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#4139- Wednesday, January 19, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Restless Mind … No Problem
by Colin Drake
Many people complain of a ‘restless mind’
when they sit down to meditate, contemplate or just relax into
pure awareness. Their thoughts almost seem to speed up and a host
of worldly worries crowd in that seem to make meditation,
contemplation, or relaxation appear impossible. If one attempts
to suppress these thoughts, or replace them with other thoughts,
this often exacerbates the problem turning the river into a
veritable torrent! Now this may be a problem if one is attempting
one-pointed concentration on a mantra, the breath or a symbol as
in meditation. It may also seem to make contemplation, or
investigation, impossible as it disturbs the flow of thoughts,
dedicated to one subject, that this requires.
However, for just relaxing into pure awareness the
torrent of thoughts of the ‘monkey mind’ or ‘worry
wart’ is no problem at all; for in this relaxation there
truly is nothing to find, achieve or acquire as awareness is
already (and always) present. All that is required is to
recognize this fact, which ‘isn’t exactly rocket
science’ as one would not even know that there was a
‘problem’ without being aware of it, which proves that
awareness is already present. One just needs to see
(recognize) that there is awareness of this stream of
thoughts/worries. This ‘seeing’ (recognition) has the
potential to break the habit of the mind to follow these
thoughts, and then they just come and go in awareness, leaving it
unaffected in the same way that clouds scud across the sky, or
waves appear in the ocean. Once this occurs one can then revert
to contemplation/investigation if one wishes, or just remain
relaxing into awareness itself.
Even if this does not occur, and the restless mind
continues with its incessant chatter, this is no problem for
awareness itself which just witnesses this, whilst remaining
totally unconcerned. The seeing of this in turn leads to the mind
letting go of all its expectations of what is required for the
relaxation to deepen (i.e. that the mind should become quiet),
resulting in this deepening naturally occurring. Paradoxically
this can then result in the flow of discursive thoughts
lessening, leading to even deeper relaxation … But if this
does not happen it’s no problem!
This is where the technique of recognizing the
presence of awareness, and relaxing into that, differs from other
techniques that require concentration. For this seeing
(recognition) has the power to diffuse thoughts (and sensations)
as their ephemeral nature becomes apparent, thus making the mind
less likely to scamper after them. The mind is a far more
amenable servant when it can truly understand what is required of
it and can see the point of this. The recognition of pure
awareness leads to perfect peace, for awareness itself is always
absolutely still and totally silent (being the witness to
movement and thoughts/sounds) … and this is perfect peace.
Whereas, meditation on an object which requires
one-pointed concentration is a somewhat artificial activity, with
which the mind struggles as it fails to truly ‘see’ the
point. It is true that if this is perfected it can lead to the
same state of perfect peace, but this is not the beginner’s
experience. Because the mind finds it difficult to truly engage
with this practice, this lack of engagement leaves the mind as
restless as it was before the activity was embarked upon. In fact
any attempt to artificially yoke the mind to an activity which it
is unused to, and does not enjoy, often leads to the restlessness
becoming more intense.
Therefore this style of meditation can become
counter-productive leading to frustration and a feeling of
failure. Which is a great shame for the peace of pure awareness
is always present behind this intense activity and this can be
readily recognized with the relevant shifting of attention. The
attempt to stifle the mind to reveal this peace is often a long
and arduous process which many ‘meditators’ fail to
achieve. Even those that do ‘succeed’ often fail to see
that this peace is ever-present and think that it can only be
achieved by prolonged ‘sitting’. In which case this
does not lead to true freedom as this peace is not recognized as
being present when one is not ‘meditating’.
The other problem with ‘sitting’
meditation is that, for most westerners, it is not a truly
comfortable occupation unaccustomed as we are to sitting
cross-legged. It is true that most traditions allow beginners to
sit in a chair but the implication tends to be that this is a
concession and that to do the thing properly we need to learn to
sit, with a straight spine, on the floor. This discomfort makes
concentration even more difficult to achieve, as if the activity
was not tricky enough already! Whereas relaxing into pure
awareness can be done in any position and is best done where
there is no discomfort whatsoever.
