Just imagine you are a passenger on a train. It’s hurtling towards some destination at almost 100mph. You know from where the train has departed, and all of the places it had passed. That rickety bridge earlier wasn’t such a great experience, as you felt like the train was about to de-rail, but you got through it.
You start to grow anxious for the next bridge or bump in the track. You don’t know when it will happen, but surely it will sooner or later. You begin to worry. What if this happens again? What if the train de-rails this time?
Instead, imagine you are now standing on top of a hill. You can see clearly for miles all around, and you see a train traveling through the valley. You see that rickety bridge, but you also see what lays ahead.
Alan Watts once talked of a heron, sitting serenely watching the water. Stillness. This is an attitude to life, and is typical of the eastern ideology of meditation.
Fundamentally, meditation isn’t so much an exercise, as it is a certain way of using ones mind.
Alan Watts
Our eyes and ears are constantly straining to see what lays ahead, but unless you are stood from afar, then you’ll be unable to see the big picture. You are essentially stumbling around in the dark.
From the viewpoint of our hill, the valley is beautiful. Lush and green. You also see that there are more rickety bridges and dangers along the way, but the destination is always there. You can also see the people on the training are frantic.
Throughout our whole lives, we are taught to pay close attention to things. I remember at school my teachers would sit me away from the window, otherwise I’d stare out of it searching for something more interesting. “Pay attention!” they’d say.
You only have to go out into the world to see how focused people are on their phones these days. People seem to fill any gaps in their time, even while driving, staring at a constant feed of noise (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
I often travel, and I never fail to see the rows and rows of people doing just this at the airport while waiting to board a flight. Some, if not most of these people have also become the flow of noise themselves, posting mundane tidbits of information. They do it without any conscious effort. These people are no different to the ones on that train, but it never occurs to them that they can simply get off, and take a moment to observe.
What happens if they simply jump from the train? They’ll likely suffer loss or get hurt, or if they are lucky they’ll fall into a soft patch of grass. What I’m saying here is that they can’t simply stop going to work, flying to business meetings, or meeting their friends for lunch.
You see, it’s hard to just abandon a way of life that has been so deeply rooted since your childhood years. But, with practice and patience (and meditation), you will find that you get get off that train from time to time, and board it again whenever you please.
It’s all just a matter of perspective. While the people on the train grow anxious, the man on the hill sits still, observing it all with clarity.