The Mind Illuminated by John Yates & Matthew Immergut & Jeremy Graves

Author:John Yates & Matthew Immergut & Jeremy Graves [Yates, John & Immergut, Matthew & Graves, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

COMPLETE PACIFICATION OF THE DISCRIMINATING MIND

Complete pacification of the discriminating mind means that the competing agendas of all the individual thinking/emotional sub-minds get set aside in favor of a single, consciously held intention. In other words, the mind-system as a whole becomes more fully unified around the conscious intention to attend exclusively to the breath. When competing intentions are eliminated, attention naturally becomes more stable.

Complete pacification of the mind means the competing agendas of all the individual thinking/emotional sub-minds get set aside in favor of a single, consciously held intention.

Although this pacification process started in Stage Six, it was only temporary. Pacifying the mind in that Stage meant that when we successfully ignored mental objects long enough, the discriminating mind projected fewer of them into consciousness. But this state was sustained only by the strength of our intention to ignore all distractions. If that intention ever weakened, the unconscious sub-minds of the thinking/emotional mind began to project thoughts into consciousness again. In Stage Seven, you must remain diligent and exert effort to maintain pacification until there’s enough unification for complete pacification to occur. Then you can drop vigilance and effort, and sustain stable attention effortlessly.

To completely pacify the discriminating mind, keep doing what you’ve been doing. You don’t pacify your mind. It happens when you repeatedly achieve exclusive attention and sustain it for as long as possible.

The instructions for completely pacifying the discriminating mind are simple: just keep doing what you’ve been doing. Remember, you don’t pacify your mind.2 It happens by itself when you repeatedly achieve exclusive attention and sustain it for as long as possible. Practice experiencing the whole body with the breath only as needed toward the beginning of this Stage to achieve exclusive attention. Maintain a high level of introspective awareness so that, whenever a potential distraction emerges in the periphery, you can immediately strengthen the focus of your attention on the breath. In doing so, you’re also renewing the intention to ignore potential distractions. Learn to appreciate the simplicity and pleasure of exclusive attention.

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