This lead me to thinking about what are the qualities other than mindfulness needed to bring the mind to stillness; antidotes if you like. Forgiveness and acceptance are the obvious ones, both of oneself and others. Selflessness because of the snare of desire and the delusion of trying to maintain an identity. And paradoxically faith in oneself, that you’ll get through things. Commitment because we have responsibilities in the world and we can trust ourselves to meet those to the best of our ability, so stop worrying. Mindfulness of connectedness because that’s what makes us whole.

What do you think?

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Alcohol and drugs harm this part of the brain, which is why perhaps you often find injunctions to not drink or take drugs.

On the other hand, from what I can gather sleep, regular high protein meals, exercise, goal setting and following, and most interestingly meditation all help to develop the prefrontal cortex.

It seems that meditation thickens the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) which controls the amygdala (anger and fear), the hypothalamus (appetite, sex drive), the nucleus ambens (pleasure) and the insula (empathy).

But if we were to support our meditation practice, we could engage in exercise, in fact all the things we listed above. And again from what I’ve been able to find, Omega-3 oils play an important role in brain function, according to Amen in Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, who also says that DHA, which is in flaxseed oils “is critical for normal brain development in fetuses and infants and for the maintenance of normal brain function throughout life.”

What’s also interesting is that the ACC seems to contain a lot of serotonin transporters. Amen says elsewhere that Inositol is “a natural chemical found in the brain that is reported to help neurons use serotonin more efficiently.”

And how about this? Vitamin D3 “activates receptors on neurons in regions important in the regulation of behavior, and it protects the brain by acting in an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity.”

But don’t accept what I’ve found out. Rather think about how your physical lifestyle is affecting your practice.

Something I’d like to add is that there is a deliberate practice that uses the ajna chakra, or 3rd eye as it’s sometimes called. The “ā” meditation, which uses a process of visualisation and an energy sweep through the ajna chakra.

And then there’s mindfulness of emptiness, beyond thought. Perhaps the physical brain correspondence here is the connection between the PFC and the cerebellum. Perhaps strengthening this connection is the physical correspondence of opening the third eye. Food for thought, don’t you think?

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However our Zen forefathers basically said that to discover ones own true nature one must stop seeking, even seeking after enlightenment. If you correlate that with the idea that we find what we look for, then seeking and seeing are inextricably linked. And that leads to the idea in the Voice of the Silence that we must be deaf and blind to all external phenomena.

In The Labors of Hercules the story of Scorpio concludes when Hercules lifts the Hydra into the light of die and consequently all of its heads to die, but one. A. A. Bailey suggested that the immortal head was sexuality, if I remember rightly. Maybe I don’t. But perhaps this immortal head was seeking. There is no doubt though that sexuality drives a whole lot of seeking of its own. And the sociobiologists would argue that sexual competition drives the need for status, for wealth, etc. I tend to agree.

Yet seeking is very much in the mind. And I think being mindful of this is a very useful tool to aid ones practice. I would suggest that letting go of seeking enables one to be receptive to one’s true nature.

I guess if I were to have to make a call I’d say that I am taming the bull.  I’m reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approach to body building; everytime the same routine, session in, session out. It’s not about making it interesting, it’s about getting the job done. And I’m reminded of something Gil Fronsdal once said; to paraphrase: that people think my talk was boring is a good thing. After all, what we’re pointing to is interesting not the pointing itself. But it seems we are making finer and finer distinctions until there are no distinctions at all.

So, this taming, seems to be about getting some distance on the mind; the kind of distance where thoughts are seen to be external, which is I guess glimpsing the bull. Perhaps distance should be called spaciousness. Thoughts arise within a much wider space than the thoughts themselves. And because of that distance there is a measure of control, which seems to be no control at all, because when there is control it is really thoughts controlling thoughts. Call this wider space presence.

But, now there’s a coming and going within this presence. That is to say from the seemingly wider awareness back to identification with thought. That’s why I think this is called taming the bull and also why I think persistence is key. It seems to me it’s more like breaking in a horse, except not only are we breaking it in, but we’re learning to ride at the same time.  We fall off, i.e. return back to identification with thought. Then we realise this and get back on.  That’s the coming and going or Shin Shau’s wiping the mirror, I guess.

But those who have gone before talk about achieving a sudden realisation, an insight so deep which brings this coming and going to an end. I think we need to get grips with what those who apparently have made the leap have had to say about it. Not that there is anything to be grasped of course.  I’m sure Arnold did his research.  Aside from the fact that buddha is found within one’s own mind, I wonder what I’m not yet seeing.

In the meantime Hui Neng’s realisation on hearing his predecessor recite the Diamond Sutra comes to mind, which was something around the idea of at all moments keeping the mind free.  Perhaps awakening is a matter of spiritual will.

I’ve been listening to Auckland Zen Centre‘s Amala sensei’s commentary on Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou by Sheng Yen.

It was a reminder to me of how important discomfort is. I’m between homes at the moment and am house sitting a friend’s home. The break in my habits has brought a small degree of discomfort. A reminder of the rewards of not moving away from discomfort or moving towards comfort. Neither attachment nor aversion.

It also served as a yet another reminder of the importance of mindfulness. Mindful that comfort and discomfort sit lightly within the emptiness we call awareness. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with discomfort and nothing intrinsically right with comfort, except as useful information to our awareness.

Something else that’s been happening for me over the past few days is getting to a deeper realisation that the dharma is just a raft. Yes, it gets us to the other shore, but then we throw it away. Without discussion on attaining all dharmas or evening attaining no dharma. What’s the point in that?

And then there’s the great understanding, which for me is mostly intellectual, I must admit, but nevertheless it’s a beautiful understanding. I’ve been asking myself lately “What’s meditating?” It’s a very interesting question in the light of no object and no subject. Having disproved the I, just what is meditating? All I can honestly answer right now is “Don’t know.”

In a family, if there is one person who practices mindfulness, the entire family will be more mindful. Because of the presence of one memeber who lives in mindfulness, the entire family is reminded to live in mindfulness. If in one class, one student lives in mindfulness, the entire class is influenced. – Thich Nanh Hanh

While I intellectually understand that all beings arise within one’s own mind and that we vow to liberate all beings within our minds. Thich Nanh Hanh‘s idea above fits with my own experience a lot better.

And it truly inspires me as indeed did the movie “Doing Time, Doing Vipassana” ( which I managed to find at Vipassana Publications Aotearoa for only $6.50), in which a new inspector general of prisons puts officers and inmates alike on a ten day vipassana course. The transformation of the inmates lives seemed wonderful. Also inspiring were the volunteers that gave the course.

I’m not sure what it is that I want to do, but there is something around giving to the community that I’m in, wherever that may be. I find it so reassuring that my practise benefits others that it gives me the confidence to extend that somehow. Yes, I give money, but I haven’t given time.

So what will it be? I don’t know. I’ve discovered that sitting and waiting for inspiration can take some time, but doing and allowing inspiration to occur within the doing seems to work better. Something around stillness within activity.

Anyway I checked out the Auckland City Mission and it seems they’d rather have donations than volunteers and that’s fine. I guess these organisations develop their own ways of doing things and to avoid chaos people need to fit into their structures; theirs is a business hours one. They can have some money. So what is it then?

I then found Volunteering NZ, which appears to be a great resource. And I learned that over one million New Zealanders are actively involved in volunteer work. That’s almost one quarter of the population that feels it has enough time to contribute to the community. It is wonderful. Let’s see what they suggest.