Give Your Mind a Wide Pasture

Our minds can too easily become like cows in a feedlot: crowded, going nowhere, anxious. Cows, we presume, do not conceptualize their dilemma, but they must have some sense that life is not all it could be, or perhaps not all it was when they, if they were lucky, roamed a wide grassland.

We may have that vague sense that life is not all it should be. Our thoughts, fenced in by worries, travel the same short  paths over and over. If we do the same things every day, we tend to think the same thoughts every day. If we have the same concerns day to day, our minds follow the trails of those concerns and neural pathways become worn in like a footpath. Once a path is worn, it becomes natural to walk on the path, and the trail is worn deeper.

Meditation is a way to give your mind a wide pasture. Sitting quietly, upright and relaxed, you step off the trail of your thoughts. The fences of convention and routine fade away. You may find yourself on a wide plain of open mind. It is not a journey to take or a field to tend. It is a state of being which is spacious and free.

Sitting in meditation, unhook yourself from the procession of thoughts that ramble through your mind. Open the gate to a wide field of empty space. It is as if you are on a broad grassy plain. There are no objects here to capture your attention. Your mind is free to move in any direction or to stay perfectly still. The sky is vast and filled with light, or perhaps it is filled with stars upon a deep darkness. There is no place you must go. There are no fences. Mind is free. Mind is peaceful. Mind is spacious.

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