By Cathy Hird
In the soft fresh snow, skies press silently forward. It is a quiet morning without wind although the birds are hiding from the cold. After a hectic season, this is the perfect way to quiet my racing mind.
Some who teach Hindu meditation refer to the way our thoughts jump around as "the monkeys of the mind." When our brain is running like a troupe of monkeys, it is time to seek quiet. What practice do you take up to quieten your mind?
A Hindu practice that I learned years ago is meditation using a mantra. A mantra is simply a word that is repeated silently to keep your thoughts focused. As I learned this practice, you choose a place where you can sit comfortably, cross-legged on a cushion, or on a chair with feet on the floor. Set a timer for half an hour, and as you sit still, breathing quietly, you repeat the word over and over in your mind. If your thoughts wander to making dinner or the snow shoveling, pull them back to the word.
People chose different mantras. The word I learned to use is maranatha (Aramaic for come Lord)." A Hindu option is Om shanti, shanti, shanti (shanti means peace). The focus is on the act of saying the word not its meaning, although I find I want to be comfortable with the meaning.
People who are experienced in this practice may say the word on the in-breath and be silent on the out. I never got that proficient. I need the mantra to keep me in the silence, for without it, the monkeys climb back in.
Yoga and Tai Chi are also practices that encourages the mind to quieten. These use our body to focus our attention. In Tai Chi, the one I know better, the practitioner is encouraged to be aware of what each part of the body is doing. With the repeated exercises and the combination of movements called a "set," we may at first know what our knees are doing and forget our hands, or we are aware of our elbows and forget our shoulders. Weight shifts from one leg to the other, and at first we stumble. With the repetition and over time, we slowly gain awareness of our whole body. We learn to keep our body straight and our self balanced. In the process of focusing on what our body is doing, our mind is stilled.
The production of art can also be a time of stillness. As a weaver, once the project is set up on the loom, I can focus on each throw of the shuttle, watch the piece grow slowly. A painter focuses on the work in front of them. A potter concentrates on clay. A knitter picks up a straightforward project for those times when they want the fingers to take over.
Athletic endeavors can also focus us. Swimming lengths lets us concentrate on where are arms are going, what our legs are doing. A long run, ride or ski requires all our attention on keeping our feet going. We cannot solve the problem at work or the issue at home because we have to keep our attention on moving our body forward.
Getting the monkeys of the mind to sit still can take time and intention. Wendell Berry wrote about going camping and the time it took for him to be comfortable with stillness ("An Entrance to the Woods" in Recollected Essays 1965-1980). He describes driving at seventy miles an hour and hardly noticing the terrain. Then, turning onto back roads he slows his pace until he gets out of his car to walk. He writes, "And now, here at my camping place, I have stopped altogether. But my mind is still keyed to seventy miles an hour. And having come here so fast, it is still busy with the work I am usually doing." It takes two days, but eventually his mind arrives where his body is.
If our mind is already at ease, sitting by a roaring fireplace or warming our hands on a cup of tea will be a relaxing joy. But sometimes we need help. Our society runs at high speed and keeps our mind hopping. What practice do you take up to still your mind and find peace?
Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.
