DISTRACTIONS...
Webster's Dictionary defines a distraction as, "An object that directs one's attention away from something". In real time let's look at it this way. Say you are studying for an exam and you hear a dog barking or a fly lands on your head. The concentration you had on the subject matter is gone and has been replaced by the sound of the dog or the feeling of the fly. So you regroup and get back to studying. This may happen a number of times during your studies unless you are locked away in an isolation chamber free from outside distractions. So let's assume you can lock yourself away. No dogs barking no pesky insects. Life and concentration are good again. EXCEPT...
We possess a little thing called the mind and the mind likes to work and think. Did you ever lay down at night, tired, ready for sleep and all of a sudden you have thoughts of things that have no business interfering with your want to just shut down and sleep? Gotta get the car inspected, have to pick Grandma up at the airport, should have painted the bathroom blue instead of green and on and on. Subconscious thought. The mind operates on roughly 90% subconscious and 10% conscious thought so there's a whole lot of stuff in there. Everything we do, everything we experience is stashed in a file in our brain waiting for whenever it may be useful. All day the mind is processing information and locking it away. Lights, sounds, feelings, all of what life throws at us. The mind observes, processes and stores. So when we lay down at night we expect it to just shut off. And if we are lucky enough to accomplish this in a reasonable amount of time the mind never really stops. Without external stimulation the mind creates its own by going into the storage units and pulling stuff out. This is why we dream or have nightmares while we sleep. The mind likes to work. So what does all this have to do with meditation?
Well, we were talking about distractions during meditation and they can come in the form of sound, feeling or thought. Let's go back and breathe. Just relax and concentrate on the air moving in and out of the nose. How long can you sustain this concentration before you hear something, feel something, or think something? My guess is not to long. If the outside (sound or feeling) doesn't get you the inside (thought will). And eventually the outside manifests itself inside. A barking dog then allows the mind to analyze where the sound is coming from, how many dogs are there, how far away they are, is it a friendly or mean bark, and why is this stupid dog barking while I'm trying to meditate. All in the matter of seconds but valuable time taken away from the concentration needed for meditation. So how do we get around the inevitable distraction?
Next post...DEALING WITH DISTRACTIONS - PT 1
