A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

On the contrary, mindfulness must be looked upon as the ever awake watch guard standing at the door of your mind. As soon as a discursive thought or a disturbing emotion emerges on the canvas of your mental imagery, mindfulness is the guard that alerts your mind. Along with alertness, it closes the door to your fortress so you may continue to concentrate uninterrupted.

It is stated most beautifully in Thannassiro Bhikku’s translation of Aṅguttara Nikāya, 7.63:

“Just as a royal frontier fortress has a gatekeeper – wise, experienced, intelligent – to keep out those he doesn’t know and to let in those he does, for the protection of those within, and to ward off those without; in the same way, a disciple of the noble ones is mindful, endowed with excellent proficiency in mindfulness, remembering and recollecting what was done and said a long time ago. With mindfulness as his gatekeeper, the disciple of the noble ones abandons what is unskilful, develops what is skilful, abandons what is blameworthy, develops what is blameless, and looks after himself with purity.”

It is not possible to meditate correctly in the absence of good concentration. Even in the eight-limbed yoga of Patanjali, he’s put concentration before meditation. This is because concentration is the basis of good meditation. Good concentration, however, is impossible to develop without mindfulness.

Negative thoughts and emotions of hate, greed, jealousy, anger and so on will disrupt your meditation. Stimulating thoughts of lust, sex and sensuality can interfere with your tranquillity. Even positive thoughts of joy, success and celebration can cause restlessness. Passive thoughts of guilt, resentment, remorse and sadness can destroy your concentration. However remember, all these are thoughts ultimately, and the singular way to overcome them, so you may carry on with your meditation, is to deploy the guard of mindfulness at the main door of your mind.

Mindfulness, as a good guard, knowing that the emperor has forbidden any and every one from entering the palace, will not communicate with any visitor (thought). Its job is not to discriminate and find out who is fit to go in. The guard of mindfulness is deployed to keep the door shut for all outsiders.

In order for mindfulness to be effective it is aided by a very critical element…

Alertness

There was a famous dog trainer in the USA, who had earned the reputation of training any puppy to poo only outside within a span of just three days. He said he only used positive reinforcement.

He would take the pooch out for a walk. Once close to a tree or a small garden, he would stand and wait until the dog went about its business. The moment the dog finished, the trainer would jump up and down shouting in sheer joy. He would punch the air, do a little dance, jig his hips and sing a happy song. Immediately after, he would hug the dog and pat it. All in all, he would display his happiness and ecstasy in all manners possible over the dog’s poo. And it worked like a charm. The dog instantly sensed that its action of peeing or pooing made the trainer very happy. It would wag its tail, circle around, jump in joy and sometimes even do somersaults. Within three days, the dog would learn to alert its owner whenever it needed to attend to nature’s call. This was done with positive reinforcement alone. Some of the clients of the dog trainer, however, complained that their dogs exhibited rather strange behaviour once they took them home. They said that the dog was definitely not fully trained. Sometimes, they would be watching an intense game of soccer or baseball, quietly sitting on the couch with their dog.

Then their team would score an impossible goal or hit a homerun, and they would jump off the couch in glee, punch the air, shout a big ‘yes’, do a little dance and even hug their dog. What the dogs did is nobody’s guess!

Alertness of the mind is like training the puppy. Once it is trained, and if you replicate the same circumstances, it’ll produce the same outcome. This is one of the most rewarding outcomes of correct meditation, in fact. The mindfulness and alertness you cultivate during the meditation stays with you long after you’ve gotten up and resumed your daily activities.

If mindfulness is the watch guard at the palace door then alertness is the police at the city gates. It is on patrol to see if there’s anything suspicious going on anywhere in the kingdom. It arrests any bad elements before they can reach and harm the royalty.