Friday Night Zen #31
Whom is in control of your life?
Wait - before you shout the obvious response, please think a bit first. I challenge you; do you truly control your life? Then why are there so many things that seem to spin out of control?
One would think if ultimate mastery is ours, we would sail through to our dotage grinning. We would eliminate all that we dislike, all that we find stressful, and collect the moments and memories that we cherish.
Yet we don’t. We can’t. Why is that?
I’m not being rhetorical in my questions. The answer can be found. To do so, find a quiet, comfortable space and sit for a half hour a day and just watch your thoughts. An earnest Meditation practice can bear fruit quickly. You’ll notice when you mind recalls that argument from last week, your mental grocery list, that phone call you forgot to make yesterday, and countless other thoughts swirling past your awareness like dust in a tornado.
Sit with it. Don’t try to control the flow, or to not think of anything - that’s as futile as stopping your breath. Just feel the in and out of relaxed breathing, maintain a comfortable upright, balanced posture and let things happen as they will. When a thought arises, label it “thought,” and let is dissolve on its own.
The long and short of this practice is to know the workings of your thoughts, learn which are useful and which are not. In time your heightened sensitivity will help when, in the thick of it, an undesirable thought or emotion arises, and will enable you to let it drift like a tiny storm cloud, not to affect your day.
Then will you start to gain control of everything. Because your mind is the center of your life, once you control it every other aspect will become much more manageable. Try it and see for yourself.