Monthly Archives: October 2012

Citta Vritti – Mind Chatter – Meditation Guide Part 6

Posted on by kgoodman

The Sanskrit term Citta Vritti (pronounced: CHITTA VRITTIE) can be translated to mean mind chatter, or modifications of the mind. Sanskrit is an ancient language from India.

Imagine for a moment that your mind is a vast ocean. On a calm day when the surface is flat you can see deeply into the ocean. But on a typical day with waves and weather and all manner of aquatic activity the surface of the water becomes turbulent and cloudy. Our thoughts disturb the surface of our mental ocean. Too much mind chatter keeps our mental energies on the surface and prevent us from seeing deeply and utilizing our inherent wisdom.

Turbulent waters lead to poor visibility.

This also represents the filters that our minds process information through. These filters prevent us from seeing the truth of a moment. We have learned to perceive the world around us through filters. These filters and both subtle and gross. They both aid and hinder us. It is the use of these filters that allows us to see one detail but completely miss another. Just like shifting the focus of your eyes allows you to see the mirror, or the reflections in the mirror. So too, shifting the attention of your mind, allows you to see the moment or your interpretation of the moment.

It is often through seeing only our interpretation of a moment, that the truth of the moment is lost.

One example of this is language. When we hear someone speaking we have trained our minds to recognize patterns in the inflection of sound and process that into words. These words are then translated into definitions. Our mind processes each word into analogous objects till a root definition is found that we relate to directly. The words form sentences as they are pieced together and the mind translates the sound waves into meanings.

The purpose of language is to teach people a common way of thinking. This has the positive impact of opening communication. Our automatic translation of sounds into meanings enables us to focus on the word and dismiss extraneous details. But the nuance of a moment can often be found in the discarded context.

Language is one of the more commonly studied and analyzed filters we have. But there are thousands. And they operate in a very similar fashion. Processing an experience and breaking it down into meanings that we can hold onto. In this same way we often discard the context and lose much of the moment.

A simple example of this can be seen in the experience of a rose. It is easy to see a rose, perhaps even appreciate it’s color and smell, but from the level of filters we have labeled it ‘rose’ and moved on from the actual experience of that rose. Rose is a word we know, therefore we have understood the rose and experienced it. So we move on. When in truth this rose is a unique entity. There are no two roses in the world alike. And this rose will soon pass from it’s moment of beauty, and fade and die. The experience of this individual rose can be lost in the process of filtering and labeling.

Many of our filters formed in the first few years of our life. We have automatic response mechanisms built into us that predate our earliest memories of childhood. Response patterns we established before we even learned to hold our heads up.

We don’t consciously remember the cause, or the need for these filters, but they are still there, working for us, and against us, through every moment of our lives. These filters provide context and insight informing our interpretation of each moment. They also cloud the moment overshadowing what is really happening with your ‘perception‘ of what is happening, interpreted relative to occurrences from years past.

One of the goals of meditation is to calm the fluctuations of the mind. Breathing exercises can be a simple and quick meditation that can help quiet your citta vritti and empower you.

Breathing Exercise

Shift your awareness to your breathing.
It can help to focus on a single point in your inhale and exhale.

Either visualize the air as it passes in and out through your nostrils.
Or monitor the expansion and contraction of the lungs.

Simply Observe your breath

Notice the air as it passes through your nostrils, into your body
Notice the air as it leaves through your nostrils, out of your body

Now take a deep inhale through your nostrils

Slowly inhale to the count of 10 (adjust the time as needed to account for your physical abilities)
Pause at the top of the breath and hold to the count of 3

Slowly and fully exhale through your mouth

Again exhaling to the full count of 10
Pause at the bottom of the exhale for a count of 3

Repeat about 6 times.
Then return to observing your breath

Namaste – Kevin

The Season Of Change

Posted on by kgoodman

the-season-of-change-text

Living in California, specifically the San Francisco Bay Area, you lose the stark contrast of seasons. Winter is the time when my lawn is green and in summer my grass dies and turns brown (I should probably water it more). Our magnolia tree loses it’s leaves during the summer and blooms in the autumn and winter. And generally the seasonal changes are soft and gentle, distinct, but subtle.

 

I am presently in the middle of a two week visit to the heartland of America, I am in Michigan. Michigan seasons are not subtle. You cannot ignore the oncoming autumn, nor the incoming winter.

