Writing about mindfulness and meditation

Healing the mind

What are we trying to do in Buddhist practice?

One way to think about the Buddhist path is of taking care of the heart and mind. Socrates said that he was concerned with taking care of the psyche. Rob Burbea described so much of the practice as being concerned with taking care of the heart. Other traditions might talk about taking care of the soul... how does that phrase sit with you?

In Buddhism we talk about the citta, the heart-mind. We could say that when we crave after things or reject experience, we lose contact with the citta. We become absorbed in something that is not the citta. When we let go, when we are relaxed and present, we may sometimes feel the citta shining through our embodied experience. It is no longer occluded.

But in order for this to be perceptible, the mind needs to be in good condition. When we get wrapped up in things, when we insist, when we cling, when we push away, there is a subtle distortion of our perception. We're preoccupied. We're identified with things that obscure this relationship to our hearts. And that's OK, that's what it is to be in a body that has needs, that has an evolutionary history. But there is a way in which, as our understanding develops, we learn how to stay in this experience of the citta more and more.

One metaphor we can use to describe our minds is that of a mirror. We know that if a mirror is tarnished, if it has cracks or stains, it will reflect light imperfectly. It will distort. So we care about the condition of the mirror. And one way we can take care of the condition of our minds is by following the five precepts for lay people. These are explicitly said to be a rule of training. So they're not just nice to haves. They are the training.

The five lay precepts

I undertake a rule of training to refrain from:

  1. Killing beings, or causing avoidable harm to them.
  2. Taking what is not freely given.
  3. Sexual misconduct.
  4. False, harsh, malicious speech.
  5. Intoxicants that cloud the mind.

We could unpack what each of these might mean in contemporary life, but many teachers already do this well, and I want to talk about how I see the context of these teachings.

So often we think of meditation techniques and nothing else, but these five precepts are the first and perhaps most important stage in taking care of the condition of our minds. If you imagine the Buddhist path as a pipeline, this is the very first stage of that pipeline. If the condition of the mind is already good at this beginning stage, it's likely to pay dividends as you progress through contemplation and meditation. If the mind is remorseful and untamed at this stage, you might have your work cut out if you attempt to work with other parts of the path: it will be a limiting factor, a bottleneck.

So by observing the precepts we heal our minds from these gross distortions, these big problems that are going to make it very difficult to feel the citta, the heart-mind, shining happily and brightly and equanimously. We've mended the big cracks in the mirror. But there is further to go, we can get more subtle... and that's where another list comes in.

The hindrances

The hindrances are a list of five distortions that we can be aware of and protect the mind from. To do so requires mindfulness of mind. We need to be aware of what is arising in experience and whether we are fusing with the contents of our minds, which will obscure the citta. The hindrances are:

  1. Sensual desire
  2. Ill will
  3. Restlessness and worry
  4. Sloth and torpor
  5. Doubt.

In a way, these are obsessive patterns. And we could consider working with the hindrances as a refinement of the precepts. OK, so you aren't stealing things that you lust after... but are you still thinking thoughts of sensual desire? OK, so you aren't killing beings or speaking inappropriately to them... but are you harbouring ill will towards them in your heart and mind? If so, then your mind is perhaps not in the kind of condition where it will feel and perceive the freedom and ease of a well-tamed citta.

What about meditation then?

It can be easy to relate to the hindrances simply as technical obstacles to meditation: that one learns the recipe for working with and then your meditation will finally take off. No, we can think of working with the hindrances as the practice itself. We perceive when the hindrances are present (mindfulness of mind again) and work skillfully with them (with kindness, awareness, interest but also not letting them run the show). For example, we can contemplate the drawbacks of sensual desire. Eventually, we can turn away from the hindrances.

As we turn away from the hindrances, the mind is now in a very good condition. We are relaxed, feeling whole, responsive, kind, aware. The phrase that is used is that we are "secluded from the hindrances", but this can happen in the middle of a social situation. It is an internal seclusion (though outward seclusion can help in developing this understanding, of course).

Perhaps when we feel this way on a meditation retreat, it is because the external conditions of the retreat have helped to heal our mind by removing the kinds of objects that lead to precepts being broken and hindrances arising. When the container of the retreat is taken away, if the mind is allowed to wander in unhelpful pastures, without sense restraint, then the occlusions and distortions return. We fall out of contact with the citta. But if we understand what is good for the mind and what is not, we won't be so ready to fall into the old grooves of ill will or preoccupation with sensual desires. And if we become familiar with the joy and equanimity of a healthy mind and heart, we probably won't be so interested in those objects anymore.

So this is a different picture to the one we often pick up: the picture of meditation as a technique of locking onto the breath, or clearing away all thoughts. Those things might provide a temporary relief because they temporarily put the mind into a condition where it isn't troubled by distortions and preoccupations that affect its clarity. And maybe developing that kind of clarity does help us to see that things can be different, and to appreciate the citta and the pleasure of an untroubled mind. But the key thing is: have we understood what makes the mind healthy and whole? Because if we haven't really understood, then we're going to struggle in situations where we're not able to produce these effects through focusing on breathing, for example.

