A Simple Mind, A Happy Mind

Suryacitta talks about how having a simple mind leads to living not only a simple life but a happy one too. He speaks about how most of us overthink and the consequences of this. He discusses very eloquently how the thinking mind should be the servant of awareness but unfortunately, it has become the master with dire consequences for the individual.

Transcript

Hello guys,

I want to talk about a simple mind.

I think simple or simplicity is one of the most beautiful but underused terms,

Underused words that we have.

I think to live a simple life,

A life that is uncomplicated.

When you walk into a room that is simple and related to simple is elegant.

Something that is simple and something that is elegant,

There's a real beauty to it.

A Zen garden is simple and elegant because it's uncluttered.

It's got lots of things distracting you.

You walk in and with a Zen garden or an elegant,

Simple and elegant room.

What you are aware of are not just the objects but the space.

Because normally we walk into a room and what we are aware of are the objects and often rooms have a lot of stuff in them.

There are chairs,

Carpets,

Pictures,

TV,

Tables,

Ornaments,

You name it.

And so that's what our attention often goes to.

It goes to the objects.

And it can be quite overwhelming,

A lot of objects.

It's like when we go into a city,

Some of us can find it overwhelming because there's such a lot of stimulation,

Stimulating the senses.

If you walk into an elegant room or you walk into a Zen garden or you walk into a wood or a forest,

There's a simplicity to it.

There's an elegance.

Things are not out of place.

In a forest,

Nothing is ever out of place.

It just is what it is.

So my teacher used to always say to us,

A simple life,

Not a life where there's too many things going on.

Just one,

Two projects,

Endeavours,

Interests,

And that you can give yourself wholeheartedly to them.

And mine for many years now has been the Dharma,

Teaching,

Practicing.

Primarily I'm a practitioner.

Secondly,

I am a teacher.

I'm a practitioner first.

But you know,

My life has been about this.

That's been the main current of my life and other things,

You know,

A bit of football or tennis,

Sort of complemented.

But not everybody has that and we all have different things,

Different ways of being.

But there's something in living a simple life,

Not having too many things on the go.

And I'm not telling you how to live your life,

I'm just saying you may want to think about this.

Is your life too complicated?

But there's something about elegance too.

And what does it mean to live an elegant life?

It's just a question I'm throwing out to you.

What does it mean to live a simple and elegant life?

I don't mean walking elegantly in that particular way,

I'm not talking about that.

But Charlotte Jo Koback used to talk about elegance.

Elegance is achieved by what you leave out.

So is there something superfluous in your life that you could leave out?

What does it mean to have a simple mind?

A simple in the dictionary is,

One definition is something composed of not many parts,

Of one or few parts.

It's aligned with what we've been talking about,

The having few activities in life,

Simplifying.

And we can say that our minds are not very simple,

They're very complicated,

They're very clever.

And I'm not a fan of clever minds.

I'm a great fan of intelligence and great wit,

Absolutely.

But not these clever minds always sparking off.

Always got the last word,

The funniest answer.

There's something quite restless about that sort of mind.

And it's not something I enjoy being around too much.

What does it mean for us to have a simple mind?

What it actually means is moving from an identification with thinking,

With thoughts,

And often a lot of thoughts going on.

So it's not very simple,

To identifying with awareness.

Awareness is just one thing,

It's not even a thing.

You don't even have to tune in to awareness,

You can't tune out of awareness,

But if you become aware of being aware right now,

You are aware.

Even if you deny it,

You have to be aware to deny it,

So you are aware.

There is awareness right now.

Could you define it as a thing,

As an object?

No.

Let's just look at some of the qualities of awareness.

It's open,

Isn't it?

It allows the world to be.

Within this awareness,

There's a sensitivity to it.

We're sensitive to the world,

Which is here all the time.

If we're caught up in our own thoughts,

We're sensitive to that.

And awareness is clear,

Isn't it?

There's a clarity to it.

But we don't tend to experience these,

Or not consciously anyway,

These qualities.

We experience the complexity of our overthinking mind.

That's why we feel overwhelmed a lot of the time.

When we're overwhelmed,

We are being lost,

Or we are lost in the object world,

The world of objects.

And just as early,

We spoke about a room having objects,

And we walk in and we become aware of the objects,

Not the space.

So the objects of the mind,

If you like,

Are thoughts.

