Guided Meditation: Sharing Intention of Mindfulness; Dharmette: Impermanence (8); Creating the Other

This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Sharing Intention of Mindfulness; Impermanence (8):Creating the Other. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

The following talk was given by Maria Straatmann at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on April 23, 2026. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Sharing Intention of Mindfulness

Welcome all. Welcome to IMC's morning sit, morning here. Whatever time of day it is for you as you hear this. Welcome.

Today, let us be conscious of one another. We have gathered here together with the intention of practice. As we sit, stand, lie, walk, whatever posture we are in, we do so with a similar intent to be mindfully aware, to be present for our lives. We share this intention not dependent on time or place. We are all of us joining in these few minutes to breathe together. I invite you to be conscious of that, that we're in this together. Separate breaths, different postures, different times of day, different places, but for now, we join. We have company, companionship, we're a sangha^[1].

So, take a joint breath and let it out and settle into this space. This space we share. Maybe not geographically. We can't hear one another. But just this, know that there are others joining. There are others who are taking this breath, following this breath, this one, this one. And allow your body to receive this knowing. To settle into a posture that is awake and relaxed. Whatever posture you choose, be aware that your body is supporting you, supporting the breath. And we are all here.

All of these different ways of breathing, of being mindful, I ascribe to you a good intent. Not knowing you, I trust that you are here for this breath, through hearing my voice, seeing my face in a video, though I cannot see yours. I trust that you are here and that we are breathing together with this breath. I take you in. With this exhale, I allow you to be as you are. I accept that you are as you are. With this sangha in mind, I follow my breath.

Hearing rain and dripping downspout. Feeling just here. Awake with an intention toward mindfulness. I follow the breath in and out. Even if you're not listening, there's a reflection of intention that connects me with you. It supports me as I follow my breath in and out. Aware of us. Aware of the breath. Just this.

Intending to be mindful, I keep returning to here with gentleness—a gentle return to mindfulness. The intention to be awake, aware, present. Ah, still here with this breath as it deepens, as it changes. Mindful to be here.

"All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a corrupted mind, and suffering follows like the wheels of the cart behind the hoofs of the ox. All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows like a never departing shadow."^[2]

So, let us be aware of one another, not in wonder, though there may be that, but by intention. I am breathing with you in mind. And my intention is toward a peaceful mind. I hold you in that peace, present and breathing.

Dharmette: Impermanence (8); Creating the Other

Welcome everyone. Welcome to our next consideration of impermanence. And happy Earth Day. This is April 26th that we're recording this... April 22nd, I'm sorry. 26th is what's happening some other time. What's happening now is April 22nd.

Yesterday we spoke about the creation of self by owning all of our experience as mine. Being aware of sensing, feeling, perceptions, mental formations and concluding, "This is me, mine, myself." Taking as permanent that which is impermanent. The tendency to simultaneously create the continuum we call "my life," as if all of our life appears a continuous stream. But it's really a whole series of mind moments. It's not my intention to convince you of this but to ask you to consider this: that everything is happening in this moment only. In this moment, everything is changing. Everything arises, is present, and passes away.

The conditions of our existence are always changing. Everything changes. Some things change slowly, some things change quickly in terms of how we think about them. Be aware of the mind for mental formations, the thinking mind that creates, "Oh, this is what this means. Oh, this is what this means." I heard myself this morning saying, "Well, things are moving slowly, so this probably means I'm going to forget." Why? Why does the mind create this?

The person who is aware has also changed. An echo of our past experience appears here, but it is an echo, it's not real. It also depends on the words that we've described our experience with. We have the illusion that I am this way because I've used this word. I might use the word anxious or demanding or irritated. And the word carries with it a train of impressions and meanings to this moment.

In the course of explaining this moment to ourselves—my story, cries of injustice, assertions of great happiness and bliss—we establish a kind of blame or responsibility for how things are now. I speak not of karma here. I speak of, "Oh, this means this is true." And we project the responsibility either onto ourselves ("Oh, I did that wrong, I did that well") or onto someone else—some person, place, or institution outside of us. And we say, "Oh, they've done that. They are unjust. They are biased. They are idiots." We create outside of us personhood. We create the other. And we ascribe qualities to them. Instead of saying this person said this thing, we conclude about that. Be aware of what our mental formations do in forming the other.

If you recall the conversation I started on yesterday, I mentioned that there were two people in conversation and one says, "I don't need to hear this." And the other person says, "But I need to say it." And I said, "No judgments," and passed on. But the mind will happily supply blame in either direction for the suffering of mismatched needs. We create the other who's to blame for my satisfaction or happiness. But it's really created by me, not by them. Our attitude of mind creates the two people that are there.

Thus we create the "we-they" dichotomy in the world that is a source of so much suffering. We attribute ownership to others or to us. "I am dissatisfied because you did this." Or, "I'm dissatisfied because I'm not good enough." This makes our happiness, unhappiness, suffering, or lack of suffering subject to changing conditions where we remain fixed. "I am. I am. All of this other stuff is causing my problems." And we recognize a disequilibrium for things being other than I wish they were. It arises out of this, the need to fix, alter, change what is happening. We want things to be other than they are and we suffer.

