mind Archives – Page 3 of 7

Time: why keeping an eye on the clock shortens your life

May 6, 2017 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Time is a bit of a bugbear, isn’t it? There is either not enough of it or it passes too slowly. Time rules our lives – something has to be done by a particular date or a certain hour. We go about life with one eye on the clock or our watch, or perhaps more these days on our phone. Does this near-obsession improve our quality of life? Of course it doesn’t, and in fact it leaches the quality right out of it.

But surely we need time to organise our lives?

It would be very naive to suggest we could live without time altogether. Once, people lived according to natural rhythms and cycles, as animals and plants do. But modern society has to organise itself, so calendars, schedules, clocks and appointments will probably always be with us. Unfortunately, they can also put us under pressure and it is that – our attitude to the passing minutes, hours and days – that is the problem.

The more we do, and the faster we do it, the less happy we are

Quality of life is not about having or doing more but about satisfaction and fulfilment. The more deeply we experience life, the more fulfilling it is. We may get a temporary buzz from the achievement of doing a lot of things in a short space of time, but in terms of consciousness, it is very shallow.

Do I allow myself time to appreciate drinking a cup of tea or do I take quick sips from my mug while doing something else? Time management might suggest the latter is more efficient, and that may well be our habit. But in doing two or more things at once, we lose the precious gift that those moments are offering us. Instead of gaining, we literally rob ourselves of time.

Take a step back – out of time

Our natural state of consciousness is free and rather like space without any boundaries. It is beyond all concepts, including time. It is simply presence.

Consciousness is like a screen onto which the appearances of daily life, together with our thoughts and emotions, are all projected like a film show or a movie. When we get drawn into them, as we usually do, the concept of time appears. But with presence, time stands still. Fully conscious, we step out of time.

So if I’m fully present, I’ll live longer? Maybe, but that isn’t the point

It is generally recognised that high levels of stress can reduce life expectancy. When we live with full awareness, our stress levels drop immensely. That may or may not affect the length of life in the conventional sense. Quality of life will improve immensely, though.

But should we consider our lifespan anyway? As soon as we think in terms of “how long will I live?”, we have lost our presence. Let’s face it, there are just too many other factors, such as general health, the quality of the air we breathe and so on.

With full awareness, there is no concept of long or short. Lifespan ceases to matter. We simply are. Life just is, and life is full. No matter what, we are free. Unless we keep our eye on the clock, that is.

Thanks for reading this. This subject is explored in greater depth in my book The Art of Not Doing

Pollution: why the real danger is in our own minds

April 23, 2017 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Pollution is always high on the agenda, and quite rightly so. The planet as we know it is in great danger. But the source of the pollution isn’t in the physical. It lies in the mind or the collective consciousness of humanity. As a race, we have allowed it to happen. We all know this but so far have failed to generate sufficient willpower to reverse it. The problem of pollution, and its solution, lies in the mind. That’s even closer to home than your own wheelie bin.

Like pollution, there is more to the mind than you think

If we ever try to examine the nature of our mind, we will probably find that there is no single thing we can actually identify as mind. Instead, there is a collection of interacting and interdependent faculties or components.

The mindstream

The most apparent and obvious aspect is the chattering of thoughts that we experience almost incessantly. One thought yields another and it is difficult to say when one thought ends and another begins. A better description might be that we have streams of thinking and a rather apt term used in some Eastern teachings is mindstream. As we shall see, this is susceptible to pollution.

We don’t change our minds – the mind is constantly changing

Our mindstreams are constantly changing, being influenced by the mindstreams of others. If we are influenced by something we read or hear, it is an effect of the mindstream of the writer or speaker. In turn, he or she will have been influenced. If we look deeply enough, we will find that there is no beginning and no end to these thought processes. At every stage, too, there is the possibility of pollution.

