In recent years, there has been a tendency to speak about the brain with a sense of awe and gratitude for its functions. But this information-processing device that we all have is a rogue entity that continues to forge ahead in search of thought-provoking stimuli, regardless of the effects on us and whether we’ll end up suffering as a result.
As someone who practises Zen meditation, I watch the flow of my awareness over long periods of time. By doing that, I can see that my mind is working continually and at tremendous speed. It moves around incredibly quickly, processing information, and travels on to parts of my body that are related to the five senses, such as my eyes, through which it will watch, or it might go to my ears and start listening. And these actions take place in no more than split fragments of a second.
The two of us are together and there’s physical contact between us, but neither is in the same place mentally. It’s because we’ve both locked ourselves inside our brains.
There are various impulsive energies of the mind that respond to such stimuli, the significant ones being ‘the three poisons’: desire, anger and uncertainty.
I feel that it’s often when that noise achieves a complete victory over the sense of reality that people might start to become senile in old age. Because they become solely controlled by information from the past and unable to accept new realities
The root cause for all of that can be narrowed down to the idea that the reality in front of us is too ordinary, too boring, and that negative thoughts are stimulating. In our mind’s search for new stimuli, our thoughts are programmed to go out of control in seeking the negative.
In Buddhism, there is something known as the Noble Eightfold Path that people are encouraged to strive to follow in order to live the right way. The eight elements can be categorized within three main steps:
Step 1 – Setting rules for yourself and developing an inner strength that will prevent you from faltering
The right thoughts (to correct your thoughts)
The right speech (to correct your speech)
The right conduct (to correct your actions)
The right livelihood (to correct the way you live)
Step 2 – Developing your concentration
The right concentration
The right cleansing of the mind
Step 3 – Becoming aware
The right mindfulness (to hone the sensors of your mind)
The right views (to enable you to understand)
Not thinking in a way that tires you, thinking only the most appropriate thoughts in a particular moment, eliminating unrestrained thoughts and ideas that go around and around in your mind, and overcoming your kleshas.
You don’t have to be able to create a special state of awareness to control your mind to a certain extent. In Buddhism, the ability to become aware is called the power of the will. The will refers to our ability to recognize things, like a sensor for awareness. The more fine-tuned that sensor is, the more sensitive we are to the smallest changes.
The passive state of seeing and the active state of looking.
The passive state of hearing and the active state of listening.
The passive state of noticing a smell and the active state of smelling something.
The passive state of tasting something and the active state of savouring it.
The passive state of touching something and the active state of feeling it.
Shift your mindset from hearing to listening, seeing passively to seeing intentionally, practise sharpening your five senses, and you will begin to feel a sense of fulfilment from contemplating things that may appear at first to be boring.
Although we may believe that we’re thinking and speaking of our own free will, what’s happening is (a) our mind is inputting information triggered by a particular form of stimulation, and (b) it is automatically reacting and providing output. Blunders occur when we don’t know how to control this reaction. We say words reflexively because we don’t know how to respond to the stimuli that have entered our mind. We aren’t speaking as much as being made to speak by the stimulant, and we will continue regretting our words as long as this process continues.
our anger becomes further etched on our mind as we complain. That energy builds and builds until it’s on fire, giving us a lot of stimulation, and our mind often confuses that with a good feeling. As we continue along that path, we gradually become short-tempered. A precondition is created for our brain to remember that taking out our anger on someone else stimulates our mind and makes us feels good,
from a Buddhist perspective is to avoid both these responses. Instead of releasing your anger or holding it back, you can observe your own emotions.
If you feel irritated by someone, immediately set those emotions aside. You firmly believe that those feelings are genuine. There’s no question in your mind that they must be the ultimate truth. Now put those feelings in brackets and repeat to yourself:
(I’m irritated – I think.)
(I’m irritated – I think.)
By doing that, realize that you only think that you’re irritated, and it isn’t the absolute truth. Be aware that it’s only an emotion in your mind
It is best to avoid using vulgar language and bad-mouthing others, regardless of whether the person on the receiving end is not present and hence might not be hurt. Anger will poison the speaker’s mind and increase that klesha. Because such words provide powerful stimulation, they will be fed right back as soon as the speaker says them and will deeply penetrate and pollute his or her mind
Abstention from false speech means not telling lies. Start talking about information that isn’t true, and you’ll be overwriting the correct information in your mind with incorrect data. False details will become embedded in your mind, which will affect its capacity to process information and mess up the links within your memory over the long term.
Say you lie about a pretty necklace you bought yourself and tell a friend that your boyfriend bought it for you. The links in your memory will be jumbled when you overwrite the correct information
You’re lying to yourself when you try to express gratitude when you don’t mean it, and it can only skew your mind. Being stuck in a state of self-persuasion and repeatedly saying thank you without conviction will make people think that it’s a habit of yours to say thank you when you don’t mean it
In Buddhism, we believe that there are only four emotions that we should nurture in order to live happily: kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity.
Kindness is the virtue that wishes for peace and tranquillity for all living beings.
Compassion is an emotion of sympathy, wishing to eliminate problems and suffering in others.
Joy is the ability to see others who are happy and to feel the same pleasure.
Equanimity is a peaceful state of mind in which you eliminate the habit of feeling anger or confusion
think about how we breathe in everyday life. We will be short of breath if we’re irritated, upset, agitated or excited, or if we’re trying to force someone to do something. Our breathing is slow and deep when we’re relaxed, and it’s short and sharp when we’re nervous
Buddhist meditation is essentially the practice of using the state of concentration achieved while meditating as a tool to observe the movements of one’s mind. We may hear the sounds around us as we focus, which may prompt our thoughts to wander. Our thoughts will acknowledge the sounds, recognize them and react to those they find unpleasant. We then practise concentrating on the sounds around us and on preventing our thoughts from further wandering so the chain reaction will stop there.
A simple routine like this – blocking out ambient sounds by listening to music – will condition your mind to always search for stimulation. Your mind will learn that it merely needs to reject uninteresting sounds that bring on little stimulation yet are detrimental to your ability to concentrate
You’re standing in a room. It’s filled with the noise of people bustling around. Look out of the window and notice the wind. You probably haven’t done that because you’ve been tuned in to the sounds around you. Once you focus on the subtle sound of the wind, you may be surprised to learn that it can stimulate your mind in a positive way.
I’m not a strong advocate of television and other visual media that provide intense stimulation. Violent films, even the news, cover adverse incidents that can be disturbing. Variety and comedy shows can also be offensive. People get hit, smacked, made to do things they don’t want to do, even if it’s just an act, and then ridiculed. The audience laughs: that in turn triggers their aggressiveness, their anger and their klesha of arrogance.
What’s most important when observing the pain in another person is to be objective, which means not allowing the emotional impact of your observations to fill your mind.
Underlying meaningless chatter is the klesha of greed, in the form of a desire to be accepted and avoid being disliked by others.
Generated at: 2023-09-12-13-53-29
