… But the theme of the committee of the mind
turned into the topic of the retreat and a lot of the instructions
outside of the retreat.
Toward the end of the stay, there was one woman who was commenting on
how her committee seemed to have three types of members: There was the
committee member that was creating a situation, another committee
member that …
… When they were planning to build the
ordination hall at Wat Bhuridhat, a committee was set up to be in
charge of getting the Buddha image made. They dragged their feet, and
as it turned out, the chairman of the committee was dragging his feet
on purpose, hoping that Ajaan Suwat would get frustrated with the
whole project, leave, and then this person was …
… Who’s doing the looking, who’s doing the
listening? Is it your discernment that’s doing it or is it your greed,
aversion, or delusion?
If you think about the mind being like a committee, you have to
realize that some of the committee members are kind of crazy. So you
don’t let them out. When I was a child, we had …
… This is one of the areas where it’s useful to think about the mind as
a committee. Tell yourself that you’ve got one crazy committee member
who’s just going around and around and around, going nowhere. The
thoughts have no clear conclusion, Jwhich is why they don’t stop.
You’ve got to marshal your other committee members to pull you …
… As you’re trying to gain skill in these practices, you come face-to-face with the committee inside. For example, when you want to be generous, some of the members of the committee like the idea of making bread to give to your friends, and some don’t. Similarly with the precepts: Some of the committee members like the idea of letting the …
… And to change the committee discussion, keeping in mind the point that
there is suffering, there is something wrong, and it’s caused by our
actions. That realization allows the new members of the committee to
come in. That gives them a lot of strength right there.
Because it keeps turning our attention back: What is it about the mind
that keeps wanting to …
Contents
Titlepage
Contents
Cover
Copyright
Introduction
The Noble Search for Happiness
Why Train the Mind
Counter-cultural Values
The Intelligent Heart
Home Schooling Your Inner Children
The Open Committee
Organizing Your Inner Committee
Unskillful Voices
The Kamma of Self & Not-self
The Need for Stillness
Everybody Suffers
Why the Breath
Why Mindfulness
Concentration Nurtured with Virtue
Concentration & Insight
Part I : Basic Instructions
In Shape …
… Those are the Buddha’s rules of order to keep this committee in line,
so that the crazy people in the mind, the vagrant intentions, don’t
take over the meeting, don’t fill up your time, don’t waste this
luxury we have: all this time to watch the mind, to train the mind, to
get the various committee members working together on …
… We talk about the committee of the mind, and there is one member of
the committee that tends to get overlooked: the part that just knows
and can bear it. Whatever comes up, it knows and bears. It can endure.
And usually it’s not offered much prominence at the table when the
committee members are having their dinner conversation. But it’s a …
… Some members of the committee are open and honest about the assumptions underlying their central desires. Others are more obscure and devious. This is because each committee member is like a politician, with its own supporters and strategies for satisfying their desires. Some committee members are idealistic and honorable. Others are not. So the mind’s committee is less like a communion of saints …
… So these are some of the ways in which you can get some control over
your inner committee. You lay down the law, then you give yourself
good reasons to stick with it, and then you reward yourself for
sticking with it.
That way you train your committee so that the unskillful members get
starved and the skillful members get strong.
That’s how …
… That can be one of the committee members. And then the other
committee members can be working on your concentration, working on
your right speech, right actions, right views. But that observer that
you’ve developed by following the Buddha’s instructions to Rahula—you
watch your intentions, you watch your actions, you watch the results:
That’s a committee member you want to …
… This is where the concept of the committee of the mind is very useful. All too often we see the committee of the mind as a problem, in that the mind has so many desires, so many different wants, and there so much conflict inside. All those different voices can often get in the way of getting the mind to settle down and be …
The mind is like a committee: lots of different opinions, lots of
different agendas, lots of different roles in the committee meeting.
One of the important roles is the commentator, who comments on the
actions of the other committee members, like the commentator at a
sports event, the difference being that the commentator at this event
is someone that everybody inside the mind gets …
… One of the themes that ran through the entire visit over there was the
issue of the committee of the mind. One of the women, toward the end,
commented that she began to see that there were basically three roles
that members of her committee took on. One would be the performer, the
second would be the stage setter, creating the situation in which …
… This helps get you in touch with all the machinations taking place in the committee of voices running your mind. If you see any unskillful motives lurking behind the committee’s decisions, you veto them. As a result, you become more aware of yourself, more honest with yourself, more firm with yourself. You also save yourself from saying things that you’ll later regret …
… This is where having
that notion of a committee inside is really useful. You have to learn
which members of the committee are more reliable than the others. Get
them so that they’re observing one another. Get them to spy on one
another: Think of it that way. But it’s spying not just so that they
can go reporting misbehavior, but also …
… Like
people who sit quietly over in the corner, while other members of the
committee are yelling at each other: The people in the corner don’t
have to get involved. They can watch and see what’s happening and
begin to understand the agendas, the tactics that are used by the
different members of the committee. You understand them; you can see
through …
… It’s useful while you’re
meditating to think of the mind as a committee. There’s not just one
person there. There are lots of different people, and you want to
bring them all together to work on the breath. At the same time, keep
in mind when you wander off that you’re not going to be surprised.
Otherwise, you might tell …
… You may want to rearrange
the committee or change your allegiances, but seeing the mind as a
committee makes it a lot easier to do that. If you had an inherent
nature, there’d be nothing you could do to change it. But with lots of
different members in the committee, you can change the balance of
power in the committee, train the skillful …
Self, Not-self, & Beyond | Selves & Not-self
… As you’re trying to gain skill in these practices, you come face-to-face with the committee inside. For example, when you want to be generous, some of the members of the committee like the idea of making bread to give to your friends, and some don’t. Similarly with the precepts: Some of the committee members like the idea of letting the …
