Transcription
Okay, so we're going to continue our rather hurried journey through the four foundations of mindfulness. Yesterday, Yanai spoke about the second foundation, vedanā. And this morning, I want to move on to the third foundation. Citta is the Pali or Sanskrit word. That word, in those languages, it doesn't really have an English equivalent. It's more something like what we would call in English 'mind and heart,' together. So the emotions, but also the mentality -- all of that together is one word in the Eastern languages. Now, actually, we're going to split this in two, and Christina will, tomorrow, talk about more working with thoughts, and what I want to talk about today is working with mind states.
Some of you will know what that means, 'mind states,' and for others it might be, "What's a mind state?" Well, in a way, when Yanai came in on the second day and talked about hindrances, the hindrances are mind states. They're states of mind. So let's fill this out a little bit more. Any emotion is a mind state. Joy is a mind state. Fear is a mind state. Anger is a mind state. Peacefulness is a mind state. So the category 'mind state' includes emotions, but actually it's a bit more than that, as well, because it includes, within what we call 'mind states,' what we could say are more subtle kind of flavourings or colourings of the mind. A bit like something like boredom -- is that an emotion, or just a mind state? As if there's water, and just a little bit of dye has fallen into the water, and starts colouring the water. It's not that the water has become really turbulent or agitated with an emotion. For example, calmness, agitation -- little bit of calmness, little bit of agitation -- these are mind states. Dullness, or brightness. It's just the quality, the state of the consciousness at any time. Spacious mind, constricted mind. Again, boredom or interest -- interest as a mind state. Energized mind, or kind of depressed, low-energy mind. Peace or frustration. All of this. So actually, in any moment of consciousness, right now in this moment, for everyone in this room, and everyone everywhere, there is a mind state. So right now, your mind, my mind, is in some state or other. And it can move quite quickly (we'll get to that). So there's always a mind state that goes with any moment of consciousness.
Why is this important? Why would the Buddha place such huge emphasis on this? Well, there are actually a lot of reasons, but partly because the mind state becomes almost like the womb or the soil for what comes out of it, for our reactions in life. I can see if the mind state is a little bit irritable, well, the thoughts that come out of that womb, out of that soil, are going to be irritated thoughts -- maybe irritating as well, the speech that is likely to come out if I'm not aware of an irritated mind state, and the actions. Now, if I'm not aware of that, in this case irritation, something comes out, without awareness, in reactivity, and usually it's not skilful. And something in what I've done, thought, or said will actually come back to me and into the world as suffering. It will create suffering.
There's also, unfortunately, a kind of feedback loop going on, a kind of snowball effect that goes on. As we say, this mind state -- let's take the irritability example -- is the womb of my thoughts. It's also the womb of my perceptions. In other words, when there's irritability or depression -- whatever; we could pick whatever -- when there's depression, let's say, the mind state of depression gives rise to depressed kind of thoughts. Those thoughts are full of that quality, and the perceptions, too. We look around in a depressed, from a depressed mind state, and what we see is depressing. The thoughts and the perceptions then feed back into the mind state, which throws up more of the same kind of thoughts, which feed back in, and we have a snowball. We have a feedback there. And all of this, of course, is increasing the suffering. This is an unpleasant, a difficult, an oppressive mind state.
And of course, this is all compounded by the fact that we tend to identify with our mind states. Sort of knee-jerk human reaction: "This means something about me, if there's depression or there's anger." We tend to attach, or to cling on, to try to keep, or we fight, try to get rid of this. And all of that -- identification, the clinging, the fighting -- all of that, the Buddha said this is unskilful, unhelpful relationship. It will bring more suffering. It's quite a minefield, can be.
So how do we approach this as practitioners? What can we do with all this? Well, the first piece is probably getting to know the territory, getting to know the landscape of the mind and the mind states. What tells me that I'm in such-and-such a mind state right now? How do I know what my mind state is? What can I recognize in the totality of my experience that will give me the clue and the cues of what the mind state is? Well, the body often reflects very well. If there's fear, there's the heart thumping away, etc., butterflies in the tummy. If there's sadness, where's that? Maybe pressure in the heart, or a lump in the throat, or the mouth is quivering a little bit. Could be much more subtle than that.
