To relax the activity of the mind, awareness – citta – needs something else to stand on. We set up internal and external foundations that generate the sense of steadiness and stability. This enables us to get perspective and step back from the stream of energies and mind-states that we call ‘myself.’

In our practice we’re looking not so much at what we want but what we want to release ourselves from – clinging. We challenge the compulsiveness of our reactions, to fight or to grab, with a commitment to lightness. We apply ourselves with deliberate, steady, lightness of touch so things can move and release.

When full ground is not properly established, thinking creates the thinker. With proper ground, it’s possible to hover over the thought process and listen deeply to the underlying emotional stream. Establish ground using a simple meditation object that the mind can easily access and stabilize on.

Refreshing and regenerating energy is a necessary part of our practice to counter tense, constricted and disconnected states. Mindfulness of breathing is a means for toning up. We can go to the energetic bases of these tendencies and clear them.

Citta doesn’t start out liberated. It has to come through ignorance, craving and grasping. We can learn from this, what is the wrong path and what is the right path. The right path gets obscured by feeling and perception. Steady the energies and stay out of the activities of mind – the right path is there, it’s an open road.

Our habitual tendencies and conditioning weave a web of saṃsāra that we keep running around on. But we can generate new formulations and programs to steady and calm the mind, get it fit for the work of liberation. Mindfulness of body and breathing, and brahmavihāra cultivation are recommended practices.