It's all in the mind

Aug 28, 2010, 12.00am IST
GIRISH DESHPANDE.

Do you honestly want to start taming your mind and be happy? Do you have the right motivation and intention to begin?

Are you serious about it? If the answers to these questions are 'yes', know that there are three prerequisites to keep your mind under control:

First, there cannot be a beginning without knowing what to begin on. So, first, get started on the teachings. Although as Buddhist I would recommend the Buddha Dharma to you, you may choose any other teachings. Whatever you decide on, please have confident faith in it. You need to have a competent teacher to help you find answers to questions, to enable you to overcome roadblocks on the way. Masters say: "Learning to meditate without proper understanding of the teachings is like trying to climb a tree with no hands!" You must know what to meditate on before starting, and for this, you need to have a reasonable understanding of your lineage teachings. A special motivation or bodhichitta must be humbly awakened within to begin spiritual practice.


Second, Tibetan wisdom says: " Gompa ma yin, kompa yin", which means: Meditation is not, getting used to is. Meditation cannot be 'done', or for that matter done sporadically. It is not enough to stay calm during the practice and be volatile right through the day. You have to get so comfortable with meditation that it becomes embedded in your system. It becomes something that we can do anywhere and anytime and then finally all the time! However, to reach this stage, you have to calm the mind to a reasonable level of steadiness. How? The Buddha taught 84,000 ways to calm down and ease negative emotions. There are countless ways to meditate, choose yours. Be regular with your meditation; assign a time for it daily. Early mornings suit me.

Finally, be ever vigilant of the mind, of its thoughts and emotions. In an average human mind, over 50,000 thoughts and emotions come and go each day. Just let them be. Don't engage them. Especially the disturbing, negative ones. Let them rise and fall. Be at peace with their rise and subsequent fall. Never get difficult with them. They will go just as they have come. Look at the mind like an ocean and the rising and falling thoughts and emotions like the waves. Whoever has heard of the ocean being disturbed by the waves? Be like the old grandfather watching the child play. He knows the pranks going on and is amused by them too, but is vigilant of the child not causing any harm to himself or to anyone else around. In short, be mindful. The mind can slip away faster than you have realised its departure.

We take so much trouble and spend much money to get physical exercise in a gym. Why not consider a little bit of time and no money for our mind's wellness too? Imagine a world of people with strong bodies and untamed minds! It would be a terrifying place to live in, isn't it? An approach to tone both would be in everyone's interest.

Now that you will begin in right earnest, whatever goodness accrues from this, dedicate all of it to your near and dear ones, your teacher, the elderly or those you are indebted to in your life and other sentient beings around you. This way more benefit, peace and happiness will come your way.

May the Buddha smile upon you.

The writer is a Pune-based Dharma practitioner. lamagirish@gmail.com