Wandering?

August 7th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Several years ago, Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University, wrote an article in Science: “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind.”

Unlike other animals, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around them, contemplating events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or will never happen at all.”

This is actually a remarkable achievement, perhaps unique to humans: they can learn, they can reason, they can plan, they can conceive, they can perform thought experiments, and so on.

Yet religious traditions have urged us to remain in the present. Here’s Buddha, for instance:

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

Killingsworth and Gilbert decided to figure out if this philosophy was right. They developed a Web application for the iPhone and created an unusually large database of real-time reports of thoughts, feelings, and actions of a broad range of people as they went about their daily activities: over250,000 samples from about 5,000 people from 83 different countries, ranging in age from 18 to 88, and representing 86 major occupational categories.

Participants were randomly assigned to answer a happiness question (“How are you feeling right now?”), an activity question (“What are you doing right now?”), and a mind-wandering question (“Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing?”).

Mind-wandering occurred in close to 50% of the people pinged. And, what was more interesting, they found that people were less happy when they were mind-wandering than when they were not!

The authors concluded:

A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”

Well, Buddha may have been right. And it is always wise to not lose contact with present reality. But is mind-wandering always bad? I’d say it depends on where your mind has wandered to, and upon what it has latched on in its meanderings.

The Psalms, especially, resound with encouragements to meditate (aka “mind-wander,” going beyond what one is currently engaged in). There is a sense in which God, his word, and his work, are worthy of mind-wandering attention. Always.

Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me, I shall be glad in the LORD.
Psalm 104:34

Attending to God’s work:

I will meditate on all Your work
And muse on Your deeds.
Psalm 77:12

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
Psalm 143:5

Attending to his word:

I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways.
Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
Make me understand the way of Your precepts,
So I will meditate on Your wonders.
And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love;
And I will meditate on Your statutes.
I shall meditate on Your precepts.
My eyes anticipate the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.
Psalm 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 148

And, of course, to God himself—his grandeur, his glory!

On the glorious splendor of Your majesty … I will meditate.
Psalm 145:5

I am reminded of Tolkien’s words:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
The Riddle of Strider (Lord of the Rings)

SOURCE:
Science