Mind Like a Dog

Our minds are like a dog sometimes. I used to live in New York City for many years, and often I would see people walking their dogs on the sidewalks in the evenings and the mornings. But even though the people were thinking to themselves, I'm sure, that they were walking their dogs,

it appeared to me like their dogs were walking them. Because almost always I saw the dog pulling the owner, left, right, and center, and all over the place. And the owner spent most of the time pulling or tugging on the leash to pull the dog out of a trash can, a bush, sidewalks, some food on the ground, poop on the ground that it might be

smelling, another dog that it might be sniffing. But this was it. Our mind is no different. Our awareness, as you might have heard me talk that our awareness moves within the mind, our awareness sometimes is like a dog as well. If we have an untrained dog, then that's what we do when we walk the dog. We're constantly tugging the dog back, telling the dog to not bury its

head in something we don't want it to be buried in. An untrained awareness is no different. Every time the phone beeps, awareness goes to it. Here's a noise over there, awareness looks over there. Here's a voice over here, awareness looks over here.

And this happens all day long. Something or someone is always calling and tugging at an untrained awareness. And most people who are so distracted,

their awareness is like an untrained dog. It's constantly being pulled all over the place. Now, a trained dog is very different. I remember many years ago going to the Virgin Islands,

and I met a gentleman there who worked for the FBI, and he was in the K-9 unit, and he had a German Shepherd who was trained. And talk about a well-trained dog.

When he walked, this dog would stay the right amount of distance away from him. A cat could run in front of the dog, a rabbit could jump in front of the dog, and the dog would not do anything until its owner gathered instructions. And I remember going to this man's house and he placed a bowl of food down on the floor and the dog sat there and looked at the food and didn't even eat it until the owner gave instructions for the dog that it was okay for the dog to have that meal.

That is a trained dog. Now we can train our awareness the same way as well. When we can train our awareness to be like that canine dog. So our awareness is always engaged in who and what we want it to be engaged in. It's not running all over the place. We're not chasing it all over the place.

We're not always bringing our awareness back to where we want it to be. Our awareness stays engaged in who and what it is engaged with. So for example, if I'm having a conversation with you, my awareness, my dog, my awareness is engaged with you.

It doesn't go over that. It doesn't go over that while I'm talking to you. It's completely engaged with you. That is a trained awareness.

And by learning about awareness in the mind and learning how to focus, not only learning how to focus, but learning to practice focusing, which is really the control of awareness. Focus is the art of controlling and directing awareness in the mind. By learning to do that and practicing doing that, you get better and better at it. And then,

life becomes less exhausting because taking an untrained dog for a walk is extremely exhausting. But taking a trained dog for a walk is much more a pleasant experience. So, learn to train your awareness so that it becomes obedient and you're able to keep it on one thing at a time or one person at a time until you choose to move it to something else.