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What Mindfulness is and What it Isn't

Joseph Goldstein · Spirit Rock Meditation Center · July Insight Meditation Retreat · 22 July 2018 · 59 min

0:00 Given the explosion of interest in mindfulness during these past few years, I thought it would be helpful to explore some of the nuances and subtleties of what mindfulness actually is and what it isn't. Because there's often some confusion about actually what mindfulness means. And it's important to understand the meaning or essence of it. As a methodology for liberation, that's why we're practicing it. So as you know, the practice of mindfulness has its roots in the teachings of the Buddha 2 ,600 years ago, and it's quite amazing to see its relevance and its application these thousands of years later. Suggest a fix

0:58 So clearly there's something of critical importance in understanding this mind state. I was once asked to describe mindfulness in just a few words. And that's a bit like asking to describe in a few words what is art or what is love. It's not easy to break it down into just a few brief sentences. And the first response that often comes to mind for most people when asked, well, what is mindfulness? A very common response is, Well, it's living in the present moment. You know, not being lost or carried away by our thoughts, not living in the past, not living in the future. And this is a good place to start. That's the starting place for what mindfulness is, living in the present moment. But that by itself is not enough. Suggest a fix

2:03 So there's something I call black lab consciousness. So are you familiar with the dogs' black labs or golden retrievers? They're dogs that are very friendly, very playful. They're really a delight to be with. But when you watch them, they are in the present moment. They're not in the past. They're not in the future. They're just engaged with their sense objects. Suggest a fix

2:37 What I'm about to say may be a projection, but I think it's true. They don't look very mindful. They're in the present. But there's something missing in terms of mindfulness. So what is it that's missing? There's a Portuguese poet named Fernando Pessoa. And the first few lines of this poem really captured my attention in this regard. He said, live, you say, in the present. Live only in the present. But I don't want the present. I want reality. And I think it just points to this, that living in the present is not sufficient. It's necessary, but not sufficient. So what takes us from black lab consciousness to the quality of mind that actually leads us to awakening? Suggest a fix

3:40 So one added element which we bring into living in the present is that observing power of the mind where we know that we're knowing. We're not just lost in different experience. We actually know that we're knowing it. So we might call this meta, M -E -T -A, metacognition. There's a kind of stepping back or understanding, being aware that we're aware. So one way of understanding this very clearly is seeing the difference in your experience between... Being lost in a thought and being aware that you're thinking. In both cases, thoughts are happening. Thoughts are the object. That's what the experience is of thinking. But in the first situation, we're not aware that we're thinking. We're totally caught up in it. Suggest a fix

4:45 In the second, thinking is still there, but there's awareness. Thinking, thinking. We know that we're thinking. So this is that added observing power of the mind. Suggest a fix

5:00 Sometimes this is easiest to experience in the walking. Walking meditation or just walking about. Have you ever gone 5 or 10 or 15 steps without even knowing that you're walking? That you were lost in some chain of thought, some ideation. And we can go for quite a distance. 10 steps, 15 steps later, oh. I've been thinking. And in all that time, we were not aware either that we were thinking or what our bodily experience was. We've just been subsumed in being lost. Suggest a fix

5:46 So this observing power of mindfulness, when we know that we're knowing what's there, this opens up some really interesting possibilities of investigation. And one of my favorites Which has profound implications. In some way, it's really changed my whole way of being. Is the simple inquiry the question, what is a thought? Not what is the thought saying, not the content, but what is a thought as a phenomenon? This is a question not very many people ask themselves. You know, we go through our whole lives thinking and maybe occasionally being aware that we're thinking. But how often do we really look at the thought and, well, what is it? Suggest a fix

6:54 What actually is happening? It's fascinating because when we ask that question, what is a thought, we see that it's little more than nothing. It's just this, it's like a... It's like an energy wisp in the mind that comes and goes, and it's so insubstantial. And yet, when we're not aware that we're thinking, thoughts have this tremendous power in our lives. They are dictating our lives. They're like little dictators in the mind. You know, do this, do that, go here, go there, get married, get divorced, whatever. Suggest a fix

