Transcription
Okay, so yesterday morning Christina spoke about mind states, about the third foundation of mindfulness. And actually that foundation is quite a big one, so in a way we're splitting it into two, and this morning I'd like to continue the exploration, the instructions, in regard to the third foundation of mindfulness. Yesterday we spoke about mind states; today particularly with regard to thoughts.
Now, it's already come up quite a few times on this retreat: we are not demonizing thought. Oftentimes in, sometimes in this kind of spiritual practice or other spiritual practice, it's almost like thoughts are the enemy, and they are to be got rid of, etc. It can feel like that. It can very much feel like thoughts are the enemy. We can feel so oppressed and harassed and beaten up by the thinking mind when it's out of control. So much pain wrapped up in our thinking, around our thinking, when we haven't quite understood, and the relationship with thinking is not yet fully understood, fully explored.
And yet, as we explored last night -- both in the New Year's reflections, in the inquiry, and it came up in the Q & A with Jake and Chris -- that we are not trying to get rid of thought. There's a place definitely in our human life for developing a relationship with thought where we're actually really able to explore the realm of thought and thinking creatively, or reflecting on issues, or themes, or problems, or whatever it is, in a way that, through the thinking, it actually has the power to dispel some suffering.
So there are different kinds of relationships we have with thought. We use it to understand, for reflective thinking. We use it creatively. It's hard to build a building, or discover anything in science, or write a symphony without thinking going on. Clearly it's a very important part of our humanity that we want to harness that and have it work for us. And yet so often, it doesn't work for us, and we feel pain in regard to it. As far as meditation, formal meditation, is concerned, again, we're not trying to get rid of thought. It's very easy as a meditator to slip in, consciously or unconsciously, to a kind of view in the moment, a kind of way of operating in the moment, that we are basically trying to get rid of thought, and demonizing it: "It's a problem. Thought is a problem." It's regarded as a problem, and because it's regarded as a problem, it becomes a problem.
So, rather, as far as meditation is concerned, and certainly in terms of one of the things we're trying to open up for ourselves in our life, we could say a much better intentionality long-term is freedom with thought. Rather than getting rid of thought, to be free with thought. What is it, what would it be to feel and to know oneself as free with regard to thought? We also want to understand, we really want to understand the effects of the thought, of the thinking mind. Thoughts that go through the mind have an effect, they have effects. We also want to understand the relationship with them. So there's all this: freedom, and there's understanding.
Yesterday was mind states. You can see, we can see, that certain mind states spawn certain thoughts. A depressed mind state will give rise to depressed kind of thoughts. An angry mind state will give rise to angry kinds of thoughts. A joyful mind state, joyful kinds of thoughts. That's really good to see. It's really good to see: this is the soil out of which certain thoughts come. What's interesting, though, is then a feedback loop starts. Out of this mind state comes certain thoughts, and then those thoughts reinforce a certain mind state -- if they are clung to. Now, you could trace this, but it might be a chicken and egg situation. What comes first, the thought or the mind state? They feed each other. There's a mutual feedback loop. That's really important to see if we want to understand and particularly break the tyranny of difficult mind states, difficult thought complexes.
If I cling to certain thoughts, they will tend to congeal and create certain mind states. What does it mean to 'cling' to a thought? What does that mean? What does it mean to cling to a thought? Well, there are different ways we can cling to a thought. One of them is to believe it, to believe it unquestioningly. And oftentimes, unfortunately, that is the relationship we have with a lot of thought. Just because it's there, I believe it. Just because it goes through the mind, I believe it. And that belief is a kind of clinging. We grasp on to that and hold on to it as a kind of reality, as a kind of truth assessment of things, of ourselves or whatever it is.
In fact, that's part of the second way of clinging: I regard the thought as me or mine. So if I have an ugly thought, a thought of anger, a thought of ill-will, even, vindictiveness, revenge, something like that, then I regard it -- this is mostly unconscious; it's wrapped up in the way we regard thought -- regard it as me, and then I'm bad because I had that thought. It means I'm bad. Or I had a nice thought, and it means now I'm a Buddha or whatever. [laughter] Or I have a certain intention. Intention is part of, is a subtle kind of thought. And depending on the intention that arises, I assess, I make conclusions about myself. That's also a form of clinging. Out of those forms of clinging -- believing the thought, or identifying with it -- those two forms of clinging, out of that is born a mind state which will then feed back on itself, if unchecked, if unseen, if un-understood.
