The mystery is why so
many people do not discover the joy of mindfulness as a matter of
course. The human brain has evolved the potential of being mindful
and it seems silly and wasteful that it is not more commonly
realised.
It might be that basic,
pre-linguistic consciousness (aka the unconscious) was mindful and
that the more recent and talkative self-consciousness is not. As a
species we talk a lot and thus develop cultures which have greater
survival value than those ancestral systems that had more peace of
mind but less chatter. Evolution is a tinkerer. Good enough is good
enough – perfection and optimal design are not natural objectives.
Our human ancestors
first appeared about 500,000 years ago and had brains much the same
as we now have. Language is a new comer and did not appear till about
200,000 years ago. We are now hard wired to learn a language when we
are very young – it is in our genes. But the particular language
that we learn depends on our culture.
The exponential growth
of human culture is closely linked to the evolution of today's 6,500
languages. But they are not perfect, only good enough, which means
better than the neighbours. Language makes it relatively easy to be a
social animal and to share thoughts, feelings and moods with family
and friends and to keep them hidden from the opposition – the
neighbouring groups of foreign tongued devils.
The mindbrain exists to
monitor the internal and external environments and to react quickly
and respond more slowly in appropriate ways. Inputs from the sensory
organs are linked and processed by various modules including the
short and long term memories. Data is churned in the unconscious,
stories are construed, and some of them are channelled to the
attention centre of the self-conscious.
This churning and
channelling process is subjectively experienced as the monkey mind
over which the untrained self-conscious mind has no control. But
training and control are possible, desirable and socially useful. The
key is more or less formal and time consuming mindfulness meditation.
The goal is a state of
extra-ordinary mind that is selfless (non-egoic) and outwith space
and time. There is peace of mind which makes it possible to distance
yourself from worrisome TFM. The awkward stuff may still be around
but it does not cling to attention so tightly. But it is also
possible to totally lose your self and the monkey mind.
There are three
extra-ordinary states of mind. They overlap:
- Meditative – drop off body and mind by sitting or walking mindfully for a few seconds or for a lifetime.
- Flow – engage with a challenging task and operate in the zone, or in the groove – non-egoic and outwith space and time – peaceful and productive.
- Numinous – open the doors of perception and see infinity in a grain of sand ie experience the Oneness.
Mystery solved. We live
in a modern world with a stone age brain. But evolution has not
stopped. And we are now able to shape it. But this might be a bad
thing rather than a good one.
No comments:
Post a Comment