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Mindfulness of mental activity

Good evening. I want to say it's nice to be here with you all because in my mind, I'm meditating with other people, even though I am alone in this room. But I feel the sense, I can see the chats, that there's others with us here, others with me here.

So tonight, I would like to talk a little bit about how we can bring our mindfulness practice even to thinking, thoughts, or mental activity. Often with mindfulness, there's an emphasis on being with breathing, being with the body, but of course, we can also be with the mind. And mental activity has such an impact on our lives, it's worthwhile to become more aware of it and to interrupt some of the momentum it might have, some of the compulsive quality it might have, some of the feeling of getting stuck going round and round.

Because it's abundantly easy to just get lost into story and mental activity, we often don't fold in mindfulness of mental activity and mental states until there's a certain amount of stability and steadiness. So it might be for a lot of our meditation that we are just settling and calming down, and so it's primarily spent with mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of bodily sensations. But when we feel like there's a certain amount of stability—and this might not happen until we're on retreat or some other extended opportunity for meditation periods—whenever we do feel like there is some stability, then we can turn towards the thinking and the thoughts without getting completely swept away in them. Because, of course, in order to be mindful of thinking, we need to not be lost in thought. Maybe that goes without saying.

But we see both in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[1]—so these two discourses, some of the primary discourses that talk about mindfulness—both of them include mindfulness of breathing and the body before the mind. So this quality of stepping back, being able to see the thoughts without getting lost into them, or to see anything really, bodily sensations or emotions, being able to step back in some kind of way is just a characteristic in general of how we can go a little bit deeper with our meditation and have a little bit more steadiness or solidity or something like this. So this idea of knowing what is taking place, rather than just being immersed in it. Sometimes in guided meditation, I talk about "to sit and know you're sitting," there's a certain pulling back when we know that we're sitting.

Three Aspects of Mental Experience

There's a few ways that we can look at—I'm using this word mental activity, mental state—and I like to tease apart three different aspects of this.

Surpassable or Unsurpassable Mind

The first one is not so common, and maybe it's a little bit debatable, but I'll offer it. And that is in the sutta that is the discourse on the establishments of mindfulness, there's some qualities of the mind that it says is good to notice, helpful to notice. And one is whether the mind is surpassable or not surpassable. So the presence or absence of surpassability, if that's a word.

What does this mean? There are some hints we might get if we look at the parallels that are preserved in Chinese for the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, and there the word gets translated as cultivated or not cultivated. So one way we might understand this—there are probably a few ways, but one way we might understand this—is whether this is our usual state of mind or a more mindful state of mind. Sometimes I think about this or refer to this as more like "street consciousness." I'm just making up this term, but I use it for this kind of walking around not being mindful versus being mindful. I don't know how to describe this, but I think you know what I mean. Like, we know when we're being mindful. When we're not being mindful, we don't know, of course we don't know.

So not only that, to know whether we're being mindful, but to also know, is there a general feeling like, "Oh yeah, okay, I recognize this mental state. This is what it feels like to be more settled." Or "This is what it feels like at the beginning of a meditation period, and after I've been sitting for a little while, I believe it'll be different." So is it surpassable or not surpassable? That is, is this the edge of our meditation practice, or is it the beginning? Are there ways we're still in the process of getting settled?

So is this familiar territory or new territory? And this is not so much that we have to always be inquiring, "Do I have some attainment? Am I in some new place all the time?" So it's not an obsession with our progress or our development or how far we've gotten, but it's just this recognizing where we are so that we can know what to expect, maybe what comes next. Or if we know that it's possible to get deeper, more settled—I'm using these words "more settled," "deeper"—then we might know that there can be a little bit more letting go that can happen, there can be a little bit more quieting that can happen. So that we can walk this middle way between not having excessive expectations, like it's supposed to be a particular way, but also we don't want to have any disdain for using reference points that we have with our practice, or maybe even some aspirations we might have for our practice.

So that might be the first aspect of our mental activity or mental state is just this very gentle acknowledgment of where we are in the territory, in the landscape of meditation, so to speak.

General Mental State or Mood

A second way that we might notice the interior experience, the mental state, is to be aware of the state of mind, or we could use the expression "mental state." So not the content of the mind so much, but the quality of the mind, the mood of the mind, the state of the mind, maybe the attitude. I know sometimes I have this general, even when not meditating, I have this state of mind like, "Oh yeah, I just can't quite think." For whatever reason, I don't know why exactly, maybe I'm tired or feeling frazzled or something like this, and the mental acuity isn't quite there, but just the general kind of state of the mind. And so to step back from the details and to notice the greater context or the milieu in which our mental experience is happening.

Mental states are subtle and diffuse. We can't pinpoint them necessarily and say it's exactly this. It's more of a vague kind of idea or experience. So this again, in some ways, can be an interesting exploration because we might have this assumption that to be mindful of something means that there's some precision, there's some delineation: I'm mindful of this, and it has edges, and it's clear, and it looks exactly like this. Again, this is implicit probably, we don't have that explicitly, but I'd like to suggest that we can also be mindful of things that are diffuse and vague, maybe foggy. Maybe they're just known in the periphery of our awareness, not in the center of our awareness. A different type of knowing, if you will.

Maybe we could use as an example that when you're looking at a window and you realize that the window is reflecting back, so you can see whatever is being reflected in the window. And you just shift your gaze a little bit, and you can also see out the window. So there's two different views that are possible. And to notice that it's light inside and dark outside, for example, and that's why the window is reflecting. So it's the noticing that it's light. Often when you notice that, it's not so much that you are pointing to one particular experience or object, but there's a knowing of light. I'm not sure if this is a good example, but it's something like to explore that there can be a general feeling or mood or attitude.

The classical teachings use words like the mind is constricted or expanded, that is scattered or concentrated, or colored with greed, hatred, or delusion, or not colored with greed, hatred, and delusion. Or fettered or unfettered. So maybe we might use language like appreciative or wanting more, or calm versus tense, or light-hearted versus critical. Or maybe an example I gave earlier, feeling like I can't quite think clearly, maybe there's just a feeling of not a lot of mental acuity. And sometimes there is some mental acuity, and then even that whole idea, well, what exactly is mental acuity? So just pointing to the general feeling of the mind and to recognize that these states of mind have a more pervasive and enduring quality than just particular thoughts.

That is, we might have angry thoughts that appear, but the angry thoughts might just arise and then pass away. But there isn't a general mood of anger, there might just be a flicker of irritation. In contrast, when we are in an angry mood, we feel just a little bit cranky and irritated with everything. But we're not really angry with everything, because in the midst of that we might be having thoughts of, "Oh gee, I wonder what's for lunch? Where are my glasses? Is it time for me to get onto that Zoom call?" We're having all kinds of completely neutral thoughts, even though there might be this general mood of anger that might be colored by anger.

So it's possible to completely ignore the mind state. We don't have to pay attention to it, of course, but I think we all notice when we wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it kind of gives us a general mood, that it does have an impact on us. And often the more aware that we are of what's influencing our thinking, our behavior, the more we can make decisions about how authoritative we're going to take our thoughts to be. Are we going to believe everything, or are we just going to notice, "Yeah, I'm cranky right now"? Maybe if you're that half of the human population with a monthly hormone cycle, it might be noticing, "Yeah, okay, having these types of thoughts right now, they don't have to be so authoritative. I don't have to believe them or give them as much weight as I might at other times when my hormones are in a different state."

So that's the second way, is just this kind of vague mood or color of the mind state that tends to be a little bit not obvious and enduring.

Mental Activity and Thoughts

And then a third aspect of what's in the mind we might call generally mental activity, or maybe more specifically thoughts. But there's a whole range of things that fall under the word mental activity, or maybe even thoughts, kind of lump them together. But there's a range in terms of how compelling they are, how lost we are in them, and maybe the energy or the movement that's behind them, that we might feel a pressure really to think about them. There's also a whole range in terms of wholesomeness or unwholesomeness. If we're having a lot of thoughts of wanting to cause harm, it's very different from wishing to end the suffering of somebody, thoughts of how you might help them find greater peace and freedom. And then there's a whole range in the middle.

So mental activity is yet one more way that we can pay attention, and these are associated with the best of the human experience and the worst of the human experience. And when unattended, just like our mental state, our mental activity can have such a big impact on us.

So I'm making this distinction between mental state and mental activity. Some could argue that maybe we don't need to, but I find it helpful in meditation practice to make this distinction. But notice that often the instruction is to settle or let go or calm mental activity. There isn't the instruction that we have to get rid of or eliminate mental activity. Because meditation doesn't always require that we have this thought-free mind. A thought-free mind is possible, but that usually happens in a retreat setting when the mind is really settled, really quiet.

So the fact that there are thoughts doesn't have to be a problem. We can let go of this idea that somehow we have to be getting rid of our thoughts, and instead just ask, how can we work with them if they're arising? How can we disrupt some of the momentum? How can we disrupt some of the unwholesomeness if they are there?

Working with Mental Activity

Sometimes just simply paying attention to the experience of thinking—that is, as I did in the guided meditation, are these thoughts images or are they sounds?—and just having that gentle inquiry can be a way that takes some of the momentum away from the thoughts. And that might be sufficient to allow the thoughts to just arise and pass away like thoughts do.

Another way is to bring awareness to the sensations of the body, and any sensations that are pleasant. There might be a feeling of ease or openness or some sense of well-being or okayness that's anchored in the body. One could argue that those also can be mental states, and if one can rest in them by all means we can do that, but often it's easier to rest in physical experiences of ease and well-being. Certainly in the Ānāpānasati Sutta^[2] as well as the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, there are instructions on mindfulness of the body and mindfulness of breathing before the mind. So we can always just go back to mindfulness of the body or mindfulness of breathing if we find that our thoughts have a lot of energy behind them or find that they're unwholesome. Maybe we can disrupt them or undermine some of the energy underneath them by just being with sensations of the body, especially if there's any sensations that are associated with well-being or happiness or some contentment.

So maybe just an emphasis on rather than having to get rid of our thoughts, we can just have a focus on what's helpful and what's unhelpful, what's wholesome and what's unwholesome, what's skillful and unskillful. And maybe to steer the thoughts, steer some of the mental energy towards what might be more wholesome, more helpful.

The Simile of the Peg

In order to do this, there might be a few tools we can use. The Buddha uses a simile^[3] which I appreciate, that there might be a peg that is in some wood. The Buddha says you might want to remove this peg, and in my mind, I'm thinking of those dowels, like when you're building IKEA furniture, that you're using to join different pieces together. Something like that. And this Buddha simile says that if you want to replace a peg that is in wood, you use a smaller peg and you can tap it out. So if the peg is rotting and you want to replace it, if you want to not have a rotting peg anymore, you can replace it with one that is fresher. And the word the simile uses is to replace a coarse one, use a finer one. So if you were doing the dowels with IKEA furniture, of course, you would use a little bit of a smaller dowel to tap out, using a hammer, to tap out the coarser one. Maybe that was a complicated explanation of what was obvious and didn't need that explanation, but the point here is to replace thoughts, replace unwholesome thoughts with more wholesome ones.

Wholesome Replacements

So one might be to chant the refuges and precepts^[4]. If you find that your thoughts just feel like they have a lot of energy and you're feeling stuck with this compulsive going round and around, not really going anywhere, if we chant the refuges and precepts, that can be uplifting and gives the mind something to do, and really can support a sense of openness and ease. Of course, don't do it if it doesn't support a sense of openness and ease.

If you find that there are some thoughts of ill will, revenge, or wanting to give somebody a piece of your mind, or something like this, something that I've done is chanting the Mettā Sutta^[5] in my mind. I memorized it, and it was a great support to use it as a tool to be chanting the Mettā Sutta, and just the practice of memorizing it was really helpful. So I offer this as something that can be helpful to kind of replace some unwholesome thoughts. Or if not chanting the Mettā Sutta, then to just do some loving-kindness practice. Bring to mind the phrases of loving-kindness and to do them in a way that is easy and available and accessible. That is, not towards the person for whom you're having some ill will, but towards a lovable being. Send some goodwill, some benevolence, to a lovable being. So those are some thoughts of some ways in which you might replace some unwholesome thoughts associated with ill will.

If you're finding that you're stuck with some lustful thoughts, some sensual desire that is just not helpful, we can do meditation on body parts. This is what the Buddha recommends for the monastics, right, to have a life of celibacy. And I can imagine it's not always easy to be celibate. So to help them and to help all of us, if we're having some thoughts that are unhelpful and unwise sensual thoughts, is to think about body parts. Usually, when we think about people's appearances, we think about them as a whole. This person is attractive. But they become less attractive if we consider their body parts. For example, somebody who's a model for shampoo and has beautiful lustrous hair, it becomes less attractive if you imagine that it's chopped off and on your dining room table. It's the same hair, but just to consider it by itself kind of shifts our relationship to it.

So many of you may know that there's this practice of doing the 32 parts of the body^[6]. It starts with head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, spleen, phlegm, spittle, snot, and urine, and it continues. Right when you start considering all these things of a person, then that really can shift your relationship to them. So this is another practice somebody might want to consider.

Not Now, Later

Something else that we might do rather than replace our thoughts is just to say, "You know, I'm going to think about this later. Right now I'm meditating." And it might need to have some energy behind it. "No, I'm not going to do this right now. Right now I'm going to meditate, I'm going to bring my attention to the breath." And just to say, "Later, later." Not that we're never going to think about it, but just now is not the time.

So that's the third way we can think about mental activity and mental states, is to notice our thoughts. And then not so much that we have to get rid of them, but can we encourage thoughts that are wholesome and supportive? And one way to do that is to replace thoughts, to use a tool. And of course, if it's not helpful, we don't use tools. So these are things just to try if we find that we're stuck and we need something other than just returning to the breath, we need something other than just being with the body.

So I just offer this as some ways to work with our interior experience or mental experience. To notice the mind state as well as to notice where we are in our settling process, in our meditation process, as supports that support more ease, more freedom. So that can support our being present not only for ourselves but for others, so that our practice can be for the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Thank you.