 

Viewing the autumn colors and feeling the cold in the air, I am reminded directly of the natural order of things. It is powerful seeing the changing of the seasons again. The awareness of just how little control we have over nature. Everything is either dying or going into a deep state of hibernation and sloughing off everything not needed to survive through the long cold winter.

 

Rains come almost daily, and we experienced a good old heartland thunderstorm this week. I sure do miss seeing a good storm!

 

Change is powerful.

Change is unyielding.

Change is cyclical.

 

I cannot stop the leaves from falling from a tree.

I cannot hold onto summer.

I cannot change the weather.

 

It is wonderfully liberating to remember there are things beyond my control. Remembering that I can, and must, let go and allow nature to take it’s coarse.

 

Please don’t misread me, there are many things in my life in California completely beyond my control. But I frequently forget. Often the lapse in memory works to my detriment as I stress over the changing of the tides. I foolishly waste energy in my attempt to manage the unmanageable.

 

It is so easy to burn up valuable resources trying to resist change, to hold back the seasons.

 

As change approaches you this autumn I invite you to welcome it. Remember it’s only a phase. Change will come and change will go, and if we’re lucky, we’ll learn a little something in it’s passing.

 

As we move forward in this wondrous fall remember the serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Namaste,

Kevin

 

Why the world may be flat and Why that is okay

Posted on by kgoodman

Flat-world-trim

My whole life I have been told that the world is a spherical ball orbiting around the sun. I am pretty convinced at this point that this is true. But I am open to evidence to the contrary.

 

There are so many concepts and ideas that I have been taught throughout my life. Most of them were explained to be gospel truths. I was told these truths were unchanging, unquestionable and incorruptible. For a good while I believed them. However, there came a point as I reached the age of reason that I started to question.

 

This began during my early teen years, so you could very easily refer to it as the age of unreason… or at least being unreasonable. But as the cracks began to appear in the impenetrable walls of reason I had been brought up to believe in.

 

So I began to question to unquestionable, and I found these ‘truths’ to be falsehoods, or at least false for me.

 

I have met many people that lead wonderful, happy, productive lives based on these ideas that they hold true. I am very happy for them, but their truths didn’t work for me.

 

Over time I’ve questioned and rejected, or at least altered, many ‘truths’. I have found my own path, my own power and my own purpose.

 

I’m not mentioning any specifics intentionally. My truths and falsehoods will not be yours. And if I get specific I would probably alienate someone that needs to read this message. The point of this message is not to tell you what is truth and a lie. That’s not my job. I’m here to remind you to not get complacent.

 

As I look back over the changes that have happened in my thinking in since I had children, the shift becomes more obvious. I am a totally different parent than I thought I would be. I practice ideas daily that I wasn’t even aware of before I had children. Some things that contradict how I was brought up, and some things that line up perfectly.

 

Ideas have life and living things evolve. Trapped in a cage an idea will die, or worse become sickly and unhealthy. You have to allow room for your ideas to roam and travel. You must allow ideas to grow and change. If everything we already knew prepared us for everything that is to come in the future, there would be no room for growth. There would be no value to our human experience.

 

So that is why I say that the world may in fact be flat. I’m open to evidence in that direction. But for the time being I will allow the world to keep spinning on it’s ‘supposed’ axis. I don’t know everything, and the things that I do know are fluid.

 

A world beyond my comprehension requires ideas beyond my previous thoughts.

Namaste,

Kevin

Escape words and experience your Spirituality

Posted on by kgoodman

Words Have Power

Words are powerful, potent and empowering.

Words are apocalyptic, enigmatic and imprisoning.

Words are the framework of civilization.

Words are a crutch holding up false beliefs.

Pause for a moment and consider words.

The words above, the words in your head, the words on your walls.

Each and every word has meaning and power.

The construction of words into sentences and crafting of documents could be likened unto artistry. The work of a fine sculptor will result in a sculpture that will be treasured for thousands of years. Likewise, the crafted word will linger and impact for centuries.

Words are ideas and ideas shift. Definitions are redefined. And everyone has a different dictionary built into their minds. So as words are employed the impact on the reader will shift with each individual and with each passing age.

Consider the simplicity of a rose.

The smallest of words. Plain. One syllable.

Yet the images and senses conjure up by the word ‘rose’, can hold wonderful beauty and fragrance.

The use of a word can unleash, in the listener’s mind, memories, and experiences. The use of the right words will engage the 5 primary senses and trigger experience, real or imagined.

