Meditation as the Pause Button

Episode 180 of the Secular Buddhism Podcast

Hello. It's good to be back. It's been a while.

A Quick Life Update

I've been working on a new course. I know I mentioned this in the podcast in past episodes, and possibly a new book. To be honest, I've been quite busy with that and other aspects of life and the various hats that I wear. At times I've felt a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of things I'm trying to do at this particular stage in my life.

I recently came across the notion of building a second brain. There's a book called Building a Second Brain written by Tiago Forte. For those of you who are into productivity or trying to manage the massive amounts of information that we encounter in our day-to-day lives, it's a really neat book. It's helped me feel less overwhelmed by the amount of information I have to digest coming at me every day.

The book proposes a system to help capture and organize all the information that we come across. I've been putting this into practice now for several weeks, and I'm starting to feel optimistic that I'll be able to be better and more organized in the future with regard to all the various projects and hats that I wear.

Specifically with the podcast, I've been determined for some time to be more organized with how I do it. In the past, my format has been to record a podcast episode if and when a thought comes to me and I feel inspired to talk about it. The truth is, when you're overwhelmed with too many projects and too many things going on, it's pretty rare to feel inspired to sit down and explore a deep topic that requires a lot of thinking and pondering. That's probably been at the heart of why I haven't recorded a podcast in a while.

But in the last few weeks, I decided I wanted to approach this in a new way. Rather than waiting till I'm inspired and then doing a podcast episode, I'm trying to plan ahead. I have a list already of about 20 podcast episodes that I want to talk about. I'm going to organize my thoughts and have it all preplanned, and then I can sit down and talk about it that way. I think it will be less of a cognitive load on my mind and much easier for me to get back into sync with trying to do podcasts more regularly.

Whether it's every other week—I think that's my new goal for now—or maybe reaching the point where I could do it weekly like I had decided I wanted to do when I originally started all of this. But anyway, that's just a quick life update and why you haven't heard from me in a while. I am excited to get back into all of this in the near future.

The Cycle of Habitual Reactivity

Now in this episode, I want to talk about meditation and specifically how it can be thought of as a giant pause button—the practice of pausing. And what is it that we pause from? The cycle of habitual reactivity.

So first, let's explore this notion of the cycle of habitual reactivity.

I view this as the cycle of what's always going on from the moment that we're awake to the moment that we're asleep. And I guess while we're sleeping, it's also happening, but we're unconscious of it. Thoughts are produced, dreams are generated. All of that's happening in this cycle of habitual reactivity. But I'm more interested in talking about what's happening when we're awake.

Our journey begins with understanding the correlation between our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, and the consequences of our actions. I think of this summarized infinite cycle as the cycle of habitual reactivity. And the cycle looks like this: we have beliefs that influence perceptions that lead to thoughts.

Thoughts influence our emotions that affect our feelings. Our feelings influence decisions that lead to actions that we take. And the actions that we take shape our behaviors and have consequences and results. The consequences of our actions produce experiences that in turn shape our beliefs. And then the cycle goes on. It goes on and on and on and on.

Beliefs

Let's start with looking at beliefs. Although there's technically no starting point in the cycle, right? You could jump in at any point in the cycle and analyze that specific thing that's going on. But we're going to start with examining our beliefs and views.

Our beliefs and views shape how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive others, and how we perceive the world around us. Our experiences and our upbringing, the culture that we inherit, the personal values and influences that we inherit from our family—these all influence our beliefs. These are collectively the experiences that shape our beliefs.

Now, the thing to know with beliefs is that beliefs can be empowering or limiting. They can be harmful or helpful, skillful or unskillful. So, for example, if I have the belief that bunny rabbits are bad, anytime I'm outside and I see a bunny rabbit, it's going to shape my emotions and feelings. I'm going to be scared: "Oh no, there's a rabbit." And then I run from it. So now it's influencing my actions, right?

So it's just an idea. But the core understanding here is that our beliefs are the foundation for how we perceive ourselves, others, and reality.

Thoughts

Because our beliefs influence how we perceive reality, that gives rise to thoughts. Our thoughts are the ideas, opinions, judgments, and other mental events that arise in the mind. Some thoughts happen automatically; others happen intentionally. I can decide what to think about.

