The Magic of Awareness
Thoughts are so powerful that they can make us happy or miserable. When we take a look into them we find they are storylines about what is happening right now in our life as well as the past and future. They don't have to be in alignment with reality as along as we believe them they have power over us and dictate to us what to believe.
Sojong Reminder from Anam Thubten 02/2017
Dear Dharma Friends,
Thoughts are powerful forces that drive our life. They're conceptual patterns that give us a sense of self and personal life that has a continuum of many events through a whole stream of recollections. Thoughts are so powerful that they can make us happy or miserable. When we take a look into them we find they are storylines about what is happening right now in our life as well as the past and future. They don't have to be in alignment with reality as along as we believe them they have power over us and dictate to us what to believe.
Perhaps, many people in the world believe their own mind which goes unchecked from the time they arise to the moment when they fall asleep. This is some kind of mental and neurological habit that belongs to unawareness. Through believing our thoughts, like a storm, strong emotions can arise and their energy can dominate us. As a result, we can lose not just wisdom but even basic common sense, which is usually not regarded as profound, but necessary to function in everyday life. The very root of problems at a personal as well as societal level may be this unawareness.
Even the most beautiful spiritual practices may not transform us as long as we're living in such a state of mind. As Shantideva pointed out in such a direct fashion, sometimes we could be doing Buddhist practices with zeal or some emotionally charged devotion, yet our whole practice can become comforting compulsions if awareness is absent.
Awareness has many flavors and forms such as the mindfulness in Theravada and the Rigpa in Dzogchen. The magic of awareness is that we hold our thoughts while feeling that we're much bigger than our mental events. Then, we can see the ephemeral and insubstantial nature of our thoughts. This sense of us being bigger than our thoughts arises naturally as we do sitting meditation. That might be what Buddha called sky like mind.
Let me invite you all to reflect on this subject during this upcoming Sojong. We might like to check-in with ourselves and find out how much awareness we practice in daily life. We can take this occasion as another important time to renew our commitment to the path and to the practice of awareness.
With palms joined, Anam Thubten