Sharpening the mind to cut through to reality... Sounds vague huh? Well, it's your reality, undefined and subjective, but you still have to try find it!

Your existence is exactly that - yours. The modicum that we share with the world will only ever scratch the surface of what bubbles around in your mind! Through all of that, you have to figure out which thoughts are worthwhile, which to cut loose; which thoughts represent a reality, and which are entirely your imagination. So often, we walk around creating images of this person or that situation, far from being truly able to take in or collate enough information to make a judgement that even slightly rings true. 

We try and guess the mental state, capabilities, characteristics and desires of everyone around us. Indeed, this is a basic part of human interaction, and is crucial to normal functioning like holding a conversation. However, we create patterns for ourselves in this process, most likely a neurological result of our brain trying to streamline thought process. These patterns can be neutral, helpful or detrimental to our minds - consider the way you respond to strange places and unknown people. This is a surefire way of bringing up patterns. Are you confident and outgoing? Nervous and quiet? Is your confidence and extroversion a defense-mechanism itself? There are a million and one ways we respond to new and old situations alike. The aim is to be able to recognize and move away from these patterns, allowing ourselves to approach each and every situation with the fresh  curiosity and respect that it deserves. 

The simple way of allowing ourselves to do this more often is by harnessing the minds power of self-awareness. Watching your thoughts and seeing where you are blatantly making things up (think self-image, others' opinions, judgments etc) will help you get back to the reality of flesh and blood, the now, the moment. Forgetting what you think of someone, or what you expect them to be saying, will free up your mind to actually listen! We may not be able to escape the fact that we must form opinions, but we can clear a whole lot of debris from our senses so that we might create better-informed opinions. 

Bottom line - catch yourself thinking. Consider the relevance and grounds for your thoughts, and choose either to continue in that vein or break away and start afresh. When you first catch yourself in a detrimental pattern and simply break away from it, you'll feel as though a weight has been cast from your chest! What starts as a revelation soon becomes a habit, and your mind clears itself, allowing you to live moment-to-moment - feeling, smelling and being the breeze!

Your reality may be subjective, and yours to create, but that only means that the responsibility is yours alone. Sharpen your abilities to be able to better form the world you live in!

Much love, Dean

So, why is it necessary to meditate when there is so much good information and knowledge out there that helps us understand the behavior of ourselves and others better than any quiet time could. Well that is just it, books, lectures and scriptures can do only that much, help you understand, and only as much as you are capable of understanding. All the insight in the world cannot help anyone when their mind has been hijacked by excited emotional thoughts. You will then only see that which you are allowed to see, that which is in line with the way you feel and so you do not have access to this insight at the most critical times.

It is necessary that we are able to separate ourselves from these consuming thought patterns if we wish to be able to apply understanding and insight when we need to the most. But this is tricky, how do we correct something we seemingly have no control over. This is where one of the major aspects and benefits of meditation comes in.

Let’s consider what is happening outside the meditation practice before I get back to that. All day, every day we are bombarded by millions upon millions of thoughts. Many of these thoughts have serious emotional association, this has been said to be the reason these thoughts, or ‘modified memories’ have re-presented themselves within your awareness, because either you want more of it (craving) or you want less of it (aversion) and thus is the root of your motivation. We then proceed to give these thoughts mental energy through our focusing on them, feeding them, feeling them, reinforcing the neural pathways and making their imprint on us that much deeper. Sometimes we even go as far as acting upon these thoughts as a result of the motivation we have now mustered, in craving, or aversion. In this way we are shaping the way we think by giving our stressors, desires and fears a stronger foothold within our minds.

This changes when we sit down for meditation, simply through the mechanism of constantly bring our attention, our focus, our mental energy back to some particular point. Be it the breathe, a visualisation or a mantra. Each time a distraction shows up, we have to find a way, learn how to equanimously let go of it and return to our focal point. It matters not how much we crave or avert the thought, we need to develop our ability to remain, or at least return to an undisturbed, focused state. Our competence at achieving this improves with each and every little victory, we just need to clock up the victories as we are millions upon millions behind. As our competence improves then the lag time between the beginning of distraction until the time we let go of it shortens. A point will then come when thoughts that used to be so disturbing, have no hold on you and this is simply from you starving so many of your cravings and aversions of their energy, your mental energy, the fire that was fuelling them all along.

With the clarity and control that follows this you will then be able to apply all that you know. You will come closer to seeing things as they actually are without your excited emotional mental state polluting your view.

It is not a matter of choice as it should be clear that we have very little control over which thought structures we feed everyday and so have to use this valuable tool to empower our ‘self’ over our ‘mind’.

Let’s meditate.

Craig

As soon as Craig and I got back from our retreat (a 10 day Vipassana meditation journey), we immediately sat down and started to put on paper some of the more involved ideas we had come up with. Without being allowed to write down any of the things that come to mind while at the retreat, you can imagine that this list of ideas was quite lengthy!