But thoughts are also something that occurs to me. They'll arise spontaneously or they could be put in your mind by someone else. For example, if I were to say, "Don't think of a pink elephant"—now you're thinking of a pink elephant, even though you had no intention of visualizing in your mind this idea of a pink elephant. That's just the nature of how thoughts work.

And thoughts can be rational. They can be irrational. Like beliefs, they can also be empowering or they can be limiting. They can be harmful, they can be helpful, they can be skillful, and they can be unskillful.

The important thing is to notice our thoughts because our thoughts influence our emotions, which in turn affect our feelings.

Feelings and Emotions

Let's talk about feelings for a moment. Feelings and emotions are similar, but I'm not referring to the same thing. I like to keep these separate. The reason is because I think of emotions as the sensations in the body, while feelings are generated from the thoughts we have about those emotions.

Emotions are often intense and short-lived, and feelings can be longer lasting. Feelings are generally categorized as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

In the Buddhist tradition, you encounter this notion as feeling tones. The idea is that you have a feeling tone about the emotions that you're experiencing. For example, if I'm experiencing the emotion of anger, there's a feeling tone associated with that. I may feel anger as an unpleasant experience. I may feel happiness as a pleasant experience. And there may be other emotional states that are just neutral.

The understanding here is that understanding our feelings is crucial because they influence our decisions and our actions.

Actions and Their Consequences

Now let's talk about actions for a moment. Actions are the things that we do. They're behaviors that we engage in. They're choices that we make. And actions always have consequences. Some consequences are immediate. Some consequences take time to unfold. Some consequences we can see. Some consequences are invisible to us. Some consequences are intended. Some consequences are unintended. But every action has a consequence.

And it's the consequences of our actions that then shape new experiences, and those experiences in turn shape our beliefs. And the cycle goes on and on and on. So you can think of it like this: I have a belief. That belief shapes my perception. My perception gives rise to thoughts. My thoughts give rise to emotions. My emotions affect my feelings. My feelings influence decisions. My decisions lead to actions. My actions have consequences. And those consequences shape new experiences. Those experiences in turn shape my beliefs.

The Cycle Continues

So you're always in this cycle. And while you're in this cycle, you're also always habitually reacting. That's what it means. Habitually reactive means that you're always making decisions and taking actions that stem from your beliefs, thoughts, and feelings. And you're always reacting to things that are happening.

Now, what does it mean to react? Well, if I'm walking down the street and all of a sudden something surprises me, my first instinct is to react. I'm going to jump out of the way. And from an evolutionary perspective, that's what we've survived to do as a species. We've survived precisely because we are habitually reactive.

When our ancestors heard a rustling sound in the bushes, they ran, and that's how they avoided being eaten by a lion. However, in our modern times, it's not always wise to be continually habitually reactive. If I hear a rustling in the bushes and I run, and in my running I run into a barbed wire fence, there's a balance that has to happen.

We are habitually reactive. Yes, we're never going to not be habitually reactive. Just as I mentioned at the start of this, you're always going to have beliefs. Those beliefs are always going to influence your thoughts. Those thoughts are always going to influence your decisions and actions. Your actions are always going to have consequences. The consequences of your actions are always going to be shaping new experiences that in turn shape beliefs.

There's no way to fully break from that. But from time to time, it can be especially helpful to pause.

Meditation as a Pause Button

Examples of this would be times when you're feeling emotionally charged or in emotionally charged situations like conflicts that you're having with others. Especially when you're experiencing intense feelings—feelings of anxiety or anger or frustration—instead of reacting impulsively during those moments, it would be very beneficial to be able to take a step back, to take a deep breath, and to observe the experience as it's unfolding, without judgment, without getting caught up like the fish on the hook on the line.

This can help us gain perspective and develop a more skillful approach to what action we're going to take next.

So think of meditation as the pause button for the cycle of habitual reactivity. And I want to emphasize again: it's a pause button. It's not a stop button. You don't hit stop and there it's over. You hit pause. And for however long that pause goes, it all starts back up and you're back in the cycle of habitual reactivity. That's what it is to be alive.

From the perspective of meditation being the pause button, when a lot of people encounter Buddhism or concepts from Buddhism for the first time, or mindfulness or meditation, there's this notion of: why should I meditate? What benefit does it have for me? Well, if you think of it like this—as a pause button—the more skilled you become at hitting pause from time to time, the more skillful you are at living your life.

