Establishing A Base

A base needs to be established so there’s a place you can return to when the squirrel cage mind is leading the charge. This is a place where it’s safe and secure away from the insanity of your own mind…

Recently there was a study done where the subjects had a choice of picking electric shock therapy or sit in a empty room for fifteen minutes. Everyone picked sitting in a room. After the experiment they asked the subjects if they had the choice again which would they pick, and they all said the electric shock therapy. I find this astonishing, but I also get the misunderstanding on meditation on why this is so. It’s because so many people don’t truly investigate what mediation actually is and what it does. I can tell you this, it’s not magic, but I would like to share my experience on how I meditate.

The first thing to do is to establish a base or anchor. Everyone who is alive has some kind of base that is called home, where the day starts and most times it ends. Even a homeless person has some kind of base to start the day regardless if it’s under a bridge in a cardboard box or in a tent. Once this base is established, the next step is to know why it’s needed; its needed for the same reason someplace is needed to call home, it’s a base which will be used to return to when the mind wanders. As one always returns home so will the established base be used in this way.

It the beginning the mind wanders a lot because of the lack of developed discipline; it has to wander because there is nothing in place to keep it from not doing so. The main reason meditation is difficult is because people think it’s something to do. You will never quiet the mind with the same mind, it’s something that occurs on its own. You sit the mind wanders, you return to whatever the established base is, the breath is one such base; as this is done over and over the mind wanders less and less. And as stated before, it’s not magic and the most important part of establishing any base is the discipline developed that arises on its own…