Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,
and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.
Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.
When I recently explained that I don't meditate to control my thoughts,
I meditate so my thoughts don't control me, some readers were confused
or questioned the difference. There's a common misconception that meditation
is about clearing the mind, making it quiet or blank, which is why many who try meditating
for the first time quickly give up, exclaiming their thoughts were racing nonstop
and they couldn't turn their brains off, which is what they thought was the goal.
So, let me be clear, that even after years of meditating, my mind still wanders
whether I'm in meditation or not,
but now, when I watch my mind running around like a puppy playing in the backyard,
I can call it back to me at any time, sort of like saying, "Come here boy,"
and the mind obeys. It's not about tying the puppy to a tree with a short chain
so it doesn't go anywhere; that would be cruel and only drive it mad and more
resistant to structure, it's about differentiating between play-time
and paying-attention-time. The key is balance and discipline.
If you've ever had a dog, then you know that even when they are well-trained,
certain things will still grab their attention, and you can tell that they want to bark,
investigate, run, or play, so they look up at you with those puppy eyes as if asking,
"Can I please go? I've been so good. Let me chase that squirrel, even though I know
"I can't catch it, nor do I have any idea what I would do with it if I could."
Rather than chasing squirrels, however, we chase thoughts with more thoughts,
often in the form of worrying, which usually turns out to be a complete waste of time.
What we must do is assert ourselves as the ones who decide when the mind can run free,
and when it needs to sit. Otherwise, it's like the dog taking you for a walk
instead of the other way around. I'm not even sure this metaphor works,
especially if you're not into puppies, so let's look at the quote, "Nobody can drive you
"crazy unless you give them the keys." People will certainly try, and if life was a car ride,
then we need to be selective about who we let into our car, and certainly picky about who
gets to ride in the front, because if you let your ego ride, then pretty soon it will
take the wheel. First things first: claim your spot in the driver's seat with your hands
on the wheel. Random thoughts cross my mind all the time, I just watch them
like the trees on the side of the road as I zoom past them.
I admit, some of the thoughts are disturbing, but they are not me, they are a byproduct
of everything to which I am exposed throughout the day,
and unless I seal myself off in a bubble where I control all the auditory
and visual stimuli that I receive, some freaky stuff is bound to make its way into
my thoughts: violence in a movie or a breaking-news story, even a song,
can easily hook my attention and try to hijack my mind in various directions.
The practice is not to turn off the world, it's to not let the world take the wheel.
It's funny how we try to control so much in life when most of it cannot be controlled,
and some even call themselves "control freaks," yet invest very little effort into
learning how to control what we truly can, which is where to focus our attention
and how to respond to what's happening around us.
To be able to do that skillfully, we need to practice. It's no different than learning any
other skill; we learn to walk before we can run, and you teach a puppy how to sit and
stay before moving on to other tricks.
We, on the other hand, have been trained to multi-task, but most of us don't know
how to single-task, or to just BE, performing no task at all. If that sounds foreign to you,
I rest my case. Meditating so your thoughts don't control you doesn't have to be done
cross-legged with incense burning, it can be done while jogging, painting, gardening,
or even while brushing your teeth.
The moment your mind wanders, you bring it back. You start out by watching your mind
like you would watch a movie: you go into the theater and you pay attention
to what's going on the screen. We are actually SO good at paying attention to the movie,
that we can consume an entire bucket of popcorn without noticing until it's all gone.
So, just watch the movie in your mind with curiosity, not judgment.
It's fascinating where the mind wants to go, but you are not your thoughts,
you're the observer. Once you get that down, look at your hands. You're the one holding
the steering wheel. If you don't want to think about something, steer away from it.
That's where a mantra can be really helpful; it gives you something to steer
your mind toward. When your thoughts jump to something someone said to you at work
yesterday, bring your mind back to your mantra or your breath or whatever you
want to focus on. Then, you'll see that all these thoughts are just like advertisers
trying to grab your attention, but you don't have to buy everything they're selling.
You can just say Thank you for the information, and move on.
It is SO liberating and precisely why I don't meditate to control my thoughts,
I meditate so my thoughts don't control me. I hope that makes better sense now.
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Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless
and Buddhist Boot Camp.
For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com,
where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project,
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Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