Working with Our Mind

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BZ-02561
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way
yeah
introduce our speaker our old friend karen said i really saw her dharma name is you need all shells means gentle rain garba blossom
karen is bit she's been here
for a very long time
she was about two years old
here
and ten she's had most all senior positions including me to soak for senior student and as athlete trusted for research in moshi ah and so
we we're happy to have her appearance
thank you

today i thought i'd talk about mind in practice
in buddhist
in buddhism we learn that the mind is really the cause of suffering
wasn't like
in buddhism we see that mind is a cause of suffering and what we really do
and then better
high-performance is on
when we practice meditation and and all our practice were really working with our minds
we often come to practice
because of some kind of suffering
and
when we sit down on the cushion usually the first thing that we notice is thinking
and

buddhists have been studying mind and talking about mind for over two thousand years
westerners started talking about it a lot in psychology but that was so much later but actually buddhist teachings are good a psychology go back a good two thousand years if not more and one thing that i've been studying lately
lately being the past couple of years is a book called transformation at the base and i'm gonna read a verse or two from it and the book that i've been using his
a interpretation and commentary by technique han and
transformation the base can also be translated as fifty vs on buddhist psychology but actually it was written back almost two thousand years ago early in the common era by an indian ancestor vasu bond do
and on
so
he expel he wrote a lot and expounded upon on some buddhist teachings about consciousness
and actually
what i've been studying and what he talked about where that there were a aspects or levels of consciousness
and on
i don't want to make levels seem like there's a higher level or a lower level there's nothing hierarchical about this they're all part of each other at all
parts of our mind
and
i'm gonna get around to talking about how we work with all fists in practice but i just want to give some background
even though he talks about eight i'm only gonna talk about three to make it simple so the first the basis is that ah the kind of underlying ground of our consciousness is what they call a storehouse and it's full of
seeds that's what it is it's stores seeds
we don't see these but what happens as we see them when they manifest or they flower so the thought that we have the actions we take
the words we say
they come from seeds and we don't know they're they're really until they manifest till we perceive them
but it's very important to know because even though we can't know all those seeds in our mind
sometimes were surprised when they pop up and we say like where did that come from also when we're trying to work with unwholesome states of mind
in some cases anger or hate things like that it's important to understand these seeds and how they arise and what we can do about them
and in understanding seeds it's important to realize that they're not all individual summer collective summer societal cultural
some of that his ancestral so we have seeds that could go back many many generations
we also have seeds that came from our childhood and some of these could be individual based on the kind of families we grew up in
so we have seeds that were planted by our environment's so we are different from one another in certain ways depending on how we grew up
then there's seeds planted by our culture and society ideas on the media prejudices things like that her historical events so all of this is operating in our minds but we don't know
no it
we know it
when we hear it see it
think it say it but often we don't know what is actually there until then
so then there's another part of our mind which was more the ego biased mind and on the term lay cop used as us and i'll just use that to refer to it but really what it is it's that ego bias that we all have
i'm
we all have this mistaken idea of a self an inherent solid and during self that's one of the basic teachings and buddhism that and that's what makes buddhism unique i think and then
but buddhist on buddhist don't believe in this saul itself and that's something that we all have to
work with all the time and it it
this part of our mind as always diluted and always biased and always bound to an ego and this is some way don't really see either
but what we do see is
the third one which is mind consciousness
so when we sit down on the cushion
and all the sudden the mind starts thinking or making comments making judgments complaining hoping maybe i'm questioning whatever it is were our ability to self reflect his
mind consciousness and that's where we start
mind consciousness as our ideas our notions our thoughts
and i'm just gonna read a quick verse from this book ah from techno hands commentary so you can get an idea
of what it says
ah
this is actually verse twenty five
mind consciousness is the root of all actions of body and speech its nature is to manifest mental formations but it's existence is not can continuous
mind consciousness gives rise to actions that lead to ripening it plays the role of the gardener sewing all the seeds
that were actually involved with the seeds even though we can look at them exactly
take time likes to talk about
the garden and that in the earth they're all these seeds in there
and when we practice we are nourishing that garden and those seeds
they they're referred to as either wholesome or unwholesome or indeterminate there's more to it but i won't go into it you know
buddhist like lists and words and all that but i'm basically saw these seeds can produce good they can be destructive or they just have potential to ah
go either way
so
with with our mind consciousness we can choose to so and nourish positive seeds and leave some of the negative ones alone or in the ground we can't get rid of them
but we cannot nourish them

