Tuesday, March 21, 2017

When the Mind is Not Moving

I don't know if you have ever been on a crowded bus or a subway and sometimes felt as though you were in a tin of sardines..but I certainly have. And one of the practices, or 'principles', I tried in handling this situation on the 25 bus today was simply to move my body without moving the mind. How is this possible? Well, it's possible precisely because the mind has never moved in the first place; it's only in chasing after the different thoughts that one gets an illusory sense that the mind moves with the body.
   I have tried to do this by just knowing that the mind is unmoving, but also practicing not confusing the phenomena with the still mind. I always attribute the mind to a part of the body. But if I am clear that the mind is not moving, there is no confusion in that moment, and I am not drawn into the illusion of a mind that is always swaying with the movements of passengers. It is only in practicing this method (with some persistence), that one stops feeling agitated by movement, because they have freed themselves from thinking that their 'selves' have been moved, or that there are distinct selves moving.

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