Overriding the Mind’s Default Network

Moment after moment, the mind wanders. It is never still, always thinking about this and that. And yet, we generally believe that the mind is who we are; our personality and rambling thoughts define our concept of self. We may believe intellectually that the mind and the soul are different because the teachings of the saints tell us so, but we often feel as if they are the same.

Yet the saints are clear on this point, and we can take it on faith: the mind and soul are different entities. The soul is our true nature; the mind is merely a tool to enable the soul to function in this creation. The problem is that we have forgotten our true nature and have been held back in this creation, deceived and entrapped by the mind. But while the mind is the cause of our bondage, it can also become the means of our liberation. In Light on Sant Mat Maharaj Charan Singh says:

Mind and soul form one working unit, and wherever the mind goes the soul has to go along with it. The mind is the instrument by means of which we make our contacts with the outside world and gather experience. Owing to its outward tendencies it keeps us away from God, but if it is turned inward and directed to the inner centers it enables us to contact the Divinity within ourselves.

Various scientific studies have documented the restless, wandering mind. In one study a phone app was created and 2,250 people were randomly called throughout the day, as they went about their daily activities, to collect a database of their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The study found that people’s minds wandered frequently, regardless of what they were doing. Mind wandering occurred in 46.9 percent of the samples. The nature of people’s activities had only a modest impact on whether their minds wandered. Generally, people were less happy when their minds were wandering than when they were otherwise occupied. Finally, what people were thinking was a better predictor of their happiness than was what they were doing. Even science agrees that if we want to be happy, we need to learn to control our minds.

MRI scans of the brain have documented that there are particular areas of the brain that are active when the mind wanders. The brain’s frontal and parietal cortex areas are called the “default network.” When we are not busy with an external activity, this default network automatically kicks in. In other words, the mind is set up to automatically wander and is spontaneously activated within the brain. The existence of this default network has been scientifically documented, which demonstrates that the wandering of the mind is not just a mental phenomenon but is also the result of our physiologic brain process. We certainly have a lot to overcome!

Talking to the mind is of no use, as it is just the mind talking to itself, running around in circles. When the mind is talking to itself, it remains in the default network. Clearly that is no help. In Sar Bachan Poetry, a disciple lays out the problem:

My restless mind doesn’t listen to me –
how can I deal with it?
The Master always advises and explains the method,
  and I sit in satsang with an attentive mind.
When I listen to his words I deeply repent of my actions,
  but then the mind deceives me again and I go astray.
I devise many ways of my own to crush this mind,
  but I never get to the threshold of Surat Shabd,
  so how can I rise to the inner sky?
_{Bachan 31, Shabd 4}

What is the disciple to do? The mind is an impediment at every step. The disciple may think of all sorts of techniques, gimmicks, and lifestyle changes to control the mind. Some of them might work for a time, but the mind does not quit. The disciple also attends to meditation but finds progress to be slow or apparently nonexistent. Hazur says in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II:

It is not so easy to control our mind when we have given it such a free rein. It has been spreading into the whole world all of our life, not only in this life but also in previous lives. It has gotten into the habit of running out and not staying at all in its own place. So naturally, it takes time to curb it, to bring it back, to withdraw the consciousness to the eye centre. It takes time. We want to achieve this in a day or two, but we have to make a regular habit of doing it.

So, we have learned that at least nearly half of the time our minds are wandering. But the Shabd is resounding within all the time. Shabd beats the wandering mind! We must switch from the brain’s default network to the current of Shabd. We can do this through meditation. Shabd or simran must become our new default. Then we will have more than a neural default network; we will have a spiritual network – a Shabd network, which wirelessly maintains our connection to the network of the Master.

Meditation helps. Master says it. Neuropsychologists say it too. Those same neuropsychologists who study the default network that traps the mind in a wandering mode tell us that meditation has a definite functional and physiologic effect. In an article published in the online journal BioMed Research International, “The Meditative Mind: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of MRI Studies,” the researchers write:

Meditation practice induces enhancement of at least four different abilities: sustained attention, monitoring faculty (to detect mind wandering), the ability to disengage from a distracting object without further involvement (attentional switching), and the ability to redirect focus to the chosen object (selective attention).

Though we usually don’t speak of it in these terms, that is the effect of simran in a nutshell.

Research studies using MRI scans show that meditation is associated with reduced activation of the default mode network – the activity in the brain when our mind wanders. Additionally, meditation, over time, supports even structural changes in the brain. Studies found that, compared with control participants, expert meditators showed increased grey matter throughout the brain and the brainstem. So, meditation even causes measurable physical changes in the brain.

Meditation helps us on so many levels. It is the only way to control the mind. Simran is the key to curbing the constant firing of the default network and stilling the rippling waves of the wandering mind. Soami Ji reminds us that this gift of simran from the Master is the key to our happiness and our salvation.

Hold the Master’s key in your hand –
  turn the rosary of your mind with simran.
Tune in to the unstruck music of Shabd
  and pierce through the cloud in the sky of Trikuti.
_{Bachan 20, Shabd 28}

The Master asks us to conduct our own research, and he gives us the tools of simran and bhajan. Throughout the day, every time we find our minds wandering, we can switch to simran. If we make a conscious effort to do this, we can experience the results for ourselves. Over time, we may find that we are calmer, more focused, happier. The added benefit of practising “default simran,” as opposed to living under our current default network, is that our meditation will become more natural and essential, like breathing.