This is why looking inward is so special in so many ways.
Whatever arises, simply stop still to look at it. Don't get excited
by it. If you become excited when any special intuitions arise when
the mind is still, you'll get the mind worked up into a turmoil. If
you become afraid that this or that will happen, that too will get
you in a turmoil. So you have to stop and look, stop and know. The
first thing is simply to look. The first thing is simply to know.
And don't latch onto what you know -- because whatever it is, it's
simply a phenomenon that arises and disbands, arises and disbands,
changing as part of its nature.
So your awareness has to take a firm stance right at the mind in
and of itself. In the beginning stages, you have to know that when
mindfulness is standing firm, the mind won't be affected by the
objects of sensory contact. Keep working at maintaining this
stance, holding firm to this stance. If you gain a sense of this
for yourself, really knowing and seeing for yourself, your
mindfulness will become even more firm. If anything arises in any
way at all, you'll be able to let it go -- and all the many
troubles and turmoils of the mind will dissolve away.
If mindfulness slips and the mind goes out giving meanings to
anything, latching onto anything, troubles will arise, so you have
to keep checking on this with every moment. There's nothing else
that's so worth checking on. You have to keep check on the mind in
and of itself, contemplating the mind in and of itself. Or else you
can contemplate the body in and of itself, feelings in and of
themselves, or the phenomenon of arising and disbanding -- i.e.,
the Dhamma -- in and of itself. All of these things are themes you
can keep track of entirely within yourself. You don't have to keep
track of a lot of themes, because having a lot of themes is what
will make you restless and distracted. First you'll practice this
theme, then you'll practice that, then you'll make comparisons, all
of which will keep the mind from growing still.
If you can take your stance at awareness, if you're skilled at
looking, the mind can be at peace. You'll know how things arise and
disband. First practice keeping awareness right within yourself so
that your mindfulness can be firm, without being affected by the
objects of sensory contact, so that it won't label things as good
or bad, pleasing or displeasing. You have to keep checking to see
that when the mind can be at normalcy, centered and neutral as its
primary stance, then -- whatever it knows or sees -- it will be
able to contemplate and let go.
The sensations in the mind that we explain at such length are still
on the level of labels. Only when there can be awareness right at
awareness will you really be able to know that the mind that is
aware of awareness in this way doesn't send its knowing outside of
this awareness. There are no issues. Nothing can be concocted in
the mind when it knows in this way. In other words,
An inward-staying
unentangled knowing,
All outward-going knowing
cast aside.
The only thing you have to work at maintaining is the state of mind
at normalcy -- knowing, seeing, and still in the present. If you
don't maintain it, if you don't keep looking after it, then when
sensory contact comes it will have an effect. The mind will go out
with labels of good and bad, liking and disliking. So make sure you
maintain the basic awareness that's aware right at yourself. And
don't let there be any labeling. No matter what sort of sensory
contact comes, you have to make sure that this awareness comes
first.
If you train yourself correctly in this way, everything will stop.
You won't go straying out through your senses of sight, hearing,
etc. The mind will stop and look, stop and be aware right at
awareness, so as to know the truth that all things arise and
disband. There's no real truth to anything. Only our stupidity is
what latches onto things, giving them meanings and then suffering
for it -- suffering because of its ignorance, suffering because of
its unacquaintance with the five aggregates -- form, feelings,
perceptions, thought-formations, and consciousness -- all of which
are inconstant, stressful, and not-self.
Use mindfulness to gather your awareness together, and the mind
will stop getting unsettled, stop running after things. It will be
able to stop and be still. Then make it know in this way, see in
this way constantly -- at every moment, with every activity. Work
at watching and knowing the mind in and of itself: That will be
enough to cut away all sorts of issues. You won't have to concern
yourself with them.
If the body is in pain, simply keep watch of it. You can simply
keep watch of feelings in the body because the mind that's aware of
itself in this way can keep watch of anything within or without. Or
it can simply be aware of itself to the point where it lets go of
things outside, lets go of sensory contact, and keeps constant
watch on the mind in and of itself. That's when you'll know that
this is what the mind is like when it's at peace: It doesn't give
meanings to anything. It's the emptiness of the mind unattached,
uninvolved, unconcerned with anything at all.
These words -- unattached, uninvolved, and unconcerned -- are
things you have to consider carefully, because what they refer to
is subtle and deep. "Uninvolved" means uninvolved with sensory
contact, undisturbed by the body or feelings. "Unconcerned" means
not worried about past, future, or present. You have to contemplate
these things until you know them skillfully. Even though they're
subtle, you have to contemplate them until you know them
thoroughly. And don't go concerning yourself with external things,
because they'll keep you unsettled, keep you running, keep you
distracted with labels and thoughts of good and bad and all that
sort of thing. You have to put a stop to these things. If you
don't, your practice won't accomplish anything, because these
things keep playing up to you and deceiving you -- i.e., once you
see anything, it will fool you into seeing it as right, wrong,
good, bad, and so forth.
Eventually you have to come down to the awareness that everything
simply arises, persists, and then disbands. Make sure you stay
focused on the disbanding. If you watch just the arising, you may
get carried off on a tangent, but if you focus on the disbanding
you'll see emptiness: Everything is disbanding every instant. No
matter what you look at, no matter what you see, it's there for
just an instant and then disbands. Then it arises again. Then it
disbands. There's simply arising, knowing, disbanding.
So let's watch what happens of its own accord -- because the
arising and disbanding that occurs by way of the senses is
something that happens of its own accord. You can't prevent it. You
can't force it. If you look and know it without attachment, there
will be none of the harm that comes from joy or sorrow. The mind
will stay in relative normalcy and neutrality. But if you're
forgetful and start latching on, labeling things in pairs in any
way at all -- good and bad, happy and sad, pleasing and displeasing
-- the mind will become unsettled: no longer empty, no longer
still. When this happens, you have to probe on in to know
why.
All the worthless issues that arise in the mind have to be cut
away. Then you'll find that you have less and less to say, less and
less to talk about, less and less to think about. These things grow
less and less on their own. They stop on their own. But if you get
involved in a lot of issues, the mind won't be able to stay still.
So we have to keep watching things that are completely worthless
and without substance, to see that they're not-self. Keep watching
them repeatedly, because your awareness, coupled with the
mindfulness and discernment that will know the truth, has to see
that, "This isn't my self. There's no substance or worth to it at
all. It simply arises and disbands right here. It's here for just
an instant and then it disbands."
