From the Morning's Equipment Training to the Afternoon's Inner Practice

This morning we finished learning how to use the equipment for practice. Everything we learn has to be tested internally, because outer knowledge exists in service of liberation — meaning we need just enough knowledge to use it for stopping and stilling within, so we can step into inner liberation.

For outer matters, we need strength and effort to train, to push through obstacles, problems, and pressures. But inner matters are about fixing the root cause of what happens outside, which is only the result. The cause lies within — stilling ourselves within is fixing that root cause.

The Discomfort of Sitting Is Always a Limit We Can Pass

When we sit, at most we'll feel we can't continue, or feel uncomfortable, or feel we don't want to keep sitting. That's all we'll feel. But if we can endure and get through it, every time we bring ourselves into the practice room we are automatically purified of defilements by the receiving system of Nibbāna. Any activity that adds wholesome qualities or merit-power belongs to the wholesome side — simply bringing ourselves into the room and keeping the mind empty gets refined by the wholesome system automatically.

The Hardest Part Is Bringing Yourself to Sit

He says the hardest part of sitting is bringing yourself to sit. Once you've brought yourself to sit, it isn't hard. But if you're still walking around outside or still talking with people, that's the hard part — getting to sit. Once you bring yourself here and sit a while with eyes closed, you're already sitting. Coming to practice is the same: just bring yourself into the room, make yourself ready, keep the mind ready for practice, and it purifies itself automatically.

Once the mood is ready — from listening to the teaching or simply being in the room — readiness arises because our wholesome system begins to steady itself. Once it steadies, it will draw us to want to close our eyes, to want a calm mind — which shows the wholesome qualities have already steadied. At that point we simply close our eyes, cooperating with what's already arising: want to close the eyes, close them; want stillness, be still; want equanimity, be equanimous; want to sit, sit.

But when the unwholesome side invites us to open our eyes, or some errand pulls us away and stops the purification, we simply stay still and don't get up. Whatever restlessness, thoughts, or urges to go do this or that arise, we just keep sitting. The inner struggle at most only makes us uncomfortable or makes us want to go somewhere else. But the moment we step out into the world of results, we meet problems, obstacles, and the pressures of living.

The First Stage: Endure Through the Thick of Old Defilements

If we're willing to bear a little discomfort, to fight the restlessness that defilement invites us to escape through — not wanting to sit through the full round, feeling agitated or scattered while sitting — that's simply the first stage. When we're new, there's naturally a lot of disturbance from old currents of defilement and leftover outer matters pulling the mind away. In this first stage we need to be patient, clearing things out until the mind starts to purify and settle. Then the restlessness lessens, and the reluctance or discomfort of sitting starts to fade. We fight from within, and let the wholesome system clear things simultaneously.

Today's sitting round runs from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. We try to clear everything through to the end of the round — simply being here, inside, clears and purifies us automatically.

Present-in-the-Present: Attending Only to What's Right Here

Today he asks us to look at the inner cause. While our eyes are closed, notice what's happening right in front of us, in every present moment — just this moment. "Present in the present" means right now. If we drift into thought, there's the "present of the past" — things that have already passed. If we drift into thinking about the future, that's the "present of the future" — still present, but concerned with what's to come. We won't take the past or the future; we'll take only awareness of what's right here, now — placing the mind and fixing a point where it rests.

Mindfulness, or what makes wholesome qualities arise — the arising of wholesome, meritorious energy — requires placing the mind so body and mind join as one; only then is there power. If body is in one place and mind in another — body here but mind gone home, or gone to work — they're separated, and once separated there's no power, no point of connection. Our principle is to bring body and mind together into a single point.

Joining Body and Mind at One Point, and Choosing Where to Rest the Mind

Once body and mind join at a single point, we gain the power of awareness, and the current of merit arises continuously. That's all we're training: bring body and mind together, stay in every present moment, and see clearly what's pulling the mind away — recognize it in time, catch the feeling in time, notice what's drawing the mind out. Once we recognize that something is pulling us out, the mind can return within. But if we don't notice and just let it go, we drift further and further. That's why we're told to watch — to guard our own mind, to keep watching and recognizing the mind in every present moment, noticing what's acting on our mood and feelings right now.

Try practicing: practice recognizing, practice fixing, practice placing the mind. The point where you place the mind must be clear — wherever you decide, that's where you keep it. At first, find the point that feels most comfortable. If resting it at the center of the belly works, rest it there. If not, look for another point — perhaps the nose, the head, the palm of the hand, the belly, or various other bases like the rim of the nostrils or the inner corner of the eye. Wherever you place the mind, join body and mind there. In this early stage, keep it at just that one point, and stay still, gradually. Try it, and gently sustain the mind moment by moment — don't let the mind drift loosely, don't sit and just let time pass; watch, minute by minute, second by second, where the mind is.

Watching and Recognizing the Mind: Happiness and Purity as the Reward

Keep watching, keep recognizing the mind at that point, continuously. As each second passes, each minute passes, and we can sustain it, the reward that follows is greater happiness and purity, and we can stay continuously with this sitting — with an awareness that carries happiness and purity as its reward, in every single second.