This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Sensing the Citta

Okay, well, I'm thinking that we should go ahead and get started. According to my clock, it's on the hour, so why don't we just start right away with the meditation, and we'll continue on after that with our list of one.

So, settling in, finding a spot to sit, allowing yourself to ease into the mind state of meditation. Maybe taking a couple of long, slow, deep breaths, and on the exhale, just allowing the body to settle more deeply into itself. So finding a natural-feeling sitting posture, or maybe lying down or standing if you're comfortable doing so.

You can close the eyes, maybe softening a bit. Softening the face, the head, shoulders, letting them drop down through the belly and the arms and legs. Just inviting a posture that's upright and also relaxed. Inclining the mind and the body toward ease^[1]. Perhaps allowing the attention to just naturally rest onto the sensations of breathing in and out, just to give the mind a simple experience to connect with that's in the present moment. Even if the mind is busy or if there are some emotions present, that's all fine. We can just allow those, and also sense the breath in order to give the mind something to rest with.

And then inviting into your awareness a sense of confidence in the process of meditation. So it doesn't have to be a large movement of mind, maybe just remembering that you do this because you know it has some good effects. Letting this simple confidence or trust or faith be the foundation.

And today we'll primarily be looking at our mind in this meditation. So in the realm of the mind, there's kind of two things going on: there's how the mind is or what the content of the mind is, and then there's also how we are paying attention to that. How is the quality of the awareness that's observing that, or being with that? And we'll actually start with how it is that we are attending to our mind.

So you might just notice if there is a certain flavor to the way we're paying attention. Is it tight? Is there wanting or not wanting? A sense of striving or a sense of criticism? So I'm going to just offer three common flavors that we might have that can color the mind, and a possible way to balance that out just so that we can kind of hone the way that we're paying attention.

So it may be that we have some degree of ill will in the mind. You may be irritated about something in our household this morning, or dreading something that we have to do later. Some way the mind is in a little bit negative state, and sometimes we meet that by wishing it weren't that way, so we add kind of more ill will onto the ill will. So the invitation is to explicitly include a sense of warm acceptance in the mind.

Maybe at first what we're accepting is that the mind is in a state of ill will. At least we can start with accepting that, and that's okay, because it was conditioned; there were the conditions for it, that's why it's there. And then maybe we can even accept what it is that we're a little irritated about: "Okay, yeah, we have a certain thing going on in our relationship, or something that needs to be done." At least for now, for this meditation, we can just include that, accept that part of the mind, that part of our life. Maybe the heating isn't working, okay.

Another very common flavor in our mind that can color how we pay attention is a sense of self-criticism or self-doubt. "Am I doing it right? Am I okay? Everyone else is more mindful than me." So this is also very common, normal in a sense, and I would invite a sense of respect as a natural counterbalance.

You are sitting at this moment. That's a pretty big deal. You can respect that you made it to the cushion or the chair, you made it onto this live stream or this recording. Right there is something worthy of respect. So just a little smile, or even wanting to meditate, you're engaging in a very beautiful and noble practice. And all the other stuff about how we are in life, how we made that mistake, we could think about that later. Maybe for now it's just really good to be sitting here.

Maybe feeling the breath in and out again, inviting ease through the body. And then a third flavor that we often carry in the mind is a kind of striving. So wanting to be more peaceful, wanting to be really present, wanting to get concentrated. So in a gentle form, of course, it's good to wish these things for ourselves, but there's a way in which the very wanting of them can bring a certain tightness into the mind. We can feel that actually when we're attuned to the mind.

So the natural counterbalance is to continue to invite ease into the mind. A little bit like those toys where you put your finger into it—it's kind of a woven toy—and when you put your finger in, if you try to pull it out, it just tightens around the finger. And to get it out, you actually have to push inward and then gently remove the finger. So there's a way in which pushing just binds us up even more, and it's actually through ease that the mind can settle. So there's really nowhere to go, nothing that needs to be done right now.

So this is something that can be done at the beginning of a sit, is to notice the attention, the way we're being attentive, and invite acceptance to counter ill will, respect to counter self-criticism or self-doubt, and ease to counter striving. We may not need to do all of them, but I wanted to offer a whole spread. I actually consider these three—acceptance, respect, and ease—to be different facets of mettā^[2], different aspects of how we can love.