7:45 Thoughts are running us. They're running our lives. They have all this power when we're unaware of what it is as a phenomena. And yet as soon as we drop in and look to see, okay, well, what is the nature of thought? Not the content, not the story. We see that there's hardly anything there. And so to see this repeatedly and to understand it repeatedly begins to free us. From being so dominated by this particular mental activity. We get much more familiar as different thoughts coming and a lot are very seductive and they pull us in. But we begin to know in a deeper and deeper way, this thought is completely insubstantial. My first teacher, Anagarika Muninjaji, he had a wonderful line. Suggest a fix

8:41 He said, the thought of your mother is not your mother. It's a thought. But we forget this. You know, we have all these thoughts about people and things and events and we think it's the thing itself or the person itself. And then we get all entangled in whatever our response is to that person or situation. Forgetting that the thought of whatever is not the whatever. It's just the thought. And the thought in and of itself is completely insubstantial. When we carry that awareness, then it becomes possible To really make wise choices, we can discern, is this thought helpful? Should I act on it? Is it onward leading? Or is it not? Is it just causing us trouble? Suggest a fix

9:32 So as we investigate this, we really open up a great space of freedom in our minds. Suggest a fix

9:41 But even this, this knowing that we're knowing, and even aware of the very nature of thought, is not enough. So we haven't yet... quite come to the fullness of mindfulness. So we're observing it, we're present, we know what's happening, but very often we're experiencing whatever is arising through various filters in the mind. And it might be through the filter of wanting or desire. We're aware of what's there, but there's that greed or wanting in the mind, or it might be aversion, resistance, or it might be delusion. The Buddha gave some very vivid similes for each of these filters. It would be interesting when you hear them and then remember them or bring them into your practice to actually get a sense of how the simile fits your own experience. Suggest a fix

10:55 The Buddha said, there is no fire like lust. No grip like anger. No net like delusion. So it's very interesting when we become aware of these mindsets and they come, lust or desire or anger or aversion or delusion, the fog of delusion, to really get the felt sense. This is a fire. Anger with the grip of it on our minds or the net of delusion. A contemporary teaching describes it in slightly different language. It talks about greed is pulling in. Aversion is pushing away. Delusion is running around in circles. So again, I find these similes helpful because they bring to the foreground the effect of these different mind states on our minds and experience. Suggest a fix

12:02 We really start paying attention. Okay, well, what does greed feel like? What's the effect of it in our minds? What's the effect in our minds of anger or delusion? So I would check this out, you know, and just explore this for yourselves. Suggest a fix

12:22 Very often, the filters through which we are observing experience, they're often unconscious and can be so sneaky. Just as an example, One time when I was practicing in Burma, I'd been there for a couple of months, and the practice was going well, and my body was very open and a kind of free flow of energy, and it felt pretty good. But there was this one place in my neck that was just, you know, like a tight knot, a contraction. And I'd be trying to be mindful of it. I went in to report to Sai Raghur Pandita, and I described... You know, the state of the openness of my body. And I said, but there's this one block. Suggest a fix

13:16 He got on my case for calling it a block. And I hadn't realized that even in that conceptual framework for the experience, already there was aversion and desire. I didn't like this and I wanted that. I thought I was describing it objectively. Oh dear, there's a free flow of energy and there's a block. You see how subtle it can be. That even in the way we sometimes describe things to ourselves, embedded in that can be this pulling in or pushing away. So part of mindfulness is really starting to become aware of these filters. Suggest a fix

14:06 So mindfulness as a component of the Eightfold Noble Path, call it right mindfulness, means the observing power of mind. We're attentive to what's happening without greed, without aversion, without delusion. So you see how mindfulness becomes a very special kind of observing. Suggest a fix

14:34 So there's one really helpful distinction to make where people often confuse things a bit. And that is understanding the difference between recognition and mindfulness. Because very often we have the sense that if we recognize what's there, then we're being mindful. That the recognition implies mindfulness. But these are two very different qualities of mind. They're different in Buddhist terminology. They're different mental factors. Suggest a fix

15:13 Another example, a story, and this is one I've told many times over the years, but it just illustrates the point so well. Suggest a fix

