11 Settling the Mind in it's Natural State

Olaso. So this week, we will begin a second cycle or a second mode of shamatha practice, this one called by various names, called “settling the mind in its natural state,” “shamatha focused upon the mind,” “taking the mind as the path,” and “taking appearances and awareness as the path.” Multiple terms for exactly the same practice, not to be found in the Pali Canon, but very—but found in later Indian Buddhist writings. And then this practice is done or embraced and taught in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

But there’s nothing specifically Buddhist about it. And it is enormously relevant for mental health, for social-emotional learning, for children. I found it quite interesting that my little eight-year-old grandson asked me to teach him meditation. I taught him mindfulness of breathing first because I thought that would be easiest. He found it a bit boring, even, you know, trying to make it cute. Susan Kaiser Greenland does a very good job of that. I’m not so good at it. But then I taught him this practice. He’s eight years old, and I taught him this practice, and that is observing whatever thoughts come up. He found it very interesting. He said, “I much prefer that one!” [laughs] Little twerp. [laughter]

And so here it is. It is developing this metacognitive awareness of whatever is occurring. And it really is, literally, develop—just as there’s such a clear difference between a nonlucid dream and a lucid dream. Right? It’s a parallel. It’s enormously close. A nonlucid dream—you’re totally caught up in it. You’re taking everything that appears as if it really exists “out there.” You’re fused with your persona within the dream. And fundamentally, you don’t know the nature of the experience you have. And since you don’t know the nature of it, you’re also getting it wrong. So you’re ignorant and deluded.

[2:00] So it’s kind of an unhappy story, this nonlucid dreaming, whereas we all know lucid dreaming—it’s just, you’re opposite of all of that. And there is a clear distinction between your awareness of the dream and all the contents of the dreams, including the emotions that you may be feeling as the persona within the dream—the emotions, the desires, intentions, activities. You’re aware of all of that. But there is not this cognitive fusion of your awareness with the mental processes and so forth, the activities of the person that you’re identifying with in the dream, because you’re not fully identified with it. You’re aware that that person is there in the dream, but you know that’s not who you are. Right?

So that’s exactly the quality of awareness we’re cultivating here. This is developing a lucidity with respect to our minds while in the waking state. Right? I could talk about it at length, but I don’t want to. I’d much rather just go right into the practice. And I’m going to approach it in different ways over this week. But I will say that this is extremely relevant for mental health, for emotional balance, for understanding the nature of the mind, and for distinguishing between awareness and the activities of the mind.

So I want to make a smooth segue. I’m going to approach it in different ways during our week of focusing on this method, which again, as I’ve mentioned before, is right on the cusp or the borderline between shamatha and vipashyana. It is a shamatha practice in the sense that it will take you all the way to achieving shamatha. Your coarse mind will dissolve into the substrate consciousness: “Welcome home!” So it’s a shamatha practice. But also, in this very discerning and moment-by-moment close attentiveness to whatever is arising in the space of the mind, including more subjective impulses like desires and emotions as well as more objective appearances like mental images, thoughts, and memories, that in so doing, we’re bound to gain insight into the very nature of the mind itself, especially as we closely examine kind of the—how these events arise, where they are present, how they dissolve, and so forth.

[4:15] So without further ado, we’ll make a smooth segue this morning. We’ll start out with mindfulness of breathing, and then just gradually shift right over to taking the space of the mind and whatever arises within it as the object of mindfulness. So you might want to memorize that right now, because I’ll quiz you later, and you’ll almost certainly get it wrong unless you just make a real point of it. What’s the object of mindfulness in this practice? The space of the mind and whatever mental events arise within it. So let’s go right into the practice.

[5:18, bell rings, guided meditation begins]

We begin, as always, by settling the body in its natural state, imbued with relaxation, stillness, and vigilance.

And then, in order to establish or to settle the inner voice of the mind in its natural state of effortless silence, we settle the respiration in its natural rhythm.

And then, finally, we settle the mind in its natural state, as this preliminary exercise of letting awareness rest in its own place—relaxed, still, and clear.

[7:38] And for a little while, take as your object of mindfulness the sensations of the breath, wherever they manifest throughout the entire field of the body. Let your awareness remain still while it illuminates the somatic space, with special attention focused on the sensations correlated with the in- and out-breath.

[10:00] Now, while focusing your mindfulness on the space of the body and the sensations of the breath within it, monitor that flow. Monitor your mind with your faculty of introspection, noting whatever thoughts, images, memories come to mind, noting the occurrence of excitation and laxity, and apply the remedies.

As we shift our attention from the object of mindfulness to the object of introspection, it’s as if we’re going from one movie theater to another, one screen, one three-dimensional screen to another. Primary emphasis given here to this three-dimensional space of the body. We’re giving a peripheral attention, intermittent attention, to the three-dimensional space of the mind, wherein thoughts and other mental events take place.

[12:26] So now, shift the emphasis. Shift the focus of mindfulness now to the space of the mind and whatever thoughts and images arise within that domain, while maintaining a peripheral awareness, a secondary awareness, of the sensations of the in- and out-flow of the breath. You are in fact moving back and forth between the space of the mind and the space of the body. But now, give primary emphasis to the space of the mind and whatever arises within it. And whatever arises, simply observe its nature, now without dismissing thoughts or releasing thoughts, but simply observe nonreactively, without grasping, without preference, whatever arises in the space of the mind.