In my case I spent over 20 years involved in this style of meditation performed in twice daily sittings of 30-60 minutes. Whilst this lead to many beautiful experiences, trance states (and sore knees!) it never lead to total freedom. For it always left me feeling that there was more to achieve which would occur through even greater effort. It was only when I was told to ‘STOP’, give up all effort, and simply ask ‘Who am I?’ that the penny dropped and I realized that I, as a separate entity, do not exist (Anatta)! All that was there was the ever-present awareness of the thoughts/sensations.
Some amazing experiences also followed but this discovery that ‘I’ do not exist is the key and is repeated every time I look to see ‘Who am I?’ Further than this is the recognition of pure awareness itself in which thoughts/sensations arise, exist, are seen and subside. This has left me completely free from all existential angst, with a feeling of being totally ‘at home in the universe’ and experiencing a simple ‘ease of being’. None of this was true during all my years of rigorous rigid mantra/breath/visualization meditations. I now know that in fact there is nothing to achieve, find or get, for awareness is always present. All that is required is just ‘being’ moment to moment identified as this awareness of thoughts and sensations. Then if deeper experiences come, beautiful, and if not… no problem. Truly each moment is enough!
It is interesting to note that, after all I have said about mantra, I sometimes use mantra to aid me relaxing into this pure awareness; which I do for the joy of it, rather than to achieve, find, or get anything. The mantra I use is ‘Om Namah Sivaya’ which means ‘salutations to pure awareness (or consciousness) which is the Absolute Totality of Being’. As this is repeated it points directly to this pure awareness by its meaning and the experiential fact of awareness of the repetition. It is this attention on the awareness itself that is the key, for this awareness is always absolutely still and totally silent, which is perfect peace. This meaning and the noticing of awareness has the power to diffuse the restless mind, especially after some practice where the value of relaxing into awareness itself has been experienced. Mantra repetition also reveals the ‘nothingness’ relative to which all ‘things’ can be recognized. For the thought is known (there is awareness of it) relative to the no-thought in which it appears.
This is the ‘nothingness’ which can be
revealed by repeating the mantra with intense concentration, thus
blocking out all other ‘things’ from the mind. However
this nothingness may be immediately realized by seeing that every
‘thing’ appears in nothingness, exists in nothingness,
is known relative to this nothingness and disappears back into
nothingness. Without this background of nothingness there
would not be awareness of any ‘thing’. As the only
things in our direct experience are thoughts (including all
mental images) and sensations, awareness of which is only
possible due to contrast with the ‘nothingness’ in
which they appear, then this ‘nothingness’ is
absolutely vital for awareness of any ‘thing’;
and is in fact a property of awareness itself.
‘Consciousness at rest’ (awareness) implies the
‘subjective field’ which is conscious (aware) and
still, that is ‘nothingness’ as all
‘things’ are forms of cosmic energy, and thus in
motion.
So if one repeats the mantra (or any mantra) noticing the awareness of the repetition and the nothingness (no thought) in which it arises, exists and subsides, then the mantra has done its job in revealing the nature of reality. In fact every single thing in manifestation points directly to this ‘aware nothingness’, or ‘formless awareness’, in exactly the same way. For it is in contrast to the nothingness that any thing is perceived, and awareness is that which underlies perception, in that one is effortlessly and choicelessly aware of sense (and mind) perceptions. However, mantra repetition has the added advantage of pointing to this directly by its form and meaning, for every mantra extols different aspects of this Absolute Reality. This ‘aware nothingness’, or ‘formless awareness’, is: Jehovah, God the Father, Allah, Brahman, Siva, The Void ( Theravadan Buddhism), Rigpa ( Tibetan Buddhism), Big Mind ( Zen), and The Tao. Mystics of all persuasions who follow the ‘negative path’ have come to this same realization of the Absolute Reality, although they give it different names.
~ ~ ~
Colin Drake is the author of Beyond the Separate Self: The End of Anxiety and Mental Suffering, an e-book which may be purchased and read at once. For details, excerpts, and to read the table of contents and the index, please visit http://nonduality.com/btss.htm