15:25 The most prevalent afflictive emotion. That's the jargon for, you know, unwholesome mind states. For me, the most prevalent one over the years in my practice was the mind state of fear. And at a certain point in practice, it just started coming up so much and not about anything in particular. There were times in my practice where I was afraid to go from sitting to standing. You know, so it's completely irrational. But it was just... Kind of this primal energy of fear that was coming up and very strong. And I'm noting it and I recognized it. I knew it was fear, fear, fear. But this kept coming. This was so deeply conditioned. It kept coming for years in my practice. It was coming up. And I really couldn't understand what kept feeding it. Suggest a fix

16:22 Until one day I was doing walking meditation and the fear was there and was coming up. But something shifted in the way I was relating to it. And at a certain point, something happened, and the shift was expressed in the thought, if this fear is here for the rest of my life, it's okay. So, it's okay became the magic mantra. It's okay. And that was the first moment in all that time that I was really accepting of it for those years of practice. When it would be coming up and I would recognize it, I would note it, but unbeknownst to my mindful mind, it was always observing it, wanting it to go away. Suggest a fix

17:18 It's an unpleasant experience. Nobody likes the experience of fear, except maybe those of you who like horror movies. Suggest a fix

17:29 So it was just so interesting that first it took that long. To come to that place of acceptance. Because nobody had pointed out to me this difference between recognition and mindfulness. I thought I had been being mindful. But it wasn't. It wasn't mindfulness. Because that through the filter of a version of not wanting. So I want to read something from Henry David Thoreau. Who was very remarkable when you hear this. You'll see what a remarkable mind he had. So he died quite young. I think he was 44. He died of TB, which is not a pleasant experience. So this is a friend of his who was writing about his friendship with Thoreau and with him as he was going through this dying process. Suggest a fix

18:34 He said, Henry was never affected, never reached by his illness. Very often I heard him tell his visitors that he enjoyed existence as well as ever. This is this sentence. He remarked to me that there was as much comfort in perfect disease as in perfect health, the mind always conforming to the condition of the body. Pretty remarkable, isn't it? There was as much comfort in perfect disease as in perfect health because the mind or awareness has the capacity to just be with what is in a free way. During his illness, I never heard the slightest wish expressed to remain with us. His perfect contentment was truly wonderful. Suggest a fix

19:28 Some of his more orthodox friends and relatives tried to prepare him for death, but with little satisfaction to themselves. When his aunt Louisa asked him if he had made his peace with God, he answered, I did not know we had ever quarreled, aunt. Suggest a fix

19:49 So if we're not quarreling with God, with the dharma, with awareness, that shows the liberating power of mindfulness. Because mindfulness is just that quality of being with phenomena. Whatever it is, it's pleasant, it's unpleasant, we can rest in the awareness of it and actually rest in peace. Of course, this takes practice. this you know that's that's why This just seems so remarkable to me. It's a remarkable place to land. But that's what we're practicing. Suggest a fix

20:30 An indication to us that we may be in the space of recognition but not mindfulness is if, as we're going through the day and our various experiences, if there's some sense of struggle. Do you know what that's like? You know, where things are just not, they're just not flowing easily. And we can feel the struggle is such an obvious experience. But one of the really powerful things to learn, and we can learn it and practice it, being on retreat, is that struggle, the feeling of struggle, is not a problem. It's like a mindfulness bell. When we're struggling, when we have that feeling of struggle, it's telling us something. Suggest a fix

21:22 It's telling us that something is happening, something is going on that we're not accepting. Because if we were accepting it, we wouldn't be struggling. So struggle is always just this immediate feedback to us that we've slipped out of that place of mindfulness, which is simply open to what's there without greed, without aversion, without delusion. So next time struggle happens, you know, and you have that feeling, really welcome it. It is a mindfulness spell. It's waking us up to the fact that we're not being mindful, that we're not accepting of what's there. So just a few examples of how we can apply this for ourselves. Suggest a fix

22:14 You know, maybe at different times you have the experience of just a lot of thoughts. The mind is on a thinking jag. And we have this whole idea that meditation means not thinking and somehow we're failing as a yogi, all kinds of self -judgment and discouragement. Suggest a fix

