Mapping your mind the old-fashioned way
There’s a type of vipassana meditation where you note what your attention is on. If you’re seeing images, you say “images”. If you’re talking to yourself, you say “hearing”, etc.
When we are out and about in the world, we usually don’t know what modalities (senses) our thoughts take. We might get an idea that we want a cookie, but we are not very aware that first we saw an image of a cookie, then we felt the emotion we would feel if we ate one, then we say to ourselves “I want a cookie.” All of that happens unconsciously.
Noting meditation brings the modality into our conscious awareness. With each thought that you wrest into the foreground of your mind, little by little, you are gaining understanding into the functions of your own mind. For instance, with enough repetition, you might realize that the cookie pattern is common: for lots of treats, you first see it, then feel it, then say it.
Awareness loosens up habits, so that thought pattern will eventually be loosened down to nothing. It will also give you a clue into how you can reprogram yourself. But that is another topic.
Bottom line: meditation teaches you how your mind works. And a mind that understands itself works better. I don’t know why that should be so, but it is.
Leave a Reply