[15:33] While maintaining this peripheral awareness of the breath flowing in and out, during the course of inhalation, as you’ve done before, arouse and focus carefully your awareness, but this time focusing on the space of the mind and the thoughts and images that come. Each time, as you breathe in, attend closely. And each time, as you breathe out, relax from your core, as you let your awareness rest, without grasping, in its own place, illuminating the space of the mind.

And now, focus your attention, as single-pointedly as you can, on the space of the mind and its contents. As you previously withdrew your attention, your deliberate attention from the physical environment around you—of sounds, colors, shapes, and so on—withdrew it into the body and mind, now withdraw your attention away from the body, away from all tactile sensations. Even though, of course, they continue to arise, and you’re aware of them, deliberately focus attention just single-pointedly on the domain of mental experience, the one domain that’s left over when you’re dreaming, the domain in which mental images, thoughts, memories, all types of mental events arise. Focus there single-pointedly.

[18:12] And whatever arises, just let it be, without seeking to modify, without perpetuating or seeking to terminate anything that comes up. Let your awareness be free of censorship, free of preference.

As in all shamatha practices, you monitor the flow of mindfulness with introspection, alert for the occurrence of either excitation or laxity. When you see that your attention has been drawn away, carried off by some rumination, first of all, relax, release your grasping onto the thought, and return to the present moment, observing what’s occurring right now in the space of the mind.

[21:20] And likewise, with your faculty of introspection, monitor the flow of mindfulness, alert to the occurrence of laxity and dullness. As soon you become spaced out, a bit nebulous, no clear focus to the attention, then refresh your interest in the practice, restore your attention, and retain the flow of mindfulness focused upon the space of the mind and whatever arises within it.

Now, the first criterion in this practice, the first measure of success, is the ability to distinguish between stillness and motion. This can be understood in two ways:

[23:27] 1. One, as you’re attending to the space of the mind, which by nature is still, can you clearly distinguish or discern the occurrence of the movements of the mind—of thoughts, images, and so on? Know when the space of the mind is still. Know when there’s activity, the movements of thoughts, and so on.

2. Another way of interpreting this statement is distinguishing between the stillness of your own awareness resting in its own place, without grasping, without movement—distinguishing between this awareness and the movements of the mind, of thoughts, and so on. Distinguish between the stillness of your awareness and the movements of your mind.

[25:27] And let’s continue practicing now in silence.

[28:54, bell rings, guided meditation ends]

Olaso. If the science of the mind, the modern Western science of the mind, had launched itself in a way parallel to that of, let’s say, astronomy, where first they developed—Galileo developed—the instrument that was stable and clear, to make very careful, meticulous, and replicable observations of celestial phenomena; and likewise for the study of terrestrial phenomena, first developing the appropriate technology, and then carefully examining those phenomena—if the science of the mind had been launched as physics and astronomy were launched, then they would have launched as we’ve been doing for the last week.

And that is, first of all, developing your attention skills: stability and vividness. It’s just common sense. Right? And then, secondly, once you’ve developed some degree of stability and vividness, again, Galileo’s first telescope was only eight-power, and then eventually twenty-power, thirty-power, but you know, primitive by today’s standards. But it was good enough to start, right? So that’s what we’ve done in the last week. We developed kind of an eight-power telescope of stability and vividness, just developing that on a little object: sensations of the breath.

[30:45] But now we, today, we turn whatever skills we have, of stability and vividness, to the space of the mind and the events arising within it. That would have been the scientific approach. That’s not the approach they took. And in fact, this approach is still totally absent in the science of the mind. It’s absolutely bizarre. They keep on looking at mere correlates, behavioral expressions. That’s very well, but those are not the mind. They look at brain, brain as the brain. That’s not the mind. You can’t see the mind when you look at the brain. You can’t see the brain when you look at the mind.

And so it looks like the last 135 years have been going through contortions to avoid an actual scientific study of the mind, to study everything related to it, but never actually take a purely, truly scientific approach to study mental phenomena themselves, which is exactly what William James had in mind. So he was about a hundred years ahead of his time. I hope we finally catch up.

So, at four thirty. But now, as previously, we’ve maintained, as much as we could, a peripheral awareness between sessions, a peripheral of the in- and out-flow of the breath, just kind of that nice keeping in touch with it. Hopefully, you’re doing that, since you have nothing else to do between sessions.

Now, what I would suggest is, maintain a peripheral awareness of whatever’s coming up in the mind. As you’re walking here, there, eating, washing, and so forth, what’s coming up? What are the thoughts, the desires, the emotions, the images, memories? Maintain that peripheral awareness. Right? Without slipping into rumination. Rumination is nonlucid thinking. So it’s not to say, “Suppress thoughts.” It is to say, “May all your thoughts be lucid, as all your dreams—may they be lucid.” Right? Let’s try that. I’ll see you at four thirty.

Transcribed by Elmer Fan

Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti

Final edition by Melanie Erler

Discussion

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