Mindfulness: The Power To Reflect & Resolve

This talk was given as part of Atlanta Mindfulness Institute's community meditation group. The capacity of mindfulness to reflect the mind and support the resolution of our suffering is explored through the story of two Japenese artists and their individudal and collective creations that emerge from their diligence and wise understanding. As we get to know our own mind through the cultivation of awareness, we too can shape the mind toward greater peace and less suffering.

Transcript

Welcome everyone.

It's really good to see you this evening.

Tonight's talk is titled Mindfulness,

The Power to Reflect and Resolve.

And I want to start with a story that I recently heard Bishop Marvin Harada,

Who is a Shin Buddhist priest,

Tell.

And the story just really struck me and I had some particular associations around mindfulness that I would also like to share with you tonight.

So I'll just start with the story.

So many centuries ago,

A Japanese emperor petitioned two of the greatest artists of his time,

Each to create a mural in his grand ballroom of the palace.

The two artists accepted the invitation and they were taken to the large palace ballroom where there were two huge walls adjacent to each other.

The emperor gave them several months and told them at the end of the three month period,

There'd be a public unveiling in which there'd be a grand celebration.

So both artists began to work.

The first artist brought out his many paints and pencils and pretty quickly began to sketch.

The second artist brought out some sort of sand or sandpaper and began to sand the wall.

A month or so went by and the workers in the palace came to view the work in progress.

And they saw the first artist beginning to paint trees and plants and mountains and rivers.

This beautiful nature scene.

The second artist,

They noticed after a month or so,

Was still sanding the wall.

The workers in the palace grew quite nervous.

What would the emperor say?

What would he do when the second artist had done nothing?

So the three month period ended and the day finally arrived and the emperor came into the large ballroom.

And as he opened the gigantic doors,

Just this flood of light came in from the outside.

And as it did,

The beautiful nature scene of the first artist was projected on the blank wall,

The perfectly sanded wall of the second artist.

The emperor and all the guests present just gasped as they tried to take in the magnificent beauty of these two walls,

Like a reflecting pond,

Each enhancing the other.

I tell this story because the blank wall is like awareness or otherwise known as mindfulness.

Awareness is steady,

Pure,

Without judgment or commentary or other stains.

It simply sees what's present.

When pointed toward the thinking mind,

It sees all of the thoughts,

The feelings,

The images,

The stories that we create,

And it simply reflects them.

Awareness reflects the thinking mind so that we can know the mind.

But often when we began a meditation practice,

We're like the artist that has only begun to smooth the wall with sandpaper.

The rough wall that has not been sanded is like that experience of awareness and thought being merged.

Most of us can remember when we first sat down and began to meditate,

There was simply no space between thoughts and awareness.

There was this sense of being merged with thought without any way to distance from the rapid firing of thinking.

When a thought arose in the mind,

It was taken at face value as true and most often dictated whatever our next words or behavior was.

When we first sat down to meditate,

Many of us were aghast at how insane the mind was,

Like a bucking bronco.

We also quickly realized that we're not in control.

We're not the CEO of our mind.

Far from it.

We have so little control over what thoughts arise,

What feelings emerge in any moment.

But the good news is that if we were diligent with our practice,

If we kept sanding the wall like the artist,

As the days and weeks and months continued,

More and more of the wall became smooth.

In this way,

As we continued to sit in meditation day after day,

Week after week,

Month after month,

As we continue to practice bringing mindfulness to our daily lives,

We began to experience more separation between thinking and awareness.

We have glimpses of the peaceful,

Steady nature of awareness,

Even as the thinking mind continued to produce all kinds of discord.

And here is where we began to know awareness is powerful ability to reflect.

Once we make it to this place in meditation practice,

We began to have some understanding that we are not our thoughts.

We are not our feelings,

And that these experiences are just not under our control.

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Stories arise based on the causes and conditions,

And they pass away based on causes and conditions.

Now awareness can be utilized to see not just what thoughts,

Feelings,

Images,

Etc are present,

But how they're connected to the past,

How they are connected to our life history,

And how what we are experiencing in this moment is often less reflective of this present moment reality,

And more connected to what happened before we began to see this more clearly.

Just as the second artist continued to sand and sand and sand,

The wall had more power to reflect the other mural.

This is like awareness,

Reflecting the thinking mind as awareness becomes stronger,

More polished.

The mind becomes steadier and more stable.

And as this happens we become less and less reactive.

With more ease we simply see the thinking mind,

The arising of thought,

And the passing away.

As reactivity settles down,

We also see with more clear awareness,

The connection between how we live our daily lives and the mental activity that results.

I don't know about you,

But when I make the effort to relax that driven nature of my autopilot in everyday life,

That tendency toward excessive busyness,

The mind tends to settle down also.

When the excessive busyness ramps up again,

The mind becomes like a tornado.

And also when I have said something or done something that is in some way harmful to myself or to someone else,

The mind becomes agitated.

When I sit in meditation,

That agitation is there to be witnessed.

This reflects the connection between our behaviors and the state of our mind.

