The Mind is a Graveyard

A teacher of mine said to me some years ago, ‘the mind is a graveyard’. At first I didn’t quiet get what he was going on about, but upon further explanation it began to land for me, and today it has deepened in terms of its meaning and further, the embodied understanding of it.

I will break it down in an example. When we have an experience which lets say didn’t go the way we wanted it to, we can later find ourselves ruminating for hours about ‘what might have been’ or what ‘could have been different’ or ‘if I were to do it again I would have done it like this’. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe there is time for genuine reflection or critical analysis for certain situations and job functionality. But when we find ourselves endlessly going over and over in our minds about something which is simply not happening in our direct experience, then, as I said to a client this week, it is a level of delusion.

Let me break it down a little further. Lets say you find yourself right now sitting in your office or your living room, reading this. Once the article is read, you find yourself thinking about a past relationship which didn’t work out, the missed opportunities of happiness, the regret about raising our voice or wishing they hadn’t been so (fill in the blank). All the while - you are sat in your living room, the thought is becoming deeply hypnotic. You’ve seen it when someone becomes so deeply intrenched in thought, that its like they are literally somewhere else, their expression is vacant and it seems like they are ‘away’. Thought can be so very powerful, that it is but the most effective and efficient way to ‘disassociate’ away from our current direct experience.

So here you are, in your living room or your office, lets say there is a hot mug of coffee next to you, there is the sound of birds, or traffic outside, the sunlight is shining across the floor, you can feel the warmth or coolness of the temperature of the room, there is perhaps some sensation in your body, an ache in your back or neck perhaps, or a sensation of being full after a meal, or perhaps hungry. That’s would be your direct - plugged into experience - of your right now. Then on top of that is the thoughts ‘what could have been, what should have been, it was their fault, my fault, what shall I plan for later, how much money did I spend, I shouldn’t have said that’. On top is this hypnotic talk going on. Chattering away with itself, or you may say - my self. But it truth its ‘itself’. (More on that another time). We are ‘taken out’ of the here and now, but this analysis, this endless chatter and this plethum of noise which we have taken to be ‘ourself’.

Now lets say, if all that ‘chatter’ suddenly stopped. What would happen? Would you disappear? What remains? I would invite you to consider that, if the chattering stops, you still remain. Your direct experience of the sounds, sights, sensations, still remain.

So back to the title - what did my teacher mean that ‘the mind is a graveyard’. It is an invitational perspective to consider - maybe all this mind rumination isn't actually doing anything, going anywhere, or dare I say even helpful. Thoughts are constantly painting a perception on top of simply what is occurring. And when thoughts are repeating ‘she always does this, they don't like me’, these are recurring thoughts which are just being ‘identified with’. They seem to ‘shape’ our reality but that is because we are believing the subtle yet immersive nature of thought commentary.

My invitation for you today is to consider the phrase ‘mind is a graveyard’ and when you find yourself heavily in thought - it is a narrative playing on top of your direct experience - most commonly pulling away from the here and now.

Something you can actively try is pulling you awareness from you head, down into your body, just the intension alone is enough - anchor into your senses. Feel, see, hear, smell, taste your way back into your direction experience, and spend less time hanging out in the graveyard, and more time in the fullness and richness of life here and now.

Let me know how this landed for you.

P.S I wanted to leave you with this Hamlet quote:

“The native hue of resolution / is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought”

Hamlet describes how the initial richness of Life and Action - is so often clouded over by thought and rumination.