So the body reflects it, and the sensations in the body, the experience in the body tells me the mind state. The thoughts -- again, we said the thoughts are coming out of the mind state, coloured by the mind state. And so paying attention, noticing what kind of thoughts I have, is also a clue to what the mind state is. If I'm walking around, and I notice, "Goodness, I've just been judging, judging, judging, judging," it's telling me something about the mind state there.
Perceptions, as well. Let's take irritability again: a little sound, and I notice the sound feels irritating. The actual sense contact, the perception of things is coloured. It's like looking at the world through certain glasses, lenses that colour it a certain way. So I start to notice from my experience -- what seems like outer experience tells me about my inner mind state.
And sometimes, too, there's just -- it's quite difficult to put into language -- just a feeling of the texture of the mind. We just feel the mind as spacious, or as not spacious, as kind of contracted. And that's something we can get sensitive to. The climate, the texture of the mind.
So with all that, beginning to get the clues, the cues. And can we actually bring some intimacy to the experience, to actually what's going on, to the mind state? So what would it be to bring intimacy with the bodily sensations of the expression of the mind state? Anger feels hot, oftentimes. There's a kind of heat to it. Can I feel it? Maybe it's in the whole body. Maybe it's in certain areas. Really to feel that. Some mind states, the body feels light with them -- so joy, the body feels very light -- whereas others, like depression, the body tends to feel quite heavy and solid like that. Again, can I not just notice it, but really come close to that experience, and really explore, touch with the awareness, the experience of the sensations in the body that reflect the mind state? So helpful.
Where in the body am I feeling this? Can actually be anywhere, but usually it's somewhere between here and here [along the central line of the body]. Oftentimes, a lot in the head, as well. It can be anywhere. Not just here, around the heart. Could be anywhere. And what's the *vedanā-*tone of the mind state? So again, anger -- anger's interesting, but generally speaking, it's unpleasant. Fear, generally speaking, is unpleasant. And actually notice the vedanā-tone of all this.
So getting to know, becoming intimate, particularly with the bodily experience -- very helpful. And then, maybe some mind states, and particularly the stronger emotions, might need some kind of response. I need to somehow respond to this situation and what's arising. So let's talk a little bit about difficult emotions, which is obviously a part of this big group of mind states. Can I learn to be with the range of difficult emotions in a way that helps, in a way that's helping the emotion and helping myself? That's such a gift to ourselves, to learn how to do that in life, that I am not afraid of my emotions. I'm not afraid of what will come up. Whatever comes up, I feel confident that I can approach it, and work with it well. And this is completely and utterly learnable for us as human beings.
There is quite a lot to that, but in a way, one wants to get a sense with the mindfulness, as one is being mindful -- it's almost like the mindfulness is keeping track of whether the mindfulness is helping or not. Because sometimes, and I'm sure you've had this experience, you're going through something difficult emotionally, and yeah, I'm mindful of it, I'm paying attention to it, and it seems to be getting worse, or just staying there like a stubborn knot or stone.
So I'm mindful, but there's something in the mindfulness, maybe, that's not so helpful. Mindfulness is rarely completely pure. There is no such thing, actually, as pure mindfulness. That's another time. So it's almost like, as I'm paying attention, I want to get the sense, just gently: is the way that I'm with this helping or not? And you can feel when it's helpful. You can feel something comes into the relationship with the difficult that actually feels helpful. It either eases it, or eases the relationship with it. Eventually, we feel, with even anything difficult emotionally, that I would rather be with it, I would rather be with this than escape from it, no matter what it is -- grief, whatever. There's something in the connection of the mindfulness, because we've found a way to negotiate, to pitch, to take care of the quality of mindfulness, in its subtlety, that actually it feels good to be with this difficult thing. I would rather be with it. Sometimes there's a kind of sweetness that comes into it, around the difficult.
So there's a lot to this, and I just threw out a few things, but certainly ask us in interviews if it's proving challenging to work with something difficult, because what we also want to learn to do, in a way, you could say, is defuse a difficult emotion. They're kind of like bombs, or unexploded warheads or something, and we want to learn to defuse this thing. Maybe that's not such a good analogy. But somehow it's being compounded, and I want to learn to unpick it, to untangle it. I want to learn to heal what's difficult. And sometimes that has a lot to do with holding. Here's this grief, here's this depression -- how I'm with it makes all the difference. Sometimes it's holding: I hold myself, or I hold the depression. I hold the anger. Something about the mindfulness has a quality of holding. I'm putting something around what's difficult. I'm speaking in metaphors now, but can be very helpful.
