Instructions on How to Look at the Mind
The following meditations provide you with ways to look at the mind. There are many questions asked in insight practices. The purpose of the questions in these insight meditations is to directly experience the mind free of adding anything to the experience in the form of concepts or any ideas about what you are experiencing. They are given to direct your attention to the mind, to look at what you are experiencing. The questions are not meant to have you analyze or think about the answers to the questions. Be curious with the questions offered, not through thinking about them, but by looking to see what they are pointing to. Be open, remaining free of preconceived ideas. Be balanced in examining the mind with calming the mind, balance looking and resting. Remember, you are uprooting the weeds.
Each of the meditations have you look at different aspects of the mind. At first it is best to do these in order; one a day or one a week, whatever feels right for you. Once the questions are familiar, it doesn’t matter what order you do each one. Again, if you need more time “to look” please pause the recording for the recording times are suggestions. There are many aspects of the mind that can be “looked at” and only a few have been presented. Thus, feel free to write what you would like to pursue when you feel inclined.
For these practices, it is best to have your eyes open and soft looking ahead.
Instructions for the Meditation
First it is important to know how to look at the mind. The first exercise will aid you in laying the ground in how to look. Have a calm and open mind, open to anything that may appear.
Meditation
- Be with the spaciousness of the sky.
- Can you find where the sky begins or ends?
- If anything appears in the sky leave it alone the way the sky does.
- If something appears in the sky, does it leave a solid imprint on the sky?
- Do the appearances leave a solid imprint?
- How permanent are these objects that appear in the sky?
- Do the objects do anything to the sky to change it or affect it?
- Rest like the sky open to whatever appears.
After Meditation
The sky represents the mind allowing anything to appear. Anything that appears represents thoughts, sensations, and feelings. In the insight practices you will come to directly know the relationship of the sky and appearances, the mind and its thoughts. Look in this way when prompted in insight meditations. It is not that you do not have thoughts or knowledge of the appearances, but you are free of grasping or fixating on appearances. You are developing the ability to not have to put words to what is being experienced. Words in and of themselves are not a problem. It is knowing that they are only approximations of the experience. When prompted to look in the meditations, do so without any expectations of what you will find or not find.