22:36 So we might recognize that this is happening. We know that it's happening. But if we're seeing it through the filter of aversion, then there's going to be struggle. A very simple antidote to that is the simple Recognition and noting lots of thinking. That's what's going on. Why make a problem for yourselves? It's so easeful when we can take the sense of struggle as the feedback, shows us that we're not accepting something, and then settle back and open up to the reality of whatever it is that's happening. Suggest a fix

23:24 So this is a new note for you. Lots of thinking. Lots of thinking. Lots of thinking. Lots of thinking. And of course, every time you make that note, you're actually being mindful. The lots of thinking in and of itself is not the problem. It's the struggle against it that's the problem. Suggest a fix

23:44 So another example, just one time, again, when I was practicing in Burma, the monastery was incredibly noisy. Just one year, they were straightening these metal rebars, you know, for construction. And stretching them by banging, just pounding metal on metal. This was all day long. All these thoughts. I came to Burma to get enlightened. This is in the monastery. Of course, my aversion to it didn't make it go away. So I was just in this sense of struggle, not feeling at ease at all. And then I became aware, oh, this is complaining mind. My mind was just complaining about it to myself. But I hadn't picked that up. I was just lost in the aversion to it. Suggest a fix

24:43 As soon as I reckoned, oh, complaining mind, complaining, complaining, the whole thing released. It just relaxed. The mind settled back. And it's quite amazing, even with something that on the surface would seem to be this massive distraction, as soon as I could actually become mindful, That is, recognizing it without the filter of aversion. And I could just settle down. Complaining mind, hearing. It was no problem at all. All day long, it was banging, banging. It was just hearing, hearing. It didn't matter. So there's an important lesson in here. There's a really important principle that we actually need to hear again and again because we often forget it. Suggest a fix

25:39 And that is in meditation, in this meditation practice, it really doesn't matter what the experience is. What matters is how we're relating to experience. That's what we're practicing. We're not practicing to have this or that experience because whatever it is is going to be gone anyway. It's all part of a passing show. The liberating practice of mindfulness is not about what experience is happening. It's about how we're relating to that experience. So that's always what we have to check into. But it's so easy. I mean, all of us at different times fall into wanting this experience or wanting that experience and then get frustrated when it's not meeting our expectations. Suggest a fix

26:30 But the depth of practice has nothing to do with what it is that's happening. It has to do with are we being mindful of it and that sense of being aware. Without the wanting, without the aversion, without the delusion, can we follow in Thoreau's footsteps where awareness can hold anything. So this is really a very critical point to remember because most of the frustration that people feel in practice happens because of wanting some particular thing to be happening and it's not happening. So the very simple resolution of that is to be aware of what is happening. It's really very simple, but as Munindraji also would often say, he said this a million times, he said, be simple and easy. Suggest a fix

27:32 Be simple and easy about things. So whatever is arising, it's pleasant, it's unpleasant, it's neutral, it doesn't matter. Can we simply settle back into the awareness of it? So there are a few simple techniques which support this dropping back. Into this place of awareness rather than be caught up in our reactivity. So one of the tools for doing this, it's been mentioned already, is the tool or the method of mental noting. Just making a soft mental note or mental label for what's arising. So we're in -out, rising -falling, thinking, lots of thinking, complaining mind. Hearing, whatever it is, we just make a very soft mental note. And people have different relationships to this tool. Suggest a fix

28:34 Some people find it really helpful and spend the whole day, just moment after moment. It's a very soft, gentle note, and it can really help the continuity of practice. Other people find it maybe not as helpful, and so it might feel a little burdensome. The thought of noting everything all day long. But I would suggest that you all experiment with using it at times. So you really gain some facility with it as a tool of practice, like a tool in the toolbox. And so then when you're really caught up in something, you can use that tool. You have it. You know what it is. You know how it works. So I would spend some time in the sitting, in the walking, moving about. Suggest a fix