when i think about different ah levels of consciousness and how they operate in my personal life i often think about my relationship with my mother who i've known for sixty two years
she ah it's been a rather fraught relationship but she's currently alive ninety almost ninety one years old and she lives in philadelphia where i grew up and she is still quite verbal and i talk
to her anywhere from two to five times per day
and
she's a volatile woman
and so i would describe my childhood as being one where there was a lot of fun unpredictability
a lot of a very high decibel level
and arm
she actually has some kind of anxiety disorder so you know
she really does do a lot of screaming and yelling which i understand better an adult but you know as a child it was not easy to be in that environment all the time you know she was kind of the i love you i hate you kind of on parent
and so you know seeds were planted you know i have those seeds in may for example ah she compared me to all kinds of unpleasant bodily fluids and nefarious political
leaders mass murderers people like that
am
i was selfish completely that kind of thing and then know an hour later it would turn around and i'd be told that i was just wonderful that i was actually sensational and fantastic that didn't feel good either but was the switching back and forth
earth and the reason i bring them up is that these are seeds you know this is part of my ah storehouse mind
so
she was so critical of me that when i went up around in the world of someone criticized me i would have possibly a bigger reaction than someone who maybe didn't grow up in that environment but what happened was that those seeds you know were watered
so ah they would manifest hugely in my mind
so
meanwhile she did a lot of good things to my mother had has a fantastic sense of humor she's absolutely hilarious
and she did some good things like gum
she
she encouraged me you know she'd say things like you can do whatever you want to do
you'll succeed just keep trying and that's another seed that was planted so not only is that seed so while we all have seeds
we're all also planting seeds all the time to so whatever we say to someone else we have to thank you know do we want a plant that seed to day i mean this is going on constantly
i'm so she planted some good seats positive wholesome seeds
but you know the brain tends to be a bit reptilian so often ah this the more
scary seeds are often stronger as part of our survival instinct but you know i don't think they have to be but i did carry around with me a certain negativity because of this that i found when i sat on the cushion it was time to sit and i thought
thought oh i want to come i wanna be a buddhist and i want to meditate because i want peace and tranquility
but what actually happened you know i'd sit on the cushion and there wasn't so much peace and tranquility there was the image of my mother as the wicked witch of the west you know and so thousand wasn't all that much fun
and speaking of the image of my mother one thing that the mind tends to do ah is see representations one thing that tick not han talks about and of course this goes way back to vasu bond do is that they're different ways of perceiving so our mind
consciousness can perceive and different ways it can be completely deluded but it's also capable of i'm seeing directly of practicing mindfulness which is really what our practice here is
i'm
now mind consciousness is heavily influenced obviously by the storks the seeds the store consciousness and manas this ego by us so our minds are often quite the mind consciousness can be very
distorted but not always so our practice really is about clear seeing clear view ah
and planting seeds a nourishing seeds that are healthy and wholesome
so
ah just to quote a couple things that ticknor hands said about this he said the objects we receive excuse me the objects we perceive are transformed into representations conditioned by the seeds of delusion in our store
consciousness
so this is kind of though for me the wicked witch of the west thing
he then goes on to say but through practice it can release the habit energy of looking at things in these terms and learned to touch the world as things in themselves directly
so
i am
i spent a lot of years trying to i would call it over come on the experience i had with my mother
and there were different stages of this but i was pretty clear that i really didn't like her until i was about forty two
and some were in there
i got tired of those solid images that i was carrying around with this woman and i about this woman i i began to study her
and study is something in meditation that i ah
often think of dogan and to study the self to really look to investigate not to study as you know an object i'm not so much scrutinizing but really looking intimately at her and at one point i began to see
her
as a terrified child
ah
she had grown up in extreme poverty
later her parents were pretty brutal which is some she never told me you know i think she tried to hide it
am
and that a lot of her screaming and yelling and insults really came from her own fear and sense of powerlessness i mean here i was having these images of this powerful wicked witch of the west but actually
she felt completely powerless and her let her only resort was dis
to scream
and actually after that
this image i had began to break apart
i've started to feel very sad for her
and
she was almost i almost felt like she was a little
baby i wanted to take care of
but he no longer terrified me and then
i felt no longer stuck in that
fear and hayden all that kind of thing

so i'm just gonna read another little bit from take han about mind consciousness because this self-reflection this ability
to look like this is part of mind consciousness
the way to train our mind consciousness incorrect perception is through mindfulness this is the most important contribution of the mind consciousness when we are mindful when we are aware of all our actions of body speech and
mind we can choose to act speak and think in wholesome ways rather than in harmful ways with the energy of mindfulness generated by our mind consciousness we can avoid watering seeds of anger craving and delusion
in our store consciousness and we can water seeds of joy peace and wisdom
this is why it is so important to train our mind consciousness in the habit of mindfulness
and i think i'll end by just reading to more vs on
versus forty four and forty five
practice conscious breathing to water the seeds of awakening right view is a flower blooming and the field of mind consciousness
when sunlight shines it helps all vegetation grow when mindfulness shines it transforms all mental formations

what time is it peter
well why don't ah we just i'm happy to take any questions or comments ideas
lori
my god it's the clearest explanation of those three
i've ever heard i heard a lot
thank you so much i just makes so much
you
really really
he uncovered or something so

oh anthony
really
hey
manchester
why
well i'm glad it came out clear i wasn't sure i've been studying this with sojourn for year and a half and i'm part of a study group that's been studying at to on if anyone wants to
as you know as a librarian i can't help but
share my books but this is transformation at the base by tick not harm that goes into a commentary on every verse and
this is an old version but there's a new one called understanding our mind this a reprint
so it's the same book and then one book that was really helpful to me is called living yoga chara
and an introduction to consciousness only buddhism
anyway poison oh go have you finished
yeah
the actual transformation

he when one
actually changed
i think there are two things one is practice
we practice
nourishing the wholesome seeds and not giving food to those ah negative ones
we can see ourselves doing it in zazen grasping on the thoughts fighting with thoughts we can see it out in the world and over time practice becomes a habit
so
nourishing the positive seeds
is changing a habit and habits are part of actions so
we may not notice it at the time it might not feel like transformation but slowly it works but i have to say there's also a little bit of magic involved that is unpredictable magic is not the right word but i'm
when we practice we are consciously making an effort to do this but then sometimes something happens for example when my image of my mother broke apart it was not something i consciously set
i was gonna do
i
really started to pay attention
without judgment
i was
i was asking myself who is this woman really
it's almost like a call on when we ask ourselves what is it we have to look with a completely open mind
letting our own ah
he goes kind of move out of the way
to see a person
and i think it was really not within not something that i planned and set of now i'm gonna do this
but i just love duggan's on verse to study the way as to study the self to study the selfish to forget the self
so
really it it's a way of looking at reality

hmm

but last
you

me
how can i worked with a transformation somewhere visible here
that's a great question
i've heard that question before harm
all i can say as you can work with it because that person still lives in your mind
i think you can
work with the image that you have of her
send her kindness
and compassion maybe talk to her even if she's not here
what is your name andrea right thank you pose on oh first just a small book
oh please
by bin khalid's
vasile it's understanding foster bonds your our new book and it's really good hung and talking about the game
the question that i have
i can be a both and and guy
one hey so
these seems to characterize him as wholesome and unwholesome
i'm a little wary that characterization
because it seems like the also listed on amazon this he is a matter of
one's perception and relationship to the sea
you
well
i think that on
what i learned was that there was wholesome or unwholesome an indeterminate if that few orthodoxy oh okay well
i think that a person can do whatever they want with the seed
so that
some things that i would think of is negative or unwholesome seeds may not take root or may not ever flourish and someone else's ah
you know some
in someone else's experience but you know if you go scream at somebody who's driving by because of their driving you know it you're not likely to get a really good response
but you'll always say you were planted a seed the right yeah be a wouldn't say eternal the that's a whole other problem
you don't have a a route
yes
didn't told me that their seats from ancient egypt three thousand years old that are still living i mean he's talking about literally you know plant seeds literally but
well so
you can say their seeds from ancient egypt
for example that are to in the consciousness of every view
yes i could but you know
and somebody
you
i just think about parts of the world speaking of egypt you know where there's constant conflict particularly now in the mideast were people been fighting for years and it just gets worse and worse and the blame and the revenge seems endless i mean there's a lot of unholy
awesomeness unwholesome seeds being planted