As soon as I began to write, scribbling down a-thousand-and-one things, I remembered one of the more important, and painful, lessons of my retreat. You can almost always accomplish only a tiny fraction of your goals at any given point. Mindfulness, as we remind our students so often throughout our discussions, is all about being in the present moment. It is well and good to sit and plan, strategize and motivate yourself, but no matter how big or small your goals, you can only take tiny steps in the right direction. 

So much of my worry and frustration came from being couped up at the retreat, feeling like I had learned enough and just wanting to get on with it, to go out into the world and practice what I had learned and fulfill my goals. I realized then, that misery is not only feelings of aversion regarding the future, but also the impatience of feeling like you can do anything at all if it wasn't for x, y or z holding you back. 

We all have vast and diverse goals, ranging from our academic achievement, work output, physical well-being or athletic achievement and so on. The reality though, is that we can only do one small part of one goal at any given time. Being so focused at the retreat, in a sharp and meditative sate of mind for so long enabled me to see where my mind was fabricating futures, and creating my cravings and aversions. I am now better able to draw the line between the reality of planning and motivation and the illusions created by my own imagination. Developing the awareness of mind to sift through all of your mental images, selecting the ones that are beneficial and allow you to accomplish goals in the here-and-now... that is freedom. 

I had to put aside all of my goals for each of the areas of my life for so long that at times I felt like I would never get the chance to capture any of them! No studying, no SheerMind sessions, no exercise, no nutritional choices, no personal reading... nothing. All I could do at the time was meditate and work on staying present. Soon, my fears for the future began to lose their grip over me. They were there, and are still, but my mind holds less attachment to them. I am simply a lot better at occupying my mind with helpful things. Problems became to-do lists, and as soon as the list was created, I worked at shifting it into the waiting-hold in my mind. When the time came, I would be prepared for that problem, but that time was not now. 

If you manage to get a little better at this, bringing your mind to the present and focusing on the task at hand, you'll spend more time productively working through your to-do list, and less time worrying about how long it is! 

Much love everyone!

Dean

So, it has taken over a year but I am finally contributing my first official post on our blog. My name is Craig, and it is lovely to meet you. I am a Sheermind Trainer situated in Johannesburg. We have a long journey together ahead and I look forward to it.

There is a critical point I wish to share as I have been using this realization myself quite a bit lately. When a lot of people set out on their meditative journeys there is a great desire to settle all of the mental activity, as surely this is how one finds inner peace right? Wrong, that is called silence. For anyone who is not a monk, incredibly experienced or actually currently in a very deep state of meditation this unrealistic desire is simply that, unrealistic. This is where the mindful aspect of meditation comes in. One will find inner peace when they manage to become the objective observer rather than the helpless victim of their mental processes. Yes, I am saying that you can still be the proud owner of a monkey mind yet at the same time liberate yourself from the suffering that inevitably occurs when one cannot separate them self from their thoughts.

What this actually means, both inside meditation and outside, is that each and every thought becomes an opportunity for us to practice the art of observation. Observation of the thought, and observation of the sensations that accompany the thoughts. This observation is a critical first step toward objective perception of the thought process. How can we objectively observe something without learning to simply observe it in the first place.

This point has helped me tremendously in the past, I urge you to keep it close by to deal with any unnecessary frustrations that may arise.

May we all find the peace, happiness and compassion that we deserve.

Craig

Ten days of Noble Silence, with 6-8 hours of meditation each day, at a beautiful, comfortable facility situated on the slopes of snow-capped mountains... Sounds relaxing, right? Not exactly...

The Dhamma Pataka center, near Worcester in the Western Cape, offers a 10 day meditation retreat that will show you a whole new world. You are guided through the Anapana and Vipassana meditation techniques by the venerable SN Goenka, current leader of the global Dhamma movement, and whether you come from a background of meditation or are a complete beginner, you quickly realize that the next 10 days will not be a retreat of calm, tranquil musings. The thoughts and feelings, easy and difficult, tear through you at quite a rate, spurred on by the fact that you are developing your mind into a tool designed to be able to cut through to the deepest parts of your psyche. In doing so, you are bombarded with issues both old and new, petty problems and defining moments. 

In order to develop your equanimity - the ability to maintain a sense of calm and understanding of life's impermanence - you are taught to observe the sensations of the body. A simple process, but essentially one that cuts right to the heart of reality. While you are busy maintaining your emotional balance through a searing pain in your back, you are developing your ability to maintain strength and understanding in life's more complicated difficulties. While you detach from the beauty and serenity of meditation's friendlier moments, you are allowing yourself to understand that pleasure is just as impermanent as pain, and attachment to it can only bring misery in the future. 

As you work on this functional, practical level, you are releasing yourself from the holds of misery, from the cravings and aversions that steal your ability to think clearly and enjoy the moment. However, you are also bringing up more than your fair share of past difficulties and future worries. In your shell of non-communication, you undergo what 99% of people in this world never will - complete, extended isolation...

It's just you and your thoughts, and a meditation regime that threatens to overwhelm you at any point. All in the name of consciousness :)

In following blogs, I'll chat a bit more about the experience and what I learned along the way. For a more practical description of the retreat, and the logistics if you wish to attend, visit the Dhamma Pataka site here. 

Much love!

Dean