29:26 You know, it need not even be for the whole sitting or the whole walking. Maybe take 10 minutes, 15 minutes, where you just note pretty continuously. It will be a very helpful resource for you in your practice. Suggest a fix

29:48 So the note really has to do with recognition. The note is not yet being mindful. When we're noting something, we're recognizing what's arising. So it's like putting a frame around a picture. The point is not to be looking at the frame necessarily, but that the frame focuses our attention so we can see the picture more clearly. That's the function of the note. We're recognizing, and I think Kamala mentioned last night, how perception, recognition is the proximate cause for mindfulness. When we frame the experience with a note, That helps us or that directs the attention right into the awareness of the experience itself. But then the question arises, okay, we're recognizing and the noting is helping us and focusing us, but how do we move then from that kind of recognition to mindfulness itself? Suggest a fix

30:55 And so this points to the need to recognize how we're relating. So we make the note. But the note sometimes embedded in the note can be desire or aversion. So one way to use the note as a vehicle for entering the arena of mindfulness is to really pay attention to the tone of the note. Thinking, thinking, thinking. Well, that's a good indication that it's not quite mindfulness yet. You know, we want it to go away. Suggest a fix

31:38 Desire, desire, desire. That's recognition, but not mindfulness, right? Because there's greed, there's wanting. So a very simple technique, if we happen to observe the tone of note that may not be that skillful, is to just soften the tone. If we recognize that there's a harshness in the mental note, we just soften it, and that simple act Of just softening the tone, the mental tone in the mind of the note, it's like magic. It's like as soon as we soften the tone, you can feel it settle back into that place of acceptance rather than non -acceptance and struggle. Suggest a fix

32:29 There's another tool for going from recognition to mindfulness. And Saida Utejanir, who's a Burmese monk who's taught in this country over the last... It's quite a few years now. He has a teaching which has been very, very helpful. He suggests to frequently ask the question, what's the attitude in the mind now? So that's like asking, well, what's the filter in the mind? And just by asking the question, well, what's the attitude as you, with various experiences, it could be anything. It could be something in the body or a mental event or external seeing. Just to ask that question, well, what's the attitude that will focus us on whether there actually is a filter or not? Suggest a fix

33:24 And sometimes the simple asking of the question is enough. We don't even need an answer. Just as an example of this, one time I was sitting, and I was just sitting in normal meditation, feeling the breath go in and out, and I thought it was all just going along fine. There was no sense of struggle. But I remembered this instruction, and so I just asked that question to myself. Well, what's the attitude in the mind? And this was something very simple, like the breath. And it was quite amazing. Just in the asking of the question, what's the attitude in the mind? In that very moment, I could feel the mind relax back from a wanting that I didn't even know was there. Suggest a fix

34:13 And then... Suggest a fix

34:17 In reflecting on this, I saw that even when I was just with the breath, in a very subtle way, there was just a slight leaning into it with a wanting for more concentration or a wanting for calm, but very subtle, not obvious at all. And just by asking the question, what's the attitude, it settled back, which illuminated that wanting that had not been obvious to me. So that question, Is very helpful. And just periodically, several times, or many times, in a sitting, in a walking, going about, you might just ask, well, what's the attitude in the mind? Suggest a fix

35:12 So in this non -interfering, non -judgmental awareness, as it becomes steadier in us, as we're living more in that space of mindfulness, of mindful awareness, not simply recognition, we begin to see and experience The liberating power of this mind state. So I'll just give you an example and it's something I talked about in my groups this morning. Suggest a fix

35:43 One arena of experience that is unfortunately under -emphasized in the practice and that is the whole sense sphere of seeing. You know, for most of us who have our eyes in working order, seeing It's probably the predominant sense field. We live in the world of what we're seeing. And yet it's very rare that we actually become mindful of the fact that we're seeing. We don't think to note seeing, seeing, seeing. We're just in it. And being in it, what we're seeing is often the condition for a lot of reactivity. I saw this super clearly. I was on retreat. One said IMS. And I noticed that every time I went into the dining room, my mind had a comment and judgment about almost everyone. Suggest a fix

