vagabond mind

The vagabond mind

George Clark, Oct 2004

 

The vagabond poet Wm. Henry Davies penned the famous lines "What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare"[i].

Time to stand and stare has been thought desirable since Biblical times. The fourth of the ten commandments goes as follows:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But (on) the seventh day thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. (Exodus Chapter 20)

Such periods of rest allow you to cease striving and to be still and know. Know what? "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10)

From another spiritual tradition Dogen Zenji's main recommendation[ii] was to 'Just sit'. Everything else will follow. In reflecting on everyday Zen Tim Burnett[iii] notes –

"Dogen says "have no designs on becoming a Buddha" and he also says we are "already actualized Buddhas who go on actualizing Buddhas." So we do need to practice to express our Buddhahood. But true practice is beyond the realm of desire. It happens daily in our lives whether we like it or dislike that particular day. But it's not something we do to get anywhere or get anything, either. When you sit. Just sit. Really. That's all there is".

So you make time to stand and stare, you just sit and become still – then you will know. Know what? You will know how to be true to your Self ie to the God within. And so? Shakespeare[iv] caught the essential long term moral point:

"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man" [v].

But there is a short term more psychological point which Swami Krishnananda[vi] recognises. He identifies the need "to search for one's True Self through an acute analysis of the variety of psychological involvements in which the essential Selfhood of Being seems to be enmeshed." His suggested means to this end are hard line and very practical:

"Stay for a while, for a month at least, in a place where you are unknown to people and you have no connection with anybody. You have plenty of time for yourself; nobody will disturb you. When you have your little breakfast or lunch, etc., sit and cogitate about what is happening with your mind. The first thought will be that you have lost something. You may have pain in the body or feel that you are not fit for this, that your desires are not being satisfied, something looks odd, not quite all right ..."

So it is not an easy process. An anonymous writer in nineteenth century rural Russia[vii] had a clear view of the situation:

"The trouble is that we live far from ourselves and have but little wish to get any nearer to ourselves. Indeed we are running away all the time to avoid coming face to face with our real selves, and we barter the truth for trifles."

So can we, should we, be otherwise. Hear from three English speaking quotables:

"He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts." (Samuel Johnson) 

" When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal " (Bob Dylan)

"No time to stand beneath the boughs, And stare as long as sheep or cows". (W H Davies)

---

[i] Full poem online at http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Leisure.htm

[ii] Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman outlines Dogen's thinking with enthusiasm and compassion http://www.stanford.edu/group/scbs/Dogen/Dogen_Zen_papers/Hartman.html

[iii] Tim Burnet – everyday Zen - warts and all - http://www.everydayzen.org/teachings/tim_homepractice.asp

[iv] For the context of the quote see  http://www.allshakespeare.com/hamlet/713 

[v] (Hamlet II 78-80) William Shakespeare  (English playwright and poet. 1564-1616)

[vi] "To Thine Own Self Be True" an online book by  Swami Krishnananda http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/true/true_pre.html

[vii] The quote was taken from an Owen O'Sullivan article which gives an interesting modern perspective on our present theme http://www.carlow-nationalist.ie/news/story.asp?j=21351

 

How to start your day

George Clark, 04 September 2007

 

Most individual self improvement programmes recommend a schedule of early to bed and early to rise. The details of this will, however, depend on how your life is organised. Living with a spouse and kids is different from living alone; and both of these are different from institutional settings such as boarding school, military barracks or spiritual cloisters[1]. Ideally you should get up just before dawn as this is a time of new beginnings and therefore conducive to self improvement. Be flexible.

There are many self improvement options but here we look briefly at three which deal in turn with improving the body, mind and spirit.

The body

A programmed session of physical exercises (aerobics/ callisthenics) are a good way to wake up the body and to move it towards increased fitness, strength and stamina. This need not involve a lot of equipment and fashion accessories. The main thing is to be regular and not to take short cuts[2]. Those who would be healthy in mind need a healthy body.

 

For those who prefer something more gentle there is the Yoga option with an interplay between body and mind aimed at stretching, suppleness and balance[3].

The mind

For those who feel the need to develop their creative writing muscle there is the option of producing 'morning pages'. This involves allowing a flow of consciousness to become written notes for 20 minutes first thing in the morning. Get going before the censor wakens. Just keep writing – quality does not matter. This process deepens with practice and amazing insights appear[4].

The spirit

The spirit is best refreshed through stillness. Sit up straight in a dignified way and let go of all thoughts that stray into the past and the future. Do this for 5 to 20 minutes at a time. It is useful to rest attention lightly on the breathing as a focal point which is neutral and ever present. When attention moves away, as it will, then gently pull it back[5]. A delightful calmness results and this is a solid foundation for your new day.

