Tuesday, May 24, 2011

"Let's split"

The meditative mind is a mature mind. We are not born with it.

We are born with Juvenile Mind. Or "monkey-mind" as seasoned meditation practitioners call it. The juvenile mind, like a 4 year old, needs constant entertainment. You cannot leave it for less than a few minutes without feeding it a constant stream of new sights, sounds and thoughts. It is demanding, mischevious and manipulative. It throws tantrums. Increasingly it is inflicted with ADD.

That is why, after a few minutes of meditation, when you have finally managed to gather all of your body, all of your sensations and all of your thoughts to the one SAME place - the silent retreat from the relentless tumult - the Juvenile Mind rebels. It needs new stuff, stimulating stuff, entertaining stuff. Switch it all off and there is Boredom - an unendurable boredom. Undendurable even for a minute.

That's when you have to keep your eye on the juvenile. The minute you turn your back, the juvenile will sneek out of the retreat, like a thief in the night, back into another land of thoughts and fantasies. You will be none the wiser.

Faced with the intolerable boredom, the juvenile mind says : "Let's split"

There is a lot in that. Let's split.  

3 comments:

  1. I hear you. And I admit I'm one of those juveniles brains, who have a hard time standing still.

    The only thing that ever got close to meditation, for me, was writing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. WillBeFine25 May, 2011

    Fascinating program series on the BBC, "Inside the Human Body." Part of which explored what happens to teenagers as they go through puberty. It showed that the brain de-constructs then rebuilds itself!

    I suppose this is what you have to do for meditation, have the mind rebuild itself and ultimately the brain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks u 2 for your ongoing comments. Makes blogging worth it

    @Amanda - keep writing

    @WBF - spot on

    ReplyDelete

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