Choice and responsibility

Just as a stream of water collects minerals, debris and pollutants on its journey, our mindstreams also pick up thoughts, ideas and beliefs as we go through life. Unlike water, we have some choice in what we expose ourselves to, and how much.

The amount of information that is available these days is frightening. We need to be choosy and, the less rubbish in our minds, the better we will feel about ourselves and others. We will be less likely to pollute the mindstreams of others with our own detritus and, who knows, may even inspire with our positivity!

Adapted extract from the book The Art of Not Doing

Mind secrets: amazing space, amazing peace

February 17, 2017 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

“Mind – what does it actually look like?” someone once asked me. They had just had their first experience of meditation. The question threw me for a moment as it came outside the normal ambit of practical questions, such as the best time to practise. I’d never thought of anyone assuming that the mind looked like anything. The natural response, which I gave a moment later, is that it doesn’t have any appearance or shape. It is rather like space.

Mind – can it be measured?

But the question arose because we have a habit of labelling everything as this or that. As an old scientist friend once told me, “According to science, if you cannot weigh it or measure it, it doesn’t exist.” My questioner wanted to be able to label the mind, or at least to quantify it.

If we turned the inquiry round a little bit, we might ask how space can be measured or weighed. A quantum physicist may have some good answers to that but in layman’s terms, you can only measure the distance between objects, not space itself. If you take the objects away, there is still space.

A conventional description of mind might be that it is the sum total of our thoughts, beliefs, perceptions and so on. Does that mean that if they stop, the mind ceases to be?

Mind – the illustrious container

Everything we see, hear, smell, taste or touch, we analyse. Because we analyse, we separate. This is different to that. Then we can filter it into our memory as beneficial or harmful, pleasant or unpleasant, neutral and so on. More significantly, by assigning quality to what we perceive, we regard everything as distinct from us.

If we look at a flower, it appears to be outside us. But all our observations, our perceptions and analyses take place within us. The only thing we see is a mental picture. If we look out of the window, all we see is within the mind. It is a mental picture.

Amazing space

If we stop thinking for a few moments, we may fleetingly experience the space-like nature of mind. Then the jumble comes back in. But if we make a habit of stopping, of observing without thinking, we will experience more of our space. And because space is space, we may be lucky enough to realise that the space of our environment – the “out there” – is one and the same as the space of the mind – the “in here”.

This is extraordinary. Then the mind relaxes, worry ceases, peace comes and bliss arises. That really is amazing space.

Breathe! How to make yourself come alive

December 10, 2016 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Breathe in, knowing you are breathing in. Breathe out, knowing you are breathing out.

This injunction, said to come from the lips of the Buddha, is the instant recipe for bringing us, the mind and the body, together. It’s so simple. We know our minds are full of senseless chatter and we know, too, that we waste extraordinary amounts of energy chasing after rainbows – the gewgaws of modern existence. Yet we can cure much of that – all we need to do is stop and be still.

Breathe or not to breathe consciously

It’s funny, isn’t it? On the one hand, we can live without food for long periods and can even manage without water for a considerable time. There may be discomfort but there’s nothing life-threatening about short periods of hunger or thirst. On the other, breath is so vital that the absence of it can very quickly lead to unconsciousness, and possibly death.

In spite of that, we let our breathing take place in the background. “Breathing in, I didn’t notice. Breathing out, I didn’t notice that, either.” It’s an automatic process. So why should we bother to pay any special attention to it?

There are two main reasons:

Being aware of the breath is good for your body and vitality
Your mind becomes clearer and stronger

Conscious breathing strengthens the body

Few people breathe well. Most breathe in a fairly shallow way, where the air circulation is mainly in the top of the lungs. As we age, there is a tendency for lung capacity to reduce year on year, unless we do a lot of cardiovascular training or practise an art such as yoga, pranayama, qigong or tai chi. Reduced lung capacity is often associated with weakening of the body and poor health.

