by Ace Remas |
How Meditation Will Clear Away Life’s Clutter
Like our closets and garages, our mind gets filled with junk—old wishes, fears, memories, plans, worries, and so forth. Just as we do with old furniture and clothes we don’t wear anymore, we hang onto these tired thoughts, dealing with them again and again as we stumble across them in our reveries and thoughts. Yet they all seem important simply because we created them and indulged in them so frequently.
Simply letting go of them seems to deny the importance they once held for us. But hanging on seems a burden too.
So we resolve from time to time to clear out the clutter. Unlike our garages, clearing the mind seems a bit more complicated than moving stuff onto the driveway for a garage sale. Where do we start? There are so many issues, and they all relate one to another. If I just stop worrying about money, for example, will my money problems increase or will I lose opportunity? If I just forgot the many plans I created but never enacted, will I just be lazy and unfulfilled? If I just give up trying to resolve old issues with my friends, will I be failing them? This intricate web of intention, ambition and fear seems too complicated to simply put aside, even for the moment.
Yet life goes on and most of the issues that arise in this way go unresolved day after day, burdening us with the debris of past thoughts and hopes. So something must be done. In the busyness of our life, many of us forget the marvelous instrument that is at our disposal to sort out these complexities— it’s our mind. If we feel confused it is because we are trying to deal with the images and issues that appear to the mind — but not the mind itself. Meditation is a way to reacquaint yourself with your mind, the source of all these issues, and with a firmer grasp of its function and nature, we can sort out all the things that appear to and in the mind.
Many of us think that meditation is just a mental vacation, a time to forget all our responsibilities for a short while and get refreshed as a result; or it is focusing on our problems, seeking a solution. However, meditation works more indirectly— and more powerfully—than either of these views. Meditation is a method to acquaint yourself with the mind and the positive states of mind you wish to experience. By meditating on the mind, we purify the basis of our experience, and the clutter of our life gradually sorts itself out because we act with more wisdom and love. By understanding a little more the good qualities of our own mind, we are able to bring those good qualities to bear in everything we think and do.
Our relationships will improve; some problems will just go away and others will be resolved in an effortless manner; and issues that can’t be solved become interesting challenges that engage our energy and passion for life.
Here’s a simple meditation you can apply right now. Set aside perhaps 20 minutes in the morning when you are fresh and energetic, before the rush of your busy day sets in. Sit comfortably in a chair or on a cushion. Make sure your back is erect and straight, the head balanced comfortably on the top of the spine with the chin not too high or too low. Lightly close the eyes to reduce distractions. If you like, place the right hand in the palm of the left with the thumbs touching lightly to increase concentration.
Focus on your body for a few moments. Scan it from top to bottom, releasing any tension you may find. Feel good in your body, and enjoy your breath, the chest rising and falling, the air passing in and out of the nostrils.
Gently shift your attention to the breath itself, and concentrate on the breathing. Feel good about being alive, present, stable, and alert. Stop being distracted by other thoughts and feelings for the moment. Just focus on the body and breath.
After a while, perhaps five minutes, think that your mind is located at the heart. We all experience something at the heart when we have strong feelings. Shift your attention to the center of the chest and think this is my mind. (There’s no need to think at this point that the mind is the brain; the brain has certain functions but when you are in love or you suffered a great loss, where do you feel that? Not in the head, but in the heart. This explains the love song’s old standard, the broken heart.) Keep your attention on the mind at the heart, without interruption. Single-pointedly hold the thought that this is my mind.
As your concentration increases, then add to your understanding that the nature of the mind at the heart is “clarity,” like empty space. It is okay to just imagine this. What is important is to hold with the most stable concentration you can muster, the image of your mind as clarity at the heart. Just hold this as long as you can.
Of course, things will appear in this space—your thoughts and feelings. Let them come and go without grasping or distraction. Stay focused on the clarity at the heart and let your thoughts and feelings move through like clouds in an empty sky.
Meditate in this manner as long as you can, whatever is comfortable. Five minutes are beneficial; there is no standard to meet. Enjoy the clarity of your own mind. When you rise from meditation make a promise to yourself to recall from time to time the mind at the heart whose nature is clarity. Repeat this meditation every morning for a while, and any other opportunity that you have, and gradually you will come to appreciate the good qualities of your own mind. Indirectly, the clutter that occupies your mind will be viewed from the perspective of the spaciousness of your own mind. By itself, this will sort things out. You will feel confident, content, and energetic. It will be like a bright spring after a long winter and you will feel good.
Ace Remas is Resident Teacher of the Mahakaruna Buddhist Meditation Center headquartered in Petaluma, California. You can reach Ace at 775-746-8681 or at aremas@aol.com.
