The Mind Is Not the Enemy

"The soul has been given its own ears to hear things the mind does not understand." – Rumi

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." – Simone Weil

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." - Julian of Norwich

I recently went through myriad doctor visits and was able to get an earlier appointment with a doctor who had a one-year wait list. When I met with her and told her that I wake at 3 AM to meditate for 2 ½ hours, she made a joke about it, and then brought it up multiple times during that initial consultation and again when discussing my results – not in a positive way, but in a “you are crazy” kind of way.

I’m used to it.

Depending on where I am or what’s happening, I’ve made it a priority to meditate between 2 ½ - 4 hours every day for the past 26 years. If I find myself missing too many meditations or only doing an hour or two hours too many times in a row, I get extremely uncomfortable and force myself back into the habit of regular and punctual meditation. I’ve spent weeks meditating 13 ½ hours a day and have done retreats where I meditated every 2 ½ hours for days at a time. Which puts me in the crazy zone for most people. I get it.

I know it is Grace.

During a study at the University of Virginia, a group of people were asked if they had the choice of being alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes or giving themselves an electric shock, which would they choose? 27% of women said they would prefer giving themselves an electric shock and a full 67% of the men asked said they would prefer the shock (Wilson et al., 2014). We live in a society that does not like being alone with their thoughts. It is more and more the norm. I have even caught myself checking social media when I can’t quiet my mind in meditation! And I’ve been meditating for a long time, relatively speaking. It feels sometimes like winning against the mind is an impossible task.

Kathy said in Her Satsang on May 17, 2009:

The mind is not an enemy. It’s a partner. It’s all we have to think with. To reason out stuff with. To get us in a place and capacity and enablement of being able to sit for meditation. What are these peculiar bodies all about? Well, here in what we call ‘time,’ in the development of mankind, we are here with a brain on this planet now. We are enabled to reach a state where we do transcend the space and the time around us. And we can become so discouraged that seemingly nothing is happening in meditation. You can’t figure out why. ‘I’ve done everything right. I long. I love. I yearn. I’m meditating. I’m doing my mantra. Why is it taking so long to have inner experience?’ And this is where faith comes into play.

You know that where your heart is that’s where your attention is going to be also. And I mean the heart of you, not the chakra heart. Your attention will go with what you really want the most. Always will. Always will.

So for me, today and since I met Kathy in 2000, if I find my mind drifting too much, I say this little prayer before meditation, which has become such a habit that I usually say it every morning:

Please give me the longing and the yearning.

Please take my will and my life and show me how to love.

Please help me to be kind.

And please, please, lead me to You.

Amen

It really does help to ask for what you want from the Lord. It has worked for me. And I know at this point that of myself, I am nothing. It is pure Grace that gives us the ability to quiet the mind and focus inside. And that inner focus is what brings true and lasting peace, love, and equanimity for all beings.

In a world where there are so many distractions and where it is increasingly harder to quiet my own mind and to hear the small and still voice of God, I will use whatever I can to get a win.

In Her Love,

Kelly

Reference

Wilson, T. D., Reinhard, D. A., Westgate, E. C., Gilbert, D. T., Ellerbeck, N., Hahn, C., Brown, C. L., & Shaked, A. (2014). Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind. Science, 345(6192), 75–77. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250830