Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

by Joseph Goldstein

Craving is the translation of the Pali word taṇhā, which means “thirst” or “fever of unsatisfied longing.”

“Let not a person revive the past Or on the future build his hopes; For the past has been left behind And the future has not been reached. Instead with insight let him see Each presently arisen state; Let him know that and be sure of it, Invincibly, unshakeably. One who dwells thus ardently, Relentlessly, by day, by night — It is he, the Peaceful Sage has said, Who has one fortunate attachment.”4

“Try to be less, not more.”

The eight steps on the path fall into three groups of training: the morality group of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood; the concentration group of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration; and the wisdom group of Right View and Right Thought.

Keep your eye fixed on the way to the top, but don’t forget to look right in front of you. The last step depends on the first. Don’t think you’ve arrived just because you see the summit. Watch your footing, be sure of the next step, but don’t let that distract you from the highest goal. The first step depends on the last.

none of the Buddha’s teaching requires blind belief. The invitation is always to “come and see”—to investigate and examine for ourselves whether the teachings accord with reality and are conducive to our welfare and happiness.

framework of understanding the law of karma, the understanding that the only things that truly belong to us are our actions and their results. According to the law of karma, the results of our actions follow us like a shadow. When we integrate this realization into our lives, we pay more attention to our choices and actions, and to where they are leading.

Buddha was very helpful in pointing out quite specifically what actions are unwholesome and lead to suffering, and what actions are wholesome and lead to happiness. These ten unwholesome actions are killing, stealing, committing sexual misconduct, lying, speaking harshly, backbiting, engaging in useless speech, covetousness, ill will, and wrong view. The ten wholesome actions are the refraining from these.

“Bhikkhus, whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of the mind.”1

In this practice of renunciation, we can taste for ourselves that there is greater ease in not wanting than in wanting.

There is a certain purity, clarity, simplicity, and contentment that stands in rather stark contrast to the busyness, clutter, and ordinary desires of our worldly life.

Practicing the wisdom of no is a great art, and we need to learn how to do it in a loving and wise way. Restraint is not repression or avoidance. Restraint doesn’t mean pushing things away or denying their presence. It does not mean being judgmental or having aversion toward certain aspects of our experience.

If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end.

“Compassion and love are precious things in life—they are not complicated. They are simple, but difficult to practice.”1

Compassion requires both openness and equanimity. It requires learning to let things in without drowning in the difficulties and without being overcome by sorrow. It means learning to simply be with the truth of things as they are. This is the great gift of mindfulness that opens us to compassion. Being with the truth of what is present is what we do every time we open to our own pain or difficulty. As we practice opening to and coming close to the suffering in our own lives with compassion, we then have greater strength and courage to be with the suffering of others.

“Hatred never ceases by hatred; it only ceases by love.”

we purify our own hearts and minds as a way of more effectively taking care of others.

Henry David Thoreau beautifully expressed this possibility: “Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”5

Mark Twain pointed this out when he said, “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”

As the poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “Lying is done with words and also with silence.”

“Truthful speech establishes a correspondence between our inner being and the real nature of phenomena. . . . Thus, much more than an ethical principle, devotion to truthful speech is a matter of taking our stand on reality rather than illusion . . .”3

“Avoid what is unskillful, do what is good, purify the mind.”

Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I vow to cultivate responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. . . . To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.3

“It is fitting for you to be perplexed, Kalamas, fitting for you to be in doubt. . . . Come, Kalamas, do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of scriptures, by logical reasoning, by inferential reasoning. . . . But when, Kalamas, you know for yourselves: ‘These things are unwholesome; these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; these things, if accepted and undertaken, lead to harm and suffering,’ then you should abandon them. . . . “[W]hen you know for yourselves: ‘These things are wholesome; these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise; these things, if accepted and undertaken, lead to welfare and happiness,’ then you should live in accordance with them.”4

The Buddha’s teaching is never about blind belief, but about the wisdom of our own inquiry.

“To take responsibility for others gives us the power of a radiant heart, a responsive and heroic heart.”8

just as a line traced on water disappears the moment it is made, your thoughts are liberated the moment they arise.”

All these teachings remind us that meditation is an art. On this step of the Path, Right Effort, it’s not a question of simply following any one technique or thinking there is only one correct approach. Rather, we understand the mind as a vital, vibrant, ever-changing interplay of different mental qualities. If we have a strong commitment to awakening, then we investigate, experiment, and test different ways of abandoning that which is unskillful.