Turning The Mind Into An Ally - 1 - The Rock and the Flower

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This morning we begin our new book series, entitled, Turning the Mind into an Ally, by Sakyong Mipham, who is the oldest son of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.  Trungpa was the wild man of Tibetan Buddhism here in the west—he was profoundly instrumental in creating a groundswell of interest in Buddhism starting in the 1960’s, including the first Buddhist University, Naropa, in Boulder, Colorado and many monasteries throughout the West.  His teaching style was iconoclastic, see say the least.  Pema Chodron was Trungpa’s student and even writes the foreword to this book—she was Sakyong’s meditation teacher when he was a young boy, but humbly says that she is now his student.  Pema is a rock star teacher in her own right, but always defers to others as her teacher—I admit that I bristled a bit when she talks so deferentially about someone younger than her as being her teacher, but therein lies a lesson as well.  We can humbly understand that everyone is our teacher.   Even in this small act of looking for the pecking order of who is a better teacher than someone else—this is the mind causing us suffering.    The very first sentence of the very first chapter is,

“Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy.”

How true.  We discussed last week in the Tuesday night group that most of us weren’t told growing up that we had the ability to train the mind so that we could choose how to respond to thoughts and emotions.  For me, I was told what was right and what was wrong.  “Do the right stuff and don’t do the wrong stuff.”  But, then, thoughts arose, and I felt the desire to do some of the wrong stuff—that which I was told was “wrong”, but that which my mind told me was desirable.  I’m thinking generally about sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, but hopefully you can relate to this tug-of-war that we often have with our minds.  We know doing something won’t make us happy in the long term, but in the short term, we really really really want to do it.  And so the battle is waged.  We wear ourselves down, then sometimes give in to those desires that cause us or others suffering.

It was a surprise to me when I began studying Buddhism to find that there is this ancient, well-tested system for training the mind to respond to everything in more skillful ways.  It doesn’t have to be woowoo or through belief alone.  In fact, this process of mind training that is central to the Buddhist way of life, is only possible by trying it out, working with it yourself, trying it particularly when things get tough.  You can live in a cave and practice these teachings, and make great progress, but the real success comes from integrating the teachings into as many moments of each day as we possibly can, particularly those when the going gets tough.

So, where to begin?  In the first chapter, Sakyong compares the mind to a rock and a flower.  For most of us, we think of our mind as a rock—solid and unchangeable.  The flower represents the potential for our mind to generate wisdom and compassion.  So, instead of being knuckleheads and beating our head up against the same wall again and again, we instead can decide to create some fertile ground for planting our flowers of wisdom and compassion.  The analogy of preparing the ground for planting is a good one.

We can prepare the ground of the mind, first by taking away this false notion that the mind is unchangeable.  We know now from the neurological research being done that the mind is very malleable.  Once we realize and incorporate this truth into our reality, we can move away the “rock”, and begin to prepare the soil of the mind.

Perhaps we can take the analogy further by thinking about tilling the soil and fertilizing it as the preliminary meditation practice.  In Sanskrit, this initial practice is called, “Shamatha” or peaceful abiding.   We can calm the mind by concentrating on a specific object, like the breath, or a mantra, or word or candle flame—whatever tool works best for you.  This is the very first step in almost all meditation processes.

Buddhist concentration is not in the manner of intense stressful focus, but rather concentrating with calm or peaceful abiding.  We are calmly compassionately aware of our point of concentration, gently noticing when we stray away with distracting thoughts or emotions.  Then, like a puppy on a lease, we gently pull the mind back to the point of focus.  Again and again, just as we do at the beginning of each meditation session.

Another part of this planting process is cultivating more curiosity about exactly what is happening in each moment.  Cultivating the experience of curiosity is also the fertilizer that enriches the soil of the mind, preparing it for greater wisdom and compassion.  What am I really thinking?  Why am I reacting in this way?   We can focus less on judging our thoughts and emotions and more on examining and understanding. 

I also note that it is with great distinction that mind is referred to as “THE” mind, not “YOUR” mind.  Most of us, we feel a sense of ownership of the thoughts and emotions that arise within.  So much so, that we self-identify as OUR mind, as our thoughts, emotions and sensations.  This process of training THE mind is about dis-identify with whatever passing thought the mind might have.  We are not our thoughts, we are not our emotions, we are not our sensations.  WE are so much more.  YOU are so much more.  By looking at the mind and loosening its stranglehold on our identity, we can begin to see what is happening in a more open and honest way. 

There is no one to protect or defend, just the mind to be tamed and trained. 

The chapter ends with three ideas for encouragement:

• Love and belief in yourself; encourage and inspire yourself and others
• Don’t give up; none of us will do this perfectly; keep trying
• Leverage the spirit of those who came before us and were so kind to leave us these teachings