Falling into SELF

 A friend at the monthly Gurdjieff workshop complained that he was never good at meditation. One day he met a teacher who asked why that was the case. “You know, each time when my mind is about to get still, I catch myself thinking about something new.” The teacher replied, “think of it as mental bodybuilding, each time you catch your mind taking off on a new tangent, you are in fact building a mindfulness muscle. That’s good. Keep practicing!”

 

There is something interesting about this story and the unexpected praise my friend got from his teacher. You see, by trying to still our mind we are in fact stretching towards something—stillness, inner peace, etc. Why don’t we turn this perspective around. Let’s sit down and let the stillness and love find us instead, if our busy mind or life’s ups and downs allow us to. Mindfulness is watching life and the neural processes in motion without expecting anything. We fall into S (ilence) E (nergy) L (ove) F (low); the self cannot reach for it.