When the Mind Doesn't Kick In
Cuando la mente no se activa
A student describes a surprisingly simple meditation experience of resting with bare sensation, and the teacher uses this as an opening to explore how thought and interpretation are always operating beneath the surface of experience.
When the Mind Doesn't Kick In
A student describes a surprisingly simple meditation experience of resting with bare sensation, and the teacher uses this as an opening to explore how thought and interpretation are always operating beneath the surface of experience.
More than any other time, the guidance to focus on just sensations seemed to work. The mind was not very busy, not very engaged in making it more than that. It almost felt like the old question: if a tree falls in the forest and you don't hear it, did it fall? All that was happening was sensation.
And perception too, so there were sounds. But yes.
I was hearing your voice, but I forgot that I heard it. Isn't that funny? I didn't even think about that.
To be able to isolate just sensation is a valid practice, not that you were intending to do that. It's fine.
I heard the directions and then it kind of happened. There was this automatic entering of that space. It's never happened before, not to that extent. I got a glimpse of what it's like when the mind doesn't kick in. It kicked in on and off, but when I focused on the sensation, that was it. There was nothing complicated about it. Usually I think I'm trying to figure out how to do it right. There was nothing to do. Just: here I am. And it was extremely calming.
That's great. That might be a good meditation or a good exploration for you, finding what works.
Going where the resistance is
A common theme I get from your guidance is: where there's a closed door, go there. Where you're stuck, go there. Wherever there's resistance, go there. Whatever it is, just go there. It's not a big deal. And it feels like that has been a big block. So maybe it was just the way you were guiding it at this moment, or the space I was in, but it surprised me.
What I was going through in the guidance is something very direct, but that's not quite the word I'm looking for. Let's say very deep, or what I'm pointing to is very clear in later stages of awakening.
The simplicity of it surprised me. That's what spoke to me. It was like: there's nothing but this. I don't have to do anything with it or understand it or make it into something. It's just here.
Everything is flowing
Because it is. If everything that is happening and appearing is moving, and thoughts are the same, then so is everything that constitutes any kind of future.
What do you mean, thoughts are the same?
Thoughts are the same in that they're just flowing, like a river flowing from one thing to the next. And time and the future are also the same: just flowing concepts. Then it starts to become more clear that there's nowhere to get to. But now you're trying to understand it.
I kind of lost the thread, but I see what you're saying. It's just whatever's happening now. That's it. And wherever the attention lands, that's it. Is that what you're saying?
Concepts have no solidity
Well, the mind is just the same. It's just more of that movement of nothingness. Even concepts, the thing that seems to us to be most solid, is really concepts. We think the thing that is more solid is objects, but it's not. It's concepts. And if you try to invoke a concept and explore its independent existence, its solidity, its independent "thingness," there's nothing there. It's a mental appearance that you need to put a lot of effort into preserving as a thing.
I've done this exploration in the past where I invite you to imagine a circle, which is a concept, and then see how the circle is a thing. It's just going to be an image, flowing, moving, shifting, changing. There isn't anything other than just an appearance, just like a mirage, a reflection. There's the word "circle," and then there's the image, and then there's the mathematical representation. All different perspectives of how to approach the concept: the name, the shape, the mathematical representation.
I notice that I'm having a hard time shifting from that mode of resting in sensation to following you now.
And maybe you don't need to.
Exactly. I really liked that mode. Usually there's this background voice saying, "Okay, and so then what?" or "What are you going to do with it?" But it was gone during that meditation.
That mode has not changed
If there's one thing I'm trying to say, it's this: that mode has not changed. There is nothing different right now.
Wow, that's a mind-blower.
Because that's again the mind mapping. A few minutes ago it was a thing, and now the mind says that's not here anymore.
What I was noticing is a lack of agility. Just like when I was listening to your voice and I said all I was doing was noticing the sensations, but I clearly also took in the guidance, so it's interesting. I was noting how my mind isn't so agile, at least in that moment.
Do you mean busy?
Not busy. I mean moving from that quality of noticing sensations to then following what you're saying. But then I was thinking: that's another thing to notice. Everything is just another thing. I guess what I want to say is that it's easy to forget that the conditioning is also operating. That's underlying a lot of what I experience.
You don't need to remember glimpses
There's a point where you don't need to remember things anymore. You don't need to remember glimpses.
I'm saying something slightly different. I'm saying it's worth noting that the particular way my mind works, or doesn't work, affects what appears to be my direct experience, or at least the interpretation of it.
Your mind can get busy and then it can settle. And you're saying you can notice how it gets busy?
Not exactly "busy." I would call it more like handicapped somehow.
How are you handicapped?
Maybe that's an interpretation.
All of our minds have limitations.
So I'm experiencing some things through this filter.
The filter is superimposed
In a way, yes, it appears to be perceived through a filter, but it's not really. It's just that we superimpose the image of the mind, the reflection and thought, onto perception and sensation. And so then it seems like we're seeing through that.
That's really what I was saying. I think I'm seeing what's there, but actually there's a filter operating sometimes.
Yes, that's the mind.
And that's why sometimes I can interpret things completely differently because of that. We all do it all the time, I suppose.
Mind is always interpretation
Yes, but what matters is this: you can start to notice individual interpretations, but you can also start to see that mind is just interpretation, always.
I guess what I'm saying is sometimes I forget that mind is operating. That's my point. I can assume that on some level it's always operating.
Totally. Very much so. When you're not noticing it, you can assume it's there. And because of that assumption, you can do the experiment: "How is it right now?" Then you can start to recognize, "Oh yes, that's thought. That's interpretation."
Exactly.
And then, if anything is the objective, it's not about stopping the mind. It's about noticing it's just mind. It's not sensation. It's not perception. It's thought.
Maybe I'm still under the influence of that recent video of yours about trying to avoid what is, and what happens when we do. It really got me into something. That combined with the focus on sensation felt like a kind of ambush: "Oh, I'm doing that. Okay, I caught it." It was a really good combination.
Nice. Thank you.