I'm sure everyone knows, sometimes we are meditating, sometimes just in the run of our life, we feel really, really in a thicket of thought and really weighed down. The mind is obsessing. It's very thick with thinking. And what to do? What to do when this is the scenario? The first thing, and I know you've heard it before, but really to have some faith in returning over and over and over to your anchoring object, the breath or body or whatever it is. Not to underestimate the cumulative effect of that, of that practice over time. Some muscle in the mind gets stronger and stronger, and we're able to pull the mind out of trouble spots, and just bring it back. It will go again, and bring it back. And eventually there's power in the mind to kind of stay clear of something that's not helpful. It's a skill, and we develop it. It's a muscle, and we develop it. It can seem futile, but just the patient faith in that really will pay off long term.
A second possibility is using the mettā practice. So if you feel like there's a lot of obsessive thinking, etc., going on, there's already a lot of energy, so to speak, in the circuit of thinking. So rather than trying to move it from that circuit, why not just co-opt that thinking energy into the mettā practice, which involves some thinking ("may you be well, may I be well," etc.)? And so you're just spinning it in a slightly different direction. There's already energy in the thought, and you're just guiding it in a certain direction. Again, it's the kind of thing, just patient faith with, patient faith with. It will pay off. Those kind of thoughts, mettā thoughts, have a very different resonance, a very different way they ripple out in the mind than thoughts of "I hate myself. I can't do this. I'm a loser," etc., or whatever it is.
Sometimes when we are obsessing, when the mind is obsessing, it's going round and round in certain loops of thought, it's actually that there's an emotion underneath that. And we are not quite in contact with the emotion, whatever that might be -- anger or sadness, even, or hurt, or could be anything really, fear. And the thoughts loop, but they stay kind of in the loop of the thinking energy. If you find yourself obsessing, it's really good to check: is there an emotion? Going into the body and feeling, just opening out to the body sense: is there something going on here emotionally? Bringing the energy into the body and staying more with the emotionality, it's almost like the attention needs to be there, and addressing the emotion, the energy drains out of that tight loop of thinking. Something else needs to be addressed, and it's in the heart, in the body.
Or we find ourselves obsessing, and it's because we believe that what we are obsessing about actually makes a difference: "Should I do this? Should I do that? What should I ...?" There's some sense that our happiness really, really depends on choosing this or that, and we just go back and forth between them. There's something to ask there: what am I believing? What am I believing, perhaps about what I need, or where happiness is? And oftentimes, when there is obsession, it's either resting on an emotion or a hidden belief about needs and happiness, and I haven't seen that. Or both.
Then, of course, sometimes we're not constantly oppressed by the obsessive mind, and there's less thickness to the texture in the mind, and less thought around. And then it's possible to actually have a kind of much more grounded contemplation of thought and the whole thinking mind. Really helpful, again, to anchor in the body. So this body, this rootedness in the body, becomes a kind of grounded vantage point to observe the thinking mind. Without that anchoredness, it's very easy to get pulled and lost, and dragged this way and that with thought. Thought's so slippery, so seductive, so quick. Being anchored in the body really helps. It's like, "Oh, look, look," and you can see what's going on, and stay centred.
So then what? One's looking at thought, and feeling the connection with the body. Really good to notice what of kind of thought is going on -- or are going, what kinds of thoughts are going on. Because thoughts are obviously of many different kinds. You see maybe there's judgment, or worry, or the planning, planning mind is going on. Maybe a memory, maybe a daydream. Maybe anticipating something. Some people find it really helpful to label the kind of thought that's going on, to really be clear. That labelling -- so "judging, judging," "planning, planning" -- that labelling creates clarity. It also creates a slight sense of objectivity and space around the thought, which is oftentimes what we don't have in relationship to thought -- we don't have that space.
It's helpful, given that there are different kinds of thoughts, to actually see: is this thought helpful? Is this thought stream helpful? Is it taking me where I want to go? I might have a thought constellation that just loops around. It might be very, I don't know, picky and judgmental. Is that thought stream likely to end up in peace and the awakened heart? Probably not. It's good just to be clear, though, because sometimes we have a sense, you know, I'm kind of -- what's the word? -- acquiescing. I'm kind of going along with this a little bit, deliberately. [yogis offer words in background, laughter] All that stuff! And you catch yourself, you catch yourself kind of wanting to a little bit sometimes. And then it's like, is this taking me where I want to go? Is it really taking me where I want to go? Is it helpful?
What's my relationship to these thoughts? So oftentimes we cling, as I said. Oftentimes there's aversion to thoughts, and you can feel that aversion in the body. There's tension when aversion comes in: "I want to get rid of this." And to notice that. It's all part of what we can understand here.
