Sunday, December 7, 2008

About Simple Mind

So what is the Simple Mind? Joko Beck talks about the Simple Mind in her book, Nothing Special. She says that "The only a simple mind...having or composed in one part only. A simple mind is unified.
Awareness is unassuming, unpretentious; it can't help but be that way... Awareness has nothing it can pretend to be, it's humble. It's lowly. Simple.

What can this be to us in our day to day lives? People are often heard complaining of being caught by objects, thoughts, events of life, and being emotionally affected by them. Often on a day to day basis we feel buffeted by these events, overwhelmed with feelings of anger and upset. When are nerves are jangled and we feel raw or stressed, we may say or do things that hurt others or ourselves. Without a simple mind, we are confused by the many conflicting and competing external events. We are blinded by a cloud, as it were; unable to see that everything external is ourselves. With simplicity awareness grows;we recognize past, present and future as one unified way.

Thoughts and judgments slowly slip away with continued practice. No longer do we have thoughts as we once did such as,
he's so hard on me, you hurt my feelings or you're not the way I want you to be!

Moving away from the Simple Way, we become caught in notions and what appears to be a very complex live surrounding us. When things aren't as we wish, a struggle begins; often we fall to the mercy of our emotions. When this happens often we find ourselves acting in destructive ways.

In the Simple Mind, this is the time to sit and be quiet. Allowing the thoughts and attitudes of our mind to percolate to conscious awareness. With practice we can develop a mind like this. The longer we sit, the more often we may experience periods of calm simplicity--when we see that it isn't necessary to be opposed or judging of others. Instead of viewing those outside of us as problems, we come to see ourselves in them in a unified way. There truly is one world.
Even when others are difficult, we can come to appreciate them and even enjoy their foibles, and not feel that there is any need to fix them. We can come to enjoy the fact that they talk too much, that they wear too much makeup, or any other judgment that we may have made in the past. Enjoying the world in this moment without judgment is what an aware, realized life is like. However it may take years and years, a lifetime even.
We still will experience times when we make reflexive judgments; but now we are more able to to be simple, living a life that is less and less about the triggers to our favorite defenses. The Simple Mind senses that in the end of the day, everything is about us, it is us. when we sense our interconnectedness between ourselves and life of the world around us, we are transformed. We simply just have to act differently.

No comments: