… Because the mind is like a committee. There are
lots of views, lots of opinions, lots of strategies we’ve used in the
past for finding happiness. When they see that the field is open,
there’s no other activity going on right now, they’ll come to the fore
and pull your thoughts off in different directions. Either that or the
committee members …
… That’s what you’ve got to look into.”
This is where it’s good to think of the mind as a committee. There are
some committee members who like this. It’s only when you ferret out
those members that you can do something about them.
Then, the fourth step is to really look carefully at the drawbacks
of that kind of thinking …
… Don’t think that as soon as you propose the idea to the committee of the mind, “Hey, let’s meditate!” everybody in the committee will chime in and say, “Yes, that sounds great.” We’ve all had opposition in our internal committees. The important thing is to realize that you don’t have to identify with the opposition. It’s normal, it’s …
… all the different
committee members.
This is where it’s good to have some practice with the phrases for
goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, because if you
then suddenly find yourself talking to yourself about somebody else in
an envious or a spiteful way, you’ll notice that it doesn’t really go
together with “May all beings be happy. May all beings …
… If you think of the mind as a
committee, when you make a determination like that, you’re basically
putting out a warning to any members of the committee that might want
to be traitorous that they would be recognized as traitors and shot.
That gives the mind a strong impetus to carrying through.
When the Buddha talked about determination, there were four qualities …
… The mind is like a
committee, as I’ve said many times. We have all kinds of members in
there. The members you’re proud of. The members you’re ashamed of. The
members that are thoughtful. The members that are thoughtless. You
might think of them as all the different desires you’ve had in the
past, and they’ve gotten lodged in …
… You gain a place where you can step back from your thoughts and watch them simply as members of the committee. You don’t have to take up everything the committee proposes. If something unskillful is brought to the floor, you learn to recognize it as unskillful and breathe right through it.
As you strengthen your ability to keep your center spot relaxed and …
… As we mentioned earlier today, the mind is very much like a committee. Some perceptions will attract some members of the committee and other perceptions will attract others. You want to find a perception that gathers in the calm, solid, alert factions of the mind, the factions that really do want to put an end to suffering and are willing to do what’s …
… If you
think of the mind as a committee, mind-states are like the whole
committee agreeing on something. Mental qualities are the different
members, which sometimes are with you and sometimes are against you if
you want to meditate. Again, you look at these things in and of
themselves, as events happening: That’s your frame of reference.
The “in and of themselves …
… to give you that better place to stay, so
that the mind can be protected from all of its other conversations and
companions and committee members that would pull you off in other
directions.
We need this ability to make these distinctions to decide, “Yes, I’ll
go with this,” or “No, I won’t go with that.” Because there are lots
of times …
… Think of the
mind as a committee. Some of the committee members have decided they
want to slip away as soon as your mindfulness lapses. They’re all
ready to go. There’s a lapse, and they’re gone. You want to see that
point where they made up their decision to be ready to go.
Scientists have done psychological experiments where they can …
… You find that if you settle down with the breath, large parts of the
committee of the mind are not really here yet. They’re still carrying
on their conversations about home or work or whatever, assuming that
you will give in after a while and forget about the breath. And you
will – to begin with. But then you remember that you’re not …
… The committee is unanimous.
The difficult actions are the ones you like to do but give bad results and the ones you don’t like to do but give good results. The Buddha had an interesting comment on these two. He said they’re a measure of a person’s wisdom and discernment. He didn’t say they’re a measure of your willpower …
… That’s why we use the image of
the committee. As the different committee members get up to have their
say, you find yourself playing the role of that member.
This is what becoming is all about: You take on an identity. But you
can take on many different identities in very quick succession, so you
have to figure out which identity in the …
… This is where that image of the mind of as a committee is really
useful. We all tend to identify with every voice in the committee. But
if you can step back and listen to the different voices, you realize,
“Okay, that voice that’s speaking there: I can pretty much figure out
who I picked up that idea or that attitude from. I …
… So you have to be very careful about who gets admitted into
the committee inside and who has a voice in the committee.
These are all different factors of discernment that can help you with
the remaining factors—like truth. Truth means you make up your mind to
do something and you really do it. This is one of the qualities of the
great …
… It’s as if you’ve got to
committee in there—or it’s more like the Chicago City Council. Some of
the people will go along for a little while and then do what they can
to subvert your decisions. So you’ve got to watch out for this.
And be watchful. The Pali word for this is appamada, heedfulness,
realizing that there …
… So what are some skillful uses of self? A while back there was a book,
called The Wisdom of the Ego, in which a psychologist talked about
healthy ego functions—the ego being the part of your self-committee in
the mind that negotiates among your desires, and between your sense of
what you should do and what you want to do. And although …
… He’s already scouted out the territory and said, “This is
the best thing you can aim at.”
It’s up to you to decide, in your committee of the mind, whether the
members all on board with going to this goal. Some of them will be,
but a lot of them won’t. They have other agendas. So that’s the next
aspect …
… As we were
saying this morning, it’s as if there’s a committee in there and they
have all kinds of agendas. But if you approach the committee as a
person centered, well-nourished, energized through the meditation,
it’s a lot easier to sort through the issues to see which voices you
want to identify with or at least take up with …
Meditation in Daily Life | With Each & Every Breath
… You gain a place where you can step back from your thoughts and watch them simply as members of the committee. You don’t have to take up everything the committee proposes. If something unskillful is brought to the floor, you learn to recognize it as unskillful and breathe right through it. As you strengthen your ability to keep your center spot relaxed and …
