Learning from a Quiet Mind

Close your eyes and let go of all your outside concerns. Let your awareness settle with the breath. And stay with the breath all the way in, all the way out. The mind needs time to be by itself so it can get to know itself. All too often, our minds are entangled in things outside, so all we know is things outside. We have a few inklings about our emotions, but where they come from, why they come, we don’t know because we weren’t paying attention.

These things start out with little tiny seeds inside. We don’t notice them because they seem so small. But big things can grow from little seeds. Think of the redwoods up north: tiny, tiny seeds and yet grow into the tallest trees on the earth. The same goes that little seeds of greed, little seeds of anger, little seeds of delusion can sprout in the mind and then grow to overcome the mind.

So you want to see them before they get large. That means you have to get quiet, and you have to have some seclusion. So take advantage of the time that we have here to be secluded, to find some quiet time, to get to know yourself. You may not like everything you see, but it’s not a question of liking or not liking. It’s a question of trying to develop a skill so that whatever comes up, you know what to do with it, and you see it in time.

This is why when the Buddha described the steps for freeing yourself from something. First you have to see its origination. You have to see it passing away. The origination means its cause. You’re not just watching it arise. You’re watching to see what comes along with it, what caused it. Then, when that cause goes away, see how it goes away. That’s how you begin to pinpoint these things. These are the things that can cause trouble in the mind. And you can get very precise.

Then you pass judgment on the value. What’s the allure of these things? What are their drawbacks? You compare the allure to the drawbacks, and you see that the allure not worth it. That’s when you gain the escape. You develop dispassion for those things, and then you get past them. That letting go is a lot deeper than just telling yourself to let go. You let go in the genuine way by seeing why it’s not good to get involved with these things to begin with.

All of this you can see only when the mind gets really quiet. Otherwise, you get caught up in the story lines and pulled along with whatever the issue may be. But here you’re able to step back and watch: This is how they come, this is how they go, and this is why you tend to jump in with them—and you see how you don’t have to.

That’s when you can say you really know yourself in a way that’s really useful. You know yourself not in terms of just watching passively. You know yourself by making a difference inside, taking advantage of what you see, so that you’re no longer causing any suffering for yourself, no longer causing any suffering for others.

Try to find some quiet time where you can do this work. Make the most of the seclusion that you have here. And you see that it really does make a difference. The difference starts inside and then goes outside. That kind of difference is solid, because you know where it comes from, you know where it’s going, and you can rely on your knowledge.