 

You may find it impractical to engage in all three activities every day. But you could establish a schedule with alternate activities on alternate days. You might then find it useful in the evening to keep a journal to record the effects of starting your day with the different activities. 

Why should you bother with any of the activities? Because otherwise you will most likely become physically,  intellectually and spiritually wasted!

---

[1] in institutional settings you might have to use flat-backed options ie do your own thing in your own way between waking and rising.

[2] There are many useful websites giving free instruction. Over the years I have found this book to be really useful and inspiring – Laurence E Morehouse & Leonard Cross ( 1975) Total Fitness in 30 minutes a week; Guild Publishing, London. Copies are available second hand from Amazon.

[3] Jon Kabat-Zinn is a good source of a basic schedule – get his Mindfulness Meditation Practice CDs (Series 1)  from www.mindfulnesstapes.com

[4] The basic scheme comes from Dorothea Brande (1934) Becoming a Writer; ISBN 0333653777 and it is revitalised in Julia Cameron (1998) The Right to Write; ISBN 0333782038

[5] There are many useful websites. Those who prefer to avoid 'eastern exotica' might like to investigate the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

In the Mood

George G Clark, 07 March 2008

When I am in the mood for something I do it effortlessly and with good grace. This contrasts with doing things with a grudge because I have to. So what might it take to avoid the drudge of grudge and be more often in the mood?

There is work and leisure. Work can be paid or voluntary. In either case I sometimes feel put upon by the agenda of other people (the boss). To use philosophical terms I am alienated from my labour and acting inauthentically with false consciousness. But I bite the bullet and get on with it because, for various social and cultural reasons, I feel that I 'should'.

Some of those feelings cross over into leisure where I have 'pursuits'. There are options for 'doing' and thus for avoiding the beast which is boredom. There are also options for 'being' but this is a tough call because "the devil finds work for idle hands to do". Given my cultural conditioning I am something of a workaholic and thus tend towards being a slave driver and control freak. But I sometimes rise above those things.

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." : Henry J. Kaiser (1882 - 1967)

There are work and leisure times when the muse is in the zone and there is effortless flow. There are times when there is no self awareness and it is as if time and space had vanished. At such times normal waking consciousness is shut down and the unconscious is in the driving seat. Rational, linear thinking is replaced by intuitive, parallel thinking and feeling. There are times of being "lost into the Oneness of it all".

But the experience is rarely that clean cut for long. There is often a jumping from one mind state to the other. 'Mind Mapping' offers an example. This begins with a free flowing, unconscious stream of ideas which are then rationally categorised and linked: with many mini iterations along the way.  (This post was written using this mind mapping process: the hand written draft is very rough!)

So how might it be arranged that the muse is in the zone and 'I' am in the mood?

Intellectually and consciously there has to be an acceptance that these different mind states exist and that there is nothing (or at least not much) to fear from the unconscious. So reading and thinking about it well help to fill in the concept map.  But the map is not the territory. There is a need for down time and for stillness. Time to let the mud of the intellect settle so the clarity of the unconscious is exposed.

I have two main obstacles in making this transition which is not yet complete! There is the fear that the demons of the unconscious will be unleashed (reference Freud and most of the psychiatric movement). But it turns out that, for me at least,  the demons' bark is far worse than their bite. Nature has programmed me as a social animal and my nurture in the NE of Scotland has laid a foundation of working class Puritanism. These mental formations can be observed, smiled at and dismissed. They are not the bogeymen they are cracked up to be. Their dictates can be overridden.

The other main obstacle is seemingly getting something for nothing. I find it hard to get my head around  new poems, songs or blog posts 'arriving' thanks to 'the muse'. This still has a ring of 'magic'. But I am getting easier with the notion that my nature and nurture provide the causes and conditions for whatever turns up. The unconscious thus has much the same dynamics as consciousness except that the illusory and constraining 'I' concept is not as noticeably involved.

So: all that is needed to avoid the drudge of grudge is to sporadically exit the conscious, egoic  state and leave things  to unconsciousness. Harness the muse and you will automatically be in the mood.

"It does not seem to be true that work necessarily needs to be unpleasant. It may always have to be hard, or at least harder than doing nothing at all. But there is ample evidence that work can be enjoyable, and that indeed, it is often the most enjoyable part of life." : Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

How do I mean?

George G Clark, 05 March 2008

I see the world as meaningful but so do other people and it may not be meaningful in the same way. So how do I come by my view of what it all means?

Meaning exists in my mind. So how did it get there? An obvious route is through my sense organs which send signals to parts of the brain which are hard wired to interpret them in particular ways. But the meaning is not part of what is sensed: it must be added afterwards.

