Our mind is in charge of all our affairs, personal, professional, all of it. How reliable is your mind? Can you trust it to make wise decisions for you? With all the constant interpretations, assumptions, opinions, judgments, and a faulty perception, how could it manage your life and profession optimally and to your satisfaction. If you look at your life and your own level of satisfaction, you will see what I'm saying is true. Of course, we always blame the outside elements and forces to be the cause of our unhappiness and our mind has plenty of reasons and stories to justify this theory and perception. The truth is that our dissatisfaction is mainly due to the habitual way our mind is grown to perceive and rule. We assume something to be true about any event and respond based on our assumptions. Often, not true. Brain experts tell us that with long term meditation we can cleanse the mind and re-train it to see things as they are and respond to event appropriately. In fact, we can change the habitual ways of the mind by creating new pathways in our brain that integrate with the rest of the brain in an optimal way, hence enhance our lives dramatically.
I
think I have created new pathways in my brain via constant meditation
and mindfulness practice, like the science of the brain by the Nova
institute suggests we could do. Sitting at our regular Tuesday night
sitting group my entire body felt in alignment with my mind in a
space of deep concentration and alertness. As I sat in meditation,
all parts of my body were locked-in together like a solid building
structure. I felt no urge for movement, no pain or discomfort in the
body meant anything. Even when the teacher rang the bell, and it was
time to get out of meditation, my mind and body which were completely
at ease, alert and stable did not wish to stop meditating. I think I
sat there for the rest of the night with my eyes closed and without
much movement. It just felt right. I was alert. I heard every word
of the dharma talk and every word that our sitters shared. I wasn't
tuned out. I was right there, stable, present and solid.
After
we left the session, I reflected on this perfect experience of ease
and strength both in the mind and the body that I had not experienced
in quite the same way before. I realized it was all due to the love
of the practice I had developed during this week at the Abhayagiri
Monastery. As I participated in all the meditation sessions and
listened to the dharma talks and asked questions about my own
practice and my understanding of it, I felt a leap into a different
level of ease and knowingness. I can't tell you how effective the
response to all my questions was as the smiling monk, Ajhan
Sanyamo,
answered them. I had been there before, cherished my stay and
experiences, participated in all the work meditation, talks and
events, but hadn't before voluntarily done extra meditation. This
time, I did extra sessions of walking meditation and sitting in my
room, all afternoons and evenings. My mind wanted to. I was looking
for that ease, comfort and stillness. All agendas of why so and so
does this or doesn't do that or all the desires of the heart to have
this or that have faded away. It must have been the effect of the
monk's responses! I was curious, why this sudden shift of no effort
in my meditation? My mind feels
like a dutiful, loving and responsive child who has gotten the
routine down and is not in conflict with sitting or
being
in silence. It
must be the tipping point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book,
“The Tipping Point.”
Similarly,
this must be what scientists and experts of brain development mean
when they say that with consistent and long term meditation the
brain's elasticity develops new grooves and pathways. According to
Dr. Daniel Siegel, with longterm meditation, the frontal cortex,
which is responsible for managing our lives, integrates better with
the rest of the brain and becomes a collaborative chunk instead of
being fragmented. And that seems to be happening with my brain.
Every time my mind tries to travel the old pathways of constantly
interpreting, expecting, assuming, judging, etc. , it gets nowhere,
because with the new pathways the map of my brain has changed.
Negative thoughts and expectations of things to be different no
longer stick for long because there is no groove for the mind to fall
into. The mind is now craving for peace, concentration and
equanimity and it knows where to get them. It has a clear address
and route to them. Just follow the breath and let go of all thoughts
that are not relevant to what's happening now. This is the new
groove in my brain!
I
shared with a sitter last night that my stay and practice at the
monastery felt as if I had gotten a very strong dose of a peace and
concentration vitamin shot. Of course, this experience was not only
impacting my love for meditating and wanting to sit more, but, as a
result, has enhanced the way I am experiencing everyday difficulties
particularly when the results of what I do turn out contrary to my
wishes or expectations. In a way, expectations seem to be slowly
fading away. The need to plan perfectly and expect my plans to work
out is also slowly and effortlessly falling away. The pain that came
from holding on to fantasies of how life should be, how my man should
treat me and how my kids should turn out or how my name and fame
should go, and many other fantasies have dissolved into acceptance,
kindness and joy. What is taking place is ease, comfort and wisdom
that create more of what I really want at the core and less of what I
really don't want. I'm also better able to transfer the insights I
gain from practicing Mindfulness to my students and clients.
I
am grateful to all the teachers and practitioners of mindfulness. May
the blessings of all your efforts benefit all beings.
Dr.
Manijeh Motaghy, PsyD. OMC
Senior
Consultant & Trainer
Mindful
Business Institute
