Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom by Yongey Rinpoche Mingyur & Eric Swanson

Author:Yongey Rinpoche Mingyur & Eric Swanson
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 0307407802
Publisher: Harmony
Published: 2009-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

1 Bruno Bettelheim, Freud and Man's Soul (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.), 1982.

7

ATTENTION

To see the mountain on the other side, you must look at the mountain on this side.

—DÜSUM KHYENPA, quoted in

Mahāmudrā: The Ocean of Definitive Meaning,

translated by Elizabeth M. Callahan

LEFT TO ITS own, the-mind is like a restless bird, always flitting from branch to branch or sweeping down from a tree to the ground and then flitting up into another tree. In this analogy, the branches, the ground, and the other tree represent the demands we receive from our five senses, as well as thoughts and emotions. They all seem very interesting and powerfully attractive. And since there's always something going on in and around us, it's very hard for the poor restless bird to settle. No wonder so many of the people I meet complain of being stressed most of the time! This kind of flitting about while our senses are overloaded and our thoughts and emotions are demanding recognition makes it very hard to stay relaxed and focused.

The first of the basic practices to which I was introduced as a child—which most teachers introduce to beginning students—involves allowing the little bird to settle. In Sanskrit, this practice is known as shamatha (the th is a slightly aspirated variant of t); in Tibetan, it is known as shinay. Shatna and shi may be understood in a variety of ways, including “peace,” “rest,” or “cooling down” from a state of mental, emotional, or sensory excitement. Maybe a modern equivalent would be “chilling out.” The Sanskrit tha, like the Tibetan nay, means to “abide” or “stay.” In other words, shamatha or shinay means abiding in a state that is rested or “chilled out,” which allows the little bird to just sit on one branch for a while.

Most of us, when we look at something, hear something, or watch a thought or emotion, have some sort of judgment about the experience. This judgment can be understood in terms of three basic “branches”: the “I like it” branch, the “I don't like it” branch, or the “I don't know” branch. Each of these branches spreads out into smaller branches: “good” branch; “bad” branch; “pleasant” branch; “unpleasant” branch; “I like it because …” branch; “I don't like it because …” branch; “could be good or bad” branch; “could be nice or not” branch; “could be good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant” branch; and the “neither good nor bad, pleasant nor unpleasant” branch. The possibilities represented by all these branches tempt the little bird to flutter between them, investigating each one.

The practice of shamatha or shinay involves letting go of our judgments and opinions and just looking at, or paying attention to, what we see from whatever branch we're sitting on. Maybe we'll see a screen of branches and leaves. But instead of flitting from branch to branch to get a better view, just look at each branch or leaf, paying attention to its shape or color. Rest there on one branch. Attending

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