It's nice to sit with you all.
To start the day this way.
Over the past couple of weeks,
We've been Exploring the four foundations of mindfulness.
Beginning with the body.
Always beginning with the body because the body is always here in the present moment.
I think that throughout our practice.
The ongoing learning is to arrive in the body again and again and again.
In the body below the neck.
In the breath and sensations.
Coming back to this body.
And noticing the feelings in the body,
The feeling tones,
Noticing that every moment carries a flavor.
Every moment is either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
Before there is an emotion or a story,
There is this very simple organism of this body is registering experience.
And as we attune to the body.
We see how quickly the mind gets involved and wants to grasp.
What's pleasant,
Push away what's unpleasant.
Ignore what feels neutral.
And we talked about feelings as weather systems.
You know,
Feelings move through us.
They arise,
They pass.
And our freedom.
Comes not by controlling the weather.
We can't control the weather.
We can't control what moves through.
But we can learn not to hold on to it.
As me,
As mine.
We can learn that.
That's the practice.
Not me.
Not mine.
And today,
We're going to explore the third foundation of mindfulness,
Mindfulness of the mind.
And so if the second foundation says,
Well,
How does this experience feel?
Like feelings being like weather.
Let's use that as the analogy.
The third foundation,
The mind states.
They're like the quality of the sky in which the weather appears.
It's like the mood.
So for example,
When there's a lot of wind,
The feeling of wind.
The quality of the mind.
Is agitation.
So mind states are the quality of the sky in which the weather appears.
The way that it's described in the suttas is we're using Awareness.
To observe the quality of awareness itself.
And in contemporary psychology,
This is called metacognition.
Knowing what the mind is doing while it's doing it.
And in the Buddhist language,
This is.
.
.
Kind of mindfulness joined with wisdom.
Most of the time.
We are.
Kind of just living.
In the activities of the mind.
Thought arises and we are just inside that thought.
A mood appears and it's like it appears as reality.
You know,
A judgment forms and that judgment sounds a lot like the truth.
But our practice,
This practice of awareness,
Of mindfulness,
It introduces a pause,
Almost a stepping back.
You know,
I've mentioned mental noting as a practice that I do.
And it's really useful because I can stop or step back and see,
Oh,
This is thinking.
Or if worry appears.
Oh,
Check this out.
Worry.
Planning.
Or if contentment appears,
If I feel like it.
Ease,
Ah,
Ease,
Contentment is here.
Nothing has to stop.
Nothing is pushed away.
Nothing is suppressed.
Because it's just seeing and seeing that everything changes.
Seeing our relationship to change,
So instead of being lost in the content of the mind,
Awareness begins to know the mind.
You know,
The Buddha often described the different qualities of the mind,
The qualities of the sky,
If you will.
Is the mind contracted?
Or expansive.
Is the mind restless or settled?
Is the mind angry or free?
Confused,
Or clear.
Collected or scattered.
These are judgments.
They're just understanding.
They're just singing.
They're invitations to see.
And become intimate with our direct experience.
What's happening?
What's happening in the mind?
I've really been.
.
.
Noticing in my own practice.
That the more tightly.
I identify.
With positions.
Especially the conviction.
That I'm right.
The more difficult it is to let go.
And the thought.
The thought of being right isn't really the problem.
It's fine.
The thought.
It's the identification.
The moment the mind says,
I'm right.
Something changes.
The quality of awareness changes,
The mind narrows and the body tightens,
And you know,
Curiosity.
Kind of the root of this practice.
Begins to disappear.
When I am living in I'm right.
Listening becomes more difficult.
Because now I'm protecting.
An identity.
Rather than exploring an experience.
And perhaps.
.
.
You've noticed something similar in your own practice.
Maybe it's not about being right for you.
It may be the mind wants to be appreciated.
Or the mind wants to be understood.
Maybe the identity is around being seen in a particular way.
Or wanting to be perceived as successful.
Whatever,
Whatever the story.
We can begin to notice the quality of the mind that accompanies the story.
In my example,
The mind narrows,
The body tightens,
And curiosity begins to disappear.
That's what I've noticed when I'm right.
So mindfulness allows us to notice the contractions.