Since birth I have been exposed to 'culture' with sub-cultural and class-based features. This culture has a predetermined but dynamic world view which finds expression and continuity through rituals and a particular pattern of living language. These conspire to make me, in large part, a creature of my time and place.

The process of enculturation can be viewed as brainwashing. This raises the question of the extent to which I am free to choose 'my' system of meaning. To what extent might this be independent of, and unconditioned by, my time and place? And what might that involve?

Some people (the existentialists) reckon that I am condemned to freely choose my own pattern of meaning. They reckon I am responsible for my own world and that I have to work to realize the potential of my existence in my own terms. But, despite extensive time spent in other cultures, I remain in large part a recognisable creature of my time and place.

Other people (the structuralists) reckon that I am pretty much moulded by my culture  and language. In this view I am a robot most of the time although there is space for chance (?) to spark acts of creativity. This works through metaphor and metonym (see box) : the process works for both intuitive poets and rational scientists, and indeed for anyone at the cutting edge of meaning systems. And this means all of us? But some of us more than others?

So … how do I mean?

It seems that the process may be part hard wired, part due to culture and language, and part due to the chance quirks of my poetic, scientific and day-to-day stirrings. This is good news for the bit of my meaning system that rejoices in people not being total robots.  Nature and nurture can interact in creative ways. There would appear to be a sausage machine: but it leaks.

 

A metaphor is a thing that is used to represent another thing. For example, if we say, "TV is a thief of time," "thief of time" is a metaphor for TV. Metonymy is the use of a term to mean something associated with it. For example, if we say, "I love the open road," "open road" is a metonym for the idea of travelling.

 

[This post was delightfully informed by reading Jay Stevenson (2005) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy; ISBN 1592573614]

elephant mind

Taming your wildly active mind

-Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_676/dailydharma/4415-1.html

 

Ancient Pali texts liken meditation to the process of taming a wild elephant. The procedure in those days was to tie a newly captured animal to a post with a good strong rope. When you do this, the elephant is not happy. He screams and tramples, and pulls against the rope for days. Finally it sinks through his skull that he cant get away, and he settles down. At this point you can begin to feed him and to handle him with some degree of safety. Eventually you can dispense with the rope and post altogether, and train your elephant for various tasks. Now you've got a tamed elephant that can be put to useful work.

 

In this analogy the wild elephant is your wildly active mind, the rope is mindfulness, and the post is our object of meditation, our breathing. The tamed elephant who emerges from this process is a well-trained, concentrated mind that can then be used for the exceedingly tough job of piercing the layers of illusion that obscure reality. Meditation tames the mind.

 

 

Our unsubdued mind

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Meaningful to Behold
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_675/dailydharma/4414-1.html

If we let a wild elephant loose in a populated area it will cause massive destruction, but the uncontrolled wild mind can cause much more harm than such a crazed beast.If the deluded, wild elephant of our mind is not subdued, it will create much suffering for us in this life and will cause us to experience the sufferings of the deepest hell in the future. In fact, if we investigate we can see that the creator of all the sufferings of this and future lives is nothing but our unsubdued mind. To subdue this wild beast is much more important than bringing a jungle elephant under our control.

 

Many benefits follow from taming our mind. If we take the rope of mindfulness and tie our elephant mind securely to the post of virtue, all of our fears will swiftly come to an end

 

If we do not develop mindfulness, our meditations will be hollow and empty. There will be nothing to keep our wild elephant mind from running back and forth in its customary,uncontrolled manner between objects of attachment, anger, jealousy and so forth.

 

 

 

 

deliciious stillness

 

Delicious Stillness

George Clark, 3 March 2008

A little while alone in your room will
prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.
(Rumi)

Most days I make time to just sit. I use the mobile phone to measure 20 minute sessions. I usually have two or three of them at a time.

Sometimes the sessions are noisy and full of worldly chatter and there is no escape from what might be thought of as normal, free-flowing, ego-besotted consciousness. The wild beast that is normal mind.

Sometimes, however, there is a move to stillness and a great peacefulness. This is best described by saying what it does not involve. It is free of I, me and mine thoughts with their associated cravings and aversions. It is free of the past and future and abides in a sense-less present that is independent of time and space.

But there are still some thoughts and feelings. The dynamic churn of the unconscious is still there; but the mental stuff it presents to consciousness is flimsy and in a light mist. It flows past like dry leaves on a peaceful river. Clock time is condensed and the 20 minutes are soon over. The wild beast has been tamed.

So what is such a mind good for? Two main things.

I find that (a) it offers a welcome break from the ego-besotted, time-framed, roller coaster ups and downs of the normal mind and (b) sometimes useful new ideas emerge spontaneously from the stillness. These might otherwise have remained buried in the unconscious. (This story is an example of such an emergence.)

