Working Overtime

I try to pay attention to how active my mind is.  That bad boy is working on something all of the time.  That bad boy is working overtime.  My current effort to improve my meditation skills has made me more aware of this hyperactivity.  I try to sit quietly and empty my mind of all thoughts and when that fails - and god knows it fails - I try to let the roiling thoughts simply wash over me.  Don't control them; don't corral them; don't try to force them to stop; don't judge them as good or bad, as tempting as this is.  They're just electrical impulses in my head.  they're not even real.

This formal exercise in meditation makes me more aware of how active my head is ALL OF THE TIME.  I walked to my coffee shop this morning - after an early morning meeting because sometimes I get my priorities right - and I had to laugh at all of the shit that was occupying me.  Planning out future outcomes that almost certainly won't come true; reliving past events that are long dead and gone, and irretrievable; and a ridiculous amount of idle fantasizing about things that are beyond implausible.

This on a beautiful, beautiful autumn morning on an interesting city street full of stores and traffic and people going about their business.  Half the time I'm so preoccupied with thinking that I don't know where I am.

Reportedly, anecdotally, someone once expressed frustration at the slow pace of their    meditation to the Dali Lama.  

Don't worry about it," the D.L. is said to have replied.  "You should begin to see some improvement if you stick with it for 10 or 15 years."

Personally, I can't see the D.L. using the phrase "stick with it."