Oftentimes, with difficult emotions, you know, sometimes you can stare them down -- it's like you just really fix a very strong mindfulness on them. More often than not, what they really need is a very delicate attention. It's almost like the attention itself is very delicate, to the sadness, or to the anger, and that very delicacy of attention is extremely helpful at untangling something, unpicking something.
If something's very difficult, or very complex emotionally, it can be so helpful -- what I said before -- to work at the bodily level. So helpful. And particularly at the vedanā level of the bodily level. In other words, here is this anger, and it's got all this story, and years of background, and projected future, and generations, and complication. Really difficult and overwhelming. And maybe it's important to go into all that, but right now, it might also be really helpful to go into the body, be with the body, and stay with the vedanā level, which will be unpleasant, and just allow that to be unpleasant in the body. The vedanā level, opening to it, and allowing it. Why? Because of all this mass of confusion and complexity that might be going on, the vedanā level in the body is probably the simplest strand of this knotted ball of emotion. It's probably the simplest strand. And somehow, paying attention to that simpler strand, it simplifies everything. It actually simplifies what's going on. So extremely skilful as one of the range of responses.
I'm just throwing out a few things, but Christina will probably talk, or maybe talk more about this tomorrow. When we have a difficult emotion going on, I also want to bring some insight to bear, if possible. So sometimes it's worth questioning. This anger, this depression, this, whatever it is, fear, on what assumptions is it resting? What am I assuming that's keeping the whole thing in place? There's probably something I'm believing or assuming that's the ground, or certainly a fuel for it all. If I can get conscious of that, maybe I'll begin to see: I can question this assumption, and actually expose it, and the whole thing has less conviction to it.
What am I believing or assuming about myself because there is this emotion here? Because there is depression, it means what about me? Because there is anger, even if there has been a lot of anger, a lot of times, does it really mean anything about me? So what's the self-view? Because that will also will be part of a feedback loop. It will feed back in. And what am I believing about this emotion itself? This is a really interesting one. Here I am, peacefully sitting in meditation, and then out of nowhere comes all this anger, let's say. And it comes, and it comes, and it comes. And a person can have all kinds of ideas about it, conscious or unconscious, but very popular would be: "This is probably purifying something, so it's good that it's coming." But that's a view that's pretty loaded. I don't know if it's purifying or if it's not purifying, actually; it's very difficult to tell. It's a loaded view, and it will have an effect. It will keep something going, actually. Or a person might say, "Boy, phew, I bet there's loads more in there, waiting to assault me," you know, and a sense of just how much there must be, and one thinks about one's history, and one's parents, and all that. Just the thought "there's much more of this" is enough to create something, to spin. It's very subtle and very complex, but the belief that I have about the experience in the present moment is part of what creates the experience in the present moment. It's huge.
In terms of insights, also really helpful to see that mind states and emotions change. They really change. You just see through the course of a day, we're rarely in the same mind state, emotion, all day. If I see that over and over, an unhooking of the identification can happen. That's so helpful. Just like clouds -- you know, yesterday was a very different day than today. Like weather, it rolls in, it rolls out, it's lighter, it's darker. It's a very bright, beautiful day today.
I can hone that awareness of impermanence, and take it really fine, refine it, make it really moment to moment. Really, really helpful. And look: here is this depression, here is this sadness, or whatever it is, and really look at it, moment to moment, and does it stay the same, moment to moment? If I really look closely, I'll see what seems so solid, this block of depression that I'm just sitting under -- big, black block -- has lots of holes in it, lots of gaps, actually a moment of non-depression, a moment of joy, even, a moment of neutrality, something. And that's exposing the lack, the actual lack of solidity. Things that feel so solid are not as solid as they seem when we look at them more closely. Lots of gaps there.
If I perceive it as solid, I feel burdened by the solidity that I perceive. And that very solidity starts solidifying my sense of self, etc. But is the solidity real? Can I look more closely, and see that it's not real? It's not that real. Really helpful to stay close with a mind state or an emotion, expose this. It's almost like it has lots of air in it, lots of 'other' in it.
