Categories: Maintaining Mindfulness
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
In our ongoing spiritual exploration, we have consistently discussed the fundamental practice of maintaining mindfulness. Through these teachings, we have explored how to apply this practice in our daily lives, and with this understanding, you are beginning to engage with your experience in a very direct way. This practical engagement leads to a profound discovery: you start to recognize the nature of your own mind and how it operates. An inner recognition of yourself begins to dawn.
You may have already realized that true self-understanding can only arise from understanding your own mind. This awakening to the mind, this comprehension of its inner workings, happens only through continuous, dedicated practice. From this, one thing becomes crystal clear: practicality is paramount on this path.
Observing the Nature of Thoughts: Wholesome and Unwholesome Roots
As you continue this practice, a deeper insight may have occasionally surfaced. You might have wondered if understanding this mind is what is meant by attaining Nibbāna (liberation), becoming an Arahat (a fully enlightened one), a Pacceka Buddha (a silent Buddha), or achieving Buddhahood. This article aims to illuminate another practical aspect of this journey, addressing a common question that arises for many who walk this path.
The topic we explore today is about not getting entangled with or developing an aversion to your thoughts. When we begin to establish mindfulness and develop it over time, we start to see the nature of our own minds, just as I mentioned earlier. Through the lens of mindfulness, the characteristics of our thoughts become visible. We see their qualities, how burdensome or light they are, how troublesome or peaceful.
As you continue to observe with mindfulness, or Sati, you can discern when thoughts increase and when they decrease. You also gain the ability to distinguish between attachment and aversion within the mind. You begin to clearly identify thoughts rooted in craving and thoughts rooted in resistance.
On one hand, you see thoughts as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. On a deeper level, you may begin to recognize them based on their roots. There are unwholesome thoughts rooted in Lobha (greed), Dosa (aversion/hatred), and Moha (delusion). Conversely, there are wholesome thoughts rooted in their opposites: Alobha (non-greed/generosity), Adosa (non-aversion/loving-kindness), and Amoha (non-delusion/wisdom). Whether you are familiar with these specific Pali terms or use your own language to describe them, the process is the same. You are using mindfulness to explore the many facets of your mind.
Witnessing the Stream: The Life Cycle of a Thought
As you continue to practice for some time, you begin to perceive that thoughts arise and pass away in a ceaseless stream. You see them come, they exist for a moment, and then they disappear. Another arises, persists, and vanishes. In the more classical Buddhist psychology of the Abhidhamma, this is described with three phases: Uppāda (arising), Ṭhiti (presence), and Bhaṅga (cessation).
You may not see this three-part process in every single thought, because your mindfulness is still developing. However, as a dedicated practitioner, you will surely have moments where you clearly witness a thought arising, persisting, and ceasing. This very perception is a sign of your progress.
Take a moment to reflect: did you know these things before? For so long, many of us limited our connection to the Buddha’s teachings to simply listening to sermons. But now, by engaging practically, look how much understanding you have gained about your own mind. To understand your mind is to understand yourself. You have already proven to yourself that you are capable of comprehending your own nature, at a level that is right for you.
As you continue this practice over a long period, you will see this ceaseless, uninterrupted torrent of thoughts even more clearly. Sometimes, it may even feel like your thoughts are decreasing. But what is truly happening is not that thoughts have lessened, but that your mindfulness of thoughts has increased, giving you the perception of more inner space and quiet.
The Practitioner’s Paradox: When Thoughts Themselves Become the Problem
As we practice, we identify the grasping and aversion connected to certain thoughts thoughts about worldly things, people, or objects. As we recognize this clinging again and again with wisdom, these thoughts begin to weaken and move away from us.
A process of relinquishment, or pahāna, occurs. This happens because our mindfulness is developing, but mindfulness alone is not enough. We must also use wisdom (paññā) to discern their nature, thinking, ‘This is what this thought is; this is its quality.’ As we understand them, they don’t just move away temporarily; they are truly abandoned, eradicated completely.
However, during this very process of understanding the mind, a new challenge arises. The thoughts themselves can start to feel like a nuisance. The practitioner has not yet completely eradicated the deep-seated defilements (kilesa) of attachment and aversion. But because they have developed mindfulness to a certain degree, their craving for and aversion to external things living or non-living has diminished.
They have realized that it is through thoughts that we become bound to these external objects. As this attachment lessens, a new stage emerges. After practicing for a while, the practitioner begins to feel: ‘Now, these thoughts themselves are the problem.’ They start to develop an aversion to the very arising of thoughts.
The Deeper Mindfulness: Observing Aversion to Your Own Mind
This is a critical stage. The practitioner becomes averse to the stream of thoughts, regardless of their content good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome. They dislike the fact that thoughts are appearing at all. They have understood that they get attached and averse to the external world *through* these thoughts, and now they just want them to stop. But they can’t force them to stop, and this inability feels like a great burden, a form of torment.
The mind might even generate desperate questions: ‘Can’t I just kill this mind? Can’t I just stop it?’ The practitioner knows this is impossible, but the feeling arises nonetheless. ‘This is such a nuisance, this endless stream of thoughts!’
This is the moment where we must apply even more intense mindfulness and alertness. Previously, our aversion was directed at external objects people, things, situations that our thoughts were about. The unique feature of this new stage is that the aversion is no longer primarily about the content of the thought. The clinging to worldly things has lessened. Now, the aversion is directed at the fact that ‘thoughts like this are *still* arising in me.’
The practitioner gets caught up in a conflict with the process itself. This is the next step on the path. That is why I say we must be intensely mindful here. When you apply sharp mindfulness of thoughts at this juncture, you will begin to see: ‘Oh, I am still reacting with aversion. I am fighting with my own thoughts.’ This realization, this insight, will dawn on you through your wisdom.
The Unstoppable Spring: Accepting the Nature of the Mind
When this insight arises, you must once again re-establish mindfulness. The moment you do, you will see it, understand it, and perceive it clearly: ‘I am caught in aversion. My dislike of these thoughts arising is just another form of aversion.’
You cannot forcibly stop this process, just as you cannot drain a natural spring by pumping it out; the water will just keep seeping up from the earth. The mind cannot be stopped or emptied of thoughts. The only path to peace, to comfort, to a state of understanding like Nibbāna, is through understanding the nature of the mind itself.
Even the Buddhas had thoughts, though of a much lower frequency, as explained in the Abhidhamma. The same is true for Pacceka Buddhas, Arahats, and those on the path; as they progress, sensual thoughts and many other types diminish, but they don’t cease entirely. The number of thought-moments (citta-cetasika) becomes countable, vastly fewer than in an ordinary person.
You can understand this more by studying the teachings, but you will understand it most deeply through your own practical experience. The key practice today is to see this moment: if you have reached this stage where thoughts feel like a burden, apply subtle mindfulness and ask, ‘Is there an aversion in my mind right now?’ Look with clear mindfulness. ‘Am I averse to the fact that sensual thoughts, good thoughts, or bad thoughts are arising?’ You will clearly see this layer of resistance.
From Aversion to Equanimity: Walking the Middle Path
If you see this aversion with mindfulness, wisdom will follow. You will realize, ‘What the teacher said is true. I am truly caught in aversion.’ As you recognize this aversion again and again, practicing over time, something remarkable happens. You are still new at this second stage, so it is natural to sometimes fall back to the first stage getting caught in attachment or aversion to the content of the thoughts themselves, about worldly things. That is not a problem. But in this moment, the subtle practice is to watch the mind’s aversion *to itself*. As you look and look, you will see, ‘Yes, I am truly living with aversion.’
As you see this and understand this, your mind will begin to become equanimous (upekkhaka) and neutral toward this process. You begin to arrive at the Middle Path (Majjhimā Paṭipadā). When you reach this state, no matter what thoughts arise, thoughts of attachment, thoughts of aversion you will no longer think, ‘This is a terrible nuisance!’ The person who reached this stage was bothered by the thoughts, but as they practice seeing the aversion, that reaction itself fades away.
You understand: ‘This is the nature of the mind. This is the way of things. This is the nature of Saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death).’ To understand ‘this is the way it is’ means you are beginning to cultivate equanimity, to become neutral, to walk more deeply on the Middle Path.
The Fruit of Practice: Maturity, Insight, and Liberation
To become equanimous and neutral means you are maturing in the practice. It means you are in the process of understanding, and when fully understood, you attain the highest level of equanimity and neutrality. The nature of this state is a deep topic for another time, but you can get a simple sense of it through this practice.
When you establish mindfulness at every step and find yourself arriving at this state of balanced observation, know that you are developing your spiritual life. You are walking the Noble Eightfold Path, the path leading to Nibbāna. You are moving toward the fruit of every profound word in the Buddhist scriptures. Realize this for yourself. If you wish, you can reflect on your results to help others gain a similar understanding. By proceeding in this way, you can realize your spiritual potential and comprehend the path to liberation.
With that, I will conclude today’s teaching on not getting entangled with your thoughts. Through the power and blessings of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha the Triple Gem may you all develop your mindfulness further, practice diligently, and gain the ability to comprehend these matters clearly.
We invite you to walk this path with us. Read our teachings, and most importantly, apply them practically in your own life. as you practice, questions will naturally arise. Please feel free to share your experiences and questions in the comments below, via email or contact form. I will do my best to offer guidance in future talks based on your progress. For now, begin this practice with an open heart and a mind free from expectation. Cultivate it correctly, and may you find the clarity and peace you seek.
Thank you for joining us. We hope this blog will be of great benefit to your spiritual journey.
May you all be well and happy.
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
