Lift Your Mind

There’s a passage in the Canon where the Buddha tells a monk to reflect on the fact he’s living in the forest. There are all kinds of dangers in the forest—aging, illness, and death can come at any time. So he should focus on his practice to find the happiness inside that’s not touched by aging, illness, or death, so that when aging comes, death comes, separation comes, he’ll still be able to live in peace. This is the kind of refuge the Buddha offers.

We look into this world, and it’s one of losing. We gain things, and they get taken away from us. It’s only in the mind that you can find something you gain that doesn’t get taken away. So this is where we focus our efforts: inside.

Even when we do the external practices of generosity and virtue, the emphasis is on the mind, what qualities of mind you’re developing. When you give a gift, you’re developing a sense of inner worth and inner wealth—that you have more than enough to share. Even in difficult times, the Buddha says it’s always wise to give a gift. Maintain the sense that your happiness is not totally dependent on things that can be taken away—that you can find a greater happiness giving them away yourself, lifting the level of your mind.

The same with virtue: You’re tempted to break the precepts but you realize, no, that would be beneath you. You’re lifting the quality of your mind, developing a sense of honor, what the Buddha calls healthy shame. Shame has a bad rap in the West. We usually think of shame as being the opposite of pride. But there’s a shame that’s the opposite of shamelessness, where you don’t care what other people think. That second kind of shame is the shame the Buddha’s talking about is a treasure, as a refuge. You think about the good people of the world, and you’d be ashamed to do things that would look bad in their eyes. That gives you a sense of your own honor.

And, of course, when we meditate, we’re focusing directly on the mind, trying to be mindful—i.e., keep in mind that there are duties we have to do here to train the mind. You’re alert to see what you’re actually doing and you make your best effort to carry through those duties. You realize that anyplace where you’re not up to par, you try to raise your level of practice.

A while back I saw the name of a Dhamma talk: “Lower Your Standards.” I didn’t even want to listen to the talk, because it’s the opposite of what the Buddha would say. The Buddha says as long as you keep raising your standards, you aim higher and higher, you’re not going to hit any higher than you aim. So keep your attitude toward your own mind that you don’t want to give in to anything that’s going to be unskillful. You want to train yourself in what is skillful as best you can. That way you keep lifting the level of your mind.

So with all these practices, you lift your mind to a point where it’s above the dangers of the world. With the world, you have gain, then you have loss. There’s status, loss of status. Praise, criticism. Pleasure, pain. These things spin around. And they don’t spin around innocently. They’re like gears in a machine. If your sleeve or any part of your clothing gets caught in them, you get pulled in. The gears can smash you. So lift your mind above those things. You’ve found a better way of finding happiness through the practice of generosity, virtue, meditation. In that way, you find something here inside that’s really secure: that minds stay still as the world spins around. That wa,y you can stay safe.