Understanding the nature of a noisy mind is one of the attributes of waking up. But it’s not the noise of the world that one wakes up from, it’s the noise of your own mind…
What is a noisy mind that runs your life? The noisy mind manifests because there’s attachment to your thoughts. The thought that arises about something doesn’t matter, it’s the attachment to the thought that forms the noisy mind. To understand the noisy mind one must be aware of its attachments, desires, confusions, and the way the mind works. Without this awareness the puppet on string patterns prevail; certain disciplines can turn one inward to see this. If what you’re doing doesn’t turn you inward, you’ll remain trapped to a noisy state of mind. This is why nothing from the outside truly changes a person because anything from the outside is part of the noisy mind. A noisy mind can’t fix itself; as long as it’s reaching for something on the outside, it remains trying to fix itself and thus it remains noisy. Until this truth is seen, things will stay as they are because nothing is being done to make it different.
We can only go beyond the noisy view if there’s awareness of it. What this means is one has to develop mindfulness of what they’re doing as it’s being done so there‘s awareness of what’s being done. If you know what you’re doing as it’s being done, it leaves little room for the noisy mind to arise. Mindfulness is probably the most important discipline to develop as it anchors you in the moment of what’s being done. A noisy mind only occurs when one lives in the story of a past or future. This noisy mind made constructs keeps the noise active. The present moment can be seen without making it a story even though it passes as quickly as it arises; the past and future can never truly be seen without a story. Because of the lack of discipline to be present, most people live a noisy mind existence…
