The title quote has been with me for some time. There is a profound truth in it. It seems evident from client work that most people experience a busy mind that is often unhelpful, at times can be source of anxiety, depression that can even lead to suicide.
What to do with this 'inboard terrorist' you might say? What most people do is arrange the externals; people, places and things in the attempt to get something outside to help them feel better inside. (A bit like rearranging your seating position on the Titanic).
This might explain the compulsion to stay and be busy. Given our technological advances we now have such access to the outside that we can get stuck there. This may sound judgemental but it is not meant to be we do live in the material world and have to engage with it.
The problem seems to be when that is where our awareness is resting most of the time. Then the mind is the master and the you inside, the resting awareness is overwhelmed and drowning in all the data. The normal state of the mind seems to consistent of questions like; What do they think of me? What should I say / do / think? What is my purpose? On and on the restless and 'dis-eased' nature of the mind.
There is another way to be. It is very simple but requires practice and effort. There are many ways to do it, I don't have 'the map' but I have stolen a few clues from some other characters, notably the work of Michael Singer.
One way I work is to help clients focus their attention, their awareness, their consciousness on the breath. And that is it. But stay there or rather keep coming back there as the natural tendency is to be pulled by the mind 100k times a day at least! If you do this and relax and let go the mind slowly begins to quieten down. Â
What does 'let go' mean? In this context it means allow, allow the mind to be busy, allow the heart to feel, begin to sit with yourself. Imagine a state where it feels good inside, where it begins to matter less and less what is happening outside.
Anxiety and fear are of the mind. That is not to say if a tiger walks into the room you don't take immediate action but really how often does that happen?
90% maybe more of the time the mind has created some story about the future and what might happen and then lives as if this calamity was fast approaching.
It is not our natural state. We live in a world full of distractions and part of the problem is a hyperawareness of all data coming in. This does not equate to a peaceful state.
Pulling the awareness / consciousness back to the breath, counting it to 20 and then repeat can help allows a person to stay in their centre. Once someone can get comfortable there they can allow the heart to emote, let their emotions 'have their moment in the sun'.
This means not pushing feelings away, not using again people, places and things to change the way we feel but to accept and be with and allow all the feelings. The idea here is that by doing so you begin to free yourself of the emotional garbage that has been suppressed.
It is this garbage internally that is being triggered again and again by what goes on in the world; people, places and things (which I shall now refer to as the 3 p's to simplify).
The more this is practiced the less one is pulled by the things of the world and the possibility of getting comfortable inside becomes more real. By not constantly engaging the mind to figure everything out one is not wasting energy there and that energy gets fed back up to the resting being. Upshot is you get to feel better! Win, Win.
You begin to tap into the natural state of being, that of joy, energy, enthusiasm, energy and a lightness of spirit. This is the natural state. Not a constant state of neurosis eased by temporal moments of external pleasure.
There are other techniques to help a person be centred in the self; mantra, yoga and meditation for example but the work is to stay centred, to allow the slings and arrows to do their bit and deal with them accordingly but keep coming back to the resting centre.
The advantage of the breath is that it is constant and automatic and it is possible to stay aware of it while fully engaging with the world. Try and experiment with it now, take a few deep breaths, then let your breathing come back to normal and begin to count each breath up to 20, then repeat.