Tao
wisdom is human wisdom, and Biblical wisdom is spiritual wisdom. The art of
living well in this contemporary world requires both. But neither is easy to
come by. Why? Because Tao wisdom requires an empty mind with no preconditioned
thinking of conventional wisdom, while Biblical wisdom requires the suspension
of disbelief. That is to say, both require clarity of thinking, which is not
easy to attain, except through meditation and concentration, that is, focusing the
mind on the present moment.
Your
mind is incessantly alternating between the past and the future, going back and
forth without consciously knowing it.
Say,
if you are watching TV at the present moment, your compulsive mind is
continually retrieving both conscious and subconscious thoughts and memories from
the past directly or indirectly related to what you are now watching on the
television screen, as well as projecting them into the future. Your mind never
really stays in the present moment, although you think it does because
you are watching the TV.
To
illustrate, you are watching a CNN report on an accident on the freeway
involving many cars due to poor visibility. A subconscious thought from your
own past experience of driving under similar poor visibility immediately
comes up and is projected into the future, to be stored in your
subconscious mind to warn you in the future to drive more carefully if a
similar situation occurs. Your body is presently watching the television
screen, but your mind does not stay in the present moment. That is the reality.
It is only a mental illusion that your mind is staying presently on the
TV screen. Other subconscious thoughts may also occur at the back of your mind:
“I am a more careful driver than those people”, “I hope that will never happen
to me” or “I would not know what to do in a similar situation.” All these
thoughts are stored in your subconscious mind.
Remember,
you compulsive mind is thinking non-stop without your conscious awareness.
Because
your mind does not voluntarily stay in the present moment, constantly
shuffling back and forth between the past and the future, the only way to stop
the thinking mind is to direct it to the present moment. When your mind stays
in the present moment, it stops its thinking process of the past or the
future—at least for the time being. To make your mind remain in the present
moment—even though for just a short moment—you need acute awareness and deep
concentration. To do that, you need constant and regular practice to focus
or re-focus your mind on the present moment.
Once
you can stop, at will, your mind from thinking, you have control over your
thinking process, you are no longer a slave to your thoughts, and your mind
becomes once again your friend, instead of your enemy. Learn to switch your
mind on and off, just as you do with your computer.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
No comments:
Post a Comment