Planting a Seed

Maybe you have some problem to solve. The usual way to go about this would be to think things through logically, considering all the possibilities, until you hit upon a suitable solution. Well, that's fine, as far as it goes; but not all problems have a straightforward logical solution. Some problems have a whole series of equally valid solutions; some problems have no solution at all. For some problems the solution may be that you are addressing the wrong problem, or at least addressing it in the wrong way. In the standard, linear way of thinking, a problem is like a quiz question: there is always one optimum solution to each problem - but the real world isn't usually like that. In the real world things are much more complicated.

A different way to find a solution to a problem is to plant a seed. That is, use the problem that you wish to solve as the focus of your meditation. Don't try to solve it (though I know that will be a temptation). Just examine it. Let it take shape in your mind. Let it talk to you - not necessarily literally, but if it does, don't worry: you're not going mad!

I can't guarentee that it will happen every time, but you may find that the seed suddenly shoots and the answer pops straight into your head.

This isn't magic; neither is it a miracle. You're simply utilising parts of your mind that you probably never know that you had. Remember this: memories have to go somewhere while we are not actually in the process of recalling them, and that somewhere has to be accessible by the conscious mind one way of the other. If memories can be lost and found again (think of Proust) then it seems logical that other subconscious thoughts are hanging around in our mind somewhere, waiting to be discovered in just the same way.

If you're not convinced, then think about this: have you ever lost something, and can't find it, however hard you look. You know that it must be in the room somewhere, but for the life of you, you can't find it? In the end, it becomes an obsession - although it is not absolutely essential that you find the thing now you know that you won't be able to rest until you actually do find it.

Then, for one reason or another you get distracted. Something happens which forces you to divert your mind totally from the problem for a short while. The telephone rings, or the baby starts crying: something like that. When the distraction comes to an end, you suddenly remember where the object is. It's almost as though you knew where it was all along, only your mind was teasing you by refusing to tell you. Or rather: you were so self absorbed in the search that you weren't actually listening to what your mind was trying to say.

Things like that happen to me all the time, and I'm sure that it's not just coincidence. I believe that I really did know the answer, only in the panic of madly searching for the item my conscious mind was blotting out what the subconscious mind was trying to tell it.

So, the next time that you have a problem to solve, try a little experiment. Try not to think about the problem too much - if fact, try to forget about it altogether, if you can. You may be suprised to find that the answer pops into your head just when you're least expecting it; just like an apparently dead seed can suddenly burst into life.

Don't get too upset if you don't seem to get a solution. Some problems (such as "How do I feed the world's starving millions?") will naturally take a little longer to solve than problems such as "Where did I leave my car keys?" In fact, when you do try this exercise, start with something simple and leave the big questions until later. Sometimes, though, even the simple questions don't yield easy answers.

The Train Driver and the Signalman

Think of a train. Who is really in control, the driver or the signalman?

Think about it.

At first sight the driver appears to be in control. He can start and stop the train, speed it up and slow it down; but the train itself can only follow the track that's laid out in front of it. Whether or not it ever reaches its destination depends not so much upon the driver upon how the points and the signals are set.

The signalman, sitting in his signalbox, appears at first sight to have little or no direct influence over the train. Yet at all times he knows where the train is and he knows where it is going because he was already set the points and the signals. He is responsible for ensuring that the train reaches its destination and is not diverted onto a loop line.

The "train of thought" that runs in our head operates in a remarkably similar way. In normal consciousness, we are the driver of the train, sitting in the cab and believing ourselves to be in control of the powerful machine called Thought. We can stop at any number of stations on the way, but we cannot get out of the train. There is nothing bad about being in the driver's cab of a Train of Thought: in fact at times it can be an exhilarating experience. Just as long as you recognise the fact that you are not actually in control of where you are going. If the points ahead happen to be set a particular way, then that is the way that you will have to go.

In mediation consciousness, we are the signal man. We follow the progress of a particular train of thought without actually riding with it. We see it stop at the stations, speed through tunnels. We experience everything that the train does, but as an observer, not a passenger. Now, though, we have the ability to set the points in whatever way we want. If we see the Train heading onto a branch line, we can reset the points to bring it back onto the main line. If we think that it is going too fast, we can set the "caution" signal to slow it down. We can divert it onto the line that will take it to the destination that require, rather than simply getting on board and hoping it will take us where we want to go. No longer do we have the exhilaration of actually travelling with the train, but at least we are now really in control.

Next time you are travelling with your Train of Thought, try to see it from the signalman's point of view instead of the drivers. Try setting the points a different way to how they would normally be set, and see what happens.

Expanding consciousness

"Expanding consciousness" is probably the most ridiculous phrase in the entire lexicon of meditation literature.

Apparently someone once fed the phrase "Expanding consciousness" into a computer used for the translation of texts between a range of languages. The computer was programmed to translate the phrase from English to French to German to Russian to Japanese to Korean and back to English again. The phrase that finally came out was "getting a big head". Seems appropriate, somehow.

Forget about expanding your consciousness. If there is any potential for expansion, then it will happen all by itself. Concentrate on clearing out the fluff and the debris from that part of your mind that is already conscious. For most of us, that is a far more urgent task.