Looking Directly at the Mind Beyond Phenomena

Visible achievements — like raising a roof and finishing a building — have a clear meaning in the affairs of daily life. To complete what you have set out to do and move your life in a better direction, you have to make that much effort and confirm the results.

But in practice, it is more important to see phenomena just as they are. The body, thoughts, and the things you accomplish all arise and pass away according to conditions. Even when a good change occurs, there is no need to hold onto it as though it were a permanent, fixed reality. Only when you can see clearly, just as it is, can you let go without attachment.

Practice is not a matter of leaping straight into the depths of the mind all at once. First you choose a single object and observe it, watching whether your mind stays with that object or scatters away. As the observation deepens, you see how conditions come together to give rise to and dissolve phenomena, and you come to notice that there is no fixed, unchanging substance. At that point, you begin to see how discriminating thought and attachment arise in the mind, and you come to watch even the mind that does not grasp at them.

A life that values outward achievement and a practice that is not bound to appearances do not cancel each other out. You raise the roof with care, but you do not hold onto the result as your own permanent worth. When you do what needs to be done with an ordinary mind, without fusing that work and your mind into one lump, the study of seeing your true nature directly within phenomena begins.

Today, notice the joy of things going well, but do not tie your mind to it. Quietly place your attention on a single object, and watch the process by which thoughts and feelings arise and pass away. Tend to achievement as achievement, and keep watch over the mind, clear and undisturbed, as the mind.