Michael Cameron's Portfolio

Spiritual practice is a life-long journey. Any skilled practitioner will admit that there is no point in their practice where they are happy to let their inquisitiveness idle. Building a strong practice is similar to growing a healthy garden: we need proper soil, sunlight and water for our garden to bloom. We can draw many conclusions about a strong spiritual practice by comparing it to anything else in our lives that we do well. Building experience in any activity requires commitment, consistency and progress. You wouldn’t expect to be able to grow prize winning roses the first time you plant a garden.

Just as weeds may grow unchecked and overcome a garden, there are many things that cause us to become caught up in our own mind. Have you ever found yourself thinking about a vacation on the beach while you were supposed to be working? It’s likely that at many points through your day-to-day routine you mind has been wandering around in circles spending your mental energy. This may take the form of a fantasy, a projection of the future or ruminating about an anxious situation you have experienced in the past. You may be so accustomed to these types of projections that you barely notice them.

Once you begin to look at your mind you will see how often you are thinking about things that are not within your control and are irrelevant to the current moment. Often we can’t even control or halt the thoughts themselves. Consider these examples: a problem that keeps you awake at night, anxiety over an upcoming job interview or a concern over what others think about you. When your mind fabricates a future encounter, how often does the situation turn out as you imagined? Usually our predictions are quite inaccurate. We may then carry this preconception into a situation and act on it instead of reacting to the situation itself.

Discursive thoughts are unchecked ideas that take you away from the present moment. These types of thoughts generate stress and anxiety while consuming your mental energy. Sometimes we identify with these types of thoughts so strongly that we believe they define who we are. Discursive thoughts often manifest themselves in the form of materialism. For example, we may feel that we need to drive a particular type of car or wear a certain brand of clothing in an attempt to define who we are. Being able to see through this illusion is a truly liberating experience. In our fast food, take-a-pill, quick-fix society many people find it difficult to stay focused on working with discursive thoughts long enough to see any real benefit.

As an example, let us consider waiting in a line at the grocery store. At one point or another, we have all become frustrated when waiting for our turn at the checkout. So we are sitting there, at the end of the line watching the people in front of us pay for their groceries. We’re happy to wait our turn, so we stand there content. We then notice someone in front of us is unloading their cart slowly. We being to think to ourselves: “How could this person be so slow?”. As we are watching them unload their cart we notice that cashier is also taking their sweet time. Again we internalize: “Don’t these people have anything better to do?”. The cashier then needs to call to get a price on bananas, so now the entire line isn’t moving at all! Before long there is steam coming out of our ears. We are inexplicably frustrated at a situation that we have no control over. So we’re stand there, getting more and more irate by the minute. Perhaps we let out a sigh or cross our arms to show others that we’re upset. We start to think: “What is wrong with you people?!? What are you all intentionally wasting my time?”.

When we find ourselves in this type of situation we need to take a realistic step back and examine our minds. We need to ask ourselves: “Why am I upset? What am I accomplishing aside from making myself miserable?”. The only thing that has changed is your self imposed frustration. Nothing external has changed in the situation: the people haven’t changed, the cashier hasn’t changed, only your mind has. In this example we can realize that our mind exclusively influences our experience. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to let go of these discursive thoughts and have more contentment?

Observing how other people cling to their ideas and misconceptions clearly illustrates the importance of being able to let go of our own discursive thoughts in whatever form they may take. When we talk of ‘pulling weeds’ in our own minds we are really discussing uprooting our own set of fixed ideas. In his excellent book ‘Turning the Mind Into an Ally’ Sakyong Mipham touches on this point:

“After we’ve spent some time watching thoughts and emotions come and go, we begin to see them clearly. They no longer have the power to destabilize us, because we see how ephemeral they are. Then we can actually begin to change our patterns, and in doing so, change our whole environment. But to reap this benefit requires consistent practice.”

- Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind into an Ally

The best starting point for working with discursive thoughts is to examine our own minds. Even if you haven’t meditated before, this exercise is a great place to begin and a good introduction to some basic meditative principles. Below is an outline of how to begin. This exercise can be completed in as little as 10 minutes. If you feel that you are struggling with the exercise, relax, take a deep breath and let go of any frustration. The point of the exercise is to become aware of your discursive thoughts and to eventually overcome them. The key word here is eventually. Take it easy on yourself and approach the exercise with a playful attitude. On your first few attempts being able to stay focused for half of a minute is considered an accomplishment. For experienced practitioners, extend the time period for as long as you find useful.

Exercise for recognizing our discursive thoughts:

Relaxing

• Find a quiet spot free from distraction
• Sit upright in a comfortable posture.
• Keep you back straight and shoulders squared.
• Rest your hands gently in your lap.
• Close your eyes

Observng

• Turn your focus inward and begin to watch your mind. Try to observe what you are thinking. Initially, you will be overwhelmed by the quantity and pace of the activity in your mind. This may produce a feeling of anxiety or you may feel out of control or claustrophobic. These are all normal reactions the first time you examine your consciousness – just take a deep breath, relax and continue watching your mind.
• Try not to become distracted – just observe your mind’s activity without getting involved. It will be very easy to become distracted by your mind. You will find yourself drawn into fantasies, projections and fabricated situations.
• Watch the thoughts as if they were fish in a tank. You are just observing, not participating.
• Notice that your mind continuously fabricates situations, projections, thoughts and feelings.

Releasing

• Stay aware of your thoughts and notice how they subside and pass.
• Try not to participate in any thought your mind produces. Observe, but do not get involved. Remember: like watching fish in a tank.
• Once the thought passes return to observing your mind.

Intellectualizing about overcoming the power of discursive thoughts is easy, but living the ideal requires a more fortified effort. Simply discussing this principal isn’t enough. We need to reinforce the principles though meditation, contemplation and, most importantly, practice. We need to fully embrace it, live it daily and make it a part of our lives. In this way, we needn’t actively think about overcoming our identification with ideas, it is already a part of us and is reflected in all of our actions.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Overcoming our identification with all of our ideas can be a lofty goal. Just as we wouldn’t expect to be able to grow those prize winning roses the first time around, we need to begin with smaller steps in our practice. Progress is the key in this approach. By having success in small steps we can maintain our focus and avoid becoming frustrated. If we attempt to tackle advanced concepts without enough experience we will border on failure. This may cause us to give up hope entirely and abandon our practice.

We need to plant the seeds of a stable and consistent practice. Only then may we reap the fruits of our labor. Just like weeds, our discursive ideas will begin to weaken and eventually die. We become less and less attached to our ideas. This empowers us and makes us fearless in the presence of change. We become confident in ourselves and we know we can rely on our own perception.

Once we learn how to identify the weeds amongst the flowers, we can then begin to pull them out.