our attention this way or that? This is simply the natural progression of living mindfully in this and every moment. Our lives become meaningful as we are thoughtful about everything we do. We begin to think twice before habitually picking up our phones, making the act more deliberate and useful. We may bypass the box of donuts in the break room, after becoming conscious of what we are putting into our bodies. All of our automatic and unconscious thought patterns and activities are then held out in front of us in broad daylight and choice begins to emerge. We begin to see what is truly important, what matters most in life. This moment.
We soon become less judgmental toward ourselves and others—more kind, more understanding, patient, and compassionate because we can see more clearly how the mind operates in us and how we too can be reactive, rude, mindless, selfish, and so on. We learn to forgive ourselves for these unconscious mental activities and learn to have compassion for ourselves. We then begin to extend this loving kindness to those around us. It is difficult to treat others in a loving and compassionate way if we have not learned first to love and forgive ourselves. This is why we must start alone in solitude with our thoughts in mindful meditation.
Similar to learning to swim, we begin in a shallow calm pool, not distracted and learn one skill after another. Then we move to deeper and more troubled waters and soon we are jumping into the ocean without second thought. The quiet solitude gives us a better chance to succeed. At first glance it may seem self-indulgent, and it may even feel that way too. Yet, we must start with ourselves. As the quality of our mind and life begin to improve, we begin to have a positive influence on those around us. Individually we can be a calming and loving force in the world. Together we can join our waters and create something far more vast than even the ocean. All of our interactions with others then become a chance for positive change which will continually spread outward.
Consider the other side for a moment. How is our body of water impacted when we are approached with negativity and hostility? Do we automatically react in kind adding to the turbulence or are we able to be fluid and flexible, responding to the situation in a thoughtful way? We are at the center of our own minds, yet we are not living in isolation, our bodies of water are connected. Our individual thoughts and actions have a ripple effect for good or for ill.
In this podcast we’ll explore how we might be able to calm the waters of our mind and learn patience to let the mud settle so we can see the water clearly and act appropriately. We will see that our bodies of water are indeed connected and how our calm or thrashing can impact those around us. Also, how that which we choose to input may add to the turmoil. We’ll also look at how, with an ever-expanding circle of compassion—starting with ourselves—we can increase the depth and breadth of this body of water, giving us greater ability to absorb turmoil in the case of negativity or unexpected tragedy. Sometimes things just fall into our waters without warning and we cannot avoid it, but we can learn to minimize the depth and length of those ripples. If we are open enough, we can allow these things to be swallowed up by the vast ocean and sink to its depths and dissolve.
As we look a little closer, we will see that we can become the change we want to see in ourselves and in the world. Mindfulness can help us be healthy and happy, to be better friends and neighbors, and to be better inhabitants of our collective home, this planet. Simply put, this podcast will explore ways of being mindful day to day, moment by moment.
If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to begin a daily mindful meditation practice. With learning any great skill, practice is necessary. There are plenty of apps, books, and other resources available to ease you into this fresh new way of approaching your life.