mind Archives – Page 2 of 7

Can we let go of needing to know?

June 10, 2020 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

If there is one thing we can be certain of, especially now, it’s that nothing lasts for ever. The temporary nature of everything in the universe is scientific fact, of course, and central to most spiritual teachings.

Over the years, a number of people have said to me that they find the notion of impermanence quite depressing – yet it’s supposed to help us and cheer us up!

Nevertheless, conditioned as we are to aim for health, longevity and maybe prosperity, we can feel a bit wobbly and disconnected when everything familiar seems to be falling apart.

How much do we really need to know?

Feeling adrift, it is natural to look for something to hold onto. We are ruled by our minds and emotions, so that often comes in the form of seeking information – lots of it.

Isn’t it great that we seem to have almost limitless access to information? Well, not necessarily. Information is not the same as knowledge.

Real knowledge resides in the boundlessness of pure consciousness and is accessed not by facts but through stillness and clarity.

We have all probably experienced that clarity many times, even if just for a few seconds. It usually occurs when there is a gap in thinking that gives us an “aha” moment.

Aha – how about an information fast?

If the information we seek leads us a little closer to the experience of pure consciousness, that’s great. Information as education should do that.

The trouble with most of the news, theories, rumours and banalities of social media is that they do the opposite. They actually pull us away from our inner nature.

Instead of peacefulness and unity, the mind careers into divisiveness, analysing and judging. Once that begins, the process is very hard to stop. It is like having an itch that, once scratched, moves somewhere else and needs scratching again.

If your mind is not peaceful, why not try a news and social media fast for a few days? After the initial withdrawal symptoms, you may feel surprisingly better and upbeat.

More of this in The Art of Not Doing

Guided meditations

Taking refuge can give us what we really want

May 13, 2020 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

When there’s a storm blowing, people and animals take refuge from it and, in a sense, that’s what many of us are doing now. There are plenty who are still working, of course, and others very busy looking after young children or with other responsibilities. But for the majority, it is a form of retreat, or can be. Time to reflect, perhaps, and time to enjoy being oneself. It has certainly caused me to reflect on many things, including a couplet from one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s breathing meditations: “Breathing in, I go back to myself. Breathing out, I take refuge in my own island”.

Taking refuge is finding safety inside as well as out

For many years, I felt slightly uncomfortable with that. It seemed quite at odds with John Donne’s famous phrase, “no man is an island”, with which I was sternly admonished as a teenager, and which thereafter always echoed in my brain. Suddenly, though, in this enforced retreat it makes sense. Staying at home takes care of the physical refuge. It also provides the opportunity to go further than that and bring the mind home, too, closer to its natural state.

Bringing the mind home

A good start is to resist the urge to check news and social media many times a day. We just don’t need so much information. It simply irritates the mind, uses up enormous amounts of energy, and drains our qi. Why shorten life unnecessarily? Taking refuge reverses that process of looking outwards all the time. It allows the mind to come to a more peaceful place, where true creativity lies. Surprisingly quickly, we can be satisfied with less and soon find fullness, here and now. Isn’t that, deep down, what we want? What we really, really want?

Drawn from The Art of Not Doing: How to Achieve Inner Peace and a Clear Mind

Seeds of happiness – sowing the greatest investment

March 18, 2018 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Seeds of happiness are possibly the greatest investment we can make. Sowing them ensures good returns, exploits nobody, contributes to better health, slows down the ageing process, reduces stress levels and, oddly in our capitalist and commercial age, costs nothing.

Seeds or weeds?

The truth of the matter is that we are sowing seeds all the time. Actions and words affect those around us. We know that doing or saying the right things at the right time can have a positive, indeed sometimes a healing, effect. It is also surprisingly easy to go the other way and mess things up or put our foot in it. I know – I manage it often. Maybe we don’t think of this as planting seeds. But when we reflect and realise that all we say and everything we do are causes that produce effects, it’s not so difficult to see. Pleasant and helpful words are like seeds that produce beautiful flowers and productive actions are like planting nourishing vegetables or crops. Our thoughtless ones just lead to weeds.

