Categories: Maintaining Mindfulness
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
Welcome. In these spiritual teachings, we consistently focus on one central theme: the exploration of your own mind. We delve into this because understanding the immense power of the mind is the most practical and transformative practice you can undertake.
We have previously discussed various methods for training the mind, from foundational techniques of both calming meditation, known as Samatha, and insight meditation, or Vipassanā. We’ve also explored the obstacles that arise and how to face them. This understanding is not just theoretical; it is vital for your practical, day-to-day life.
When you gather all these teachings, you begin to realize a fundamental truth: your mind what we call sitha is the primary foundation for everything you experience. The existence of your world, its creation, and even its destruction all originate from this single source. The very beginning of your journey and its continuation are all propelled by the power of the mind.
The Unknowable Beginning of Consciousness
Think for a moment: do you know the day your mind began? You cannot pinpoint its origin. We might assume our journey started at birth, after emerging from our mother’s womb. We see this as the beginning of our current human existence. However, that is just one small fragment of a much larger story that we can perceive.
The real questions are deeper. Where did we come from before entering the womb? Where was this mind, this consciousness, before that? This is what we must investigate and understand. I am not suggesting you try to look back into specific past lives.
Rather, as someone who follows the Buddha’s teachings with faith, you understand that we are on a long journey through a cycle of rebirth known as Samsāra. This journey has no discernible beginning in the past and, without the right effort, no clear end in the future. It is a vast and, in many ways, perilous cycle.
Navigating the Realms of Existence
The danger of this endless journey lies in the suffering we experience. If you feel pain and sorrow in this human life, you must understand that similar forms of suffering, or Dukkha, are experienced in other existences, alongside moments of pleasure. There are realms of existence that are not pleasant at all. The human realm is a mixture of happiness and suffering. However, realms like the four lower worlds, or Satara Apāya, are characterized by immense and almost continuous suffering. The Buddha taught that in these realms, there is virtually no happiness to be found.
Conversely, above the human world are divine and celestial realms, the Deva and Brahma worlds, where experiences are predominantly blissful. In these realms, physical suffering is absent, but mental suffering the subtle agitations of the mind can still exist. This gives you a brief overview of the different worlds our mind can lead us to.
The Search for an End, Not a Beginning
Given this, we do not try to find the beginning of the mind, nor do we search for its end in the conventional sense. Why? Because you, I, or anyone else can never find its ultimate origin. We can, however, bring the journey to an end. The Buddha called this state of cessation Nibbāna, or Nirvana. Liberation is possible. But finding a starting point is impossible because this cycle is beginningless.
As many venerable monks teach, we are all temporary residents at a resting place on a long journey. The key thing to grasp is that our mind is the prime mover in all of this. It is our mind our consciousness, which in Pali is called Viññāṇa that we carry with us to every temporary stop, every human life, every realm of existence.
The Mind’s Cunning Deception
Ironically, the very mind that propels us on this journey is also what conceals the truth from us. It is the power of the mind itself that prevents us from truly understanding it. Have you ever felt hesitant or unwilling to meditate? That reluctance, that aversion, comes from the mind itself. It resists being examined.
In the Buddha’s teachings, we don’t see a ‘person’ or a ‘self’ in charge here. Instead, there is an impersonal process at play. The Buddha described this as Paticca-samuppāda, or Dependent Origination a law of cause and effect. This is not orchestrated by a god, a creator, or any powerful being. It is a natural process. This is the law of nature, Soba Dahama. The practice of insight meditation, Vipassanā, and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Satipaṭṭhāna, is simply the study of this natural process in action.
Turning Inward: The Path of the Wise
Through all these practices, we strive to realize that the mind is fundamental to everything. From the moment of conception, through life, and up to the point of death, the mind is the central element. Nothing else is as primary. However, the nature of this mind is tricky.
When we try to investigate it, it pulls a cunning trick: it misleads us. It doesn’t allow us to explore it. The mind’s habit is to constantly push our attention outwards through the five senses the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body to seek and grasp at external things, again and again. This is its default nature.
This is what we have been doing throughout our entire journey in Samsāra. But sometimes, in the past, we have tried to explore our mind. That very effort becomes a powerful wholesome action, or kusala. This is something crucial to understand. This past merit becomes a cause, so that in a future life, if we are born human again and encounter these teachings from a teacher or a text, that past habit resurfaces. The familiarity from previous training emerges, and we are drawn back to the practice.
