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Mindfulness Of Mind
The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Excerpted from the transcript of "
The Four Foundations Of Mindfulness" (Vermont 1996)
Originally published in Bodhi
Issue 3
4 of 6 | 1
, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
General Buddhist Approach We have discussed the first two aspects of mindfulness briefly: the mindfulness of body and the mindfulness of feeling. Now we will
look at the third mindfulness which is known as the mindfulness of mind. At this point, the third stage of mindfulness is working directly with our basic state of mind, our consciousness or awareness. "The
mind" here in Buddhism refers to a detailed classification of mind. We're not speaking simply of one giant nature of mind. There's no such thing as one giant all-pervasive mind, so to speak. Our practice of
mindfulness of mind here is working with every single, individual experience of our consciousness, which is divided into six different categories known as the six consciousnesses, in the general Buddhist approach. At
the Mahayana level, it is divided into eight categories called the eight consciousnesses. And if you want to go into more detail (laughs), then the mind is further explained in the Abhidharma literature as having the
basic mind and fifty one mental factors. So we have a very detailed explanation of mind, generally speaking, in this path of spirituality. But what we are fundamentally dealing with, here, is developing the mindfulness
of simply experiencing every individual movement of our mind, every individual fragment of our mind, and every individual living state of our consciousness. Accordingly, at this stage, we have the method of mindfulness
of mind to help us relate to and simply be present with the momentary movement of mind, the momentary experience of every living, individual incident of our thoughts or perceptions or memories, which we call mind.
Mahayana Approach: The Meditation State This mindfulness is closely
connected or related to the meditative state of our experience. It's basically working with our mind in the meditation state, beginning with our practice of shamatha and vipashyana, and continuing all the way up to
tantra. The Vajrayana practices are closely connected to this mindfulness of mind. In this practice, we are developing the discipline of simply watching our mind, simply guarding our mind, simply bringing our mind down
to some sense of groundedness. Right now, our mind is up in the air, perhaps in the form of that wild elephant we talked about. The mad elephant. It's totally in the state of dreaming, in the state of non-reality, in
the state of non-existence. This mindfulness is actually doing the work of bringing that mind down to the basic, fundamental state of nowness, nowness of this reality, of this moment. Basically, that is the mindfulness
of mind. Dwelling in the Past and Anticipating the Future Because
of this total state of dreaming, what's happening in our basic experience of mind is that we have never, ever lived. We have never, ever lived in all of these years. We think we are living. We believe we are living. We
dream we are living. Although we imagine we are living, we have never actually lived. We are either in the state of having lived or will be living, but we have never lived; we are never living. That's how our mind
functions in our basic world, in our samsaric world. On the one hand, our mind is in the state of dwelling in the past, dreaming about the past. Such good old experiences of the past have always occurred in our mind,
and we have always been "sort of living" in the state of past memories. Or we have been bothered, disturbed, and totally destroyed, in some sense, by certain memories of the past which keep reoccurring in
our present lives. Our mind has never been free to live in the present. It's always been under the dictatorship of our memories of the past or living as a service for the future. We've been living for, dreaming
of, or anticipating the future, where we have a multitude of dreams, typical American dreams, pure American dreams. We have many dreams, which is not bad in itself, but they are dreams of the future. We have a list of
plans miles and miles long for how we will really live in the future, how we will practice, how we will achieve this and that. And so we invest our energy, our time, our effort in these dreams. As a result of investing
all of our time, effort, and energy towards these achievements, we may actually achieve a certain part of our list in the present. We may have already achieved a certain number of these things, and we will achieve
others. But when the future becomes the present, we don't have time to experience it. We don't have time to appreciate it. We don't have the prajna to relate with it. We don't have the space, the freedom, to totally be
