Stand Still & Watch

When we meditate, we focus on the breath to give the mind a place to settle down, because the mind’s been running around for a long, long time. And because it runs around, it doesn’t see anything very clearly. It’s like running past a tree. If you run past a tree and someone asks you what kind of tree it was, you might be able to answer. If you’re asked how the leaves were, what kind of birds and animals were living in the tree, you probably wouldn’t know. Everything was a blur. If you want to see the tree, you have to stand still and watch. Sometimes you have to watch for a long time because the animals may be hiding in the tree someplace.

It’s the same with the mind. If you want to understand your mind, you have to get it very still and then watch it to see what animals crawl out. Maybe greed crawls out. Maybe anger crawls out. Delusion crawls out. You want to know these things, because if you don’t know them, they run your life. They’re there in the background telling you what to think, and you think that you’re telling yourself what to think. But you’ve identified with the greed. Once you identify with it, it has power over you. You identify with the anger. You identify with the delusion. If you want to escape their power, you have to realize that they’re separate.

We hear so much about the wisdom of oneness, how everything is interconnected. And there are interconnections among things, but the things are originally separate. We want to see them as separate so that we can get out from under their power.

So get the mind really still. And then watch. Have questions in the mind: “Who’s coming in? Who’s going out? Where are these things coming from? And why do I identify with them?” When you get some answers, then the mind can work itself free. That’s what the meditation is all about. It’s what the whole practice is all about.

We practice generosity to free ourselves from stinginess. We practice the precepts to free ourselves from carelessness and thoughtlessness. We practice meditation to free ourselves from greed, aversion, and delusion. When the mind is free, that’s when it can find its ease. It’s not causing itself any trouble. It’s not causing trouble for anyone else. So when you make merit, make sure you make total merit, complete merit: generosity, and virtue, and meditation. It’s only then that your happiness will be complete.