Video from Caitriona
A Mind as Big as the Sky
Meditation is not just about mind control. Focus and concentration are not just about controlling the mind. It’s better to consider controlling less, trusting more – like a trained dancer, an artist, a musician who can express themselves effortlessly.
Meditation is the art of living, and one important discipline, that allows you to become an artist, capable of effortlessly expressing the essence of your unique life, is focus.
You may have imagined that meditation requires a whole lot more focus and concentration than you are currently able to muster. But that’s not true because what’s important is not the degree of concentration that you have, but the way you use the natural capacity to focus that you already posses. It is the quality of your focus that is important.
When we are distracted it’s often because of incongruities and inconsistencies within ourselves – inner tensions that we do not always recognize. If we continually imagine we have to become someone different from who we are; or if we imagine that we should be doing something differently from what we are doing; our energy is depleted and we become distracted.
When you shift your attitude, when you simply give yourself room to simply be the way you find yourself; and when you are simply present with what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, – something inside you begins to change.
The mind is amazingly capable of turning instantly into almost anything. The mind is as big as the wide world itself. It’s as big as the sky. This could hardly be though a bad thing, especially as it is the source of our amazing creativity. So we we would do well to celebrate the power of the mind to go on it’s own expeditions, even at those times you least want it to – when you are trying to concentrate, for example.
Celebration is a key here. Because you can also celebrate your ability to bring your attention back, when you are meditating, to have it be simply present to what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, experiencing … right here and now.
Becoming focus through meditation very much depends on learning to celebrate the moment, rather than exercising special control to whip your wandering mind into shape! Attitude is key. An attitude of celebration brings joy, and joy leads to congruity, and from congruity emerges effortless awareness.
Practice being fully attentive for a few minutes several times a day, celebrate those moments when you can simply be present with whatever happens to be right in front of you, even though your mind may be drifting away for ninety percent of the time. Don’t focus on stopping that drift, simply celebrate those moments you can become aware of it. Rest right there, in that moment of awareness, wherever you are, whatever you happen to be doing – buying groceries, tending to the kids, waiting for a bus, pausing while doing schoolwork
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