with and enjoy our own dreams that have come true in the present. We have totally forgotten how we planned to live at this stage. We have totally, totally gone out of control. We have lost our freedom and our
dreams, along with our basic beliefs in those dreams. Our idea of living has altogether disappeared, slipped out of our hands, like the present moment. Therefore, this practice of mindfulness teaches us to bring our
mind to a greater state of freedom. It teaches us to free our mind from the imprisonment of dwelling in anticipation of the future. In the freedom of that space, we are able to experience the actual sense of
living, the simplicity of completely being present with our state of mind, as a living mind. The Present Moment Hence, this mindfulness of mind works with that basic principle of freedom, and when we look at that principle, the present state of our mind is a very tiny spot. It's a
very tiny and slippery spot. It's so tiny and slippery that we always miss it. It's so tiny that it's an infinite spot. The whole purpose of this mindfulness of mind is to bring us back to this tiny spot of the present
momentary nature of our mind and to the experience of the infinite space and freedom within that speck of existence. In order to do that, we must experience the lively nature of our mind, which is so present and so
momentary and so fresh. Every individual moment and every individual fragment of that mind is completely pure and fresh in its own state. The whole point here is to experience that freshness, that genuineness,
the honest face of that tiny spot, without really coloring it with our memories, concepts, philosophy, theory, or expectations. Totally experiencing it without all of these is what we call simply being there. And that
cannot happen if we can't let go of our memories and thoughts, if we can't let go of our memories of our understanding, our memories of our expectations. We have to simply understand our thoughts. We have to
see the nature of our thoughts directly and genuinely to be there, rather than living in our memories of understanding, our memories of meditation, or memories of our expectations of our meditation. If we are living in
the memory of thoughts, then we are still not being there; we are still not experiencing the fundamental, tiny, infinite spot.
Imprisonment To the extent that we are living in this memory of thoughts, we are not experiencing any of the freedom of space. To the extent that we are living
in the memory of understanding, while we may have good memories or a good understanding, it's like we are decorating our prison. Our prison may look a little different; it may look a little better and more
refreshing, but we still are living within that limited space, within that barrier. We haven't freed ourselves from the prison of memory, from the prison of dwelling in the past, from the prison of anticipating the
future. Therefore the total sense of mindfulness of mind is just simply being there in that tiny spot, that infinite space. That experience only comes through letting go, totally letting go of our expectations. When we
totally let go of our clinging, when we totally let go of our thoughts, we totally free our thoughts. Dressing Up Our Thoughts
In a way our thoughts are imprisoning us. On the other hand, we are imprisoning our thoughts. We are imprisoning our thoughts in the same way that our thoughts are
imprisoning us. We're not just simply letting thought be thought. We're imprisoning our thoughts and trying to turn them into something else. We're not simply letting these thoughts be thoughts in their own state. We're
not giving them the freedom to be thought. We are coloring them. We are clothing them. We are dressing up our thoughts. We're painting the face of our thoughts. We're putting hats and boots on them. It's very
uncomfortable for the thoughts. (laughter) We may not realize it. We may not recognize it, but if you really look at the state of the thoughts themselves, it's very uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable for them to be
what we want them to be. It's like your parents or your society putting great expectations on you to be someone else, someone you don't want to be. At that point, you can feel the imprisonment. You can feel clearly and
strongly the imprisonment of samsara. In a similar way, our thoughts are experiencing this imprisonment by our expectations, by the way we color and clothe them. It's really equally uncomfortable, you know, with
all these hats and boots on. It's like dressing up a monkey in the circus. We have monkeys, chimpanzees, all dressed up in beautiful tuxedos and bow ties, with dignified hats and beautiful shiny boots. But you can
imagine the discomfort the chimpanzee feels at that point. No matter how beautiful he may look, no matter how dignified this monkey may appear to be, from the point of view of the monkey's basic instinct, it's so
uncomfortable to put up with all these expectations of your human boss.
