I want to start with something from the Dhammapada.
The Dhammapada is a collection of the Buddhist teachings.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with thoughts.
With thoughts,
We make the world.
That's a pretty powerful teaching right there.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises out of our thoughts.
With our thoughts,
We make the world.
And historically,
You can see how this is true.
The fourth foundation of mindfulness,
The mind as a sense door,
Can be the trickiest to look at.
We're using our mental faculty of knowing to examine knowing.
You know,
Examine thoughts and moods and mental states that arise at the mind door as objects,
Objects of our awareness,
Not as who we are.
And that's where we get hung up.
So in neuroscience,
This is known as metacognition.
And what that means is knowing what the mind is doing while it's doing it.
And in the Buddhist language,
This is sati,
Mindfulness,
Joins with panya.
Panya means wisdom or understanding.
Mindfulness and understanding.
And most of the time,
We are in the mind's activities,
But not aware of it,
Not aware that we're in the mind's activities.
We're just living from the thinking.
A thought arises and we're inside the thought.
A mood appears and it feels like the truth.
A judgment forms and it sounds like wisdom,
Right?
Yet when we engage in metacognition,
Something shifts.
A thought arises and,
Oh,
Oh,
This is thinking.
A mood appears and,
Oh,
This is worry.
A judgment forms and,
Oh,
Oh,
This is contentment.
Nothing stops.
Nothing is suppressed.
But do you see the relationship changes?
This is the mind knowing itself as a sense door.
Knowing that we're knowing.
You know,
Mindfulness of mind and the mind objects can sound really abstract and philosophical.
But at the heart of this teaching,
It's about learning to see patterns,
Patterns,
To recognize how we organize experience.
And really,
How suffering or freedom is made right here in how we're constructing,
How our patterns are constructing.
Right?
And most of us are trained unconsciously to focus on what's wrong in the mind.
You know,
Agitation,
Worry,
Judgment,
Which we focused on last week,
And dissatisfaction.
These are like,
We focus on these afflictive,
These qualities or these states that are more afflictive to us.
We can feel them more in some ways.
But today,
I want to emphasize something that we often overlook.
The mind also produces ease.
The mind also produces contentment.
The mind also produces moments of not holding on.
And these two are conditioned.
These two are worthy of mindfulness and wisdom,
Mindfulness and understanding.
They're a mind,
They're mind objects,
They're arising at the sense door of the mind.
So this is also an object of our attention,
Of our practice.
If we're only noticing suffering or judgment from what,
Like that's what we were focusing on last week.
What we do is we subtly reinforce the belief in that suffering.
It becomes more real than peace.
These kind of afflictive ways of being.
But the Buddha never taught that ease was kind of an accident or a consolation prize.
He taught that this wholesome state of ease and contentment can be recognized,
Cultivated,
And trusted.
And trusted.
So if we don't learn to recognize ease and contentment,
We won't trust this path.
We won't recognize freedom when it's really subtle.
And so what will happen is we keep searching for it.
It's out there,
You know,
Somewhere,
Maybe on a beachfront.
But if we do recognize when these states arise and we don't cling to them,
Just experience them,
See them,
We begin to understand the Buddha's confidence.
You know,
Freedom isn't somewhere else.
It's already appearing in moments when the mind stops arguing with reality.
Contentment is often overlooked because it's quiet.
You know,
It may show up as the sense of this is enough.
It may show up as the absence of wanting or not leaning forward into the next thing or pulling back from what's happening just here and now.
Contentment in my experience is like a rest from the constant commentary.
I think you may know something about the constant commentary.
It's nothing special,
Really.
It's not dramatic.
It's more like nothing needs to be added or nothing needs to happen right now.
What generally happens is the mind dismisses this contentment.
It's too ordinary.
Like it's sort of like the mind says,
This can't be it.
It's too simple.
And then what happens is the reality is that that dismissal,
That's a new mental production also.
That's just another mind object.
Oh,
Look,
There's contentment and it's fleeting and now I'm dismissing it and finding something to fix,
Solve or change.
To know this is happening.
Another mind object to be known.
So contentment is what the mind feels like when wanting has paused.
When resistance softens.
So the practice that I'm offering over this next week is to notice when ease or contentment arises and to see if you can notice how quickly the mind ignores it or doesn't trust it or wants more of it.
Just notice when the mind is not producing dissatisfaction.
This is the homework.
Notice when the mind is not producing dissatisfaction.
And what we learn from this,
This exercise and this practice is that this is what it feels like when the mind is not grasping.
And over time,
Over time,
The mind begins to trust that simplicity,
You know,
The simplicity of not holding on.
So as you move about your day for the remainder of this week,
When you sit or you walk or you speak and socialize,
I invite you to,
You know,
Ask yourself gently,
What is the mind producing right now?
Is it producing strain or is it producing ease?
Is it producing dissatisfaction or is it producing enoughness?
This is a great inquiry.
Just to start to understand the mind and the objects,
The production,
What it's producing.
And when contentment appears,
Even briefly,
Let it be known.
Not as mine or permanent,
Not as some special state like,
Oh,
I experienced contentment.
Just as an object arising at the sense door of the mind and quietly teaching us what the mind is like when it's not creating suffering.
So thank you.
Thank you for your attention and your practice and this consideration.
I can take maybe one question,
But then I'm going to turn it over to Walter,
Who will be talking to the group about the practice of Dana,
Of generosity.
So Walter,
I'm going to make you the host and I'm going to jump off the call when that happens.
But if there's any questions about this homework.