We look at the way we are and we think we are unique. I said yesterday your experiences are unique. All of our experiences are unique in this moment. But it doesn't mean we're special. Doesn't mean because I have this feeling I need to do something. I am better. I am worse. We get in the habit of creating a self by comparison. Better than, or a self in others by saying, "I'm better than them, they're better than me." I'm less, more, or better. This comparison is not necessary. This is what's happening. And this is neither better nor worse. We don't have to judge everything.

Joseph Goldstein suggested that when he found a lot of judgments happening in his mind he used the word māna^[3], which is a Pali word for thinking, the thinking mind. And so when he notices judgments, he just repeats "māna, māna, māna" as a way of distracting himself from defending that judgment in stories.

We need to be aware of how we create "me" and "you." How the mind attributes qualities, so that the people who are wrong must be subjugated, controlled, punished, or really great, rewarded. And see how the mind is creating these needs.

So I recently read a blog post from Ajahn Sucitto^[4]. And in this blog post, by the way, he uses the word citta^[5], which is a Pali word for mind state, like attitude. This is his post:

"Domination is in fact the thing that needs to be fixed. It's based on an unawakened response to uncertainty and diversity. The ignorant citta reacts by demanding hard and permanent solutions, fixed boundaries, simple strategies that will defend it against changing conditions it can never control. Based on the incapacity and insecurity that ignorance brings, the citta projects the other out there as being the source of its own problem. And this is the important thing: Losing touch with its ability to be fluid, heartfelt, and ethically secure the citta concocts various distorted messages. 'They'll take over, they'll take your livelihood, rape your women, defile your national identity.' The narratives of resentment and prejudice present some other group as depriving or threatening you. Even when the opposite is true."

He further says:

"Cultivate, investigate, purify, and release the citta from self-view. This has to be the starting point. When you enter your true territory, the domain of heart consciousness, you get the message. In your intimate territory, control and domination don't work. You can't even control your own thoughts and emotions. You don't even own this body. Here there are no hard borders. Everything permeates you from the air you breathe to the memories that well up in your mind. You have to cooperate, forgive, and allow inner changes that defy your identity. You learn to give up cravings for simplistic me and my group solutions and fixed positions. Instead, there can be an acceptance of life's uncertainties and frustrations rather than feeling threatened by them. As we stop projecting our personal failings and dissatisfactions outward, we see otherness as a basis for increased understanding and even wonder. A love based on the miracle of sharing life gets born and a relationship based on harmony rather than coercion. The great conquest then is the conquest over self-view. This has always been the teaching and the way of the supremely awakened ones."

That's the end of his post. It's a long one, but it felt right.

So when we say, "This is who I am," and separate ourselves from what is going on out there, it denies impermanence. It says, "I'm this way, you're this way." So the tendency to say, "This is true and we will remain so," must be tempered with balance.

If we go back to that conversation I just had, the "I don't need this but I need this" dichotomy. We have two people that have needs. If even one of them is able to say to themselves, "This is my irritation. It actually has nothing to do with you. Despite what I see, this irritation is arising now in my mind, in this mind." If I can see that clearly, I might get away from "This is your fault that I'm upset," and be able to say, "I'm irritated about something and need to blow off steam." Oh, I'm irritated. Irritation is here. I'm not irritated. I don't have to do this. This whole thing dissolves when I can see clearly the creation in my mind of a need that has to do with irritation. It does not match with my need for kindness. Doesn't match. I can see the difference.

Somebody said to me, what happened just yesterday? She said to me, "Well, if I'm very upset about the chaos of the world, how can I get to the place where I'm worried about you?" And then she answered the question herself. "I have to be really present." And implied in that was, how do I do that? How can I be present in this emotional storm? And the answer is practice. Practice. What can my intentions direct me toward? What does the mind state I cultivate create, a peaceful mind or corrupted, due to the next moment? And if I can skillfully navigate this moment, I create a positive impulse for the next moment. And if I can do it once, I can do it again. And if I do it again, maybe I can do it again. You don't have to become a perfect person, just practice being present with things as they are.

I'm going to close with a short Jane Hirshfield^[6] poem called "Tin." In it she talks about Haydarpaşa, which is a train station in Istanbul.

"I studied much and remembered little but the world is generous. It kept offering figs and cheeses. Never mind that soon I'll have to give it all back, the world, the figs. To be a train station of existence is no small matter. It doesn't need to be the grand station or Haydarpaşa station. The engine shed can be low, windowed with coal dust^[7] under a flat shingled roof, it can be tin. Another mystery bandaged with rivets and rubies leaking cold and heat in both directions as the earth does."

I am a train station of existence. All things pass through. They arise, are present, pass away. This is no small thing. May you recognize presence. May you be always a part of the world that you are in. And may you find a peaceful mind there through your own intentions. Thank you.

Q&A and Reflections

I'm going to try to copy the post. Unfortunately... let's see. Okay, I have posted it, I hope. I'm sorry, it's going to take me too long. So the best I can tell you is if you put in the internet "Ajahn Sucitto," you will eventually get to his blog. He posted this last Friday. As we all know, today is Earth Day. Mona, yes, the posting was from Ajahn Sucitto's Dharma Tracks.