Recognition of the Arisal of Thoughts: Freeing our Thoughts and Ourselves In a similar way, our thoughts are going through the same torture when we put labels
and different expectations on them. When we color these thoughts with philosophy, religious beliefs, and theoretical understandings, they feel tortured by all of these things that we're going through. Therefore,
mindfulness of mind is simply freeing our thoughts, freeing our mind, and coming back to this basic spot, infinitesimal spot, that is the state of our thoughts or the state of our mind. Coming back to and experiencing
the infinite space of freedom within that spot of nowness, that tiny spot of the present moment, is what we call the mindfulness of mind. It's simply being there, and simply letting it be whatever it is.In that
process of letting it be, how do we practice? In our meditation and post meditation exercises, we have to recognize the first stage of the arisal of our thoughts and emotions. We have to be clear about and acknowledge
all of these thoughts and emotions that are arising and coming to our door as our guests. We have to be aware of, acknowledge, and recognize these people, these little beings, these fragments of beings, in their own
way. We have to recognize them. We have to acknowledge them at the first stage of their arisal. That's our method here. For example, if a strong anger or aggression arises in your mind during the state of
meditation or post meditation, the first thing to do is simply recognize it. However, we have to recognize it again and again, because it only exists in this tiny spot. Every moment, every fragment is a new anger.
It's a new guest. It's a new state of Mr. Anger. So whenever a new guest arrives, first he or she rings your doorbell, then you have to acknowledge that guest, recognize him or her and let your guest in. In a
similar way, we have to recognize our anger, in every moment. One anger may have hundreds of moments, and we have to distinguish these moments as many times as possible. When we identify a moment of anger, we just
simply let the anger be anger. We give some freedom to the anger. As much as we want freedom from our anger, our anger is striving for freedom from us. Therefore, at this stage of recognition, we must let it go. We must
let it go, allow it to be in it's own state. We must not bind our anger to our sofa. We must not chain our anger to our chair. He or she is simply our guest, so we must respect this guest in order to be a more civilized
meditator. There is a great need for us to practice this, because recognition is the first stage in working with our thoughts, the first stage of freeing our thoughts and freeing ourselves. Recognition: The Speed Bump My usual analogy for recognition is a speed bump. What does a speed bump do? It
slows us down; it slows down the speed of our car. The purpose of the speed bump is not to stop the car. We must understand that. And the purpose of recognizing our anger is not to stop our anger. It's not to
chain down or hold onto our anger. It's purpose is the same as the speed bump. It slows down the speed of our klesha mind. No matter whether it's anger, aggression, passion, or jealousy that we're feeling, it
slows down the speed of that klesha mind, that thought, that memory, that anxiety. In the process of slowing down, we are creating more space. And the greater space that is created here with this simple moment of
recognition is the space of wisdom, the space of compassion, the space of love, the space of prajna, and the space of mindfulness. That space will help us handle this car we are driving. And when we develop more
control, more space, it gives a greater sense of safety, not only to the driver, but to the pedestrians who are walking on the street. We must look at it both ways, you know. It's not just creating more space for
ourselves, but for others too, the pedestrians who are crossing the road. We're creating some space between ourselves and our anger, between ourselves and our emotions, between ourselves and our klesha mind. The space
we experience from the speed bump is this tiny spot, which is infinite space. This is the beginning of experiencing our infinite space. This aspect of mindfulness practice, recognition of the first stage of
arisal, is very much emphasized, not only in the general Buddhist journey of mindfulness, but also in the most supreme vehicle of the Mahayana. Three Stages of Recognition Because the process of recognition is so strongly emphasized, we should look at it in
more detail. There are three stages of recognition. The first stage is, recognizing the very tip of the arisal of thought. This is the very first moment, the very first tiny spot, so to speak, of the movement of
thought, of the movement of emotion. Recognition of the very first moment is the foremost way of recognizing thought, which happens only after we have some shinjang, some development or sense of suppleness in our
practice. The second stage of recognition is recognizing thought when it has arisen. At this stage, our thoughts are a little bit blown-up, or grown-up. It's like diagnosing a disease at a later stage of development.
Because it has already developed, its treatment requires a little more work. It's a little bit late, but still manageable. The third stage of recognition is recognizing thought after everything has happened. We don't
recognize it until after it has arisen and grown to the full-blown stage. By then it has destroyed everything, and at that time we recognize it. This is like recognizing our monkey in the zoo. We recognize our
monkey wearing the full tuxedo. Maybe he's doing a tango. (laughter) Something like that. It's a little late, because we have totally imprisoned him at that stage; we have totally imprisoned our emotions, our thoughts,
and ourselves. This is the stage where our disease is fully grown, and there's nothing much we can do except to take pain killers and wait. These are the three stages of recognition, and the Mahayana Path very much
emphasizes the first method. Through the development of our courage, skill, and compassion, we increase our power to recognize thought at the first stage, which is…? (Students: Tip of its arisal.) Yes, the tip of its
arisal, the first tiny spot of the existence of any thought, which is, you know, infinite space. Manure for the Seed of Enlightenment
In another analogy from the Sutra tradition, Mahayana people are regarded as farmers and Hinayana people are regarded as city dwellers or city slickers. The
reason for this comparison is that, from the Hinayana point of view, practitioners relate to their emotions like city people relate to their human waste. From that point of view, we are trying to get rid of it and get
away from it, as soon and as far away as possible. There's no sense of really needing to keep it, because we see our human waste as a total waste. So the Hinayana view of emotions is similar to the city person's
view of human waste. Whereas in the view of the Mahayana Path, the practitioner is more like a farmer who sees that human waste is great manure. It can be recycled and used effectively so that it becomes a great
help and support for us in growing the seed of enlightenment. This seed of enlightenment sown by the Mahayana farmers cannot grow without this manure. It cannot grow without fertilization. So without the manure of our
emotions and our thoughts, we cannot cultivate any seed of enlightenment. Guarding the Crops of Enlightenment The process of cultivating our crops, in the Mahayana Path, involves guarding our farm. We must guard from intruders the seeds of enlightenment that we have sown. In the history
of Mahayana farming, there has always been some disturbing being, like a pig, that comes around and breaks into our farm. This pig has destroyed many of our seeds. As soon as it enters our fields, it starts digging up
everything. All of the seeds that we've sown have been totally destroyed by this pig. The Mahayana method of dealing with this is simply to wait. We wait for this intruder with a strong, solid club. We just wait at the
gate, or any possible entrance, and when the pig is about to enter, the first thing we'll see is the snout, right? In the general Buddhist view, the pig symbolizes ignorance. So as soon as we see the snout entering our
property, we have to use the club and hit the pig on the snout with as much force as possible, with great love and compassion. (laughter) You have to strike it directly on the snout. It's very different than hitting the
hip or body, which doesn't provide as much of a lesson. It's more forcefully chased away by hitting its snout. It's a very painful form of compassion. We can only hit the snout of the pig if we catch it at the very
beginning stage of its entrance into our farm. Then we can hit it as hard as possible and be most effective. If the pig has slipped by us and already entered, then we can only strike it on its back. We'll never get the
snout. In the same way, the Mahayana method is like hitting the snout of the pig, which means you're recognizing the arisal of the movement of mind right at its very beginning stage, at the first moment. Isn't that a
great compassionate analogy? Yes, it is because the pig is destroying the seed of enlightenment, so it's a bad karma. With that analogy, we can see how the recognition process takes place. As soon as any thoughts or
emotions arise, at the very first trace of their arisal, we must try to maintain this mindfulness. In this process, we're letting emotions be emotions and letting mind be mind. We simply observe the movement of
mind and work with it. When we experience that tiny spot of the nowness of our mind, of our emotions, of our thoughts, we are experiencing the infinite space of our mind, infinite space of our thoughts, infinite space
of our emotions. We are freeing our emotions, and we are freeing ourselves at that very moment. In a way, it's a very simple process. At the same time, it takes many words. This fundamental process of working with our
mind begins with working with our meditation process. In the practice of meditation, we repeatedly bring our mind back to its present state of nowness or to the present momentary fragment of our mind. That's why
we use different techniques, to come back to that very tiny spot and experience the infinite space, which is the whole purpose of our meditation. 4 of 6 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Talk Index |