'Just sitting' is a form of mindfulness meditation. There are many variations on the process of stilling, stopping and taming the wild beast which is normal mind. I have recently found it useful to 'aim and sustain' attention on half a breath at a time. This is an easy way to gain the encouragement of quick wins and to keep attention centred on the breathing.

Aim attention at the in breath and keep it there.
Aim attention at the out breath and keep it there.

Once the wild beast has been tamed it is safe to let go of the breathing and to rest in that delicious aspect of mind which is peaceful stillness.

Our purpose is not to follow the heart;
It is to train the heart.
(Ajahn Sumedho)

Is this the light?

George Clark, 02 March 2008

After the meditation session on Saturday we were wondering about different states of mind and about whether or not they are 'enlightened'.  We noted different conditions while at work, during meditation and in between the two. There follows a tentative sketch of the various places our minds might go during our waking hours. There is reference to "no awareness of self nor of space and time". Is this the light?

 

There are at least two options while at paid or voluntary 'work'. On the bleak side you may be half hearted and unable to focus. You are dithering, unwilling and awkwardly self conscious. The work will eventually get done but it is a chore.

On the bright side you may be one-pointed and focussed. If you are an athlete you are in the zone, if you are a creative writer you are in flow. The 'muse' will have 'taken control' and it will be as if the work does itself. There is no awareness of self nor of space and time. Effortless action.

When in between jobs there is slack time. The tone might be elated, depressed or neutral: and the motivation might be to hold on to, avoid, or to seek distraction from, the present  situation. The goal is to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. There are two ways of dealing with  this.  

The bad way promotes anxiety and selfishness while the good way promotes peace and compassion. A mind conditioned by cravings will water bad seeds while a mind that is beyond craving will water good seeds. A craving mind will inhabit the phenomenal world. A mind that has gone beyond craving will experience the numinous where there is no awareness of self nor of space and time. Infinity in a grain of sand.

There are also different mental states during formal meditation. Sometimes the waterfall of thoughts and feelings is robust and noisy and completely captures attention. At other times the witness appears to observe the waterfall and create distance from it. Letting go becomes a viable option. Attention can be pointed to the breathing and it will stay there.  There will be no awareness of self nor of space and time. Only breathing.

But there can be more. Once stillness has been achieved the anchor which is the breathing can itself be let go. There is then the oceanic feeling, the experience of being co-extensive with the Oneness. There will be no awareness of self nor of space and time. InterBeing.

But there can be more.  After the stilling (Shamantha) comes the insight (Vipassana). With a clear mind you will know the 'real reality' and thus be able to engage with the world in a beneficial way. We are back with the effortless action which is 'flow' where there is no awareness of self nor of space and time. Is this the light?

In two minds

George Clark, 29 February 2008

 "One way or another, as with the other senses, our minds often obscure our capacity to see clearly." (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

There is the popular idea that Eskimos have twenty different words for snow. In my version of English there are only two. Language gives us labels which control what and how we see; and also what we hear, smell, taste, touch and think. But we do not have to stay within our linguistic prisons; we can clean our doors to perception.

Most of us most of the time are so lost in thoughts and feelings that we are absent from the present moment. We drift in an imagined past and future on the flimsy boats which are linguistic labels. We are so caught up in our inner world that our perception of the deep ocean of the 'real' world is severely limited.

Experiment: pay attention to the sounds that are present to your ears. What have you not been noticing? Now pay attention to what you are seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking/feeling). Is there stuff going on that 'you' are not normally aware of?

Imagine three friends on a mountain at sunset. Two continue a passionate political debate that began in the hotel bar; they are unaware of their physical surroundings. The third is awake to the present moment and is suffused with the wondrous awe of the setting sun.

To clean the doors to perception we have to rearrange how we come to know the world. It is useful to have labels for two states of mind:

"Phenomenal" refers to the common state of being 'present in body absent in mind'. This is when you are adrift on the ocean with simple labels and limiting, knee-jerk habits of thought and feeling. 

"Numinous" refers to the state of being awake to what is going on in the immediate here and now and having the awe-full experience that William Blake alluded to: "To see a World in a grain of sand, and Heaven in a wild flower, hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, and Eternity in an hour."

So the task is quite simple: we have to be aware of the limitation of the phenomenal (there and then) and make more time and space for the numinous (here and now). To borrow an apt snippet from Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know"

"The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having fresh eyes." (Marcel Proust)

 

[This post was in part inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005) Coming to Our Senses: Healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness; ISBN 0749925884]

 

TripleGem - the Buddhist think tank - About Us > about the TripleGem enterprise

TripleGem - the Buddhist think tank - About Us > about the TripleGem enterprise: "TripleGem is a new cooperative venture based in the UK, but inviting global participation, which provides Buddhist based analysis of social issues and contemporary events."