The Four Mind Changers

Why meditate? While each of us may have specific answers (like reduce stress, increase focus or become more spiritual, etc.), the more general answer seems to be, "to be happier." In fact, happiness appears to be an innate human desire.

In past psychological research, it was found that people have a certain "happiness" setpoint in life, somewhere along the scale from consistently unhappy to consistently happy. The results look like a standard bell-shaped curve, with a few outliers and most people falling somewhere in the middle. When big events in life were accounted for, like winning the lottery or having a disabling accident, people's happiness levels immediately rose or fell dramatically, only to return, two to five years later, to the previous setpoint. So, this research would seem somewhat disheartening that we can't really change our level of happiness.

However, new research is showing something quite amazing, click here for a CBC news report about MRI scans on a Tibetan monk. Younge Khachab Rinpoche was hooked up to an MRI machine and shown some tragic pictures while he practice a meditation on compassion. What the researchers found was surprising. The monk showed "off the charts" levels of happiness activity in the brain (located in a specific area) regardless what was happening externally. Of course, the monk had been meditating for many thousands of hours. However, it was also determined that even individuals just learning to meditate can have an impact on their levels of happiness. The research demonstrates that we can, in fact, raise our happiness setpoint through the practices of meditation and mindfulness. Good news indeed!

In addition to the basic meditation technique of straight spine, focus on the breath and noting distractions, there are many other helpful practices to achieve this result. Another basic Buddhist practice is called The Four Mind Changers, four reflections that help us experience ourselves and our world from a different perspective.

The first reflection encourages us to contemplate the preciousness of our human birth. We all often take this for granted. Imagine all the activities and events that had to take place or not take place for each of us to be sitting here this morning. Human beings are somewhat fragile, and being born ain’t easy. Every living being has its own set of challenges. To experience the manifestation of human life is quite miraculous. So, this first reflection is telling us to not take so much for granted, to practice gratitude for life.

The second mind-changer or reflection is challenging us to wake up from this dreamlike state of pretending that we and things are permanent. Western culture is often about accumulating--things, experiences, even relationships. We want ourselves, and our things and people to be or become a certain way, then stay whatever way we like them best. We try to control our lives so things can stay fun and cushy. No matter how much we try, all things change. Even something as solid as platinum erodes over time. In this very moment, each cell of our body is going through some kind of change. Each of us is going to die one day. The Buddha wanted us to wake up to this fact. It’s so easy in this busy world to get lulled into forgetting that we don’t have eternity to wake up to the joy of living. So, we are asked to try loosening up, to ride the wave of change instead of trying to fight against it. Try taking things as they are and adding compassion and wisdom to each situation instead creating a checklist for improvement. Try listening to the innate wisdom in each ever-changing moment to know what's yours to do.

This acceptance is critically important to the way we view our lives. Many of us are constantly trying to get things just right. Get a new haircut, find the perfect dress, get the perfect job. Imagine, instead, waking up each morning and focusing on showing up fully present, with gratitude for whatever happens. This idea might seem like the polar opposite of what we have been taught to do. Our lives will continue to change and morph and become something entirely different. The amount of happiness in the journey is determined by whether we ride the waves of impermanence, or grasp at everything with tight fists.

The third reflection is that everything we do has consequences. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but somehow our actions have consequences, the law of karma. However, even less-than-skillful outcomes can be translated into new directions, new opportunities, new meaning. This reflection is not telling us to begin worrying about what we did wrong in the past. It’s about understanding that the only thing that matters going forward is our motivation and intention in each new moment. The idea of karma from a Buddhist perspective is that we can wake up at any moment and begin acting with compassion and wisdom instead of acting in unskillful ways.

The four reflection is understanding that judging everything as good, bad or irrelevant is causing us suffering

Most of us look at life through the lens of our pre-conceived notions. "This thing or person is good", "This thing or person is bad", or even "This thing or person doesn't matter to me" (i.e. "won't make me happy"). This reflection encourages us to open our eyes to new ways of seeing, increasing the amount of joyful curiosity that we bring to each moment. There is a wonderful story about a ninety-year old man who, after his wife passed away, was being moved to a nursing home since he was legally blind and could no longer care for himself alone. The woman showing him his new room begins to describe the details, like the lace on the curtains and the new bedspread. The old man replies, "Beautiful! Perfect". The woman asks how he can be so sure since he can't see. He joyfully responds that he woke up that morning deciding that the room would be beautiful and perfect, so thinking it has of course made it so. Each of us has the ability to set our intention to be happy, regardless of our external circumstance, and doing so actually makes happiness more likely. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." Science now proves that he was right!

So, the four reflections are:

· The preciousness of our human birth

· The contemplation of impermanence

· The law of cause and effect; our motivation/intention leads to certain outcomes

· Judging by craving, aversion and ignorance causes suffering and will never bring us lasting happiness like having a joyful curiosity will.

The purpose of this teaching is simply to increase our willingness to loosen the strangehold we have on our old habits of clinging to ourselves, to things, to shutting down, closing in, to believing our projections. From this new perspective, our true being can come through, and we can discover the innate happiness within.