So just resting for a moment, perhaps returning the attention to the breath.

So now that the way that we're paying attention is fairly balanced, we can look a little bit more carefully at the natural flow of what's in the mind. So we might check if even now there's a sense of sensual desire in the mind, or there may not be, and then we feel what it's like to have a mind that's not particularly influenced by sensual desire. There's no need to change how the mind is. Since we have our clear, balanced attention, we just notice what it's like to have or not have desire in the mind.

And we can do the same with any sense of anger or irritation or ill will. Just looking with a balanced attention what it's like when that flickers through the mind. "Oh, this is a mind that's influenced by a moment of irritation." Or if that's not there, "Oh, this is what a mind is like when it doesn't have any irritation in it. Interesting."

Interestingly, this can also be done with delusion. We might think, "Oh, there's no way to see delusion by its very nature." But actually, we can. We could see if the mind is busy with some kind of story that we know isn't really true. We just say, "Oh, okay, there's some delusion present in the mind." Or if the mind's a little fuzzy. Or maybe it's not, maybe it's quite clear, feels balanced, and then we say, "Okay, this is a mind that is not strongly influenced by delusion right now."

And we can also notice the degree of concentration in the mind. Is the mind fairly well gathered, steady in the present moment? Does it feel like an unstable molecule ready to fly apart at any moment, scattering off into its own thoughts as soon as my voice isn't present? And that's just one more thing to notice. "Oh, this is what a scattered mind is like," or "This is what a fairly gathered mind is like."

It can be quite empowering to realize that we can simply observe how the mind is, and that's perfectly good meditation. In the words of Ajahn Sumedho^[3], "Right now, it's like this."

And there may be times when we observe our mind, and we notice that it's not particularly influenced by sensual desire or greed at this moment. And it's also not particularly influenced by hatred or ill will at this moment, nor does it seem to be strongly deluded at this moment. It's possible after a period of meditation the mind is in a state like that. Given that liberation of mind is said to be the absence of greed, hatred, and delusion, such a mind is somewhat close to liberation. Of course, we may have those tendencies still working in the mind, but it may be that at this moment your mind is relatively free. We can appreciate that.

Realizing that can deepen our confidence. So it may be that freedom is a relatively simple thing, something we could carry in our heart throughout the day, a place we could return to rest throughout the day.

The Dharma of Uncommon Lists (5 of 5): The Primacy of the Mind

Okay, so first today I'd like to share a list that I received this week because it relates to our countdown theme, if you will. So this is "The 12 Days of Christmas, Buddhist version." On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 links arising, 11 arahants laughing, 10 perfections growing, nine devas dancing, Eightfold Path a-leading, seven seas seeing, six doors a-sensing, five training precepts, Four Noble Truths, three precious gems, two wings of awakening, and a Buddha 'neath a Bodhi tree. [Laughter] I thought it was pretty good.

So that takes us then today to our list of one. I don't know how unusual this one item is, but I can say that it's not clearly defined anywhere in the suttas in kind of an analytical way, and yet it is incredibly important. And so that is the word that is often translated as "mind," or sometimes as "heart," or sometimes as "heart-mind." And the word is citta^[4]. And it is—to the degree that the Theravada teachings say it this way—it is what gets liberated. So it's not that you are going to get liberated, but your citta might, your heart might get liberated.

So this language of what I like to call the primacy of the mind is very clear in the suttas. So I'll read a quote from the Buddha: "I do not see any other single thing that brings such woe as the mind, citta, that is untamed, uncontrolled, unguarded, and unrestrained. Such a mind indeed brings great woe. I do not see any other single thing that brings such happiness as the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded, and restrained. Such a mind indeed brings great happiness." So I don't think we need to see this in a restrictive way, but more in a sense of not letting the mind run rampant over our own heart and others. So we see that it is about the mind.

The Buddhist teachings emphasize that the key is right here in the mind or the heart, and how the citta strongly influences the amount of happiness or suffering that we have in a given moment. This is also stated up front right in the first two stanzas of the Dhammapada: "All experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a corrupt mind, and suffering follows as the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox. All experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows like a never-departing shadow."

