Currents. . .
The Buddha taught that suffering comes from ignorance. “Ignorance is the one thing with whose abandonment allows clear knowing to arise,” he said. By “ignorance” he meant the misperceptions and delusions that your mind has about its own nature. Thus, the way to free the mind from suffering is through gaining insight into what truly is.
Insight is a profound level of understanding that transcends mere intellectual cognition and can only be known by experiencing it. One of the tools the Buddha taught for gaining insight is mindfulness, the ability to be fully aware in the moment.
Mindfulness enables you to go beneath the surface level of moment-to-moment life experience, which is clouded with emotions, to clearly see the truth of what is happening. The untrained mind is just the opposite of mindfulness. It is often described as “monkey mind” because it is continually distracted by one thought, emotion, or body sensation after another.
An important aspect of practicing mindfulness is “sampajanna,” which translated means “clear comprehension”—the ability to see clearly what needs to be done, what you are capable of doing, and how it relates to the larger truth of life. Obviously it is not easy to be mindful in such a manner, let alone experience the deep insights that lead to full liberation, but you can develop mindfulness through the practice of meditation.
Through the practice of mindfulness meditation you develop your innate capacity to:
Collect and unify the mind (at least temporarily)
Direct your attention
Sustain your attention
Fully receive experience no matter how difficult
Investigate the nature of experience in numerous ways
Then let go of the experience, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant it may be
Formal meditation practice involves sitting in a chair or on a cushion in a quiet space with your eyes closed for a period of time and slowly training the mind. You can do so by simply sitting, doing nothing special, and just watching what happens, but the more common approach is to direct the mind by cultivating your power of attention.
By being attentive, you train or condition your mind to be more mindful. It is not unlike training the body and mind to play the piano, dance the tango, speak a foreign language, or play a sport. You learn forms in order to train the mind, in the same way that a pianist learns scales. You learn what to pay attention to in the same way a dancer learns to feel the music and to be aware of her body and her partner’s.
You learn to listen and dance with life instead of swept away by the currents of confusion.
Peace and Love, Jim
#currents #thedailybuddha
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