Establish strong mindfulness that can act as a frame for shifting states of mind. Go easy on the mental content letting it all pass through. Aware of a basic luminosity, or vibrancy, assess what is needed to encourage citta – goodwill, patience, dispassion.
How to manage inconvenient feelings of attraction; reacting impulsively towards sexual desire and hatred; working with boredom and drowsiness; how does one turn towards the deathless; is nibbana “a ground of being”; what does the use of “internal and external” mean?
Citta has its own basic clarity and sanity. Practice to establish citta on its own ground, where there is no suffering. This is the upright citta, the foundation for all the virtues leading to awakening.
The untrained citta runs out and becomes fixated by its own constructions, the primary construction being the sense of self. Citta can be trained to contain itself in awareness of body, distancing it from the abstractions of the mind. This is a very peaceful place to be.
Realize that it’s possible to divert one’s normal preoccupations and thought patterns, and come instead into the sense of penetrating to the roots of it all. Collecting energy into this state of being conscious, being aware, lets citta flow freely, unconstricted by our habitual grasping of form.
We don’t so much experience phenomena, but the citta affected by phenomena. The sense of “I am” keeps us fascinated and hypnotized by the resulting feelings and reactions. The process of purification is to clear citta of defilements and hinderances. Cultivation of samadhi and suffusion of wholesome qualities are means for purification and healing.
In meditation we try to establish a clear center from which to look at the various inputs and outputs happening in the mind. This process of centering is done through direct experience of body. The wholeness of body gives rise to a simple, centering effect.
Meditation is a relational experience. There’s the knowing that you’re being affected and how you respond to that. Relate to what arises with dispassion, calm, sensitivity and openness. In this relationship we learn all the skills of wisdom, compassion, clarity and non-clinging. This is nibānna here and now.
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.
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.