So it's relatively simple—not easy to do, but relatively simple—that if we have peace in the heart, then what comes forth from that is somehow related to happiness for ourselves and others. So where can we learn more about the citta and how it fits into the path? It's effectively threaded everywhere throughout the teachings. The word citta, if you search for that, there's many, many instances of it. But maybe the most prominent place where it's stated directly is right in the foundational text on the cultivation of mindfulness, the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[5].

So there, the Buddha identified the citta as one of four areas of experience where we can establish mindfulness. So it's worthwhile to look at our mind, as we did in the sitting. I think it's noteworthy that we can observe our mind through the instructions of this, which I'll talk a little bit more about in a moment. We can observe our mind as a set of shifting, changing mental qualities. Now that's what we see when we're mindful of the citta, rather than, say, an individual experience of "I." There isn't just one thing going on in the mind. There isn't just one experience, one self that we could point to. And this is actually quite profound, although it may not sound that way.

But the instructions in the establishment of mindfulness are simply to observe a series of qualities in the mind and notice whether they're there or whether they're not. And they are some of the ones that we looked at in the sitting. So, for example, sensual desire, or sometimes it's translated as lust: we just notice, is that present in the mind right now or not? It actually says something like, is the mind influenced by it at this moment or not? And the same for hatred, and the same for delusion. Those are the three kind of overarching difficulties that we have in the mind.

But we're also then supposed to notice if the mind is contracted—it's kind of small and contracted—or if it's scattered and broad. The mind feels different at different times, doesn't it? Sometimes it feels very narrow, focused, sometimes it feels scattered or broad. Sometimes it feels elevated, kind of lofty in a sense, and sometimes not so much. We're also supposed to notice if the mind is concentrated, in the sense of whether it is gathered and kind of organized, or is it unconcentrated, scattered, flipping around to different things.

And interestingly, we're also supposed to notice if the mind is liberated or not liberated at a given moment. So that's something that we can detect also. I don't see a difference between noticing these things on or off the cushion. We can sit, and when we're sitting peacefully, quietly, we have maybe a little bit more clarity and precision in how we can observe the mind from moment to moment. But we can definitely observe it also in daily life while you're cooking or cleaning, or even, with enough practice, while we're talking. We can observe how the mind is, whether it's leaning towards something, whether it's leaning away, what emotions are coming up.

And the instruction in this sutta, at least on mindfulness, is just to know. Just to know how it is with no judgment. See how the mind is. There's a certain importance to—using modern language—taking data about our mind. Noticing, "How does the mind get upset when it is angry? What does it feel like?" instead of immediately saying, "Oh, the mind has anger. I'm not supposed to be angry, I'm a spiritual person, I'd better quickly do some mettā practice to eliminate that anger."

There's a little more leeway in this sutta where, as long as we're not acting on the anger—like it says in the Dhammapada verses, if we act on anger then yes, there will be some suffering—but if we simply are knowing that the mind is in an angry state, that's important. We can learn what it's like. What does it feel like? What are the consequences internally of having that? So it's important. This is kind of a data-taking exercise to know about the moods of the mind, the flavor, how things come and go. It includes the emotional tone of the mind, it includes the cognitive tone of the mind.

And then also, once we see these qualities, the sutta asks us to observe them arising and passing away. And now, on the one hand, we see how the conditioning of the mind works. We see what conditions lead toward certain states of mind, and what conditions lead toward more peaceful states of mind. And also, at just a fundamental level, we're learning that mind states are impermanent. There's no mind state that has persisted since the beginning of your life, and probably not since the beginning of today.

So we see that all these things are coming and going, and it's important to begin the process of disidentifying with the mind, beginning to see it as conditioned, influenced by different things. This is from Bhikkhu Anālayo's^[6] book on Satipaṭṭhāna: "Sustained contemplation of the mind will expose the degree to which what one takes to be one's own mind is in fact influenced by external conditions. Realizing the impermanent and conditioned nature of the mind leads toward non-attachment and non-identification."

