How to clean the blackboard of your mind!

** SLIDE 1, Opening** Haven’t we all from time to time, struggled with our brains, flitting between one thing and another, or stuck in a annoyingly repetitive whirlpool of unproductive thought? The mind is such a beautiful thing when it’s working well and such an obstacle-littered steeplechase of difficulties when it’s not. It can be the key to success or the barrier to success. This incredible limitless Swiss Army pocketknife **SLIDE 2, knife**  that we have in our possession doesn’t come with a manual. We don’t really get taught in school how to drive this powerful tool… and yet people are let loose in the world with it and they don’t even have a provisionary license! 

Wouldn’t it be great to more clearly understand and work with our own unique internal model of the universe, our mind? With its productive force, working with it like a friend, being able to occasionally take our busy brain and, like a blackboard, wipe it cleaner, to see more clearly, every so often. Toastmaster, and fellow TMs and guests, meditation is that blackboard cleaner.

1 minute

Back in 1992 I was 20 years old, at university. The shackles of year 12 and family life, had been cast away and I was in my first share house with friends, loving my first car. Uni allowed me to meet people from other disciplines other than fellow Engineering students, who seemed to mostly be boring nerds or boorish blokes, or in some odd cases, both.) 

Tertiary life also brought self-directed reading, a time when the foundations of knowledge were questioned with more confidence. This happened with some travel, too, to France and the UK, getting out of the comfort zone to unfamiliar landscapes. Perhaps you can recall a time in your life when the freedom to explore new knowledge or foreign places really came alive for you? During this time I found some important books which helped inspire me.**SLIDE3, Books**

2 minutes

What I noticed from the reading I'd been doing was that a number of traditions emphasised that an important thing, was not to focus on the voracious demands of the ego, since it represents a hungry and somewhat selfish beast! But to think more widely - what can we do to understand others and meet their needs? If everyone did that, wouldn't life be radically different? Less materialistic, less violent, kinder? It's easy to say Do Unto Others as you would have them Do Unto You, but how do we practice this?

My readings led me to Buddhism, that misunderstood belief system which is known as a religion and yet doesn't have a god, but does have spiritual depth. What I liked about it was that it was consistent with science, its spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama enjoying fixing wristwatches in his spare time, **SLIDE 4, Dalai Lama** and debating with eminent physics researchers and psychologists. One of the main things he enthused about, was meditation. Perhaps I should give it a go. I was struggling at the time with a lot of pressure around family conflict, uni difficulties, and issues around depression, also some mania, and it was before stigma had largely dissipated around discussion and treatment of them. (I didn't particularly want to go onto medication.)

3 minutes

So I wandered with a friend, into Buddha House, in suburban Glen Osmond. It surprised me, because it looked from the outside to be just a house, but with a bedroom converted into a library, and a large lounge room adorned with marone and orange cushions, flowers, incense, etc. Despite being slightly underwhelmed, I do remember feeling calmer just walking into the place, and there seemed to be less chatter or bustle in my head already.

I was there to attend a meditation introduction. I was very self conscious, and concerned that I didn't know the rituals and would make a fool of myself. It was a similar feeling to the occasional times I'd been dragged along to church, usually once a year at Christmas, with my family, before we were allowed to ravage the Xmas presents; which kid is going to say no to anything standing between them and a skateboard?!

But, the idea of sitting quietly with your eyes closed is to most people as terrifying as watching Ridley Scott's Alien movies, or being asked to reach into a dark hessian sack not knowing what slimy or dangerous objects lurk within. It can be a scary proposition, somewhat at odds with the image of the serene cross-legged, eyes closed Buddha, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth. 

The teacher gave some simple but thought provoking instruction and continued the gentle and welcoming words. I took some notes. Buddhist meditation is partly about mindfulness, staying with the serial presentation of internal and external phenomena, or "the moment" but that is only a subset of the practice. Generally there is more contemplative meditation. That could mean taking a part of the Buddhist teachings, for example the concept of impermanence, how things don’t last forever, and looking at how it relates to our experience. Here's a picture to illustrate how things change, fast and slow **SLIDE 5, Impermanence***. 

That's a useful set of teachings in this era, where things we took for granted have changed - bushfires and Covid quickly reshaped our environment, economics and our relationships. It might sound difficult but it's also very freeing to contemplate quietly, it means that a state of suffering also won't last forever. 

Meditation became a part of my life, making time in the morning or before bed to sit for twenty minutes, and I have practiced more or less daily since about 1995. At first it was an effort, it's said that you need to do an activity an average of 66 days before it becomes a habit! Not easy, and a hundred things can distract us, not least the mind's shifting moods. But the best way to think about it is - perfect is the enemy of the good.  I've found out that there are so many types of meditation **SLIDE 6, Types** and that many have value depending on what you need. It's not so much about perfection as working with what is there, and inevitably it brings you insights into your own mind and the world around you.

5 minutes

I'd also like to show some of the benefits and issues I found **SLIDE 7, Benefits** and I am happy to talk with anyone who is interested in meditation practice if you feel it could be of benefit.

(I track my meditation sessions by a timer on an app, called Insight Timer. This does a gentle chime sound at the end of a session. It also lets you see how many people are meditating with the app around the world - there are generally 7,500 when i use it. I've just clocked up 150 concurrent days with at least one session.)

I now practice Transcendental Meditation, which is a whole other topic and is a simple technique which is more direct and profound than most, and has the benefit of being easier too! 

So what does it feel like when you sit down and get into meditation for the first time? This is perhaps one typical session.. **SLIDE 8, Blackboard**

Argh, suddenly my blackboard is having all sorts of colourful chalk writing popping up where I was hoping it would stay clean! Now there's a drawing of a cute pig in the corner, and I can't look away! Now there's a big smudge of different colours right where I want it to be nice and clear! Stupid Brain! I wonder what's for dinner. Oh that's right I'm supposed to be meditating... but gradually.... it slows down... 

The twentieth and now 21st centuries have been successful for humanity at external exploration, setting out to boldly go where no man has gone before - whether into the inky depths of space, underwater, or on a microscopic level.  Striding outward with wind in the sails, ready to explore what's out there, is a very necessary step in the exploration of the world. But the introspection, the chance to go deep to understand the complexity and wonder of the internal world, using the great inheritance of this complex mind we all steward, is what will drive this forward. The coronavirus is forcing many people to maintain a retreat at their homes. What a great time to orient towards the mind, to understand our motivations and shine some light inside, which meditation does, better than anything external.