4: MEDITATION IS NON‐LINEAR THINKING
VIDEO: MEDITATE BY LETTING YOUR MIND BE AS IT IS – YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2va3j‐Ub3B0
MEDITATION IS NON‐LINEAR THINKING
For most of us, “Linear thinking” has been the main mode in which we have used our minds.
Linear thinking is analytic, methodic, rational and logical. It is where one thing follows another, if A and B happen, then I should do C. Linear thinking is what is needed in most jobs. But linear thinking is not the only way we know things, our selves, others, and the world.
In contrast, a non‐linear thinker tends to have a myriad of unrelated thoughts that somehow interrelate; these thoughts lead to conclusions that might otherwise not have been evident, with a sense that the conclusions are more profound and insightful.
A linear thinker knows things one thing at a time, in pieces. A non‐linear thinker knows things all together, as a whole.
In my walking meditation (and moving meditation while driving a car) I have had many experiences where a deep understanding or solution to something I was dealing with just came, suddenly, whole and complete. A friend calls these “spiritual downloads.” What happens is that this whole understanding of a complete thing, comes all at once, not in parts. These are non‐linear understandings that just come, unsought.
And it is not just me who can do this, everyone has this within them. For most of us, life trains us in linear thinking. Meditation, living in the feel of your body and open to it, opens this non‐linear mind, the mind that understands as a whole, not in parts. There is evidence to support this; in MRI brain scans of meditators, they found out that the Corpus Callosum gets bigger and more robust. This part of the brain connects the right brain to the left brain, the linear thinking brain with the holistic brain.
I think as we get older that this is of vital importance. This is the time when we must really absorb and integrate all of life’s lessons, and develop our legacy. To live it well, we need to use all our internal resources. This means using all of our mind, not just part of it. And regular meditation helps do just that.
The following is adapted from buddhism.stackexchange.com
Meditation is not linear, as it involves the whole of ourselves. There is one part/side of us that is connected to our rationality, logic, linear thinking, and understanding. The other side of us is connected to feelings, nurturing, caring, compassion, love, and all the emotional qualities. This is how our right and left hemisphere in the brain is programmed. The left side of the brain processes information in a linear manner. It processes from part to whole. It takes pieces, lines them up, and arranges them in a logical order; then it draws conclusions. The right brain however, processes from whole to parts, holistically.
Intellectual understanding about meditation is never the same as the actual experience of it. It is similar to that of having to bite into a mango to know its taste. We can read everything that there is about a mango – that it can be sweet, delicious, soft, etc. but we cannot imagine its taste unless we get the feeling of the mango on our tongue and have the personal experience. Then we can no longer debate whether the mango is sweet or not, because we have experienced the truth. This is the difference between just thinking or thinking coupled with the experience of feeling.
As meditation deepens, the internal thinking comes to a stop, and memory of past experiences never come up. From there on there is no such thing as a linear process. From there on it is total awareness in staying with the breath. This is being one with your meditation, singleness of mind.
CLEAR MIND PRESENT MOMENT 10 MINUTE MINDFULNESS GUIDED MEDITATION