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Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness (5 of 6)

In continuing these talks on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the topic for today is the third foundation: mindfulness of mind, or mindfulness of mind states. What's interesting about the second foundation—mindfulness of feelings—and mindfulness of mind is that both make a distinction that is quite useful for deepening or filling out the path to liberation, to really move towards more and more freedom from suffering.

This distinction, in my language, is between that which is surface material and that which is deep down or deep within. It is a deep quality of being, of who we are—not who we are, but a quality of being, a deeper quality of heart in which we live. It is the distinction between what is shallow and what is deep within us.

In the second foundation of feelings, which I didn't talk about yesterday, there are three common denominators of all feelings: pleasant, unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant. There is also a distinction made between those feelings that have these three common denominators which are "of the flesh." In modern English, we might say they are "skin deep" in a sense. Then there are those which are not of the flesh, those which are deep inside.

If you eat something nice and tasty, that would be of the flesh. It is only skin deep; it only has to do with the taste for the most part. Or if you touch some very nice, smooth, wonderful surface—maybe velvet—it feels so nice. Not to diminish the niceness of it, but it is much more skin deep. It's more like the senses have been stimulated. That which is deeper doesn't belong to the senses that are on the surface of things like the skin, the eyes, or the ears. It is some deeper quality, almost something that wells up from within. It is a way in which the inner life gets organized, opened, or brought into harmony. That deeper feeling also can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

When the Buddha talks about the path of liberation and feelings "not of the flesh"—the deep feelings—he's mostly talking about the pleasant ones that open up to deeper and deeper states. There are some difficult, unpleasant feelings that come from this also; that is part of the practice. Probably any spiritual practice involves great challenges. If it didn't, it wouldn't be a spiritual path. But the Buddha emphasizes that as the practice goes deeper, the spiritual feelings—the inner feelings, those not of the flesh—open up more and more.

In the third foundation, mindfulness of mind, there is also a distinction between what is shallow and what is deeper. There is that which is just a visitor and that which really characterizes our state of being. The more shallow ones are greed, hatred, and delusion. These are states the Buddha refers to as just visitors to the mind.

In fact, in the instructions for mindfulness of greed, hate, and delusion, the Buddha says to recognize a mind with greed, a mind with hatred or aversion, or a mind with delusion. As soon as you say "with," it means it's not the whole thing. It is not a mind that is entirely greedy; it's a mind that has some greed in it. The reason why this is important has to do with mindfulness becoming strong enough to observe and see clearly greed operating in it. The part of the mind that sees it, that knows it, is not greedy; it's just knowing it. Because that knowing is there, you can't say the whole mind is greedy. It's just a mind with greed. It might predominate, but it's not the whole thing.

This cracks open the possibility of further freedom. The mindfulness itself is a kind of freedom—in this case, freedom from greed. This is beginning to appreciate a movement towards greater and greater freedom. The instruction is not only to know a mind with greed, but also to know a mind without greed. There is something about recognizing this freedom, the absence of and freedom from afflictive emotions, which keeps opening the door of freedom for us. It is that opening up to freedom which is such a big part of the Eightfold Path. For those who have a taste of freedom, it's just a matter of expanding it and expanding it. The Eightfold Path is a description of how to do that.

For those who haven't had a taste of freedom, they're getting a little bit of it here. If mindfulness is strong, you recognize a mind without greed—just recognizing that. Likewise, you recognize a mind without hatred and without delusion.

Then there is the second category: that which is deep, or that which has to do with the qualities of our deepest being, the quality of our heart. The word "with" is not used here anymore. We are recognizing if the mind is expansive or not, if the mind is concentrated or not, if the mind is exalted or not, or if the mind is liberated or not. Because there's no "with," the whole state of being, the mind and heart, is characterized by being expansive, concentrated, exalted, or liberated. (I actually like the word "unified" for samadhi^[1]—it's not exactly the word samadhi, but that's a footnote I won't go into).

As we get settled, following the path of practice, as we get concentrated and really settle in the present moment, the quality of the mind starts becoming unconstricted and uncontracted. It's no longer so narrow or tight and caught up with its preoccupations. A mind which is not caught in its preoccupations begins feeling like it has space around it, or is the space that's around us. Sometimes it's called "big mind," expansive mind, or spacious mind. It's possible to feel like there's lots of room in the mind. Then we get caught up in some concern, like greed, hatred, or delusion, and it all collapses, and we get tight, narrow, and small. But there's a sense of the expanse of mind, the open mind, that's almost coterminous with space. To feel the mind expand outwards into that space around us is this big mind.

The concentrated mind, the unified mind, or the really settled, stable mind—depending on how this word is translated—is also a wonderful feeling of just being really whole and settled. It's not something that's "with" us; it becomes us. Now we can say that it is the whole state. We don't say a mind "with," because when we're mindful of these states, it feels like mindfulness itself has that quality of being expansive. Mindfulness itself has the quality of being settled or unified.

And mindfulness itself has feelings of being exalted. "Exalted" is a little bit my own translation of this term, but it is this idea that there is a wonderfully sublime, wonderfully pleasant, and really special state that comes from deeper and deeper concentration, deeper and deeper letting go. The mind has these different states that are exquisite in their simplicity, equanimity, joy, and happiness. It just feels almost better than anything. It is very much a feeling of being at peace, being at home, being whole, and feeling very deep contentment and satisfaction. It is a deep sense of health, these exalted states that are possible.

But that's not the point of Buddhist practice. The point of Buddhist practice is liberation. So it is possible to also know if a mind is liberated or not. We can know that it's not yet liberated, and knowing that is part of this depth of our life. There is a depth here: "It's not quite free yet, but this is where I'm opening these doors; I'm opening up to this more and more." And so, we know a mind that is liberated. Here also, it's not a mind "with" liberation. As I said, mindfulness itself partakes in this quality of liberation. Mindfulness, the knowing of it all, is part and parcel of this unrestricted, unlimited, unhindered, uncontracted state of mind, a quality of being. It's possible to know this and touch into it—it just feels like it suffuses my being.

In the second foundation, we begin appreciating that we have an inner life, and the inner life is really the way to tune into that and become aware of it. Not just what is skin deep, of the flesh, but really the inner life in a deep way is how we keep opening to freedom. That's where freedom is really felt. It's not freedom to do whatever we want in the world; it's this inner quality of heart, of being.

In the third foundation, the same distinction is made. This distinction perhaps helps us to realize there are much better things in this world than what we can experience through our greed, hatred, or ill will, and much better things than delusion. We are the caretakers of our own inner life. We start tuning into this inner life. If it's not expansive, we lovingly just know, "Oh, today it's not expansive." This is what is non-expansive. But that knowing is part of the movement towards becoming expansive. We know, "I'm not concentrated, I'm not settled," and knowing that is the beginning of tuning into the place that can begin to relax and open. If it's not exalted, rather than having greed or hatred for not having an exalted mind, just knowing that there is something freeing and opening allows that being to move in that direction.

And then the liberated mind. Sometimes the mind is not liberated, and we can know that. There's something about knowing the mind is not liberated, knowing we're caught in something—that knowing itself partakes in liberation, or can partake in liberation. So let your mindfulness learn the quality of awareness that is aware of things. Learn how that can be found and done. There's a freedom in the knowing, in the awareness, and that's the door that we want to open so that our inner life can sing, can be free, and can be happy in a profound way.

So thank you very much, and we'll continue with the fourth foundation tomorrow. We are meeting tomorrow, Thursday morning, and then on Friday as well here. Thank you.