And just as the second artist worked diligently and long enough to have the entire surface of the wall smooth and glossy.

When awareness becomes steady and peaceful enough,

We ultimately see the intimate connection not only between our behavior and the resulting mental landscape,

But also between the mind and heart.

We see how when the mind tends toward judgment and criticism,

Sees what's wrong instead of what's right,

The heart and body follow.

The body constricts,

The heart hardens a bit,

And we feel the resulting disconnection from ourselves,

Others,

And the world at large.

This ability to see the intimate connection between the thinking mind,

The heart and body is a powerful motivating force to continue to practice,

To continue to steady the mind,

Cultivate awareness,

Sand the wall.

We also began to notice the intimate connection between a peaceful mind and open mind and a compassionate heart,

One that can connect and appreciate self,

Others,

And this complex simultaneously tough and fragile world that we are intimately bound to.

It's said that our inner wisdom grows,

So does our outer compassion.

As our inner wisdom grows,

So does our outer compassion.

And it's here that mindfulness comes into its power to resolve.

Resolve the suffering that's created when the mind is full of craving,

Aversion,

And confusion.

Craving that deep experience that this moment,

This situation,

This experience would be better if,

Fill in the blank.

Having something different would be better,

Having more of something that's good would be even better.

This might be a second helping of food,

Another glass of wine,

A different posture in meditation,

A different place to live,

More money,

More time,

More success,

More,

More,

More.

And aversion,

That mental place where we push away from what is,

Where the body contracts,

Shuts down,

The mind avoids,

Looks away,

Opposes,

And tries to prevent the moment from continuing.

And don't get me wrong,

Of course there are times in life that we need to take action.

We need to take action often,

Sometimes to improve a situation because it's dangerous or otherwise bad for us in some way or bad for someone we love.

But most moments in life are not these.

They are the moments where the mind just cannot let life be as it is and is instead caught up in aversion,

Craving for it to be different.

And then there's the mind in confusion,

This place where ego reigns supreme,

This place where the mind wholeheartedly believes in the separate self.

In this delusion,

We are alone.

There is a me and there is a you,

Which of course there is in the relative sense,

But in a deeper sense,

In the fundamental sense,

We are all interconnected.

We all depend on one another and can get nowhere alone.

Some of you may have seen the this following quote by Ian Somerhalder,

And it was connected to the celebration of Earth Day this past week.

The environment is us,

The environment is in us,

Not outside of us.

The trees are our lungs,

The rivers our bloodstream,

And what you do to the environment,

Ultimately you do to yourself.

We deny this reality all the time.

What I do to you,

I do to myself.

Interconnectivity is the reality.

Separation is the delusion.

In the story of the two artists,

It's here that the Emperor opens the doors,

The light floods in,

And the beautifully sanded wall reflects the gorgeous natural mural.

Or in the case of awareness,

Awareness can reflect the pure and natural state of existence,

Life just as it is.

We have all had that moment or will have that moment in our practice where we sit down,

Set the timer,

Or hear the bells ring,

Tune into the breath.

And for the first time we reach a place where there is more quiet,

Where awareness is able to reflect the mind.

Yes,

Thoughts still arise and pass away.

But there's a stillness and a quietness in the background,

An embodied knowing of the mind as mind,

Thought as thought,

An ease in allowing the flow of life,

Not caught up in wishing it to be different,

But resting in the brilliance of life being just the way it is.

So the story that I listened to Bishop Harada tell ended where I ended,

But my imagination kept going.

And I thought,

What's not told in the story of the two Japanese artists is what happens when the sun goes down,

When the light doesn't stream in.

Without that light,

The wall could not continue to illuminate the peaceful,

Tranquil,

Beautiful scene.

And I think this is much like our practice,

Even though the meditative experience of resting in tranquility doesn't typically last for a long length of time,

It nevertheless can be a very powerful experience and is often a substantial movement toward wisdom,

The developing understanding that we are not our thoughts.

We are not our past,

That the past is over and only remains in our neurology.

That impermanence is always true.

Everything has a beginning,

A middle and an end.

There is no escaping this truth.

And that resisting life,

Resisting this truth leads to suffering in any given moment.

So we learn in this moment of meditation to accept the moment as it is,

To know deeply the difference between holding on and letting go.

And gradually we become able to differentiate between the path to peace and the path to suffering.

So I think I'll end there and just invite us into a few minutes of silence,

Just allowing this to download and if anything was spoken that's useful to just let it be,

Let it sink in.

And to notice if there's anything arising that feels called to speak to.

So we'll sit now and then have discussion.

Reviews

Very interesting

Sand the wall.

Fantastic insights. Thank you

Exceptional. Thank you.

Awesome. Sooooo much wisdom. So much to absorb. I must listen many more times to get more from this. 🙏🏻

I keep coming back to these talks during this time. I find the topics you have chosen very good reminders to reconnect. Thank you for sharing these.

An excellent talk and quite essential too at this time in such huge changes. Perfect, thank you. 🙏