Right Attitude 101

WHAT IS THE RIGHT ATTITuDE FoR MEDITATIoN?

Please check your attitude before you begin sitting meditation. What kind of underlying ideas or attitudes are you meditating with? Do you only want a peaceful mental state or do you want to learn about and understand what is happening? The mind can’t be cool and calm when you want certain experiences other than what is happening in this present moment. The mind is already calm with samādhi when it isn’t following after or looking for specific experiences.

There is no need to go around trying to force the mind to know something because it is already knowing. It is the nature of the mind to know objects that are happening. Check your own mind. There is no need to create anything. You observe objects and experiences that are happening through their own dhamma nature. You just wait and watch with intelligence.

No experience is a disturbance or a distraction as all experiences are dhamma nature. What happens in the body is dhamma nature and what happens in the mind is dhamma nature. Nothing belongs to me or you. Feeling hot is just feeling hot and dhamma nature. We feel hotter only when we take ownership of the heat as ours and develop an aversion to it.

Everything is happening because of cause and effect. Our work is to

have the right attitude,
maintain awareness,
use intelligence, and
be interested.

With Right View and Right Understanding, awareness becomes continuous and has the quality of heedfulness and of not forgetting the right object (appamāda). It is sammā-sati when wisdom is inherent in the awareness.

How ARE WE oBSERvING?

There’s no need to go around trying to find the object of choice. In this meditation, we pay attention to the working, meditating mind and to cultivating wholesome mental qualities. As such, we can use any object to cultivate awareness, develop samādhi, and gain insight into the nature of phenomena instead of generating more craving, aversion, or delusion through wrong views and wrong underlying ideas.

Because we can use any object to cultivate awareness, we can start with any object. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that there is a better object out there than what you are currently experiencing. No experience out there is better than the present experience. What is important is that the mind is aware and knowing. What is also important is how the mind is viewing or observing this experience.

There is no need to go around creating or doing, trying to follow different experiences. Is an object wholesome or unwholesome? It is neither wholesome nor unwholesome! An experience is an experience. An object is an object. Objects will always be there. The knowing and observing are the work of the mind. The mind knows all there is to be known. Here’s the more important question: Is the mind observing with wholesome or unwholesome mental qualities?

WHy ARE WE BEING MINDFul?

Why are we being mindful or aware? We practice because we want to understand. We wait, observe, and study what is happening in the mind and body so that we can understand their natures. We are not intentionally trying to make the mind calm or trying to have “good sittings”. We meditate to see what is happening as it is and to have the right attitude regarding what is happening (i.e. it is nature and nothing personal). We need to see nature as nature, to recognize objects as objects, and to know what is to be known.

As soon as there is a thought that this experience or object is good, there is craving for it. When we see what is right as what is right, what is there as what is there, then there is escape from craving. However, when we don’t know how to practice, the craving can only increase. We are meditating to be free of craving and clinging.

BE HAPPy WITH THE AWARENESS

You will see that experiences are just happening according to their own nature when you wait and watch with awareness and intelligence. Let whatever happens happen. There is no need to be happy or unhappy with what is happening and there’s no need to like or dislike any experience. Whatever you are experiencing in this moment is the right experience. Be happy that there is knowing and awareness as this in itself is already wholesome.

The mind is not silent—it’s always thinking! You should be happy in seeing nature as it is and in being able to recognize this.

Knowing that the mind is not calm when it is not calm is sammā-diṭṭhi. Being aware of thinking when there is thinking is right awareness. But many times you may want this thinking to stop because you consider it distracting. However, when you greedily try to make it still, it will only complicate the issue and bring about tension.

Do All THAT IS WHolESoME

Anything wholesome or unwholesome begins in the mind. Why is there wholesomeness or unwholesomeness? These wholesome or unwholesome mental qualities arise because of our reactions and responses to objects. All that is wholesome begins with right attitude, right frame of mind, and right attention (yoniso manasikāra). All that is unwholesome begins with wrong attitude, wrong frame of mind, or wrong attention (ayoniso manasikāra).

Always try to live with wholesome actions, skillful speech, and wholesome qualities of mind. Do everything that is skillful: Give offerings and practice generosity (dāna), observe morality (sīla), develop stability of mind (samādhi), and practice vipassanā meditation (bhāvanā). Among all of these wholesome actions, the practice of bhāvanā is the highest, most wholesome action. So please don’t forget your goals.

One achieves Nibbāna only when all the wholesome qualities are there. A mind without craving, aversion, or delusion is a mind full of wisdom and such a mind can understand Nibbāna (please see Awareness Alone is not Enough for more). It’s just difficult when there is insufficient understanding and unwholesome mental qualities mixing in along with experiences.

AWARENESS GAINS MoMENTuM

You want to be relaxed. Is the meditating mind unbiased, open, and honest? When the mind doesn’t want anything or is not dissatisfied with anything, it’s cool and has the right view. It sees nature as nature. Awareness becomes continuous. At this point, you don’t think negative thoughts or say harmful things about others. Sīla is strong. The quality of samādhi is inherent in the wisdom that is recognizing object as object. It knows what there is to be known. Samādhi is present because there isn’t a craving for some other experience or dissatisfaction with what is happening.

Keeping sīla and developing samādhi and paññā are the work of following the teachings of the Buddha and continuing the Buddha’s Dispensation (sasana). Everything is already included in every instance where you avoid wrongdoing and do what is right with awareness+wisdom.

Please check the meditating mind:

Is there right attitude?
Is the mind aware and alert? Or is it dull and heavy?
Is there an interest for the practice?
Is it aware of only one object? Can it be aware of more objects?
How many objects can the mind be aware of?

As momentum builds in our practice, awareness will grow in strength. As awareness becomes stronger, the observing mind becomes free from wanting. It becomes possible to be aware of many objects simultaneously and from different sense doors. Awareness becomes like a satellite receiver that is able to capture many different channels. There is awareness of the observing mind and there is recognition of whether the attitude is right or wrong.

The mind knows what it is doing. While all of this is happening, it is nothing personal—it is not “my work” or “me”. “I” am not aware; the mind and object arise together and the mind is just aware. No one, no entity, no person is behind this process. It is all nature.

We meditate for ourselves. Please continue your Dhamma work with interest and respect.