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Guided Meditation: Knowing the Mind

So warm greetings for this Tuesday morning and for our second talk on the third foundation for awareness. We are trying to steadily move through this Satipaṭṭhāna^[1] to cultivate a heightened awareness, a heightened sense of knowing, attentiveness, and presence.

In a sense, there's a path through these different foundations, beginning with breathing, and then mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of feeling tones, and now mindfulness of the mind. It is sometimes considered to be more refined, more subtle, or more accessible through a settled mind. So the beginning of this process begins with mindfulness of breathing. In this meditation, I'll lead you through a quick trip through these first two foundations a bit with the breath, the body, feeling tones, and then we'll open up to the citta^[2], the mind, the mind state.

So assuming a meditative posture, one that allows you to have a combination of being alert and relaxed, at ease. You might lower your gaze to about a 45-degree angle looking down at the floor, and kind of loosening the focus, not looking at anything in particular, and letting the eyes become soft and relaxed. Very gently, slowly closing the eyelids.

Then perhaps letting the mouth drop open a little bit, the teeth apart, so the mouth is a little bit more relaxed. Then gently float the teeth together so they're almost touching, or touching, so the jaws are a little bit more relaxed.

Softening the belly, letting the belly hang forward and down. Maybe in softening the belly, feeling the weight of the belly, so the belly almost settles down towards the pelvic cavity.

Maybe beginning with a soft belly, as you inhale, letting the belly expand, the chest expand. Maybe taking a long, slow, deep breath, and a leisurely, a little bit longer exhale.

On the exhale, relaxing the face. On the exhale, relaxing the shoulders, softening in the shoulders. Adjusting your hands and arms a little bit if that helps the shoulders. And again, softening the belly.

Breathing normally, letting your breath just be. Let the breath breathe itself. And become aware of the thinking mind. Is there a lot of energy, pressure, contraction, or tension in the thinking mind? Restlessness?

Maybe on the exhale, a little longer exhale again. Settle the mind, quiet the mind. Almost as if, on the exhale, the mind spreads wide. Spreads horizontally, wide and peaceful. And then settling the awareness into the body, breathing.

And it might help you not to struggle with anything if you think of the breathing not as something to be exclusively focused on, but something to allow to be at the center of all things. As if the experience of breathing is the center of your world. Your job is to sit at the center, be with the breathing, and allow everything else to be in the periphery. As if, for a few minutes at least, breathing is the only thing you need to focus on. Just breathing.

And then knowing how the body moves as you breathe. The movements of the chest, the belly. Maybe the shoulders. Even the back rib cage. Maybe as if you're peacefully floating on waves gently coming and going across the ocean. Gently resting, floating on the movements of the torso as you breathe.

Maybe being aware of breathing in the middle of your body. The peripheral attention as a global awareness of your body that receives the experience of breathing, receives the inhale, settles on the exhale.

And as you're aware of breathing, is there anything connected to breathing, pleasant or unpleasant? Maybe there's both going on at different parts of the cycle; some are pleasant, some are more unpleasant. See if you can be equanimous with pleasant or unpleasant, and breathing. Just know it, that's how it is. As if you're breathing through the pleasant, through the unpleasant. Breathing with it.

And in particular, feel the pleasant part of breathing. Let yourself feel it more fully, like taking in, drinking, or receiving the pleasure of breathing. Even if it's just a small part of the breath.

And more broadly in your body, beyond the experience of breathing, are there any pleasant feelings of your body that you can breathe with, or that you can allow to accompany the experience of breathing? So your attention to the breathing is supported by the pleasant sensations of your body.

And notice if there's any pleasant or unpleasant sensations of the mind. Breathe with them so your attention is more with the breathing than reactive to the mind. Just breathe with how the mind is, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.

Perhaps relaxing any agitation or tension in the mind as you breathe.

Breathing in and breathing out, centering yourself on breathing. And with the peripheral attention, gently, without too much effort or focus, see if you can know something about the quality of your mind, your mind state. Maybe as if you're breathing with or through your mind, your mind state. Knowing it for what it is equanimously, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, whether it's agitated or peaceful, aversive or kind, strongly wanting something or being content. Whatever way it is, breathe with it. Breathe through it, know it. Kind of as a peripheral phenomenon as you center yourself on your breathing.

And then letting go of your breathing, and see if you can directly know your mind, your mind state. And now let that be the center of attention. See if you can simply be aware, know, be present for how your mind is: the attitude, the state, the mood, the energy. And see if you can know it.

With a knowing that's peaceful, equanimous, not troubled by how the mind is, not desirous for anything being different. Just knowing. And as you know it, almost as if you're roaming around in the mind to feel it, know it in different ways, different directions.

And then coming to the end of this sitting, whatever the way that your mind is calm or equanimous, or even if it just wishes it was or assumes you have some... considering the suffering of this world. Equanimously gazing upon it, kindly, gently. As you would gently touch or clean a wound on the knee of a child, to cause the least amount of pain for the child, caring, loving the kid. Look out upon the world with that kind of soft, kind gaze, caring gaze. As if having compassion for the world should be done with respect and gentleness and tenderness.

And for all the people who are suffering in wars and poverty and oppression, all the people struggling. Can we, from whatever quiet and peace of the mind we have, wish well on this world? May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings be free.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (39) Knowing the Mind without Carry-on Luggage

So continuing on these talks on the third foundation for awareness, which is mindfulness of the mind. It's building our capacity to be aware by knowing what's happening in the mind, recognizing the mind.

The mind is important because whatever the mind is, this inner mental state, heart state—whatever the heart is, the intellectual-emotional center for ourselves—that's the location for our primary experiences of suffering and for happiness. We can have physical pain and physical pleasure, but the mind is the location for that which is existentially much deeper, impactful, and important for us. It's the location for where suffering occurs. Whether you call that place the mind, the heart, or some other name, the mind is that inner mental, emotional landscape that we have. You can define it for yourself; it's more important how what you're experiencing is, than that you experience some Buddhist idea of what the mind is.

It's also where we can feel deep abiding happiness, deep peace, and even the experience of freedom is something that belongs to the mind, this citta.

The task, as is described in the text, is simply to know the state of the mind in the way that it is. There's nothing in it about judging it, making commentary about it, wishing it would be otherwise, being aversive to it, trying to fix it, or trying to make it into something else. It is simply to recognize it as it is. As I've said, that simple recognition does begin to change it. It tends to change it in a wholesome direction because clear mindfulness is not feeding the unhealthy and unwholesome mind states anymore.

If we're not really mindful, mental energy can go into stories, ideas, resentments, and all kinds of things that support these unwholesome states of mind. But as the energy goes into being mindful, into a kind of clear knowing: "Oh, this is what's happening now. I see the mind is desirous. The mind is full of wanting something strong." That's what's going on in the mind. It's almost like you can have that conversation with yourself. "Oh, that's what it's like." Or, "It's full of aversion, resentment, hostility, or irritation. That's what the mind is like right now. The mind is like this." If it's confused, agitated, full of doubt, full of delusion, to know: "This is what it's like. This is a delusive mind, a mind that's spinning stories and fantasies."

To simply know it is kind of the center of this exercise of the third foundation. How simply can you know the mind state? It makes a huge difference to do that. Chances are, if we're not just simply knowing it—if the mind is caught up in desires, aversions, confusion, or delusion—those come along as baggage, carry-on luggage for how we do the mindfulness practice. The mindfulness itself would somehow be colored by that desire, leaning forward, grasping, wanting; or by the aversion of pushing away, being hostile, or looking meanly at it; or it's just confused, and the awareness itself is not very centered or clear and calm because it's agitated, not knowing which way to go. So the more we can just let the knowing be very, very simple, the less carry-on baggage it comes with. Then it just seems lighter and easier.

The way the Buddha words these instructions, he says: "When a mind state or the citta is with desire, one knows the mind is with desire. When the mind is without desire, one knows the mind is without desire." Sometimes translators have translated this as if one knows that the state of mind is a desirous state of mind, or an aversive state of mind. But literally, the Pali says, "a mind with desire" or "with aversion." This is a very significant distinction because as mindfulness, as clear awareness, recognizes something clearly for itself, as that becomes stronger, the desire and the aversion are not part of the whole mind. It doesn't color, shape, or define the whole mind. Awareness, clear awareness, begins to expand the domain of the mind so it's no longer wrapped into desire or aversion. With clear mindfulness, desire is not the whole mind; it's just a part of it. It's coming along with the mind, but it doesn't define the whole mind.