The Unwavering Mind Amidst Life’s Storms
Because the mind is the source of all experience, it is also the source of all our obstacles in meditation. It is the mind that becomes distracted, happy, sad, or comfortable. It is the mind that reacts to both praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, the eight worldly conditions, known as the Aṭṭha Loka Dhamma. The mind is where all these states arise, whether pleasant or unpleasant.
Consider this: everything you hear, see, taste, smell, and touch is experienced where? Inside your mind. Now, look at a person who has passed away. If you touch them, they don’t feel it. Why? Because the mind, the consciousness, is no longer present in that body. Yet for us, who are alive, all these senses are active. When you reflect on this, you can see for yourself: isn’t this all a function of my own mind? Isn’t this all the activity of my consciousness?
Awakening the Bodhisattva Within
The moment you begin to think this way, you become a special person in this world someone with a different perspective, trying to see things differently. You become like a great Bodhisattva, a being dedicated to awakening. Before his enlightenment, our Bodhisattva Siddhattha always practiced thinking and seeing in a different way. That quality begins to awaken in you.
Most people in the world use their five senses to constantly chase after external objects. But the person who understands this turns their focus around. Instead of using the senses only to seek progress in the outer world, they begin to study how these things operate from within the mind. They investigate the phenomena that arise with the mind as their source. This very effort to look inward becomes the effort to end the journey of Samsāra. This is the true wholesome energy, your spiritual strength.
Unlocking the Treasure Within You
This wholesome spiritual energy is already within you. As I speak these words, you may feel an echo of this truth within your own mind. It exists in everyone. The problem is, there often isn’t someone to help draw it out, to explain it, to show how it’s done.
But 2,500 years ago, a Buddha appeared in the world. He taught us this very thing. He said, ‘Do not try to search for truth only through external things with your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. There is something far more profound to be found within yourselves. Strive to see it within.’
That teaching remains unbroken and valid today. That is why it is called Akāliko timeless. It will be just as valid in a hundred years, two hundred years, or another 2,500 years. This is the timeless truth we should investigate. No other religion in the world teaches one to study and explore one’s own mind in this way. Many are based on faith in external gods, always seeking help from a deity through the senses. They operate from the belief that a god does everything.
However, they lack the confidence and understanding that their own mind creates their journey through Samsāra, sustains it, and has the power to end it. The Buddhas appear in the world to teach this. The enlightened masters who follow them teach it for the same reason. Therefore, the key is to realize that the power of the mind is at the root of everything.
The Beginning of a Transformed Life
If you understand this, you can end this journey very quickly. The task for you, from this teaching, is to always try to study yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are running a business, still studying, or working a job. In every moment of every activity, try to cultivate the understanding: ‘Isn’t my own mind the basis for all of this?’
Think about the worldly and spiritual problems that have entered your mind up to this point in your life. If you can look at every single one of them and see that the mind is the root cause, from that moment on, you begin to become a wise person. That very wisdom will help you end the journey of Samsāra and stop the mechanism of intentional action, or kamma.
But look, out of the more than seven billion people in the world, how many truly understand this? Even in Sri Lanka, among the Sinhala Buddhist population, how many grasp it? People from other religions and nationalities also explore these teachings, and even among them, only a few truly understand and make an effort. There are so many in this country and around the world who have never even heard of this possibility.
Considering this, reflect on how fortunate you are. How blessed are you? What a great store of merit, or past wholesome deeds, you must have to encounter this path. If you can understand that your mind is the origin of everything, your spiritual journey and your entire life will begin to change. That very change helps you understand the cycle of rebirth, the nature of reality, the entire world, the people around you, the animals, the rivers, and the trees. This understanding beautifully helps you comprehend everything.
Your Path Forward: A Continuous Practice
You must continue this as an ongoing practice. As you do, more and more help and understanding will arise. You may have already laid the foundation for this work, or perhaps you are just starting now. By using these teachings, you can certainly establish that foundation.
There is no reason you cannot. So, I encourage you to make that effort. If you do, you will undoubtedly gain the ability to end this journey very quickly. For the one who understands, the nature of the mind is realized swiftly, and many positive results and latent potentials stored within the mind can be drawn out and actualized.
Realize that your mind is the source of all things, and from the day you understand this, your life will begin to change. I wish for your life to transform with that new beginning. With the powerful blessings of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha the Triple Gem I bless you all to be able to understand these matters well, to continue your practical training, and to move forward on the path.
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!.