And sometimes there's the opportunity, as practice deepens, and sometimes one finds things opening out a little bit more, becoming quite quiet at times, at times. Then there's the opportunity to actually make a shift in practice -- from the noticing of content ("This is here. That's here. It's this kind of thought. It's that kind of thought" or whatever), from the noticing of content, to the noticing of process, meaning the process of thinking, not so much this or that kind of thought.
What can be really helpful for this is opening up the awareness wide, and really being quite spacious. Again, anchoring in the body, but sometimes the listening is really helpful. So letting the awareness open out into listening and hearing and the sort of totality of sounds. Some come from inside the room, from near, different directions, some come from far away. Planes, birds, whatever it is. What that does, going to listening that way, is it actually opens out the consciousness. And then, that opened out, spacious consciousness, we can start to begin noticing more about the process of thinking and not being so kind of caught up or even interested in the content of the thinking.
And what do we notice? I open up like that; I'm interested in the process. First thing is that thoughts come and go. They arise and they pass, arise and they pass. They're ephemeral. That is the nature of thought. And it's really, really helpful to see that. They come in, seemingly out of nowhere, and they disappear. They're also insubstantial. It's almost like, if you're really calm, sometimes you almost feel like you could put your hand ... What is a thought? There's almost nothing there. It has so much power, and yet there's almost nothing there. They are unpredictable to a great extent. They're not willed. Thoughts just come out of nowhere, it seems, and disappear, and then another thought comes. We say they are 'not me, not mine,' in that sense. Can see they're just coming, and just going, just coming, and just going.
Analogies would be like shooting stars in the night sky. Looking up at the night sky and then, "Wow!" There's something that bursts into vision, bursts into sight, and it's maybe quite dramatic, and then it just fades back into that space. Thought is like that. When there's enough space in the mind, we actually begin to get the glimpse that that actually is how the process works.
So there's something really, really helpful about opening to this, or encouraging sometimes a much more spacious awareness. Really, really a lot of space, using the listening. And sometimes people say the nature of awareness, or the nature of the mind, its true nature is space, is spacious. Rather than thinking of the mind in here somehow, in this, you know, little box up here, looking out at the world, it's almost like the awareness opens out, and everything is in that awareness. So thoughts, body sensations, sounds, it's all happening in that.
From the perspective of that space of awareness as something very spacious, it actually doesn't matter what happens in the mind. Beautiful thought arises, is around, disappears. Ugly thought arises, is around for a while, does its thing, looks ugly, pulls a face. [laughter] Doesn't matter. And then it just fades into the space. The space doesn't care. It's like, the space in this room doesn't care what we look like, doesn't care what's said, doesn't care if a hippopotamus comes in here and goes out. It doesn't matter. The space is neutral. It's kind of unperturbed. Sometimes in the meditation you can begin to get a sense of the awareness as that kind of unperturbable space. It's vast. Whatever arises will be there for a while, without even really making much difference to the space, and then disappears. That's actually not the ultimate nature of awareness, but it's really, really helpful, really helpful to practise that way and get that sense. Whatever arises from the perspective of that space, it doesn't matter to the space. The space remains vast, unperturbed, still, open, receptive.
With all this, you know, because thought can feel so problematic at times, it's really important to know: if we can begin practising in some of these ways, getting a glimpse and developing these kinds of practices, we really will undermine the kind of authority that thought has, the power that thought has in our life, that we've given it, that maybe it isn't such a good idea to give it sometimes. We see: we give thought that power. By itself, it's insubstantial, ephemeral. It has no power that we do not give it. There's something about seeing that, and seeing it really clearly and deeply. A thought is just a thought. It's just a thought. And we are unbound from that tight wrapping in relationship to thought and that prison in relationship to thought. There's a freedom that comes in there.
Okay, so let's sit together.
[23:15, meditation begins]
Settling into your posture. Seeing if there can be a sense of ease in the body that you're connecting with, along with the sense of uprightness. Connecting with the body, the groundedness, presence. When you feel ready, beginning to really turn your attention, in a very full and wholehearted way, to your anchor, to your meditative anchor, to your breathing, whatever it is. But today in your meditations, in your explorations, sitting and walking, feeling free, if you like, to explore any of the foundations of mindfulness we've touched on -- either because one thing in particular is calling the attention, and seems to be asking for it, or just deliberately shifting the attention out of curiosity, out of interest, to explore the realm of thinking, thoughts, in the ways that I've been talking about, the body. Feeling free to open up the awareness, if you like.
[25:29, meditation ends]