Words can also serve to restrict and cheapen real experience. The actual wonder and depth of the experience can become lost in the translation to words.

Viewing a rose, you can experience its uniqueness, admire its color, curves and aroma. However, when it is translated to a word it becomes a label. In the act of labeling it goes from the unique to the general. From the one in a million, to one of many.

“That is a rose,” you say. You can label it, and dismiss it.

Many words have become overloaded with meaning and definition beyond the ability of the word to hold their object.

God

Religion

Federal Tax Deficit

Think about the words you use in your daily life.

Each time a word comes up your brain fires to recognize and apply meaning to that word. You think you heard what the other person said, but what you actually heard was their words filtered through your meanings.

While each person will have similarities in their definitions, it is truly a personal dictionary. In your mind words are defined with other words, images, education and your experiences.

I invite you today, to look beyond the words we use as filters for reality. Step into your actual experience and see what is really occurring, not what your words tell you it means.

I invite you to start a journal
Practice the use of words as the great liberator of thought.
Engage them to illuminate and expand the experience.
Practice awareness to avoid the pitfalls of labeling to avoid experiencing.
Use your words as a power tool on your spiritual pilgrimage.

Namaste,

Kevin

escape-words

Cut yourself some Slack

Posted on by kgoodman

cut-yourself-some-slack

90 percent of pain is self induced.

 

It’s important to understand that most of what we experience in life is perspective and interpretation. The world around us often appears as we expect it to because we filter out what we don’t expect and focus in on what we do.

 

If you look for the good in someone you will find it.

If you look for the bad in someone you will find it.

 

Our perceptions of reality are often skewed one way or the other.

 

We very rarely see true reality.

 

Our egos get involved and muddle the interpretation. Often we view the world as if it were a mirror held in front of us. We simply see what we project out.

 

The thoughts we were having surrounding a moment, inform that moment. Our past interactions, with the people involved, further cloud the experience.

 

As we get older, if we don’t practice awareness, more and more layers build up from past interactions. We are no longer experiencing the present moment, but rather receiving the echoes of past experiences as they feed back into the current experience. Instead of experiencing the present, we can fall into a trap of reliving the past through the current moment.

 

The ideal resolution would be to truly experience the moment itself with filters and interpretations removed. This is true momentary awareness and an enlightened view of the world. And I am in favor of it. But I can’t always do it.

 

An alternative, which I try to practice given my base awareness that I can’t always practice presence, is to process the moment through positive filters.

 

As the saying goes, “You are seeing the world through rose colored glasses.” This old saying is often stated as a slam. It is intended to wake the person up that is living in a delusional world where they look at things too optimistically. Oddly, it’s frequently stated by people living in their own delusions, as we all tend to do.

 

I consider it a mindfulness practice. Applying this layer of thought to my input, helps me break lose from more negative patterns of thought. Encouraging myself to operate out of a foundation of abundance, where I  have plenty and can share with all.

 

There is one crucial piece of information to keep in mind when you’re working on this aspect of mindfulness.

 

Cut yourself some slack.

 

Often we are our own worst critics. Allow yourself to be filled with your own grace. This effort is both trivial and monumental. It can take moments and it can take a lifetime. Don’t be hard on yourself when working on yourself.

 

This awareness came to me recently when I realized how compassionate I was being to someone else about a problem. They had made a mistake and couldn’t let go of it. I was helping them through the problem and even encouraging them to release it. “These things happen, there is no need to beat yourself up over it.” I stated kindly to my friend in turmoil.

 

Later on, I realized that I had been much more gracious and compassionate to that friend than I was with myself. When the same thing had happened to me, I had assumed it was my fault. I had become mired down in dealing with my guilt for the situation and not allowed myself to release it and be forgiven. Surely I should allow for my self the grace that I would freely give another.

 

Likewise, these filters that we’ve been talking about are frequently applied when dealing with yourself. You judge yourself and your behavior based on this false expectation you setup. You establish a set of judgmental criteria against which you will surely fall short. Inappropriately divorcing yourself and your judgment of yourself from the actual experience.

 

As I stated at the beginning of this writing, “90 percent of pain is self induced.” We may also focus on the corollary; 90 percent of pleasure is self induced.

 

Take some time today to allow yourself to enjoy life. Stop to smell the roses. Fill your thoughts with grace and abundance. You are more than capable of handling the tasks that lay ahead.

Namaste

Kevin