This is why this practice of the mind is so powerful, when mindfulness can see, "Oh, this is in the mind." In one place, the Buddha talks about the mind having visitors: visitors that confuse it, visitors that defile it, visitors that obstruct the mind. It's a lovely idea that greed, hatred, delusion, and the hindrances are visitors to the mind, not inherent to the mind. When mindfulness becomes strong enough, we start prying ourselves apart from these difficult mind states and we start seeing, "Oh, there's more going on."

The Buddha also talks about not just seeing a mind with desire, but also seeing a mind that's without desire. This means positive states of mind. Generosity is a state without desire, without greed, for example. Here we're asked to notice when desire is in the mind and when it's not. When the mind is colored and shaped by desire, and when it's not. It is, of course, part of the mind that sees it.

The three fundamental root forces of the mind that underlie all unhealthy states of mind according to the Buddha are greed, hatred, and delusion. One knows a mind with greed, with greedy desire, as such. One knows a mind without greed as such. One knows a mind with aversion, hatred, or hostility^[3] as such. One knows a mind without it as such. And one knows a deluded mind or a confused mind as such. One knows a mind without that as such.

It is becoming more and more familiar with this, and becoming familiar with what that's like. It's not just knowing it, but knowing the felt sense, the experience of it. Recognizing... there's a clear recognition. "Oh, when the mind is full of desire, it's leaning forward, it's searching. When the mind is aversive, it's stabbing, attacking, blaming, pulling away, or getting narrower, contracted." It gets restless. It gets a frenetic^[4] energy. If that goes on, maybe the mind is more up in the head rather than in the heart and the body. The location of the mind shifts and changes depending on what the mind is caught up in at the moment. When it's caught with greed, hate, and delusion, chances are there's some locus, a center of the mind, where it feels located. That might be different than if the mind is filled with compassion, love, peace, and wisdom.

To look around and explore: what does it feel like in the body? What does it feel like in the mind itself? What impact do these different states of mind have on our clarity of mind and our ability to stay focused and balanced? We begin familiarizing ourselves with all this.

This is the third foundation of mindfulness. To do this right away from the beginning, maybe it means that we get more confused by it, wrapped up in it, reactive to it, or it lends itself to a lot more thinking about it all. Think of this third foundation of mindfulness as having the first two foundations as a support for it. The mind is already able to get somewhat calm, present, and stable in the present moment. The mind is starting to become strong in its mindfulness. With that calm ability to be centered, not being distracted easily, and knowing something about this non-reactive awareness that just knows very simply—when that is all in place, that's a good time to start becoming aware of the mind state. If that's not in place, then it's good to go back to the beginning. Just go back to breathing and the beginning of the whole Satipaṭṭhāna until it all settles in again.

Then we can begin opening to the mind state. The mind state can color mindfulness, as I've said, and color how we're mindful. It's like carry-on luggage we bring with us. As we become clearer and clearer about the mind state, we have less and less of this luggage, and the mind becomes clearer, brighter, more free in a certain kind of way.

In a couple of days, we're going to look at the second half of this third foundation, looking at how the mind can grow and develop when it's no longer in the grip of greed, hate, delusion, fear, agitation, or contraction. What we'll see then is that the discussion goes from talking about what the mind is with, to talking about the state of the mind itself. When these beautiful states arise, they can coexist with mindfulness, with awareness. It's almost like they are awareness. But that's for in a couple of days.

Thank you. In the next 24 hours or so, when you have a chance going about your daily life, you might start doing a little inventory of the state of your mind. Is it a mind with desire? Is it a mind with hostility, hatred, ill will, or aversion? Is it a mind that's confused or delusive? Just notice. These will probably float through, arise, and pass in different circumstances. When you're hungry for dinner, you might feel that a desirous mind is predominant. When you've eaten too much, an aversive mind is predominant. When you wonder how to do the dishes when the dishwashing machine is completely packed, you might notice this confused mind. Just notice it comes and goes, like a kaleidoscope, in small, subtle, and big ways.

Start tracking all this. When there's no desire, notice what that's like. No ill will, notice what that's like. Just kind of explore and get to know and become familiar with its texture, the smell, the feel for these mind states, and see what happens when you recognize them more and more.

I look forward to introducing the next talk. Thank you.