ne touche pas

ne touche pas  translation do not touch

Years ago, my daughter and I were watching short clips of French videos to spend time with the language.  We came across one of a man being told not to push the red button in a space craft simulator.  In the end, he could not resist and pressed the red button causing the simulator to mimic taking off which my then 5 year old thought was hilarious, replaying the recording many times.

I am now reminded of this scene in thinking of the simulator as being much like the relentless, running mind.  That red button can be irresistible to press.  It’s irresistible in it’s mindless, routine nature.  “Mindless” is used here to imply lack of awareness of the thinker and the inability to perceive this as separate from you.

You are not your mind.

You are so much more.

In the beginning days of learning to stop the mind and thought patterns of old, I found it most useful to imagine myself sitting on a wooden bench by a highway.  I imaged my mind as the highway with cars representing my thoughts speeding by.  In placing myself on that bench next to the highway, I took the first step in creating separation from the mind.  Once I was separate from my mind, I could become the observer of thoughts.  In the beginning I could only slow the cars down and sometimes I found that I would go along with one.  When that happened I would practice forgiveness towards myself, hop out of the car and go back to the bench.  Eventually, there were less cars and sitting on the bench was peaceful.  With more and more practice, I could come to the bench and see no cars for longer stretches of time and that highway looked almost like a soothing black river.  This gave me an incredible sense of freedom.

So if you decide you would like to become separate from your mind to take a seat by the busy highway of thoughts and possibly let it become a deep body of quiet water,  I think it would be well worth your time.  Once you’ve learned to manage the mindscene and you’re out dealing with the realities of life, remember that you don’t have to touch the big red button if you don’t want to.

You can give the mind a rest.