When we breathe consciously, there is a natural deepening of the breath. It isn’t necessary to do deep breathing exercises as such (although they can be enormously beneficial) – just bringing the awareness onto the inhalation has an effect.

…and calms the mind

How we feel from moment to moment hinges largely on the state of our mind. If the mind is erratic or cloudy, we don’t normally feel brilliant. But when the mind is calm, our window onto the world is clearer. Inside, we are more settled.

When we breathe consciously, the mind is naturally more peaceful. It can take a while, but it happens. This is particularly so on the out-breath. The inhalation calms the body, the exhalation calms the mind.

Body and mind at home together

Much of our chasing about in daily life is a wonderful way of avoiding who we are. The body may be here but the mind is not at home. To reverse this, we simply have to stop for a few moments. Notice the breath. Breathe and enjoy the feeling. Enjoy being with yourself. A few breaths will work wonders – and then we can carry on.

Over time, we may notice that during activity, we are conscious of the breath most of the time. That’s a longer project. Every now and again throughout the day, with awareness we just stop and breathe. Then we become present in our body and we are at home.

Doing too much? Take a look at The Art of Not Doing

Like this post? Please share it.

Lies: why they are bad for your health

December 4, 2016 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Lies, lies and more lies – these have been a great feature of campaigning in the US elections and in the run-up to the Brexit referendum in the UK earlier this year. Deception and divisiveness seemed to have ruled the day. The fact is, deceit has always been part of human affairs, sadly, but this year the spotlight on it has been particularly bright, and some of the shadows appear very dark. The consequences have yet to unfold, as they always must.

Although these have been enormous untruths, they can only subsist while there is a collective consciousness that supports them.

Most of us at one time or another have hidden the truth to some degree, albeit on a much smaller scale. We all have responsibility to speak and act with complete integrity. But what if we don’t?

Pork pies and polygraphs

When we tell an untruth, there is a physiological effect. Mr John Augustus Larson was a medical student at the University of California back in 1921 and invented the modern polygraph or lie detector. The basis of the machine is that telling porky-pies has a direct effect on the physiology. Blood pressure, pulse, respiration and skin conductivity can all give the game away. Lying is more than a mere mental process. The body is affected, too.

Lies and consciousness

Lying isn’t natural. Our natural state of consciousness is honest and open. There is nothing to hide or hide from because pure consciousness sees everything as a reflection of itself. There is no “other”. But as we don’t have that pure perception yet, we feel a need to protect ourselves and our interests. When we lie or distort the truth, it stems from that ignorance.

Telling a deliberate untruth is uncomfortable (although repetition is said to make it easier) because we know it is wrong. There is a conflict inside us. In effect, we deny who we are. Knowing A to be true, we deliver B. Like a naughty child ignoring its parent calling to it, we turn a deaf ear to our inner voice.

Truth or lies which is better for health and wellbeing?

The key here is energy. As the mind thinks, energy follows. Positive thoughts tend to increase vitality and increase wellbeing, and so on. If the mind is tense, our energy is constricted; if it is relaxed, the body and its energy system tend to relax also.

A lie is negative in nature. It creates a distorted pattern in our consciousness and consequently in our energy. The body responds as being stressed – the polygraph shows this. Our sense of wellbeing takes a downward or inward turn.

So does telling fibs make you ill?

Every day, we do things which have a positive effect on our energy and some that are negative. Being untruthful, which can take many guises, is largely an internal matter because it is generated in the mind. There may be external effects through what we say or write, which we will have to put right with other people, but first we have to be honest with ourselves.

Unless and until we resolve that, negative energy patterns will continue. They may not make us ill but we will not have a completely happy heart. To live as complete human beings, our hearts need to be open and full. The world will be a much better place for it. And maybe healthier, too.

Mental karma is explained more in the book The Art of Not Doing: How to Achieve Inner Peace and a Clear Mind which is available in print edition and as an ebook.

If you like this post, please share it.

Archives

Categories