The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation by Arinna Weisman

Author:Arinna Weisman [Arinna Weisman, Jean Smith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

The Third Foundation: Mind Factors

Another area of experience is what we call the world of emotions and the Buddha called the fifty-two mental factors or qualities. Skillful factors include faith, mindfulness, fear of wrong, generosity, lovingkindness, equanimity, tranquillity, lightness of body and consciousness, Wise Speech, Wise Action, Wise Livelihood, compassion, appreciative joy, and wisdom. As we will see in chapter 8, cultivating these qualities is a deliberate practice that enables us to let go of envy, avarice, delusion, and hatred. Among the fourteen unskillful energies are three that are almost always present when we experience suffering: delusion, or mental blindness to what brings us suffering and causes unwise attention; fearlessness, or not understanding the consequences of harmful actions, speech, or thoughts; and restlessness, especially compulsive planning. Other factors that bring us suffering include greed, conceit, hatred, envy, avarice, worry, sloth and torpor, and doubt—some of which we have already met in the discussion of challenges to meditation and life (chapter 3).

Because we are on a spiritual path, practicing does not mean that we should not experience unskillful factors when they arise. For example, if we are feeling agitated, we need to recognize the agitation as agitation, to know the experience of agitation, and to relate to it as a friend: “Oh, agitation. I see you again.” The process of being mindful sometimes takes courage and commitment because it is often easier to repress unskillful factors than to feel them. But the purification of our hearts and minds comes about only through opening up to the experience of whatever is arising. It is critical in this process not to get involved in the story line around the mental factors that arise.

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