We’re not talking about living alone when we say solitude in body. It means not socializing unnecessarily.
Mental solitude means that the mind is not entertaining the defilements.
It’s not about living alone; it’s about being circumspect.
The power of the Dhamma in daily life is much more obvious if we truly use the Dhamma, all of it, in daily life – awareness, right view, everything we know and understand about the Dhamma – if we really use it.
You can really see how much relief we get from our own beliefs, fears and all that if we can bring the Dhamma in and if the mind can settle into its understanding. And then we can see it’s so powerful and a source of relief for the mind.
And then we gain more faith in the Dhamma because we see that it’s effective.
In times when we stand up for something that is right and we feel anger as well as some wisdom about it, the anger is not our control.
When we have blind anger, there is no more wisdom. But anger only does its job – it gets outraged, but anger is not the one that thinks of the right things to do. Anger is that which makes you feel uncomfortable, like the world is going to end and everything is so horrible. And wisdom is the one thinking “Well I need to do this!”. They’re doing their different functions.
So, you can’t think that what wisdom is doing is what anger is doing. Anger is doing its job, its destructing bit.
The defilements are doing their own work and displaying their own characteristics; the wholesome minds are doing their own work and displaying their own characteristics. But they are mixed and the mind happens so fast that it feels like they’re both there together.
So, we mustn’t mistake the defilement as doing the work of the wholesome mind.
Whatever happens, it’s important that we recognize it – that we should be an audience to what is happening, rather than use the word ‘watching’ which sounds very active.
If we are just seeing what is happening, that we continue to see what is happening – that’s good.
First you’re aware of the thinking; then you have some realization thoughts and continue to think because you are happy that you have some realization. Then awareness is gone.
So, try to be aware of whatever is happening – wholesome thought or unwholesome thought arising, you need to continue to recognize it.
Continue to be aware that you’re thinking. That’s it.
If you suddenly find that you have lost everything that was going well (when the mind was effortlessly aware), the important thing is to accept it. ‘Oh, the mind is feeling it’s not plain sailing now; I need to start with something simple!’ It’s very important to recognize the quality of your mind; when it’s not ready, don’t push it.
You don’t have to know the mind; you just have to be aware.
The mind is not ready right now, but the mind can still be aware of something else, something simple like the breath or the body. Go back to what is simple.
When we can’t know what’s happening in the mind – it’s too confusing, or it’s too constricting, go back to the body. Go back to what is easy – don’t build tension because it means that you’re trying too hard.
When there is mental suffering, the mind will do its own thinking but we don’t contribute actively to thinking about the mental suffering – like to try to analyze it, or comfort it, or relieve it – and our energy is used to just be aware.
In that sort of state, your refuge is observation (stop thinking; just be aware) because the mind is already in a downward spiral; anything that the mind thinks, it’s going to be wrong for the mind.
At that time, what you do is just observe. Stop thinking about it; rather, how does the body and mind feel? It feels not good; it’s not comfortable. Keep watching all that as long as you can.
What you’re experiencing is doubt – it’s just a defilement, a hindrance. The way to deal with it is to observe it. You make the hindrance the object, and it becomes part of the practice. And you have to observe it until it’s not there. It’s an object that is very available; and until it clears, don’t think about it.
Don’t decide anything about your practice; don’t make conclusions or judgments because the mind isn’t thinking in the right way. Put it aside and stay with the simple feeling.
Use it as an object – see what it feels like and the effects it has on you. You can also go back and forth to the body too.
At that time, make the mechanical type of awareness where you keep making sure that you’re applying awareness your goal.
You can also try looking at doubt directly; and sometimes the mind finds its way and it can watch it, and then doubt disappears. And when you’re struggling with that, go back to the body and feelings which are more immediate and more available.
With the fear in mind, it’s impossible to just theoretically say these things to ourselves. It’s better to just look at the fear – to observe the fear and understand how it works.
When the mind is able to do that, maybe it understands more and it feels more settled, because of that, then the mind can think in a more rational way that suits the circumstances that you’re in.
The presence of fear makes it difficult for the mind to accept platitudes.
So, don’t try to say something; just observe the feeling.
