Making the Business Case for Managing Your Mind

Excerpts from my business school application to Wharton in 1997...

My experiences during that two month retreat in the spring of 1991 was probably more akin to boot camp at the United States Marine Corps, than anything else I can imagine. The training required fourteen hour days of formal meditation practice. In addition, on retreat we do not eat after noon (thus giving us more time to meditate and less sleepiness related to excess food), and do not talk to others. Our duties during the retreat are to meditate full-time intensively from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep which is 18-20 hours later. There is a daily evening instructional talk and a daily ten minute interview to report our experiences and get personalized meditation instruction.

Most of my fellow retreatants on this retreat were advanced students who had not only been practicing for many years but were also teaching meditation throughout the world. I had never been in such a regimented and closely monitored environment in my life. In fact, the teacher frequently joked that it was his job to “tighten the screws” and regularly tightened the discipline and urged more continuous and careful practice.

Although the training was exceptionally rigorous and demanding, I began notice that I was in fact improving at the practice, all of the time. The practice of meditation necessitates that the practitioner focus on the appropriate objects of meditation and continuously direct their attention towards them. It is an active process necessitating mental strength and agility. In the same way that a golfer through much practice becomes skilled at gaining tremendous force, momentum and accuracy in striking a golf ball, a meditator develops similar mental abilities in striking the object of meditation. My mind through the practice, became increasingly active, energized and alert in a way that I had not experienced before, and I was able to note and “strike” the objects with effectiveness as soon as they arose. As I became more adept at noting the appropriate object, I also became aware of increasing spaciousness around what I was observing. Thus, I was no longer reacting to what arose in my mind with my standard reactions, but there was enough space to evaluate with a more enlightened (equanimous, objective, balanced, etc.?) perspective. I was able to think intelligently and wisely consider options before reacting. The result of training the mind in this way is a mind free from conceptual burdens, and afflictive emotions, that is instead fresh, alert and able to be present , at peace and through these strengths develop and intuitive understanding of whatever the current experience is.

What was important about this retreat to me was that I saw for myself through my own hard work and practice, the legitimacy of the claims made about meditation and the benefits it could offer. It was not just navel gazing, but instead a regimented training to develop the mind. Through the training the mind became strong, able to endure difficulties with equanimity, and bright and alert with activity and energy. Later it became more clear that the benefits of meditation were useful in all aspects of my life.

Having undertaken the meditation practice and become adept to a satisfactory degree, I am now ready to bring what I have learned with me to continue my formal education and career development.