The garden of the mind

The mind is very much like a garden. If we don’t look after it and tend it, it becomes a rampant jungle. Some people are fond of gardens like that but probably their neighbours are not so appreciative. When we begin to look after the mind, we might come across things we would rather not. A rusty old bed frame or bicycle wheel may lie well hidden in the weeds of an untidy garden. As we tidy up the mind, we may find old and useless things there, too. Relics from the past that are waiting to be sent to the recycling yard. With time and care, we can tidy up the clutter of our mind.

Cultivating seeds of happiness

Our words and actions are not autonomous. They result from our thoughts. How the mind is, is the key to everything. That means we have choice in how we respond to what life brings us. The more positive thoughts we have, the brighter the mind becomes. As we make our mood lighter, it becomes more difficult for negativity to take root. Amazingly, that is all we need to do sometimes. And right now in this beautiful but crazy world, it may be one of the most important things we can do.

If you like this, please subscribe to this blog, if you haven’t already. There are also some books!

Free meditation videos

Knowledge can be seriously bad for your health

November 11, 2017 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Knowledge or facts — Too much information?

Knowledge is good. Of course it is. But knowing a great deal is not the same as being wise. Thanks to technology, we have a plethora of information at our fingertips. Social and news media keep churning out all manner of assertions that are sold as facts. Whether they are true or not is one thing. More of an issue is the strain on our consciousness of digesting all this information. As our bodies become ever more obese, our minds, too, are becoming overloaded. We have mental indigestion and this affects our wellbeing. Knowledge of this modern ilk is seriously bad news for health.

Real knowledge is fact-free

Real or pure knowledge is completely different. It is like a cosmic computer. We can only access it when the mind is still. The route to it is through the intuitive faculty of the mind. When the intuition is awake, knowledge comes as and when it is needed. We know how to act, what to say and when to remain silent. Love and compassion are natural bedfellows of this way of knowing, so we respond with warmth and, at times perhaps, with fire. This is Actual Intelligence, as opposed to Artificial Intelligence, and it comes from learning to practise stillness. A short fact-free diet could do us the world of good. Who knows?

Read The Art of Not Doing for more on this

Stillness and clarity: here’s how they can save your life

August 5, 2017 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Stillness truly is remarkable. Nothing can go wrong in stillness. When the mind is truly peaceful, we are safe. Even when we are ill, if we are at peace, there is nothing to fear, not even death. From the deepest level of our being, we know that everything is all right. It is a remarkable way to live but when life is so busy, is it really possible?

Stillness zen garden — Zen meditation garden

Stillness or worry – which is better?

Worry may be exceedingly unpleasant but it is unusual for someone to be completely free of it. As a society, we are addicted to it. Commerce and the media thrive on making us worry – generating incipient fear that we will lose out if we don’t buy goods or subscribe to services that we didn’t know we needed. Once, it was okay and even good to age gracefully but now wrinkles and less-than-pure-white teeth are things to avoid, they say. This is all a far cry from stillness. As is the pressure to be up-to-date with the latest story. Well, here’s some breaking news: we don’t need breaking news.

Discover what you don’t need and be free

Whenever I think of stillness, the image of a Zen monk comes to mind. I don’t know why. Perhaps there is something about simplicity that is inherently attractive. Life is so complex now. There used to be a choice of tea, coffee or water; now you almost need encyclopaedic knowledge to make a decision. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but it makes for a busy mind in even the most mundane things.

The antidote is to drop the clutter from our minds. When you find yourself chasing after something, just stop for a moment. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this?” Take a breath or two and feel the tension in the body. Ask the question again and feel the reaction in yourself. More often than not, the answer will be a no and you can let go.

Clarity switches the light on

If we stop thinking about trivia, cease our worrying and end our chasing after rainbows (or unicorns now, I’m told), we begin to relax and let our energy settle. We start to enjoy greater clarity and feel more alert. Light enters the mind.

When we practise taiji, we begin by standing still to do just that. It is as though we have a glass of muddy water. The mud starts to settle. The water gradually clears as a result of the non-movement. If we can then move without stirring up the muddy sediment, we have learned the skill of stillness in action.

You don’t need to learn taiji to experience this. Just sit or stand. Be still. Breathe. And enjoy being alive. There – you’ve saved your life!

Cutting down on too much thinking and doing is tremendously powerful. Read more in my book The Art of Not Doing .

Archives

Categories