36:48 It was totally ridiculous. I didn't like what people were wearing. I didn't like how they moved, how much food they took. They took it too slowly. They took it too quickly. Just on and on and on. It was totally ridiculous. But I saw this, but this is what was going on. So I just became interested. What is happening here and why? Why is my mind doing this? And I realized that all of those thoughts, all of those judgments, all of those comments were arising because I was not being mindful of seeing. They were all prompted by what I was seeing and I wasn't mindful of it. So I decided every time I went into the dining room, that's all I noted. Suggest a fix

37:37 Seeing, seeing. Seeing, I was online for food, seeing, seeing, taking the food, going to the table, seeing, seeing. It was amazing. 98 % of all those judgments and comments were gone because I was catching it right at the point of contact. So this is just one small example, but it was very powerful for me at the time, of just how mindfulness The real quality of mindfulness can free us from so many of our reactive patterns. We really can settle into a place of much greater ease and move through life with much greater ease. Suggest a fix

38:30 So as we refine our practice of mindfulness, of what mindfulness actually is, you know, it's more than just being in the present. It's more than simple recognition. More than just an observing power of mind, it's a very special kind of observing power. Without greed, without wanting, without aversion, without delusion, where we're just open and aware of whatever it is, pleasant or unpleasant, that's arising. Suggest a fix

39:03 So as we become steadier in this way of being, we see that it is a means for answering one of life's most basic questions. How can I be happy? In one way or another, that's what we're all looking for. We like to be happy in our lives. So John Lennon had something to say about this. He said, when I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didn't understand the assignment. And I told them they didn't understand life. Five years old. So he had some understanding. Suggest a fix

40:03 So another way of expressing that question might be, what do I learn from being mindful? So once we kind of have an understanding of what mindfulness actually is and what it isn't, and we practice it and we become a little steadier in it, so then the important question is, well, what am I learning from this? Because mindfulness... In itself, it's not the end. That's not the end point. We're practicing mindfulness in the service of wisdom. So the very relevant question is, okay, being mindful, what am I actually learning? Suggest a fix

40:45 So one of the first things we learn from being mindful, and this is of such critical importance, is that what we do matters, that actions have consequences. Largely determined by the motivation behind the action. And the Buddha talked of how actions motivated by greed or hatred and delusion bring the result of some kind of suffering in our lives. And actions motivated by generosity, by love, by wisdom, bring about happiness. But often, you know, we go through life doing what we do, acting out our habituated patterns, and think that whatever we're doing Ends just in that experience. It's not that often, I think, that many people really look to see what are the consequences of these actions. Suggest a fix

41:44 That our actions matter. They bring about different kinds of results. So there's a very powerful teaching of the Buddha in this regard when he said that what we frequently think about or repeatedly practice, either knowingly or unknowingly, What is repeated over and over again becomes the inclination of our minds. So it's not just kind of a singular event that's happening in the moment. Every time we do or we act in a certain way, it reinforces, we might say it reinforces the neural pathway, or it strengthens or deepens, whatever the right terminology is. When we really understand this, then it... Suggest a fix

42:36 It engenders a tremendous sense of care about what we're actually cultivating. Every time we get caught up in anger, we're strengthening anger. Every time we get caught up in greed, we're strengthening greed. Every time we are filled with love or kindness or compassion, we're strengthening those qualities. It's all part of a stream. So when we really realize this, What's frequently practiced, thought about, becomes the inclination of the mind. Suggest a fix

43:21 It deepens the realization that meditation is not a hobby. It's not, oh yeah, this is a nice thing to do. It is, of course, and people could practice it as a hobby and get some benefit. But it has much more profound implications. It really has to do... With the transformation of our minds, the transformation of our consciousness in a way that leads to greater peace, to greater happiness. But we have to be paying attention. It's only through being mindful of what our experience is and what the filters are and what the patterns are in our minds that we can then, in that place of mindfulness, settle back and discern, is this skillful? Suggest a fix

44:05 Is it onward leading? Is it not skillful? Is it just leading to more suffering? It opens up the place of choice for us. So we're not simply acting out the habituated patterns of our conditioning. Do you see the liberating potential of this mind state? It's like it opens up our whole lives. It's like we're artists and life is our medium. We're crafting, we're creating a life. How are we doing it? Without mindfulness, It's just, we're just swept along, you know, in old habit patterns. Suggest a fix

