This is an exercise in awareness to achieve a quiet mind.
The purpose of this exercise is to practice non-judgmental awareness of the contents of your mind.
If this type of practice is new to you,
Don't be surprised at how unruly your mind is.
To judge yourself for possessing an undisciplined mind is to follow the unwise counsel of your ego,
Which can only survive through judgment of yourself or others.
To help you avoid getting caught up in the first thoughts that come into your mind and thus lose an awareness,
I suggest the following.
Imagine a house infested with mice who all come and go from one mouse hole.
The house owner decides to get a cat to help combat the problem.
The cat's job is to wait all day by the mouse hole,
With its intention fixed on the hole.
When a mouse pops its head out of the hole,
It will immediately notice the cat and will check to see whether the cat has noticed it,
Or if it has lost in its own feline thoughts.
If it finds the cat in an aware state,
It immediately goes back into the hole.
However,
If it catches the cat daydreaming,
It moves out into the house.
With this exercise,
Assume the attitude of an aware cat.
However,
You will be watching for thoughts to pop up instead of mice.
If you are aware enough,
A thought will last a short time and then subside.
This will then be followed by another thought,
Which you again simply observe without taking any interest in it.
You don't have to do anything about the thought,
Simply watch it without adding to it by thinking about it.
If,
However,
You become interested in the thought,
Your mind will start daydreaming.
You might dislike the thought you perceive and judge it,
Telling yourself you should not think such thoughts.
Or conversely,
You might be attracted by the thought and explore it further.
Either way,
You have slipped from simply being aware of thoughts to actively encouraging them.
Going back to the analogy of the watching cat,
We can see that because the cat has lapped into an anxious or happy daydream,
The house is filled up with mice.
The exercise.
Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed and sit comfortably with your back upright.
Close your eyes and observe the first thought that comes into your mind.
Don't try and control the thought.
Don't label it good or bad.
It's just a thought.
When that thought ceases,
Observe the next thought.
At some point,
An arising thought will have such appeal,
Either negative or positive,
That you will start daydreaming on the theme it presents.
In time,
You will suddenly realise that your mind is full of thoughts and you have deserted your duty as mind watcher.
The next thought might then be,
I am hopeless at this and might as well give up.
Try if you can to simply watch that thought and return to simple awareness of your thinking process.
When the exercise feels as if it is becoming too difficult to maintain,
Try to go a further one or two minutes.
If after this time the exercise does not become easier,
Then stop and now continue the exercise for another minute.
This exercise clearly indicates to most of us how untrained our minds are.
They seem to have a life all of their own.
However,
The point of this exercise is not to control or stop thoughts.
It is simply to allow them to be there in your consciousness,
Observed without judgement.
By practising this exercise on a regular basis,
The attitude of non-judgemental awareness will start to carry over into your daily life.
In time,
You will be rewarded by observing some negative thought or behaviour in yourself,
And finding you can smile at it inwardly and say,
What's new?
Instead of beating yourself up,
You will avoid creating further guilt and diminish the likelihood of further repetitions.
Another benefit of this meditative practice is the mind will slowly become less preoccupied with thoughts.
Leading to an increasing sense of inner peace and well-being.
Most people need to practice this over a long period before seeing major results.
It is helpful to compare the effort and time required to achieve results in meditation,
With that required to learn to play a musical instrument well.
This exercise is from my first book,
Healing the Cause.
