When the mind wanders off how can we become more aware of its wandering faster?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, when the mind wanders off, how can we become more aware of the mind’s wandering and then get it back? Yes, awareness of our lack of self-awareness is also a step towards self-awareness. I’m not conscious where I am, what I am doing. So, if I become aware of that, awareness of our lack of self-awareness is also a step forward in our self-awareness.
So, earlier our mind just took us everywhere and we also went along willingly. But now, why is the mind going there? I don’t want it to go there. So, although the mind is going off, at least we have become enough self-aware to recognize the mind is going off in a wrong direction.
So, we can compare the mind to a horse. In horse training, there is a phrase called breaking the horse. Breaking doesn’t mean physically breaking it.
Breaking means basically taming the horse. Training the horse to become malleable to the will of the rider. So, when the horse is not broken, the person sits on the horse and the horse just goes off.
And that’s how we have got the phrase in English, taken for a ride. Taken for a ride means we are just taken somewhere where we didn’t intend to go. So, like that, often our mind takes us off for a ride.
But over a period of time, when the horse trainer starts pulling at the horse, trying to pull it back up, force it, at that time there is a resistance. But although the resistance is there, that is a step towards breaking the horse, towards taming the horse. So, like that, we didn’t feel very discouraged if our mind wanders off.
My mind has wandered off. At least we have realized it. So, that is also a step forward in our journey towards self-awareness.
Now, in general, if we have certain commitments which force us to be attentive, then that is very helpful in coming back to self-awareness. So, for example, if I am sitting and hearing, and I may just wander off and I may not realize that I have wandered off. But if I decide I am going to write, that activity of writing forces a certain level of self-awareness.
So, even if I don’t feel a very interesting point, but I just decide, maybe every 2-3 minutes I will write one point. And look back, 15 minutes later, I didn’t write anything. Then I can think, oh, was I really aware or not aware? So, basically, we can find out, it is not that in all activities we wander off.
There are certain activities in which we wander off, certain activities which we like. We really get naturally focused on those. But where we tend to wander off, it is good to create activities or breaks that force us to become self-aware.
For example, when we are studying scripture, there is a time when we can just wander off. We can just turn off. We were reading a book, but we are not reading anything actually.
So, if I decide that after I read one page, I am going to write one sentence of what was a significant point of what I read. It may be just in my own words or it may be just a replication of what I read. But I am going to do something.
Or if after I read one page, I will express the essential message in my own words. So, that intentional break where we do an activity where we are forced to become aware, that is what brings us back to self-awareness. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that, This is 5.26, that wherever the mind wanders, bring it back.
So, if we have this kind of awareness-forcing activities, just these activities force us to become aware. Just like if you are driving and a speed breaker comes. We may just be lost in our own thoughts while driving, but say a speed breaker comes.
Then what happens? It joins us. It forces us to become aware. So, if there is a school nearby and children may be walking along, they are slowed down by that.
So, just like that speed breaker, by a jolt, brings our awareness back from wherever it has gone. So, same way, we have to create our own speed breakers, our own activities which jolt us out of our lack of self-awareness. So, what those activities will be? They will vary from person to person.
But usually, it involves our doing something consciously. So, we may decide that, okay, every day at the end of the day, I’ll just recapitulate. For 5 minutes, I’ll just go over the whole day.
Maybe I’ll write a journal every day. And then I can think, okay, while doing this activity, I was so absent-minded. This activity has absorbed.
Please evaluate. So, basically, finding out what kind of awareness-forcing activity works for us, that will depend on our own nature. Some people may like to just write things down.
Some people may just like to walk around. If they are doing a particular activity, then I just get up and walk for a minute or two. That forces me back into awareness of where I am.
For some other people, it might just be taking a few deep breaths. And we take a few deep breaths. For others, it might just be reciting some verses.
Especially during our meditation, because we just sit in one place and try to chant, that time the mind can just go everywhere. So, if you create something, okay, after a periodic time, I’m going to recite some prayers. I’m going to utter some verses.
I’m going to do something. Maybe take a few deep breaths. So, those activities, if we create breaks in our activities, those breaks will force us to become self-aware.
So, what will happen is, the mind will keep wandering. Its wandering will not stop very easily. But two things.
The amplitude of its wandering, that will decrease. So, earlier it would just wander off into something entirely anti-devotional. Now, it will wander off to something which is semi-devotional.
Something which is devotional also. So, the amplitude will decrease. And further, the frequency of the wandering will also decrease.
So, say, earlier in a 10-minute period, my mind was wandering 10 times. But now, in a 10-minute period, it just wanders once or twice. So, it will decrease.
So, there are two things. There is control of the mind and there is conversion of the mind. Control of the mind means that the mind wants to go off here and there and then we control it.
Like, I go back to the earlier horse example. The horse wants to go here and there. The horse trainer has to be expert to control the horse.
But over a period of time, once the horse trainer and the horse develop a relationship, the horse wants to please the horse trainer. Then the horse becomes convertive. So, while we are practicing bhakti, we have to focus on controlling.
It goes off here, bring it back. And I talked about some ways in which we can do that control. But we also need to know that just by the practice of bhakti itself, the contact with Krishna will purify the mind.
And then it will become convertive. Krishna talks about how the mind is presently our enemy, but it can become our friend. So, even if this self-awareness doesn’t seem to be coming much, despite our efforts right now, if we just perceive it in the practice of bhakti, it will happen at a subconscious level.
At a conscious level, we try to become ourselves more and more aware. But at subconscious level also, the awareness will increase more and more because the forces that make the mind wander off, they will become decreased by the practice of bhakti. Does this answer your question?