Bagpuss The Gnome:
1. My current experience is one of easy mindfulness, free from discursive thought.
2. It's not that I don't have discursive thought, just that I can easily choose NOT to have it.
3. Does that make any kind of sense to anyone else?
4. What is your experience of mind free of discursive thoughts, and what did it signify for you?
Psi I see what you are getting at. I re-read Ian's post and maybe that is part of my experience when walking, doing stuff etc but it's not the whole thing I think. I'm also not certain I am paying "bare" attention to phenomena as I make no effort to focus just on the sound/sight/touch etc but allow the mind to identify things etc.
Hi Bagpuss,
Don't fall into the trap of looking for the complex in the simple. Take what you are given and endeavor to make sense of it. Begin by looking at the obvious
prima facie ("on the surface of it") advantages (characteristics) of the experience and do your best to figure it out for yourself. If
you don't figure it out, then who are you depending upon to do so for you?
What you are experiencing is the opportunity to "see things as they are" without the interference of discursive (prejudicial or biased) thoughts directing your view (perception) of what is. This is a blessing (if you understand what I mean). It's what you have spent countless hours attempting to accomplish. . . that is, to obtain a quiet mind that will obey your command to quieten when you command it so that you won't be distracted by phenomena that are not real and not in front of you.
The first time I experienced this quietness of mind, the experience hit me like a ton of bricks as I could not recall a time in recent experience when I had been able to quiet the mind down to such a degree. It was literally a relief as well as a bit of a surprise that I was able to experience this accomplishment. It happened in a dramatic flash: one moment there was discursive thought, and the next moment complete and utter (but wondrous) silence when I commanded the mind to be quiet! From that moment on, I knew I had reached a watershed moment in my practice. Now I had to figure out how to use that experience to my advantage.
Suddenly, it occurred to me what people meant by the instruction "you have to be able to quiet the mind down before you can get anywhere with gaining insight." A quiet mind allows the insight to arise. Now, understand that I'm talking about a quiet mind that is bright, malleable, and able to see with clarity – not an
empty mind. You can
have a quiet mind without it being empty or unfocused, and allow it to focus on physical or mental phenomena about which you are seeking clarity, without the mind getting in your way with its incessant "opinions" about what it is that you are seeing. So, in that sense, at least, you
are practicing "bare attention" on an object of observation. Bare attention, in this sense, just means void of any biased or prejudicial thoughts about what it is that you have under observation. In other words, you aren't allowing those biased thoughts to invade your mind to influence how you view (or think) about the object that you are observing. You are just seeing the object just as it is without judging it for its worth. You're seeing it "as it truly is" in its pristine simplicity, without all the worldly jibber jabber getting in your way. See?
In peace,
Ian