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I’ve been reading The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore. It’s a fascinating book that picks up where Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Geneleft off 30 odd years ago. Towards the end of the book, Blackmore talks about how our minds are constantly under attack by different ideas or memes. Actually, she contends that our minds are nothing more than various ideas fighting for dominance, and that there isn’t an “I” hiding in the middle of it at all. She contends that the “self” is just an illusion, a construct in the way that Buddhism talks about the illusion of the self.

In the last chapter she gives two methods for slipping out of the grasp of the memes and breaking free from the illusion of the false self. A recipe for escaping your mind.

1. Concentrate on the present moment
This means you focus on all of the sensations, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, sights. When thoughts rise up you let them go without attaching to them. Really this means just looking at your experience. You stop labeling or classifying things. Let them be.

At first it doesn’t seem like a dramatic shift but after awhile you start savoring all your experiences. You stop living in the land of memes and you start living in reality. Nothing beats the direct experience of being here, now.

The more you practice the better you’ll get and the longer you’ll be able to stay present. When I find myself slipping off into my thoughts, I just gently bring my awareness back to the way my shirt feels or the sound of a car driving by outside. And suddenly I’m back in the moment riding the wave to wherever it wants to go. With practice you spend less and less time in your head and more time out experiencing the world.

Blackmore says, “With a lot of practice the world looks different; the idea of a series of events gives way to nothing but change, and the idea of a self who is viewing the scene seems to fall away.”

2. Pay attention to everything equally.
This follows the first step perfectly in that, when you’re fully awake, standing in line at the bank is just as important as having dinner at your favorite restaurant. It’s all pure experience. It’s the mind that makes distinctions as to what is good or bad or right or wrong. Reality doesn’t care about any of that. Reality just is. According to Blackmore, it’s the memes all fighting for our attention every minute of the day. By paying attention to everything equally you escape from the pull. The memes will continue to fight for your attention but now you don’t notice them as much.

Blackmore says of these practices, “The quality of consciousness then changes to become open, and spacious, and free of self. The effect is like waking up from a state of confusion – or waking from the meme dream.”

Troubleshooting
Ok, I’m free from my mind. My thoughts don’t have any hold over me. Now what?
Blackmore actually handles this problem pretty well. I’m paraphrasing here, but she talks about coming to a traffic light. If she turns one way she takes the scenic route home, if she turns another way she takes the quicker way home. One day, instead of deciding (since there really is no one to decide), Blackmore just let the decision make itself without any thought. She let her foot drop down on the pedal, her hands turn the steering wheel and she was off.

Won’t important things seem unimportant now?
The reverse is true. Everything becomes just as important as everything else. You enjoy the experience of it all.

This sounds like an excuse to lead an immoral life with lots of sex and drugs and lying about in the name of meditation.
Actually, when you practice this stuff, you chip away at the illusion that there is some “self” hiding away inside. Instead of becoming more selfish you actually become more compassionate. The thing you thought was “you” that seemed so important just isn’t anymore. Instead of buying the latest iPhone for a self that doesn’t exist you might wind up donating the money or volunteering. When you drop the “I” you actually find yourself wanting less and less.

This doesn’t sound like a good idea.
It’s not an idea to think about but a practice to try out. If you don’t it’s ok too, the world will not end. But you’ll never know unless you test it out and see if it works for you (illusion or not).

For further study:

Also check out the chapter about Susan Blackmore (the rest of the book is also good) in: