The central tool for investigating consciousness is our own observation. With mindfulness, we can direct our attention to notice what is going on inside us, and study how our mind operates.
What we ordinarily call the mind usually refers to the “thinking mind”, the ceaseless fountain of ideas, images, creativity, evaluation, and problem solving that spontaneously streams through our mind. But when we look closely, we discover that the mind is not just its thoughts. It also includes a wide range of mind states or qualities around and below the thought process: feelings, moods, intuition, instincts.
But there is another aspect of consciousness that arises with each moment of experience and is flavored by that experience. This is the momentary, here-and-now single state of consciousness. There are joyful states of consciousness, fearful states, expanded and contracted ones, regretful states and loving ones. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh describes it this way: “The mind is like a television set with hundreds fo channels. Which channel will you turn on?“
With mindfulness, we can learn to acknowledge which channel is playing.
PRACTICE: The River of Sound
Sit comfortably and at ease. Close your eyes. Let your body be at rest and your breathing be natural. Begin to listen to the play of sounds around you. Notice those that are loud or soft, far and near. After you listened for a few minutes, let yourself sense, feel, or imagine that your mind is not limited to your head. Feel that your mind extends outward beyond the most distant sounds.
Relax in this openness and just listen. Let the sounds come and go, whether loud or soft, far or near, let them be clouds in the vast sky of your own awareness. As you rest in this open awareness for at time, notice how thoughts and feelings also arise and vanish like sounds in the open space of mind. Pleasant and unpleasant thoughts, pictures, words, joys, and sorrows – let them all come and go like clouds n the clear sky of mind.
Relax. Rest in this openness. Let sensations float and change. Allow thoughts and images, feelings and sounds to come and go. As you do, pay attention to the consciousness itself. Notice how the open space of awareness is clear, transparent, and timeless. This is your own true nature. Rest in it. Trust it. It is home.
This excerpt from The Wise Heart was graciously reprinted with permission by the author Jack Kornfield.