It's beyond the scope of this piece to then define what meditation is or should be, but I think it becomes about right effort. We are mindful of what's happening, particularly the condition of our minds, and what's going on with the world of sense contact and feeling tone (dependent arising). We perceive unskillful patterns and bring in wholesome qualities instead. And we do this with a consistency that develops wholeness and clarity. And yes, absolutely, it may be that we rest with the breath to support this and to steady the mind, so that we can rest with the citta, so we can feel what is needed. But all this is taking place on the foundation of caring for the mind across the whole of our lives using the precepts and working with the hindrances. Otherwise, it's like respraying a car with a cracked engine block. We need to take care of the engine first.

But it's interesting to consider the implications of this, too, that the jhāna of the suttas might not be exclusively about a technique of absorbing the mind in an object but could refer to a broad range states in which the mind is in a good condition and able to dwell in the pīti and sukha (rapture and happiness) of the citta. This would perhaps explain a few things, such as the following statement:

If, mendicants, a mendicant develops a mind of love for even as long as a finger-snap, they’re called a mendicant who does not lack [jhāna], who follows the Teacher’s instructions, who responds to advice, and who does not eat the country’s alms in vain. How much more so those who make much of it!

—AN 1:53, translated by Bhikkhu Sujato (I left jhāna untranslated).

How does this look in lay life?

Now, you are probably a lay person, I'm a lay person, and so the question arises that perhaps we can't avoid certain kinds of sensual pleasure or difficult people, for example. But the key thing for us is the internal attitude. The way I square this is that we may spend time cooking a lovely meal that's going to taste really nice. That's fine in many ways. It may be even better to cook this meal to bring joy to others, to keep our bodies healthy, to sustain ourselves etc. We don't have too heavy on this but it's probably going to feel better than being preoccupied by the taste and allowing an obsession with the pleasure of that to strongly influence the mind. You can extrapolate this example to other forms of sensual pleasure: we may be wise to bring in awareness, and this will help a wise relationship emerge. Through the process of maturation and practice, we naturally come to appreciate more refined pleasures like peacefulness. Likewise, it's going to feel better to address problems with difficult people pragmatically, rather than polluting the mind with fulminations and grief.

A good way of understanding the path?

This is a way of thinking about Buddhist practice that seems to work for me. It's influenced by the Thai Forest tradition, my experiences on retreat and in life and, recently, the teachings of Nyanamoli Thero. There are other ways to conceive of practice, for sure, but I do find this one internally consistent and borne out in experience so far. It also seems quite consistent with the suttas (early texts) to me. When I read the Majjhima Nikaya, I see a lot about receiving experience with equanimity, not letting the pleasant and unpleasant overwhelm your mind, and a lot about conduct. We read of a gradual training in which a practitioner's understanding of what makes the mind healthy and whole, and what does not, grows dramatically until they finally know the highest happiness of peace.


Addendum: sense restraint in lay life

It can be tricky trying to translate Buddhist monastic guidance into lay life. Lay life can be filled with all kinds of pressures, it isn't just a feast of sensory pleasures. If you're a parent and have a job, you may spend all but a tiny fraction of the day serving the needs of others and not really finding a moment to relax let alone for indulgent pleasures. So I think that this are needs careful consideration.

Sense restraint needs to be a process of inquiry that is kept alive. If we make a hard and fast rule and never think about what we're doing, is the heart really learning anything? On the other hand, if we indulge in every sense pleasure we will equally not be learning anything and we will get into trouble. The sweet spot is the place where we are in touch with our hearts and able to see what is needed. If we squeeze too tightly we may become dejected and depressed, joyless; if we don't exert any reason or control or see the danger in sense pleasures the heart will become wild and greedy and life will go off the rails. If there isn't greed present, if there is moderation and restraint, perhaps this is the middle way. I feel like this might be part of what the Buddha discovered when reflecting on his experience as a boy under the rose apple tree.

Not too tight, not too loose, enjoying the present moment without grasping or clinging.

In terms of working with the hindrances, I am probably less about applying techniques to "get rid of" them and more about being aware of what's present, reflecting on the drawback or benefits of that state, supporting the wholesome and not relenting to the unwholesome until it dissipates. And sometimes reflection can really help when we need something to dissipate. We see its drawback, we see its emptiness, its insubstantiality. And we let go. The hindrances are in many ways our teachers and exactly the place where we need to work. From this point of view, there is no shortcut, no ignoring them, no skipping past them.

By way of example, here are some notes I made on a retreat in 2023, in the process of discovering this relationship to the citta, and how I'd worked with drowsiness and doubt.

  • My practice is listening to the citta: what is the mind state like right now? Not telling the citta what it has to be like. Not trying to create states. Giving the citta attention and letting it respond to that, however it is. That’s what works for me. Just now was drowsy for ages, kept checking in periodically, then staying with the heart state. Mindfulness of heart.
  • Befriending the citta, listening to the citta, having a relationship to the citta. When I realised I would have this relationship to the citta forever, there was a lot of happiness.
  • In a way, this retreat has removed doubt about how to practice. I've tried a lot of practices. What ultimately worked was listening to the citta, not manipulating it. The greatest gift is to be in touch with your heart.