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.
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
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
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