They're the objects.

We could say that tables and chairs and people are the objects in the external world.

Thoughts are the object of the internal world.

Now ultimately there's no internal and external.

But that's for later.

So a simple mind means dwelling,

Or resting,

In awareness.

Just allow yourself to sink back now into awareness.

It's an allowing,

It's a resting.

It's just something we have to strive for.

So our usual everyday complicated mind is a mind that is full of opinions,

Judgments,

Concerns,

Criticisms.

And that's not very peaceful.

Can you imagine?

Okay,

Let's just put it another way.

Sink back to awareness,

Just awareness of the world.

It's very subtle,

Guys,

This is very subtle,

But just,

Even if you can imagine it,

Just,

Awareness doesn't have any opinions.

It's just open.

It's like space.

Awareness is similar to space.

It's a knowing space,

It's a knowingness.

But we overlook it because we're obsessed with the known,

The objects that are known.

Thoughts,

The promise of thought,

Oh,

Thoughts,

We sort of,

We stick to them like glue.

If I threw black paint up into the,

Into space in this room,

And I threw red paint,

I threw a white paint,

Would space,

Say,

Hang on,

I don't like the red paint,

I don't want the black and the white,

Or would it be choosy,

Would it be picky?

No.

Awareness is similar,

It just allows what's there.

It's spacious,

Open.

It doesn't criticize,

It doesn't judge.

Can you imagine a life without judgment?

And I don't mean intelligent evaluation.

It doesn't mean that if you're walking through a city and you sense some danger,

That sort of judgment's natural.

Or you might not trust somebody,

There might be a feeling of don't trust that person,

Or you might take heed of that.

I'm not talking about those judgments,

Those evaluations,

Those intuitions,

I'm not talking about those.

You know what judgments I'm talking about.

Because I do.

So right now in the background,

There's somebody more in there alone.

I'm standing in my meditation space,

He called Akuti.

Often when we're here on a course,

In the summertime,

Meditating,

We're all very nice,

Feeling good.

And that's a bit further away,

But next door I might get their trimmers out,

Or their lawnmowers.

And one or two people don't like it.

I can see it in myself.

Gary.

So it's the judgment of the thinking mind.

Now awareness is aware of the judgment.

A simple mind is a mind that's lived from awareness.

And thinking happens,

The thinking mind is a tool,

Which I've gone into a number of times before in previous videos.

So what we're doing as we practice,

We are noticing how we tie ourselves up in our thinking.

We tie ourselves up in knots.

And the beautiful thing about mindfulness is its simplicity and elegance again.

It's so simple,

It's so elegant.

We're not trying to work anything out,

Say.

There's nothing to be worked out.

Life is absolutely complete right now.

It's only when we get into our opinions,

Our judgments,

Our criticisms,

Our complaining,

That it becomes a problem.

I'm not saying things don't need attending to.

Of course they do.

If you've got a puncture or you've got an illness,

You need to get the puncture fixed,

Or you need to go to the doctors.

But when we're lost in our thinking about the whole thing,

It magnifies into a problem.

And we all do this.

I do it.

I just do it less than I used to.

So a simple mind is a mind that is,

Or a life that is lived from awareness.

There are thoughts and there is awareness of thoughts.

They're not,

But for now we can see them as two different things.

There are thoughts and there's awareness of thoughts.

Right now just think very slowly to yourself with a second pause between each word.

Something is aware of these thoughts.

Just think it to yourself.

OK.

So you see,

There is awareness of objects,

Of thoughts.

Now that same awareness is aware of this sound.

I'm going to make a sound.

Other objects can be sensations in the body,

Feelings and sensations,

The external world,

Nature,

People.

They're all objects of awareness.

We get lost in the objects.

Some we like,

Some we don't like.

But that's our personal complicated mind preferences.

When we live from awareness,

We are less caught in that.

You still prefer tea to coffee if that's your way.

Those are not problems.

But we don't see the world as a threat anymore.

Something that needs manipulating and engineering to suit my demands.

Because I have demands of the world.

I have demands of you,

Of you,

Of you.

I know how you all should be.

And my goodness,

It's just so exhausting.

A simple mind.

Come back to awareness.

So that's what we're doing.

See,

This croaky voice now is an object.

The creaky roof is an object.

A thought is an object.

A chair is an object.

A person is an object.

