Watching The Mind In An Informal Practice

Yesterday I was waiting for the school bus, which brings my daughter home every day about the same time.

I was having a somewhat challenging day, having spent a few hours clearing old books, memories and pieces of my life left under much dust up in the attic of our house. The process was invaluable and vital, but I hadn't realized that when I left the house, I hadn't properly come back to the present me.

I see the bus coming, I recognize the bus company, but instead of it stopping, it zoomed past me at high speed. I manage to see a driver, a different one than the one I am used to. My mind starts racing, as I run ineffectually after it for a while. As I was going through a plethora of turbulent thinking, from hijacking to Harry Potter's night bus, I could see that my mind could go on for a long while on this futile road with a seeming life of its own. This was a huge realization, as it happened in the midst of the process itself, not later. I then watched my mind coming back to the center, just like in meditation. The next minute the "real" bus came and my daughter safely with it. I never solved the mystery of the speeding bus, but I witnessed once again the perils of the racing-down-the-slope mind. Is it a bad mind? No, it just needs training. How do we come back to the center? Maybe we can't yet stay there full time, but it becomes longer and longer with each minute spent in spiritual connection, reflection, meditation. We work our bodies, we train our minds, we open our hearts, we soar with our spirit and the rest takes no effort. When the mind is steady, alert and calm, it becomes a powerful ally for our well being, healing, joy and abundance. I wish your minds to be steady and happiness to flow in your lives! More to come next month.