44:53 So some very simple reflections, you know, to just reinforce this. Just consider, you know, what is it like, what does it feel like when we're being generous or when we're being self -centered? Just to pay attention, to be mindful. Oh, and I'm being generous? It feels pretty good. It's an open -heartedness. What does it feel like when we're just being self -centered? You can feel the narrowing and the contraction. Suggest a fix

45:27 What does it feel like when we're inclusive of everyone around us or when we're excluding people? What's the difference in our own happiness in these different situations? How do we feel when we see and appreciate the good qualities in people rather than focusing on their faults, which is a very common tendency? You know, with people, it's so easy to see other people's faults. Of course, we don't have any, but it's easy to see in others. But the whole underpinning of mettā practice, the emphasis is on really intentionally focusing on the good qualities in people, and that brings about a very beautiful mind and heart space. Suggest a fix

46:20 So these are the kinds of things we can learn from being mindful, and they transform our lives. Suggest a fix

46:29 It also leads to more subtle levels of understanding and wisdom of what brings genuine happiness and what doesn't. Suggest a fix

46:40 What's interesting is that we often confuse these two. That we think what actually leads to suffering, we think that it brings us happiness. So that's a problem. Suggest a fix

46:59 So one way of exploring this for yourself, and with everything that's being said from any of us, You don't have to believe any of it. It's all an invitation to inquire and investigate for yourselves. And so it's just pointing to, you know, possible avenues of investigation. So we might take a look at, when we're being mindful, what does it feel like when we're holding on and filled with desire and when there's a level of renunciation or non -addiction? It's very different. One of the things I really love to do is to watch desires arising in the mind. And in those times when I'm actually being mindful, just desire, desire, and I'm feeling it. Suggest a fix

47:55 And then notice what it feels like when the desire goes away. Because it always will. It's just another impermanent state. Desire, desire, desire. And desire comes because of something pleasant. That's what we... Very few people desire the unpleasant. Maybe some. And so there's always some pleasure interwoven with the desire. But what does it feel like? So with the desire, with that experience, and then the desire goes away. For me, when I see that moment of the desire ending, it's always a sense of being let out of the grip of something. And that's why - The grip of desire. And then in the moment when it disappears, even though it might have been associated with something pleasant, the grip of it is suffering. Suggest a fix

48:56 And that can become apparent when we contrast it with that moment, the desire disappears. It's like just being let out of the grip of that particular mind state. In a similar way, one of the things we learn from being mindful is... The suffering involved in anger, even though there's aspects of that mind state, and the reason it's so seductive is that people often experience it as energizing, you know, and giving us power, and so we're seduced by it. But the Buddha had some very telling words about this. He said, Suggest a fix

49:50 With its poisoned source and honeyed tip. It does have a honeyed tip, sweet tip. And that's that feeling of self -righteousness or apparent power or strength. And so that often seduces us and we don't see underneath that to the poisoned source. That it's really a very afflictive mind state. It's a source of suffering. But we have to see this for ourselves. It's not enough just to hear it and even to know it intellectually. So that's where mindfulness is such a powerful tool of liberation. That's the faculty that actually lets us investigate and explore this. Suggest a fix

50:46 Besides mindfulness illuminating what's wholesome and leading to happiness and what's unwholesome and leading to suffering, mindfulness also opens the door to the highest peace, to liberation. Suggest a fix

51:07 Through a relaxed but attentive application of mindfulness through the day, we begin to see so clearly just the changing nature. Our experience is a flow. It's just one thing after another. Different appearances arising of thoughts and feelings, sensations, sights, sounds. Just moment after moment, things are arising and passing away. Suggest a fix

51:33 So mindfulness helps us be in that flow of experience. Without obstructing it, without damning it up, with our wanting or with our aversion, we begin to understand very deeply, and it's interesting, this is so obvious, and yet Suggest a fix