You know what I mean.

This body is an object.

You can be aware of your body.

Your body is something that is experienced via awareness.

Awareness.

We are aware of the world,

Including this body.

Awareness doesn't come out of the head and sprout into the world.

That's the old view.

When you start to explore your own experience,

You realize that awareness is primary.

Awareness is first.

The old saying that I think therefore I am.

If we actually look at it,

What's here first?

Thoughts or awareness?

When you did that exercise earlier,

When you finished a thought,

Did you disappear?

Awareness is primary.

Awareness is actually who we are.

It's not just a word.

We could call it the true self.

The natural self.

The innate self.

Some traditions call it God.

But we miss it.

Because we're trying to find happiness in objects.

An object,

Whether it be a job or a relationship or something,

That will make me happy.

That will do it.

The next Lin and Jackie will do it.

What is doing the looking is what you are looking for.

I'm going to say that again.

That which is doing the looking is what you are looking for.

So we look for it in objects.

What we do with our practice,

With meditation is we still look in the external world because we live in a world.

It can be a wonderful world.

It can be painful and wonderful.

But we turn one eye as it were back.

We start to look inside too.

Start to look here.

What's doing the looking?

And I don't mean looking out of the eyes.

I don't mean this kind of thing.

Looking.

Searching.

Seeking.

What is doing the seeking is what you are seeking for.

It's very,

Very subtle.

We've been trained to look for the gross,

For the obvious.

What we're really wanting is an experience of our true self.

Now if I ask you to take a step towards yourself.

Take a step away from yourself.

Take a step away from yourself.

Take a step away from yourself.

Take a step away from yourself.

So in our meditation we label our thoughts as thinking.

And it's that beautiful simplicity that I referred to earlier.

We just unhook ourself from it and come back to just this.

The senses.

Because the hearing sense is simple.

It just happens.

Stop hearing this voice right now.

Stop hearing this voice right now.

Stop hearing this voice right now.

It's impossible isn't it?

It just happens.

Seeing just happens.

Even with the eyes closed.

You still see.

Tasting happens when you put something in the mouth.

Even when you don't there's something,

There's sensations going on.

Smelling.

Feeling.

It all happens.

We don't have to make it happen.

So we come back to this.

It's simple.

It's when we get caught in our complicated minds that life becomes unbearable sometimes.

Simple mind equals a simple life equals a joyful life.

The new equation.

Simple mind equals joy.

A life lived from awareness is a life lived for all.

Not just for me.

And that's what compassion is.

It comes from a simple mind.

Because a simple mind isn't caught up with its own opinions and judgments and evaluations and criticisms and condemnations and judgments and the whole lot.

Thought will promise you the world and it will promise you the best world possible or it will bring you the worst world possible.

And when I say thought I'm not talking about functional thinking,

Creative thinking,

Using it wisely.

Absolutely.

It's a wonderful miraculous tool of the human being.

But it's one faculty.

It's a capacity that we have.

But it's gone out of hand.

It's like the,

Imagine you have a mansion.

In this mansion you have a master he or she runs the house.

You have a servant who lives downstairs.

The master has lived there for generations at their family home.

They know everything about the house.

And they're,

You know,

They know how to run the house.

They're used to it.

They're familiar with it.

The servant does what the master asks of them.

The master is awareness.

The servant is the thinking mind.

But the roles have got reversed.

It's like the master's down below thinking what's happened to my life?

Who's,

What's he do?

He or she doing?

Being around like an idiot,

The thinking mind.

Returning back to how things need to be.

Awareness is the master.

The thinking mind is the tool.

Is the servant.

Anyway.

When you're sitting in meditation,

You're lost in thought and thinking.

Come back to what's real.

Unreal,

Real.

See ya.

Reviews

I was smiling all the way, love this talk, simplicity is key. I am a mindfulness practitioner so giving me ideas for teaching but essentially practitioner first, love the simple way you are able to get things across. Feel like I need to do a retreat with you at some point 🥰

unreal, real. come back to what is real. that short sentence is surreally profound- thank you for this meditation ✨🙏🤍✨

What a great talk! I've heard these concepts before, but this was, perhaps not ironically, a very simple explanation.

So simple and beautiful.

My favorite part: that which is looking is what I am looking for. Namasté 🌼

Amazing talk. Would have to listen again from time to time.