Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

by Joseph Goldstein

The development of what are called “the four divine abodes”—lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—are all based on the conceptual level of beings: “May all beings be happy. May all beings be free of suffering.”

On the relative level, love and compassion are states we cultivate; on the ultimate level, they are the responsive nature of the mind itself.

when we recognize the empty nature of phenomena, the energy to bring about the good of others dawns uncontrived and effortless. This understanding gives rise to the rare flower of bodhichitta, the awakened heart,

Vedanā refers specifically to that quality of pleasantness, unpleasantness, or neutrality that arises with the contact of each moment’s experience.

These feelings arise with both physical and mental phenomena.

When the uninstructed worldling is contacted by a painful feeling, he/she feels aversion to it, feels sorrow and grief, and becomes distraught. The Buddha uses the example of being struck by two kinds of darts. The painful feeling itself is the first dart, and when we’re not mindful, the unpleasant mental reaction to it is the second. Two darts, striking twice, with the second causing more suffering than the first.

When feeling a pleasant feeling, one knows, “I feel a pleasant feeling.” When feeling an unpleasant feeling, one knows, “I feel an unpleasant feeling.” When feeling a neutral feeling, one knows, “I feel a neutral feeling.”

In our more active times in the world, we can use the more obvious reactions of likes and dislikes as a reminder to turn our attention to the feelings that prompt those reactions. These reactions can be the signal that we overlooked the feeling that preceded them.

“You should train like this: my body may be sick yet my mind will remain unafflicted.”

Whatever feeling one feels, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neither-painful-nor pleasant, one abides contemplating impermanence in those feelings, contemplating fading away, . . . contemplating relinquishment.

“What the world calls happiness, I call suffering; what the world calls suffering, I call happiness.”

“Desire or lust is the conditioned tendency underlying pleasant feeling, aversion is the conditioned tendency underlying unpleasant feeling, delusion is the conditioned tendency underlying neutral feeling.”

Often in practice, we go through stages of meditation that are difficult.

unworldly unpleasant feelings coming out of a deeper place of practice.

Unworldly neutral feelings are born of equanimity, and they become very strong in the fourth absorption and in the insight stage called “equanimity about formations.” At these times of great refinement of mind, the neutral feelings actually bring more pleasure than pleasant ones.

[Y]ou might think: “Perhaps these defiling states [desire, aversion, and ignorance] might disappear. . . , and one might still be unhappy.” That is not how it should be regarded. If defiling states disappear . . . , nothing but happiness and delight develops, with tranquility, mindfulness and clear awareness — and that is a happy state.

When a pleasant feeling arises, know it as worldly or unworldly; when an unpleasant feeling arises, know it as worldly or unworldly; and the same with neutral feelings.

contemplate feelings internally, externally, and both, to contemplate the nature of arising and passing away and both the arising and passing away of feelings.

“Mindfulness that ‘there is feeling’ is established to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and continuous mindfulness. And one abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how in regard to feelings, one abides contemplating feelings.”

actions should not ultimately be measured by their success or failure, but by the motivations behind them.

the third foundation of mindfulness: mindfulness of mind.

when you’re sitting, you might ask the question, “What’s the attitude in the mind right now?” This question often illuminates whether the mind is holding on in some way or wanting some other state to occur, and is a direct application of mindfulness of mind.

Know When Unwholesome Mind States Are Absent

the next time you experience a strong wanting in the mind. Stay as mindful as possible of how it manifests in the mind and body. And then notice as the wanting disappears, either in a moment or gradually over time. Instead of rushing back to the breath or some other object of meditation, pay attention to the mind free of wanting,

Instead of drowning in the defilements through identification with them, or judging them, or denying them, the Buddha reminds us to simply be mindful both when they are present and when they are not, remembering that they are visitors.

At one particular time, when I was struggling with a lot of intense fear, instead of applying the instructions to simply be mindful of it, I found thoughts proliferated wildly: “I’m such a fearful person. It will take thirty years of therapy to unwind all this conditioning,” and so on.

Fear is just a mind state. At this point of understanding, there was a certain kind of joy in becoming aware of the defilements, because I would rather see and explore them than not see them and simply act them out.

know the contracted mind as contracted and the distracted mind as distracted.

order to proceed. Here the Buddha is saying that mindfulness of all these states when they arise is itself the path to freedom: through bare attention and mirrorlike wisdom, we see their ephemeral, impermanent, and selfless nature.

during times of struggle, where for one reason or another we don’t quite know what is going on and there is a lack of ease or connection, where we have the feeling of efforting, striving, struggling, but without much success, then, at these times, it is helpful to sit back, open up the awareness, and simply ask the question, “What is happening?”

there’s a mind state present that we’re simply not acknowledging.

“Here one knows a lustful mind to be ‘lustful,’ and a mind without lust to be ‘without lust.’ One knows an angry mind to be ‘angry,’ and a mind without anger to be ‘without anger.’ One knows a deluded mind to be ‘deluded,’ and a mind without delusion to be ‘without delusion’; one knows a contracted mind to be ‘contracted,’ and a distracted mind to be ‘distracted.’”

Emotions and moods are often what we most personalize. When we identify with them, we build a superstructure of self on top of the shifting landscape of experience:

as we practice this mindfulness of mind, we notice more clearly what mood or emotion is present and how it is coloring or conditioning the mind, without adding the idea or sense of self.

even deeper states of concentration and absorption need to be contemplated with wisdom, because as pleasant and satisfying as they might be, such states are still constructed, conditional states, subject to arising and passing away.

be mindful both at times when we’re concentrated and at times when we’re not.

when our mind wanders, we can simply notice, ...

the Buddha says to know the liberated mind as liberated and the unliberated one as unliberated.

notice the ease and purity of mind in these moments of simple bare attention, when we’re aware without clinging, without condemning, without judging.

“Short moments many times.”

One thing you need to remember and understand is that you cannot leave the mind alone. It needs to be watched constantly. If you do not look after your garden it will overgrow with weeds. If you do not watch your mind, defilements will grow and multiply. The mind does not belong to you, but you are responsible for it.

contemplate feelings and mind internally, externally, and both.

internal refers to one’s own experience, and external refers to the experience of others.

When we’re mindful of mind externally, and we see someone angry or loving, greedy or generous, distracted or concentrated, then by inference, based on our own experience of these states, we can open to and become aware of the other person’s mental state—just as it is, free from our own unmindful reactivity.

Just as pleasant feelings condition desire, unpleasant ones condition aversion, and neutral feelings condition ignorance when we’re unmindful internally, so too might seeing painful feelings in others trigger grief, sorrow, or denial in ourselves when we’re unmindful externally.

There is a common psychological understanding that those qualities that we’re most reactive to in others are often the ones we have least accepted in ourselves.

anattā, the empty, selfless nature of feelings and all experience.

not clinging to anything in the world.” “Abiding independent” means not being dependent on objects of experience through desire or through the view of self, not identifying with anything as being “I” or “mine.”

whoever hears this, has heard all the teachings; whoever practices this, has practiced all the teachings; whoever realizes this, has realized all the teachings.

a comprehensive list of the basic organizing principles of his teachings: the hindrances, the aggregates, the sense spheres, the factors of awakening, and the four noble truths.