So last week I introduced our topic and our practice that will take us to the end of this year.
We're exploring mindfulness of the mind,
The mind as a sense door.
And in the Satipatthana Sutta,
The foundational teachings of mindfulness,
The Buddha points to this knowing of the mind.
To know the mind when it is contracted or when it is spacious,
When the mind is reactive to know that or to know when it's settled,
To know the mind when it's confused,
To know the mind when it's clear.
In this Buddhist teaching,
The mind is not the controller or the owner of experience.
It's a sense organ,
Just like the eye or the ear.
At the mind-sense door,
What happens is thoughts arise,
Memories arise,
Images,
Plans,
Opinions,
Judgments,
All of these things are arising at the sense door of the mind.
And just like sound arises at the ear or sensation arises in the body,
Thoughts just arise in the mind.
And our task is to see this happening.
It's a really profound shift from I am judging to beginning to see judgment is arising in the mind.
It's very profound when that happens.
And this small shift from identifying to observing is really,
It's really the beginning of freedom.
And as you begin to practice cultivating this awareness of what's arising in the mind,
It's really also very important to know that it's a slow process,
An important one and worth doing,
But slow and subtle and even a little bit elusive.
The mind's natural function is to evaluate,
To compare,
It sorts,
It assesses,
And this is not a flaw in the system.
It's not a flaw.
It is the system.
The problem is that judgment arises,
Or actually the problem isn't that judgment just arises.
The problem is when we unconsciously believe it,
You know,
When we we act from it without knowing it as a mind state.
We're just acting from it.
But it's just simply arising.
It just happens.
So much of our suffering doesn't come from what's happening.
But from how quickly the mind says,
This is good.
This is bad.
This is right.
This is wrong.
And all of this is happening before awareness arrives.
So mindfulness of mind is the practice of culting awareness to arrive sooner,
Basically,
That's it.
So how to do that is that we start with what's most obvious,
Right?
What's obvious?
To begin practicing mindfulness of the mind,
We can begin to recognize so what is most obvious right now?
Is the mind pulling towards something?
Is it relaxed?
Or is it tight?
Like it's really just this simple recognition.
That's it.
If all you can see is your mind is busy and spinning.
Well,
That's enough.
You know,
That's what's true.
And let the body confirm what's happening in the mind.
You know,
The mind,
Our thoughts,
They can be kind of abstract,
But the body is always just right here in the moment.
And when the body,
The mind state arises,
You know,
Like,
What's obvious often is like,
Like judgment,
Judgment arises.
And where do you?
Where do you feel that in the body?
When you're evaluating,
Like your mind is evaluating?
Where do you feel that?
Is there pressure?
Is there heat?
Is it in the prefrontal cortex as righteousness?
Are you collapsing?
Are you holding?
Often we can recognize judgment or aversion through the tension in the body before we actually recognize it as a thought.
Another tool to practice noticing mind states is to actually practice after the fact.
You know,
What I've noticed is at first,
Awareness rarely catches the mind state as it arises.
And this is very,
Very normal.
But we can notice the after effect,
You know,
You might come to realize,
Oh,
I have just been judging for the past 20 minutes.
Okay.
Okay.
And that might have like,
That's later.
It's not it's like in the moment,
You just are just in it.
And that recognition,
That's not at all a failure.
The recognition is the practice working,
Actually.
And with practice and time,
Awareness moves closer to the beginning of the process.
So then it's like,
Oh,
I've only been judging for five minutes.
But here's the rub.
It only starts to happen when when you're kind with yourself about seeing it later.
So important to be okay,
As you practice this to be okay with it.
It's not like it's a practice,
Just like weight training is a practice.
Another tool in our training of mindfulness of mind is to choose one repeating mind state to work with at a time.
So we're going to pick one familiar visitor for this week and make it our teacher.
And our teacher this week will be judgment.
So when it comes,
And I'm pretty sure it will,
Don't try to stop it,
Just see it.
And just as we might know,
Hearing when sound is arising,
We can start to note judging when that evaluation appears.
And what can happen when judgment is seen clearly is that something starts to shift,
Something starts to change.
When we see judgment,
It loses its authority,
And it softens,
It becomes more workable.
So judgment is a very fast mind state.
It's tight.
It often comes with contraction.
And it's often very personal.
And so we can we can start to pay attention to this in our lives today.
When irritation arises in a conversation,
That's judgment.
When self criticism appears after making some mistake,
That's judgment.
When opinions harden around the politics of the world,
That's judgment.
Or we're moving into family season,
You know,
With the holidays coming up.
So you know,
Those opinions when they harden around being with our family,
This is an awareness of the mind judging.
And instead of asking,
You know,
Is this right or wrong?
If we can access what is the state of mind right now?
This would be a useful question to drop in.
And if we can't access that,
Then just feel when the body gets contracted.
What's happening?
Oh,
I've got a belief running.
Okay,
That's what's happening.
So we can train in this,
And it will be beneficial to ourselves and to others.
If we do,
It really will.
It makes such a difference.
So for the remainder of this week,
We're going to focus on noticing the arising of judgment.
Notice the evaluative mind at work.
And note when it's happening.
And if you're by yourself,
You can just say it out loud.
Judging,
Judging.
And then see if you add anything like,
And it's not okay.
You know,
That's just adding more judgment.
Mindfulness of mind is not about becoming a better judge.
It's about no longer being imprisoned by judgment.
So when the mind is known,
We can have some care,
Some natural compassion for what is known.
Because when we see how judgment works,
This arising,
This passing,
We begin to understand how it works for everyone.
So this is not an abstract practice.
This is a practice of freedom in very ordinary moments.
Just knowing the mind and we're no longer lost in it.
That knowing,
Very simply and patiently and kindly,
That knowing,
That's our path.
So thank you for your consideration and your willingness to practice this this week together.
