How To Make Your Gurus Head Spin: Tell Him About Feedback

How To Make Your Gurus Head Spin: Tell Him About Feedback

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The temple was crowded; the Indian stick dance about to begin. I stood chatting with a meditation teacher, formerly an engineer. His own practice, he complained, was heavily burdened by a wandering mind.

He wasnt alone here. The same complaint echoes down through the centuries. Restless mans mind How shall he tame it? Truly I think the wind is no wilder. Weve always assumed this problem has no solution, but weve been wrong.

I had an answer for the Guru. As dancers gathered round I told him a surprisingly simple fix for the problem. I explained why meditation needs feedback.

Why Meditation Needs Feedback

When meditation is seen from a new perspective, a solution to the problem of wandering appears. My background in psychology let me see meditation in the context of skill-learning, and skill learning requires feedback - something meditation lacks.

To perform well at any skill you need to see what you are doing: you need information; knowledge of results. In darts for instance, you need to see your target in order to correct you aim. The rule applies as well to meditation. Practice makes perfect only with guidance from feedback.

Practice Makes Perfect Only With Feedback

The skill involved in meditation is attention. All forms of meditation focus attention (on mantras, candles, etc) to bring results. Why then, if attention is called for, do we constantly drift away? Its because we cant see what we are doing. Attention slips away unseen. Meditation lacks a way to monitor attention. It needs attention feedback.

In meditation, as in darts, we need to know were on target. We need to be alerted to wandered off. Where can we find such signals? The surprising answer: right before our eyes! Feedback has been there, seen but unrecognized, since the ancient practice began. It comes in the form of light.

Light Signals: The Feedback Meditation Needs

If you meditate with open eyes you may have seen a glimmer or brightening of the room. Its a common experience. This light has symbolic meaning: were becoming enlightened, but weve never known its physical basis or cause. When we do, we find the feedback meditation needs.

Light seen in meditation is caused by attention itself. Its seen when attention is good, which holds the eyes steady, keeping the image in the same place on the eyes retinas. This uses up photo pigment, causing distortion in the form of light. Light sensations mean youre on target. They are attention feedback. Heres how it works.

Light confirms attention. Thats positive feedback. The instant your mind wanders, your eyes wander and the light vanishes. Thats negative feedback. Positive and negative feedback give all the guidance you need to stay on target. Instead of wandering you go straight to your goal.

So Simple It Makes Your Head Spin

The engineer clearly understood the feedback solution. As I spoke his eyes widened; his jaw dropped and he said nothing. Astonishment was his only response. How could we possibly have missed a solution so simple, right before our eyes!

Loud music sounded and the revels swirled around us, still he stood, and several minutes later he stood there still. I hoped he was realizing how feedback eliminates the meditations shortfalls.

How Feedback Ends Meditations Shortfalls

With traditional methods, minds wandering causes three shortfalls: (1) unproductive practice time; (2) slow practice skill development and (3) slow, unreliable progress. Feedback eliminates all three problems.

* Unproductive practice time

Without guidance from feedback, even with the best intentions practice time is spent dreaming and drifting when you'd hoped for attention.

* Slow (or even no) practice skill development

With traditional methods, practice skill - your power of attention, is slow to develop. ("After twenty years," warned a Zen Master, "you can finally say you've begun to learn how to sit.") Without feedback you might get even less effective with practice.

* Slow, unreliably progress

Traditional methods yield slow, unreliable progress. (Just sit," says Buddhist tradition, "maybe after many lifetimes you will come upon the truth.") Without feedback theres no guaranteed return on invested time.

These shortfalls end when feedback lights your way. The change is enough to make your head spin. Meditation is a whole new ball game.

Light Your Way With Feedback

With feedback you can make every second of practice productive. Simply by attending, you power of concentration builds. For the first time you can be certain of success.

Put the light to use as feedback and practice does make perfect. You can raise expectations; set higher goals. Feedback lets you hold on to and sustain attention. Beginner or Guru, you can light your own way.

About the Author:
Meditation teacher and author Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. (and contributor: Master Deac Cataldo), cordially invite you to experience meditations full potential at http://www.StraightLineMeditation.com/FocusingDiscs.aspx. Then sample enlightenment self-tests at http://www.TheBestWayToMeditate.com and watch yourself grow.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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