Two Primary Types of Meditation

That's why when you study meditation and you approach this, at least from the Buddhist perspective, you realize there are two primary types of meditation. The first type focuses on fixed attention, and the second type focuses on keeping an open awareness. Both play an important role in this pause.

Fixed Attention Meditation

With fixed attention meditation, this involves focusing on a single object. These are the meditative techniques like focusing on your breath or repeating a mantra. The goal of that style of meditation is to keep your attention fixed on that object and notice when your mind wanders, then bring your attention back.

This teaches us to focus and to pay attention to our experience. So this is what I would call the practice of learning to zoom in.

An example that's brought up in Buddhism with this style of meditation is the example of walking into a shed. The light is dim in that shed, you look down, and you see what looks like a coiled snake. Now, the next series of events that will unfold all have to do with your perception, which in this case is an erroneous perception of reality. Because you think there's a coiled snake, think of how you're going to act, what the next action is going to be—all based on the belief that that's a snake.

When in reality, if you looked at it long enough, if you just looked at it a little bit closer and a little bit longer, you'd realize: "Oh, that's a coiled hose, not a snake." That's the practice of fixed attention. It's being able to look at something long enough and have the ability to focus so that I can say, "Oh, I'm not going to react this way because that's not what I thought it was."

So this whole first style of meditation with fixed attention is built around that premise: too often our focus is robbed from us by other things. And our inability to focus and pay attention leads to unskillful choices—for example, mistaking the coiled hose for a snake.

Open Awareness Meditation

Now, the second form of meditative techniques is open awareness. This involves being aware of your surroundings and everything that's happening without focusing on one specific thing in particular. This type of meditation is often used to develop a sense of mindfulness and to remain present in the moment.

This teaches us to notice what else is going on around us. It helps us to be aware of things as they truly are. So this is the art of learning to zoom out.

So you have these two meditative techniques that are pretty much opposite techniques, right? On one I'm learning to focus and pay very close attention and zoom in. On the other one, I'm learning to maintain a greater open awareness to everything else that's going on, not just the one thing. Both of them have their merits, and both of them have benefits.

You want to be skilled at both. When you encounter this topic in Buddhism, the notion of the middle way, you want to be good at both. Sometimes the right thing to do is hone in and zoom in. Sometimes the right thing to do is: hey, zoom out. Look at the bigger picture.

The Non-Toothache

The example that's brought up sometimes with the second form of meditation is the notion of the "non-toothache" that Thích Nhất Hạnh talks about. If I'm really good at focusing in on one thing, I may not be good at zooming out from time to time to notice what are the other things happening.

So, for example, the non-toothache, right? It probably didn't occur to you that you are experiencing right now a non-toothache. But if you practice open awareness and you're allowing the mind to be completely open to all the experiences happening, yes, I may notice: "Hey, I'm stressed about this one thing that's happening at work right now, but also I'm noticing that I'm not experiencing a toothache." And that awareness of the non-toothache can give rise to a greater sense of inner peace and gratitude, because I'm glad that right now I'm not experiencing a toothache or I'm not experiencing the current emotional state of the loss of a loved one or whatever.

The thing is, we're always experiencing a lot of things, but we're also always experiencing a whole lot of things that we're not experiencing. And that's kind of what happens with open awareness.

Both techniques can be very beneficial to us in our lives, and both of them have profound effects on the overall experience that we have of being alive. I've talked about various techniques within each of those two frameworks in past episodes, but I'll probably address those. Well, I know I'm going to address them much more closely in this online course I'm about to release, which goes into greater detail with specific practices under each of those two methods.

An Invitation to Practice

So, for now, the invitation from this podcast episode is to be aware of the various aspects of your own cycle of habitual reactivity and to try from time to time to begin the practice of inserting a pause.

And it can be a very short pause. Take a pause for five seconds, ten seconds in your day, and notice anything within the cycle of habitual reactivity. Whether it be you're examining a belief or looking at your thoughts, or examining what feelings you're experiencing at this moment, observing what actions am I taking right now—or usually this one's easier to do—what action did I just take? And then observing the consequences of our actions.

You can look at any of those from time to time and just examine them for a moment and see how they all correlate to each other. I think that's a really powerful practice.

But that's all I have for today's episode. Thank you for taking the time to listen. Take care. Have a great week, and until next time.

For more about the Secular Buddhism Podcast and Noah Rasheta's work, visit SecularBuddhism.com