THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS Sati Compass

THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS
Sati Compass

The nature of the body is to be born, decay, and die.

Don’t try to get calm or peaceful. Do just one thing. 

Watch the noting mind.

If any questions come up in your mind just watch it and let go. The answer will come to you later.

After you have watched your mind for years, you get to

know it so well, recognize it so clearly; how stupid, tricky, jealous, foolish, covetous, bossy, overpowering, it can be and because you can be aware of it, it cannot carry you away.

We cannot afford to be careless, always try to be very careful and use your sati as your compass.

The mindful mind will always warn you when you are getting into trouble. No control, just simple bare awareness of mind. 

Can you hear the chattering, the monologue or dialogue going on in the mind, the comments, the judgments, and so on?

The mind is always tricky and craves for something, but is that what you really want to do? Run all day slaving for the mind?

Just because many other people are running mindlessly after all kinds of stimulation?

Watch how the mind creates its own problems. Most of our problems are mind-made. 

Most problems will disappear just by the understanding of the mind.

The present phenomenon is the only thing I have whether Iike it or not. So it is more important for me.

Having little distraction we can observe things easily. When you will become quite mindful you will know how to live your life. 

You will know what to do in any situation.

Looking for satisfaction is looking for pain. 

Understanding this deeply we learn to let go.

See how much you hurry yourself when you are upset. 

Be mindful. See anger as anger, not ‘my anger’.

If you are upset because you enjoy music you are too demanding, you are asking and expecting too much of yourself.

But if you see the enjoying mind and watch it with equanimity then only you will see it for what it is.

Being upset which is a kind of aversion, is a close companion to greed and pride because you think: ‘ I am a meditator so there shouldn’t be greed and pride arising in my mind.’

But you should be thinking: ‘Now is a good chance for me to study and examine them!’

A stream-enterer still has greed and anger. But he has no identification with mind and body. Only non-returners and fully enlightened ones are free of greed and anger. Only the arahat is free from comparing oneself with others.

Meditate also when you are restless when you think it’s impossible for you to meditate because your mind is crazy. 

That is the most important time for you to meditate.

The Buddha said: ‘When the mind is restless he or she knows that the mind is restless’.

You are not expected to do more than that. You don’t feel guilty because there is anger or greed, etc. You know anger or greed are happening, you don’t deceive yourself.

That’s all you can do. So just be mindful, don’t beat up yourself.

About consciousness - Awareness - knowing, remember and observe these things always:

The arising and passing away of consciousness.

That every mind that arises is another and new mind.

Consciousness arises because of the object and passes away because of the object.

It is consciousness that sees hears, smells, tastes, touches, and thinks, not ‘I’ or ‘me’ or ‘mine.’ It is consciousness, the mind, that experiences all sense objects.

When you are not mindful you get gaps of ‘knowing.’ 

Understanding comes to those who are not in a hurry to understand. Understanding is like a fruit tree. It takes some time to mature. One cannot force it to bear fruits.

A person who is ‘role free’, ‘game free’, ‘I’ free. Accepting the truth frees the mind.

Understand your limitations, you can only do so much. 

Seeing one's own limitations clearly is very important.

How hard it is for me to see where I am stuck and how to become unstuck. Only when you see clearly where you are stuck, there is a chance that you might become unstuck.

People behave like they are doing something and as if they know what they are doing. Do they really know what they are doing?

You may stop thinking for a while just how important you are! Life is very short. There are things to be done.

Only deep understanding of attachment can free the mind from it.

If you force your mind to let go of attachment without really seeing the nature of it, attachment will come back very soon.

The practice is being with whatever is there, regardless of the speed and quantity of objects. The pace might be fast, medium, or slow, even still, just some or many objects.

Moment-to-moment awareness is the objective.

Sometimes is like every moment needs to be liberated from identifying or grasping, and awareness does that automatically by keeping that space between mind and object.

~ Cittanupassana

Zen Master Kusan Sunim