So it's interesting, right? It is, in a sense, our own mind, it's not somebody else's mind, and it's a huge influence on our experience. But we see that actually, we have a lot of conditions that have come into it from the culture, from our family, from our experience, from our upbringing. Is it really ours? Really? Some of us are with family at a time of year like this, and don't you see where your habits come from if you observe your relatives? [Laughter] So you know, it's something that we can see clearly as having a lot of different influences coming in.

So interestingly, we do observe the mind, but we also cultivate the mind. The citta is to be cultivated along the Buddhist path. It does change over time, and we can refine it, we can hone it, we can elevate it. And interestingly, these two tasks of observing the mind and cultivating the mind are similar, simply because mindfulness has a way of enhancing what is wholesome and diminishing what is unwholesome. It's kind of the magic of mindfulness.

So interestingly, the citta develops or refines by seeing its qualities, and by also seeing what is not present. So it's interesting that we're supposed to see what's there and what's not there. And once we've seen this clearly, maybe the only clear instructions on what to actually do with the mind we can see in the Ānāpānasati Sutta^[7] on mindfulness of breathing. It says that we should gladden our mind, so to the degree that we can, we should influence it positively. And then we should also work on concentrating the mind, having some degree of presence in the mind, and then eventually this will lead to liberating the mind. I don't think we have to do that exactly.

So we observe the mind, we try to have some kind of positive influence on it. So for example, during the sit, I asked us to bring in our confidence in the practice, our confidence in the process of the path. And then we gather the mind somehow, and try to keep it roughly in the present moment. But that's kind of it with the mind. Of course, there's infinite detail on that in the suttas, so many practices we can do. But I think at a broad level, that's it. We strengthen the mind through all of this. And a strong citta is linked with the ability to stay with uncomfortable experience, and hence be able to penetrate through various habit patterns.

Essentially what we're doing is becoming free of the mind's conditioning so that the mind is able to be present, even though it has all these influences from our family, from our culture, etc. So all of this maybe could be called maturing the mind.

A few days ago, I talked about a list of four qualities of mind that we cultivate and that we emulate in others, and the collective term for those four was "mature conduct," you might remember. So we're maturing the mind through all this observation, and this has an impact on us, of course, but also on our relationships. The more free we are of all the habits and patterns and reactivities that have been put into our mind, the more present we can be for others, the more likely that our response is going to be compassion, or wisdom, or love—something that's in the realm of freedom, rather than anger, reactivity, control, manipulation, envy, greed, the other things that we do. So when we're less stuck on our stuff, we can meet others where they are, unruffled, and be helpful to them.

So the free mind is highly available, highly responsive, responsible also, and so it's compassionate, it's attuned.

And so then, what is the fruit of all this cultivation? There's a wonderful term in the teachings: cetovimutti^[8], liberation of mind, which is one of the qualities of an arahant, but we can feel it too anytime the mind is relatively free of greed, hatred, and delusion.

There's a nice image from the teachings, let me just read it: "Just as if there were a lake in a mountain recess, clear, limpid, and undisturbed, so that a person with good eyesight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles, and also shoals of fish swimming about and resting, so too a meditator understands this is suffering, this is the arising of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering, and this is the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering."

So just as if we're looking into clear water and seeing everything that's there, the shells, the fish swimming around, when the mind and the heart are clear, aware, present, we can just look at the contents of life and see, "Okay, that one's dukkha^[9]. There's the reason it's happening, there's some clinging. This is freedom. And these are some of the qualities of the path." We see clearly in experience the Four Noble Truths, and that allows us to navigate quite easily away from the suffering and toward the end of suffering.

So as we go throughout our day, see the mind clearly, know its qualities. Know that there's suffering, know that there's the end of suffering. Be with whichever of those we can, hopefully leaning toward the end of suffering. We can do it in the kitchen with our relatives, we can do it while taking a walk, while sitting.

So remembering what the Buddha said at the very beginning: "I do not see any other single thing that brings such happiness as the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded, and restrained." Maybe we would just say simply: the mind that is well observed, clearly seen. Such a mind indeed brings great happiness. So thank you all for this week of countdown, and I wish you much happiness. Thank you.