If you have tried to understand something that didn't seem quite clear, you may have had that famous moment of sudden clarity:
I have had several of those smacks of insight lately from The Science of Mindfulness by Prof. Ronald G. Siegel. I am surprised that Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, Dan Harris, Pema Chodron and many others didn't give me the smack in quite the same way. The smacks seem to come from Siegel's way of organizing of his material.
Siegel says the mind is built by evolution to think ahead and to review. So, as the mind keeps churning out its thoughts much the way the heart keeps churning out its beats, the thought stream that is produced has many thoughts of plans and memories. That makes sense since we have to think about where the next meal might come from and where we just saw those good looking berries waiting to be picked or on sale. But a problem with always thinking ahead and behind is that we are not ahead or behind but in between, here and now. We need to take moments to enjoy being where we are, who we are, what we are. It is the problem of the host and hostess who serve drinks and keep the snacks flowing but don't have a moment to enjoy the guests before the evening has passed and everyone has gone home.
As a male and an achiever, as a person fearful of not making it, I have often been bitten by the urge to get finished, to win, to put the victory safely into the score book, to get a distasteful job done, done, done. I am working on spotting this tendency to transport myself into the future, where the job will be oh so done and where no doubt things will be momentarily heavenly and flowery. I am just trying to spot the tendency with appreciation for its value and its limits.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
