Dear Common Ground Friends,
Sayadaw U Tejaniya asked a group of Dharma teachers once, “Are the Buddha’s teachings optimistic or pessimistic?” After waiting a bit while many of us squirmed trying to figure out how to respond, he answered the question himself saying, “The Buddha’s teachings are neither optimistic nor pessimistic; they are realistic!” Sayadaw U Tejaniya encourages his students to develop enough stability of wisdom and awareness in order to recognize the quality of one’s attitude, moment by moment. Can we sense the attitude of our knowing mind now? Judging ourselves is not helpful, instead we aspire to simply and clearly recognize the attitude of mind as it is, a natural, unfolding process. When the mind is free of judgment, wisdom can discern the skillfulness or unskillfulness of the attitude, leading to a deeper understanding of how stress and release get set in motion in and around us. Of course our mind has been deeply conditioned to interpret the attitudes of our mind in a personal way. So we must practice to recognize what is usually unacknowledged due to appearing to be so personal. With practice the attitude can be seen as an impersonal arising of mental and emotional content–just another thing being sensed with wisdom and awareness. A highly revered Thai monk once said, “Not being enslaved by the meaning of good and evil is the heart of Buddhism.”
Learning to see clearly the attitude of mind requires a tolerance for not needing to appear perfect or sensible even to ourselves. Instead of trying to look good, we aspire to comprehend the moral quality of the mental habits that shape our subjective experience. Our job as a practitioner is to see what there is to see, without judgment, and notice that this clear seeing naturally weakens the unskillful roots of greed, hatred and delusion from our hearts. Here is an article that you might find useful in learning to discern the attitude of mind: Meeting Our Life with Wise Attention and Wise Attitude by Carol Wilson.
Wishes for ease all around,
Mark Nunberg
Co-Guiding Teacher
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