There are a lot of possibilities here, many more than I'm saying now. But just to review a little bit what we've said today. Sometimes, just to know what the mind state is, really helpful. Just to know, "Oh, there's this kind of mind state right now." Sometimes, really skilful, again, you can switch into 'third foundation of mindfulness gear' in your practice. It's like, "Okay, forget the breath. Forget all that other stuff. What I'm doing now is watching the mind states." And you just sit back, and watch the show. And really just stay there, and perhaps watch the show, the parade of mind states, and how they express in the body, and really just stay there with that. Enormously skilful thing to do. And in that -- this is very important -- we can't help but notice that some of it is quite subtle. And as always in mediation, the attention to the subtle is really helpful, because our world, our inner world, is not just the torment of intense emotions all the time. Even if it feels that way, it really isn't. A lot of what goes on for us in the heart is quite subtle, and attention to that subtlety is very, very fruitful, can be.
We talked about finding ways of being with what is difficult emotionally that help. Finding ways of being that help, when there's difficulty. Or we can also respond to the difficult. So if there's agitation, it's really fine to use the breath, and to breathe in a way, to play with the breath in a way that will calm that agitation. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's a skilful response to what's happening in the mind. It's allowed. It's really okay. You can soothe the being, soothe the heart, and soothe the body by the way that you're breathing, and by the way that you're with the breath. You can calm the body and the breath, and that calms the mind and the emotions. Or sometimes what is needed is energizing. The mind state is a bit sluggish. How would I breathe to energize? Whole body involved, and opening it out, and letting the long breath that the Buddha talks about, the long breath, let that energize the body, and through that, energizes the mind state.
If there's a contracted mind state, and the sort of tightness and oppression of that, really skilful to go to listening, and open up the mind, the awareness through listening, and that can open up the space. Less contacted, less oppressive. If there's harshness -- sometimes we just get a sense that we're practising in a kind of inner climate of harshness, of not so much kindness towards ourself -- really skilful to just move into the mettā practice for a while, if that's the case. That's one possibility.
So there's all that. And of course -- we haven't really touched on this -- we can cultivate beautiful qualities of mind. We can cultivate lovely mind states. So if you are doing concentration practice, or loving-kindness practice, or compassion, or whatever it is, you are in the business of cultivating a wholesome, nourishing mind state. We're interested in that. I want to cultivate this. Actually, mindfulness is also a wholesome mind state.
So we're nourishing a positive mind state, positive mind states when we're cultivating. And that's huge. The Buddha puts enormous emphasis on that, enormous emphasis -- actually, much more than he talks about mindfulness, interestingly. Why? Because through repeated practice of mettā, of concentration, of compassion -- however it is, you know; even if we feel like this is going quite difficult -- we're actually slowly in a process of resetting the groove, the habitual groove of consciousness, habitual grooves usually in judgementalism, in agitation, in proliferation. And over time we set that, reset that groove so that it's more in peace, in openness, in kindness, clarity. The mind is very much a creature of habit, and it's amazing what we can move here, over time.
And these positive mind states are deep resources for us, and deep nourishments for us as human beings. So potent in what they give us, and give our life. The more positivity in the heart as a kind of habit, the easier it is to let go. We say "let go, let go," but if I don't have enough in the bank, so to speak, letting go is very, very difficult. It becomes just a nice idea, but something I can't quite achieve. With the nourishment over time, the deep nourishment of cultivation of beautiful mind states, letting go becomes easier -- natural, actually. And they bring clarity, bring insight, etc.
So for those of you who are working on cultivation practices -- mettā, compassion, concentration -- sometimes there can be doubt: "Oh, is this the right thing?" To go deeply into any of those practices also unfolds insight. It just needs a little bit of questioning and intelligence. It's not that they're not insight practices. They really bring insight. They bring clarity. Very, very powerful.
So with all of this, however one is going about it, there are a lot of gifts here, a lot of gifts from working with mind states, whether it's through cultivation, or through the mindfulness, etc. With all these foundations, we're moving towards freedom with our emotional life, freedom in relationship to our emotions and our minds. And that's huge. And part of that freedom, I would say, is also we're expanding our capacity, the capacity of the heart, not to be afraid, to be able to hold a lot -- a lot of what must be felt for me personally, and for me as a human being, as part of this common humanity, the family on the planet right now, with everything that we're facing. Is my practice serving all of that? To me, that's a hugely important question. One of the ways it serves is, of course, through freedom. Another is through the capacity to hold -- to hold emotionally the reverberations of what we're facing. 'Capacity' means both the difficult and the lovely. Sometimes with joy, a person finds it difficult to hold the amount of joy. So 'capacity' means everything.
Okay. So let's stop there, and we'll sit together for just a little bit.
