Meditation in Action

By Dr. Thynn Thynn

D: You say we can work on meditation in our everyday lives . What is the best way to start ?
T: Generally speaking , your mind is caught up with the external world and you react to the world in an automatic and habitual manner . When you are preoccupied with the external world , you grossly neglect your mind .The most crucial thing is to realize that you have to redirect the external focus of attention inward , toward your own mind . In other words , learn to be attentive to your mind in the context of daily living – as you eat , work ,tend the children, cook , clean, whatever .

R: Do you mean I have to take note of everything that comes into my mind ? That would be incredibly difficult. Suspose I’m driving. How can I notice my mind and still pay attention to the road ?

That is a very relevant question . it’s impossible to take note of your mind all of the time . You would tie up yourself up in knotes  and run off the road. Instead of going to an extreme, begin by concentrating on one particular emotion in yourself. Choose the emotion that brothers you the most, or the one that is most prominent in you. For example , if you tend to be a temperament kind of person , start by watching your anger. If you are easily hurt , then work with your mood swings. Pay attention to whichever emotion is most noticeable and troublesome to you .

For many people , anger is a good starting point because it is easily noticed and dissolves  faster than most other emotions . Once you begin to watch your anger, you will make an interesting discovery . You will find that as soon as you know you are angry , your anger will melt away .by itself. It is very important that you watch without likes or dislikes . The more you are able to look at your own anger without making judgments , without being critical ,the more easily the anger will dissipate .

You may find in the beginning that you notice your anger only when it is about to end. That is not important. The important thing is  to decide that you want to focus on your anger. Gradually , the watching will become more and more natural. Before long you will notice, suddenly, in the midst of a fit of anger, that your anger drops away without warning . You will find yourself just being aware and no longer entangled in the anger .

A: Can that really happen ?

Of course . You see, when you make an effort to turn your attention inward, you are reconditioning yourself. Before this , you were  only looking outward. Now you are  conditioning yourself anew to look inward some of the time . This looking inward can become  habitual; it becomes a kind  of conditioning in which your mind  automatically  focuses on itself at all times . In the beginning , this may not be frequent , but don’t be discouraged . As time goes on, you will be surprised  to find you are aware of your anger sooner than before .

This awareness , when it becomes stronger , will spill over to other emotions. You might yourself be  watching  your desire . In that watching , the desire will resolve  and  you will be left only with the awareness . Or you may watch sadness . Sadness is slower to arise and resolve than some other emotions. The most difficult emotion to watch is depression, but that too can be done with stronger mindfulness .

As you get the swing of it , you will find your awareness becoming sharper . At the same time , the episodes  of anger will get shorter and less frequent. As the intensity of anger lessens, you will find you are grappling less and less with your emotions . In the end , you will be surprised  to find that you can be friends  with your emotions  as never before .

R: What do you mean ? I can’t imagine ever comfortable with anger?

Because you are no longer struggling with your emotions, you can learn to look at them without judging, clinging or rejecting them . They are  no longer threatening to you .You learn to relate to your emotions more naturally , like a witness. Even when you are faced with conflicts and filled  with emotions , you can be equanimous with them. As you become more stable , you can deal with conflicts without losing your emotional balance .

D: If my awareness becomes more and more sensitive ,  is it possible for my mind to know anger as soon as it arises ?
Certainly, you see, as your mindfulness becomes stronger and more alert , your mind becomes more aware of its own workings. When mindfulness is complete and dynamic , then you know anger as soon as it arises; as soon as you know it , it begins to dissolve .

D: I’ve tried watching my anger and I can even see it die down for a moment, but it comes back again and again. Why ?

In the initial stages , when mindfulness is still weak and incomplete , anger may die for a moment as you watch. Then , the mind may revert back to its old , habitual angry state. The old conditioning is still strong and you have yet to  master the art of mindfulness. You are so used to intellectualizing about the cause of anger – who’s to blame , why the conflict escalated , and so on. In fact, this is the mind going back to its treadmill of  reacting in the old ways .

You yourself restart  the old cycle of creating the anger, thinking about the anger, reacting  according to the anger. Here you have anger-intellectualizing-reacting in a vicious cycle.

                    The purpose of learning to pay attention to anger
                    with a silent mind is to break this cycle of anger
                    and the intellectualization on anger

The only logical solution is to stop intellectualizing the conflict and simply watch your own mind in the midst of confusion .

R: Do you mean I should just stop thinking in such a situation and do nothing but watch my mind ?

That’s exactly what I mean .