As far as possible, this is the opportunity to observe the workings of fear (it is going to be very obvious) and as much as you can muster, have an interest to seeing it as objectively as you can.
A yogi when he saw the Buddha statue, he heard his thoughts say: ‘Throw away the Buddha image!’ He was shocked. Thereafter, he never went to the monastery again.
When he talked to me, I said: ‘This is nature.’ When unwholesome mind is present, every thought is negative. That is nature.
So, you need to grow yourself – if you can build up your wholesome mind, then everything becomes positive.
The monastery is not the problem; the Buddha statue is not the problem. The Buddha is not angry at you!
If I don’t explain the nature of the mind, yogis can stop doing good things. I need to give them the right information.
This is the nature of the mind. When the mind quality is not good, when you are suffering, you cannot think good things; also cannot talk nicely, right? This is a process; there is nobody there.
If you can understand the nature of the mind, you can easily forgive other people. If he is angry, he’ll talk bad things; this is nature.
You don’t have to recall the dream to address it. In the moment you’re feeling shaken you just need to watch the feeling of being shaken.
The concepts that bring on our emotions are not important. We never need to bring up the concepts to address the issue. We just have to address the reality that is happening at the present moment, which are our emotions, our feelings, our reactions; that’s what we need to address. So, we need to watch those.
In dreams and thoughts, the story is never the object of meditation. It’s the reality of the experience of thoughts [yogi’s note: dreams are just thoughts while we’re sleeping], that they arise; and if there are emotions and feelings, we watch them.
If you find that feeling difficult, remind yourself that a feeling is just a feeling; a state of mind is just a state of mind [yogi’s note: and that they are happening now].
A thought is just a thought; and when the thought is over, the thought itself is over, the effect is left behind. We deal with the effect, but we don’t have to go into what the thought is about.
Start from right view. Try to think that whatever happens is nature and try to be mindful of something.
If your mind is involved with thinking, then the depression gets worse and worse. Try to be aware of some neutral object and have right attitude. Slowly, you can calm down and be more awake.
Sometimes, you cannot only be mindful and mindful. Because of wrong view, when you watch your mind, you can become more depressed.
If they only meditate, they cannot overcome it. If they don’t understand right view, then problem comes because if they watch themselves, they have more suffering and they are finished.
You don’t need to get out of the craving; you need to recognize and watch it.
If you can detect the idea, look at the idea and notice how it makes the mind feel.
The way we ask questions, we say: I don’t know how to get out of it; what should I do?
Our question should be: Do I know it? Usually, the answer is: Yes. If I know it, then I should continue to be aware of it, right? Am I aware of it with right view? Remember the 3 yogi jobs.
The learning will come with time – it’s not that you’re going to watch it now and learn immediately. So, you need to allow yourself to be with it – recognize it, recognize its signs, recognize what it does, that’s the learning that’s going to happen. Eventually, when the mind realizes that this is really not helpful, then it will learn.
We all have this – we all think that when we know something, that we should be learning something immediately and it is going to go away, right? But, the first step is just to know, the recognition that there is awareness of it.
The noticing is good – continue to observe it, to learn about it as in to know what is happening to it, not how to get rid of it, or how to deal with it. Know what is happening to it.
The mind has this tendency – it observes a few things and then it wants to make a conclusion to feel like it has learned something.
That shuts down the mind’s ability to see more; so, we need to notice that the mind is making its conclusion and step away from that so that it continues to observe. And it might make another conclusion, and we need to step away from that and again continue to observe.
This helps the mind to keep its doors open.
Don’t expect anything – motivation is important. Even if you want to understand – that can be a problem too.
Just watch the mind, that’s enough.
When your mind calms down, just continue to maintain the awareness and peacefulness; don’t expect wisdom to arise. Just maintain this first, and collect information – peaceful, information, peaceful, information. That’s enough.
When nature matures, understanding comes by itself. You need to be very patient. Nature takes time; nature cannot hurry. [Yogi’s note: Understanding takes time; understanding cannot hurry.]
I know that people have their life problems; they want to meditate to solve their problems. That’s also a kind of wrong attitude. If you meditate and you get the result, after getting the result then you can deal with your difficulties.