do you mind if i take another quit or were you thinking
dean like you
the transformation of the base
he worried pages over an hour
and there guys seem to be a little bit of magic and the called wholesome seeds and after years yourself sitting i just noticed that i had responded with something in a way very different that i never responded and was startling to me
did he
but what i'm noticing is
there is with his
not water
the seeds that
work well for me even a sprout and that's the thing that habits and i have no
there was no reaction here
added when there's an apology that i need to do anything
how can not water because it is so natural said do that
well i think with month with our practice our minds become more spacious we can see reactions as they arrives and slower motion when at one point probably was knee-jerk without any kind of self reflection slowly
one begins to see ah
the feeling in yourself that arises that you're describing is perhaps unwholesome and what you do you know you do something that you wish you hadn't and then you apologize was she's actually wholesome in most cases
so
i don't think it
something where you just can fix it all immediately it's a practice but it sounds like you are doing it
peter
oh
i i ask about the the role of intention here because it easy it's key to a lot of which had been talking about particular your story eating at some point
down the intention to look more deeply whatever that yes
on
where's
where does that intention you know i really think it comes from suffering
you know that somebody suffering to stop you well
choose now
i think we come to practice usually because we suffer in some way or another
and intention
i think comes out of wanting to find a different way it's like beating your head against the wall over and over it really starts to hurt and then you think do i want to really keep beating my head against the wall
yeah a new idea a new way and as i said you know i didn't know where it was going when i started to investigate my mother i just knew i had to do something different either than think the same thoughts have the same reactions over and over again there had to be a different way
sue
how some in skimpy amd's pointed out it guided me up
in the years when i find i met fire
who believed that on farmers were wasting too much time in the weeds from fields
so this idea and the year was to only remove the weeds around the plants and meet the needs in the field and not he thought they were helpful because they hold the soil
he will cultivate the planets but not the weeds and never worried how he needs and somehow the business simultaneous on growing up
he's
that even even

well i'm definitely not a gardener but i've heard that weeds have lots of good things to offer we just don't like them is that true or not you're you're a gardener you know when we make the judgment about what's a weed but i guess in terms of your you talk i was thinking maybe
focus too much on
yes
well that's a good point
we name them the half or even something like a was that the energy
and the energy itself is bad it's
true yes that that is definitely true
hum but it's it's murky is it's confusing
hey him

there are ways to transform
all these seeds
through our practice
and it it is true that nothing is really good or bad it's it's you know the language is very discriminatory and
that's why i actually kind of like the words wholesome and unwholesome they don't seem as judgmental you know as good or bad i'm were just nourishing seeds that are on healthier and kyle
under and rather than i'm harming
do we have time or how's the time situate one more time did you have a question
abstract concepts of wine or something very real life i'm curious to give her share with rather your craft high
she noticed that we've gotten a lot closer over the past twenty years she doesn't know why
harm my mother is not self reflective at all
and our memories not great either
ah
so no i never said mom you know one day i realized you know i just became a lot nicer but i'm also very from
our old relationship used to be hanging up on each other
you know she'd scream and hang up on me or i'd hang up on her and all that stuff once in awhile we still hang up on each other but it's not it's not really even mean it's a little bit like let's take a break call you and thirty minutes you know and we'll laugh again
so it's really improved on
so but i've released i really draw the line i mean of her behavior gets out of control i i i am i don't sit there and take it that would be really unhealthy and i would never encourage anyone to to let themselves be a victim of that so
but there are ways to connect with the person without ah being a victim
you know i don't believe in shutting people out and so
you know unless there's absolutely no other way and usually there is another way
anyway it looks like my time is up
thank you everyone for listening i really appreciate it i appreciate all your comments and thoughts and your practice your companionship everything so