Taking the Mysticism out of Meditation

Once one gets past all the 'sacred' and 'divine,' and such, the ideological speculation about meditation, it's pretty simple to comprehend. Mediation is a way to still, and to discipline one's mind. After all, Gawd is everything, or nothing, so no need to bring that into the equation yet. Let's just stick to more empirical matters at hand for the moment.

The mind has a mind of it's own so to speak. It's gonna do what it's gonna do with or without that part of one self we think of as I and me (the ego complex, for want of a better term). It does that because that's the way it is built. The mind is a thinking, doing machine. Witness the autonomous system, taking care of a complex system of things the want of which would have us in our graves. The trouble is, the mind can get out of control, like a horse that has taken off with out the rider's consent. Constant worry, going over and over the same old things, personal criticisms that one repeats to oneself all the time, and perhaps a host of other more psycho/pathological disorders such as schizophrenia and personality disorder, are iterations of what the mind can do when one doesn't have a proper grasp on the reins. Mediation, simply put, is the exercise one does with one's mind to bring it under conscious control. The more esoteric and mystical interpretations are subjective, and personal. I happen to think that mediation is a way to hook into the universe, but that's another story, my story, and not germaine to the issue at hand.*

So, the idea is, practice stilling one's mind, and then, when one wants to, let it go in the directions that one wants it to go, at the pace and intensity one requires of it, the rider of that horse now in complete control of the reins, putting the mind thru its paces like that horse at an equestrian event**. Anyway, that's my view of the thing, and I'm going with it. It seems to work.

*As i venture farther into... myself, I guess, meditation wise, I also seem to be going further out into the universe surroundings. First, as I look into myself, quieting my mind as I do a conscious check thru my body, relaxing any muscles that may be contracted, I let the thoughts that arise pass thru my consciousness like clouds on a sunny day. Sometimes I find myself hooking onto those thoughts, starting to gnaw at them, coming up with solutions and action plans. As I become aware of that, I then let that thought go. More thoughts come, but as I let them pass, they start to diminish in number. Then I start to become aware of my surroundings, the noises closest to me, like the sound of my own eardrums, the computer fan, the fridge, cars on the street below, the railway crossing bell clanging a third of a mile away or so, seagulls near and farther away somewhere out towards the bay, a ship's fog horn out on the water, a seaplane taking off or landing. I am now miles away in a sense, and with a sense now of being on this big ball that is careening thru space and time, as I sit on its hide and imagine outer space and what I may be seeing there as the experience of now engulfs me in its immensity and I become aware of my feelings as I... merge with everything.... This is as far as I have ventured so far, and I am wondering how much further I am going to go this way, what other energies that are washing over me am I going to be able to sense, feel, as my mind, and my heart expands this way? Actually, this just got really heavy, in a deep way, and I have just made another discovery here. Not sure what it is yet, something about peace of mind I think.

**At equestrian events, the horses are put thru a series of actions that are isolated exercises of what a horse does naturally, but now at will, the rider's will. I wonder what the parallel of those exercises are for the mind. Math? Poetry? Visualization?