So how many times has your body betrayed you? You know, like those examples in psychology where they tell you about four different people witnessing a car wreck and one person says it was a green car and one person says it was a little green person driving a red car and someone else says they like turtles, which are green, so there’s sort of lots of different interpretations to events and we apparently can’t rely on our eyes or our bodies to properly interpret any of that. Really, we have to run it through our translator machine of Mind.
Spiritual teachers say the real source of peace and joy is our mind – not anything physical or bodily can truly make us happy (even green people in red cars ). The mind, not the body or even the supposed reality happening around us is the real controlling force in how our lives unfold and what they mean.
It’s as if your body is some tripped out hippie at an ashram and reality is the ashram and the mind is the spiritual teacher (or “guru” if you are still at the crazy hippie level) and everything is getting turned into this silly, deluded supposedly spiritual trip and all the while the teacher mind is like, “No, you’re just still being fake – being happy doesn’t mean being fake all the time,” and the hippie body is like, “Oh yes, wise guruji, you see right through me” (continues dancing with scarves) and then the teacher is like, “Just sit down and let’s talk about what you’re afraid of,” and your hippie is like “This ashram takes away my problems, it’s like a dream lalala…is that a baby elephant riding a go-ped? I feel so alive!” and the teacher is like, “I reaaaally want to quit you right now, but I can’t because I’m your teacher/mind, so just chill out for a second and I’ll get you some juice,” and the hippie is like “Juice! I love juice! Juicejuicejuicejuice,” and the teacher is like, “This lovable moron,” and goes to the kitchen and everyone at the ashram is like, “Juicejuicejuicejuice,” and it’s perfectly climate controlled in there so you THINK you’re not hot, but actually you’re dehydrated and so the teacher brings what he told you was juice but it’s mostly water because he knows you’re freaking dehydrated you idiot hippie, and you’re like, “I don’t need water! It’s like 68 and sunny all up in this ashram, MF,” and the teacher is like, “Trust me,” and hippie goes, “Ashram, what do you think?” and the ashram is like, “It feels cool to us, dude,” and the teacher is like, “They’re dehydrated, too, just trust me, OK, I’m trying to help,” and hippie body pouts and finally goes, “OK, I’ll take a sip,” and then your stupid ignorant body takes a drink of water that it thought it didn’t want and ashram reality told it that it didn’t want and then you suddenly feel really refreshed and hippie is like, “Wow, I was really thirsty! I didn’t even know it. Thanks guruji, I was probably close to having a freak-out! I wonder how I didn’t even realize I was thirsty…” and the ashram is like, “We were trying to tell you about the water, man,” and the teacher is like, “Let’s all just sit here and read a book,” and the hippie is like “Awww man!”
And that’s how Buddhism works.
Sort of. I may be wrong on a few points, but basically your mind is the only means of awareness – all of your senses and reality’s mirages are just Input that could be completely wrong, and Mind/Teacher is the Receiver and interpreter. Think about it – body without a brain = not reacting or interpreting much. Brain without a body = delightful science fiction movie!
So I think peacefulness in life comes first from the big brain tricking the body with watery juice to make sure it stays healthy and alert enough and then worry about the ashram. Because reality is what it is – even if it’s ridiculous or wrong (see: Darfur, the VietNam Conflict, Dancing with the Stars) – and it’s not up to us to change any of that because ultimately, no matter what color people saw, the car in the accident was only one color (sorry, I am running example wild). And our little mushy pieces of body can’t tell what any of that means without the brain.
The mind I think is something connected with the brain and the heart. So it’s sort of a cool hybrid, like a liger only not as fat and lazy. The mindheart is like the body’s superhero that has infinite powers of perception and compassion and patience and Juice-giving skills and can deal with anything! But, if you have a really annoying hippie, any mindheart is going to get a little numb from dealing with that retard after a while, and so you need a way to reset it.
Give your mindheart a spa package. And that’s where the Buddhism comes in. Or whatever you want to call it, I think it's still the same thing - compassion for yourself and others.
In our above example, Teacher Mind would NEVER have been able to deal with Stanky Hippie Body and Ashram Reality without some serious training. And a lot of us expect our mindheart to be able to deal with these ridiculous characters without any training at all, without even thinking, “Wow, I haven’t been trained for this.” We just do things and expect our mindheart to keep up and then get all pissed off at ourselves when we yell at someone in traffic or forget to file our federal income taxes. Yes. Forget...
It’s like asking an 8 year old to operate a forklift.
It’s not his fault when 47 people wind up horribly disfigured and an entire city block is turned to rubble – it’s the people who didn’t train him. See, I’m not saying 8 year olds shouldn’t operate forklifts – I’m saying 8 year olds shouldn’t operate forklifts without proper training. I think. I’m digressing.
OK - mindheart training. Mindheart is like a superhero. Like Bruce Willis in Invincible. Sorry if you haven’t seen it. It doesn’t know it’s a superhero. Which makes it get really caught up in the realities of the ashram reality: oh crap my train got delayed, oh no my wife is a weird ho, oh gross I have a kid – these sorts of mundanities.
However, once it finds out, “I’ve never been sick! I can lift 900 pounds like I was Thunder from American Gladiators!” the fact that it was previously worried about the train delayed stuff seems silly! Screw the train – my mindheart can fly to the gym! Or who even cares if my train is delayed, I’m friggin magical!
But in order to Wake Up to our superheroness, we need training (not everyone can just suddenly be aware of it like Bruce). So what is the training we need to realize our full mindheart superhero potential? Personally, meditation works for me (no, really!) because it’s about letting go of the struggle and constant neuroses that come with body and reality. It’s just sitting there with my superhero mindheart and being great.
It’s not spiraling into the past or future or trying to figure anything out, it’s just giving the poor teacher mind a chance to take a breather, and after you do that enough, I think you’ll see that there is relief in giving yourself some space. Like opening a window in a stuffy room. And while you sit there, there’s no judgment of the little distractions that the mind tries to come up to keep the conversation going, mindheart just has this huge capacity of kindness and patience to let that go. Then eventually, that state of being follows you after you get up from meditation and you feel like your superhero self all the time, despite continued interaction with yourself.
See, Mind by itself is like Hugh Grant. It’s just got to constantly be talking and saying awkward things – it means well; it means the best of things, but sometimes it just comes out wrong because it just keeps going on and on and finally your heart is like Shh please! I’m trying to feel.
And the heart is like a young film student who’s watched Breathless 100 times and cries when they see a flower wilting by the sidewalk or hear the distant rumble of thunder and it just needs to be loved and understood, but if doesn’t get loved in a healthy way it’s just like your sister when she’s on her period – one sensitive bizznite.
BUT if you join the two, the Hugh Grant part has a way to stay alert and show off his educated vocabulary and actually has some pretty insightful things to say once in a while – not the awkward blather that spews forth when he feels like someone isn’t into him. And since the heart has someone to be the object of their affections and reciprocate, it can also show some insight but also keep things grounded in the present and remain patient and understanding with its feeliness.
So I guess I’m saying in a most inept way, test it out for yourself. I have discovered that by giving my superhero a little more credit, I’ve found greater peace and happiness in the hectic silly ashram by listening to my mindheart superhero.
Hopefully, no one was offended by my ridiculous metaphors. I think in pictures, and sometimes they get a little out of control. Mainly the hippies. You know how they are.
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