Before,
Before we become completely absorbed.
By the story.
This is where letting go.
Becomes such an important part.
Of practice.
For me,
This has been my whole practices really.
Let go.
Um.
.
.
There's this amazing,
There was an amazing teacher who I had for many years who taught at Spirit Rock and his name was Wes Nisker.
He died a few years back and he was a really funny guy.
He was a radio host in the morning radio station in the Bay Area called KRQR.
And he would riff on culture and our evolutionary biology.
In the context of the Dharma.
And one of the jewels that he offered,
One of the invitations was to hold our thoughts lightly.
You don't believe all your thoughts.
You know,
The mind,
The mind tells stories and that's what the mind does.
That's what it does.
And we're not trying to stop the stories.
The stories are just there.
But we don't have to mistake them for reality.
That's where we get caught.
And when I don't believe my thoughts and my stories,
Check that out for yourself.
Who knows what's true when you're not believing your thoughts?
When I can remember,
And this is really the practice,
Remembering that thoughts are literally Just energy wisps in the mind.
Insubstantial unless I attach to them.
When I can do that?
It's like watching.
.
.
A shell.
You know,
It's like,
It's interesting.
I'm curious.
It's not true.
It's just like,
Huh.
Just like a show,
Like,
You know,
It's not fully reality.
When we talk about letting go,
There seems to be this perception that we're attempting.
To get rid of difficult thoughts or unpleasant moods.
That's just not the way.
I found out that this is so much more,
It's more gentle than that.
We're not trying to get rid of anything.
It's more about like not.
It's kind of loosening our identification to what's happening.
Just loosening our identification to what's happening.
Instead of sort of like saying,
You know.
I'm anxious.
Or I'm angry.
It's just that note.
Anxiety is present.
Anger is here.
And that shift,
That tiny little shift in language.
Shifts everything.
We're no longer trying to fix the mind.
We're just knowing it.
And wouldn't we know it?
We can just like watch.
The weather.
We naturally begin to soften.
I can say this until I am blue in the face.
Do not take my word for it.
See for yourself.
Try it out.
What if you didn't?
Hold so tightly to your thoughts.
What if you held them lightly?
What would be true?
Like,
Check it out.
Just check it out.
I feel like so many of us here in this Zoom room are experts on the agitated mind.
But today.
.
.
I'd like you to consider.
Or invite you to notice something that we often overlook.
The mind also knows a kind of ease.
The mind also knows.
Generosity.
And kindness and contentment.
These,
Too,
Are states of mind.
Can you notice when those arise?
We seem to really notice suffering.
And in some ways,
By noticing only suffering,
We reinforce the belief that suffering is somehow more real than peace.
But wholesome states,
Wholesome states can also be recognized.
And they can be trusted.
If we don't learn to recognize moments of ease,
What will likely happen is we will keep searching for freedom somewhere else.
The imagining,
The mind will go and imagine that awakening is like somewhere else and it's some dramatic experience.
And it's not an experience.
You know,
We have this.
Delusion,
This ignorance around freedom,
You know,
Like,
We really kind of believe that freedom is out there somewhere waiting for us in the future on maybe on some beautiful beach.
But really?
Really,
It's just.
.
.
The absence of wanting.
That's it.
Nothing.
Needs to be added,
Nothing needs to happen.
You know it.
In my experience,
Contentment Feels like a rest.
From the constant commentary.
That's it.
It's so ordinary.
And you know,
Because it's so ordinary,
Our minds,
Our complicated minds,
Completely try to dismiss it.
And even the dismissal.
Can be known.
As another mind state.
Knowing,
Oh,
This is my mind dismissing.
Contentment.
When contentment is just.
What the mind feels like when grasping is paused.
So for this week,
The practice is to move through your day,
Walking and eating and driving and working and talking with others.
And from time to time,
Just dropping in,
Like what is the quality of the mind?
What's the weather?
What's the comment?
Just to know the mind.
Is the mind open?
Is the mind closed?
And by wanting it to be different.
And we're not trying to change the mind.
Know it.
Know it so well.
We no longer have to hold on to what we're knowing.
So this is my understanding,
And I hope it's helpful.
Thank you.
