The Key to Mental Discipline
© 2005
>> I've been doing Bardon system for a few years now. I am still basically on step 1. I have completed all the other parts and done 3 soul mirrors so far, but am still stuck on the mental part of it. My mind seems to be totally out of control and I haven't been able to successfully do one pointedness of the mind or emptiness of the mind for more than a half minute. There are times when I succeed more and gain a certain amount of quietness for a bit. This only lasts for a few days though and it is back to my mind going full throttle. This has honestly been the pattern for the last 3 years, I learn something new to try and do it, but my mind seems to quiet for a bit then learns how to get back to being noisy. I'm absolutely determined to get it, but lately this problem almost knocked me off the spiritual path totally. Though I find that the thought of failure brings up huge amounts of determination to stick with it and get it, so right now I feel extremely passionate about getting it. I'm just hoping you can offer some advice on how to quiet my mind and keep it quiet over the long-term. I also feel like I have a case of learned helplessness either building or in place because of my past failures. I really need to succeed, but I don't know what else to do to overcome this wall. I'm sure the answer is pretty simple and if you could share any insights it would be amazing! <<
The key is not to "quiet the mind"; but rather, to *ignore* the underlying mental chatter. Ignore it and distance yourself from it by focusing your attention upon something of your choosing. Let the mental chatter continue on its own *in the background* without any participation on your part.
Mental discipline is about focusing your attention where you want it to be focused. If you are focused solely upon the objective of quieting your mind then you are in fact focused upon the dis-quiet and are feeding its continuation. So focus instead upon something other than that ever-present dis-quiet.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
21 Mar 2005