51:56 not that many people really see it or apply it. We begin to understand that attachment and clinging to that which is impermanent is always a source of suffering. If we're holding on to something and we want to be holding on to it, we want it to stay, but in its very nature is changing, the more we hold on, the more we suffer. It's so obvious. But we have to see it. We have to experience it. So pay attention. Really look to see when the mind is attached and how it is obstructing just the easeful flow of changing experience. Suggest a fix

52:46 There's a wonderful Native American writer, Louise Erdrich. She wrote, These powerful moments of true knowledge which we paper over with daily life, but every so often something shatters like ice and we fall into the river of our own existence. We are aware. You know, and it's like that. It's like we're going along just caught up in everything and it's like ice. You know, and we're not seeing the impermanence and we're not in the flow and we're just... reactive to what's pleasant or unpleasant, but every so often there are these powerful moments of true knowledge. Something shatters like ice and we fall into the river, into the flow of our experience we are aware. Suggest a fix

53:35 So it's a state of great freedom and great peace and ease. Suggest a fix

53:47 Mindfulness as a vehicle for liberation is just a very pithy teaching of the Buddha. Simple, very clear, but not so easy to practice, which is why we come on retreat, where he talked about, in seeing impermanence, the mind doesn't cling. You know, when you're sitting by the side of a river watching it flow, do you try to hold on to the river? You know, to stop? No. You know, the flowing nature of it is so obvious. Our experience is exactly like that. It is a flow of changing phenomena. And when we see that, which is what becomes obvious in our meditation practice, just this flow, when we see impermanence, the mind doesn't cling. Suggest a fix

54:38 The Buddha went on, when it doesn't cling, it is not agitated. So again, it's important to hear these words and then to check them out in your experience. Knowing it conceptually doesn't do much. But we can pay attention and look to see when you're really seeing impermanence, just check out. When we're seeing impermanence, is the mind clinging at that time? And I think you'll see that it's not. But you need to see it for yourselves. And then you can ask the question, well, when it's not clinging, is the mind agitated or not? And it's very interesting to see when the mind is not clinging, it is not agitated. And the Buddha goes on to say, and he concludes, And when not agitated, we personally experience Nibbāna, the highest peace, liberation. So all of this is what comes from this practice of mindfulness when we understand what mindfulness actually is and also what it isn't. Suggest a fix

55:49 So I'll close with just two quotes. One is from Thich Nhat Hanh. I really love this. He said, happiness is available. Please help yourselves to it. It is available. Like us, suffering and happiness is all created by our own minds. And the practice is just exploring and investigating and understanding how this mind of ours is working. And what leads to suffering, what leads to happiness. And then we have the choice. Happiness is available. And we can help ourselves to it. So I'll just close now with this. It's kind of a poem of sorts. By a very accomplished Tibetan Dzogchen master. His name was Nyoshul Ken Rinpoche. Suggest a fix

56:44 And I had, over the years, some opportunities to sit with him and practice. He was quite an extraordinary being. Suggest a fix

56:56 And at this particular retreat, there were a lot of people who had been practicing mindfulness on this retreat. And usually in that teaching, It's not a word that comes up that often. I mean, they talk about the dharma, you know, with a different vocabulary. But he knew who was on the retreat, so he wrote this poem for us. So this is what he wrote. Mindfulness is the root of dharma. Mindfulness is the body of practice. Mindfulness is the fortress of the mind. Mindfulness is the aid to the wisdom of innate wakefulness. Lack of mindfulness will allow the negative forces to overcome you. Without mindfulness, you will be swept away by laziness. Suggest a fix

57:47 Lack of mindfulness is the creator of evil needs. Without mindfulness and presence of mind, nothing can be accomplished. Without mindfulness, you are a heartless zombie, a walking corpse. So remember that when you're moving about without mindfulness, you are a heartless zombie. Dear Dharma friends, please be mindful. By the aspiration of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, may all Dharma friends attain stable mindfulness and ascend the throne of perfect awakening. That's what we're doing here, ascending the throne of perfect awakening. So let's sit for just a couple of minutes. Suggest a fix

Talk by Joseph Goldstein, recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, 22 July 2018. Original at Dharma Seed: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/51251/. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

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