The Mind in Body-Mind-Soul-Spirit

Once we have satisfied the demands of the body principle, our task becomes a matter of ‘taming the wild horses of the mind'. This is really a call to mindfulness, which is what precedes the ability to meditate in a convincing fashion.

We have discussed mindfulness in this forum a few times (see On Being Present, Taking Out The Trash). Mindfulness boils down to being present and paying attention, not splitting our attention between different tasks or activities, but rather giving our entire attention to what is in front of us. Mindfulness is a springboard into meditation, and meditation, in turn, breeds mindfulness. Everything is a circle.

There are many different meditation traditions, from the austerity and ritual of Zen, to the practices of japa in the Hindu tradition and the rosary in Catholic tradition - both of which use beads and mantra as focal objects -- to the more ‘casual', if you will, Taoist practices that involve standing and lying, along with traditional sitting. What is most important is that choose a meditation practice that suits your personality and, as we discussed with physical culture, with which you connect on a primal level.

So, when are we concentrating, and when are we meditating? The Raja Yoga tradition teaches that until one can sit for 11 seconds without the mind wavering, one is only concentrating. Once that initial 11 seconds has been experienced, we build our practice 11 seconds at a time. Other traditions use other conventions, but all in all there is no magic to any of it - these are simply the ways and means by which to establish a consistent and fruitful practice of concentration and meditation.

Mind is also the place where our "me-ness" lives. We are, quite literally, our own creation, insofar as it is our ideas, expectation, and assumptions about the way the world works that defines both our reality and ourselves. It is moving past these old attachments and ways of thinking that bring us true freedom and lead to a connection with our divine and authentic nature. (If I sound like I'm repeating myself, I am - because there is a fundamental fabric to inner work that is quite consistent and integrated.)

Moving past old attachments is the "letting go" that we hear so much about. We are not letting go of ourselves, or our ego (you need the ego to let go of the ego!). We are letting go of our habits of mind -- the prison of our own device that keeps us stuck repeated the same patterns, and playing out the same dramas over and over again. Letting go means returning to our basic nature, and reveling in our basic goodness and the basic goodness of our world and our experience. Speaking in strictly psychological terms, meditation and mindfulness are means for us to break from our neurotic tendencies and engender true change through a return to our own authenticity.

The body is strong, the mind clear and, if not one-pointed, moving toward a sense of focus. We enter now the realm of the soul...

© 2008 Michael J. Formica, All Rights Reserved

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