Selective Thinking
Selective Thinking as Meditation
Meditation will be understood during this beginner’s retreat as selective thinking, which is choosing the thoughts we think, instead of thinking whatever thought that enters the mind. This means, we must constantly watch the thoughts that enter the mind and very scrupulously choose between good and bad thoughts. Normally thoughts come into our minds quite unconsciously, and most of them are emotional. Very often we are even carried away by these emotional thoughts. The moment we become conscious of them, however, they stop. This is because emotional thoughts can run only unconsciously, and they cannot continue consciously. Therefore the moment we become conscious of them, they must naturally stop.
This is the fact on which modern psychoanalysis is based. The aim of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious thoughts become conscious. This making of the unconscious emotions conscious seems to be what Daniel Goleman called “emotional intelligence”. It is also the fact on which the technique of the Buddha was originally based. The aim of the meditation called satipatthana is to become conscious of our unconscious emotional reactions. If we are unconsciously carried away by our emotional thoughts, we remain not only unconscious but also unhappy. This is what we call worry and day dreaming.
Meditation, as we practice it, therefore, is being awake to and noting the thoughts that come into our mind. It is also consciously selecting the thoughts we think: avoiding the emotional thoughts and developing the calming thoughts. This means, we must always be conscious of our unconscious emotional thoughts that habitually come into our minds. By doing so we stop all unconscious emotional thoughts, and we start thinking only consciously and rationally.
We learn to overcome old habits of unconscious emotional thinking, and we learn to consciously cultivate new habits of calm thinking. Cultivating a new habit, however, means practice, and practice means repetition, which must be maintained throughout. It is like learning to type or to play a musical instrument.
This means, the kind of meditation that we practice is not an exercise in concentration, but an exercise in wakefulness, and selective thinking. It is not sitting like a statue for twenty minutes or even one hour in the morning, and probably followed similarly in the evening. Selective thinking has to be done every moment in our waking lives, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. Of course, during this retreat, we do not recommend meditating lying down during the day, because you may fall asleep. At night, however, you can meditate lying down, but when you fall asleep at night, expect to start walking the moment you are awake. This meditation has to be practiced all the time during your retreat, even at night, no matter what posture you are in.
This means, we have to make a serious decision to change our way of thinking, and be willing to cultivate a new way of thinking by repeated practice.
“Sow a thought and reap a habit
Sow a habit and reap a character
Sow a character and reap a destiny”
If we maintain this conscious awareness of thoughts that come into our minds, and practice selective thinking, we overcome the habit of worrying and being unconscious, and we cultivate the habit of being conscious and happy all the time. This leads to the gradual development of consciousness until we awaken from the dream of existence, like the Buddha, whereby all suffering is brought to an end.
There is nothing strenuous about this meditation unless one begins to concentrate. There is no concentration in this form of meditation. Concentration is a strenuous effort. Our aim is to stop concentration, and to keep our mind vacant and calm, and the body relaxed. This is not an easy job either, because there is a natural tendency of the mind to unconsciously concentrate on the past or the future and become emotionally agitated. It is this habit that we are trying to overcome.
There is one important rule, however, that must be carried out what ever be the posture you are in, and that is to keep your back straight. This helps in keeping the mind awake. If one wants to gain any benefit from this meditation, one has to practice it conscientiously throughout the retreat and possibly even after. It is by constant practice of right thinking that a real transformation and growth can take place in our lives.
Unfortunately our blind emotions are dominating our lives. As children we are mainly dominated by emotions. As we begin to grow up into adulthood, we begin to think more intelligently, but this intelligence is mainly used to gratify our emotions rather than to guide our emotions. When we are adults, even though our intelligence begins to decide what is right and wrong, often when our emotions are excited and strong, we tend to be carried away by our emotions, rather than by our intelligence. Very often we use our intelligence to judge others than to judge ourselves. This dominance of emotions prevents us from acting rationally all the time. We even break the five precepts, which we value very much, when we are dominated by emotions.