Putting the World Aside
September 29, 2015

The Buddha says when you meditate, you should put aside greed and distress with reference to the world.

That means everything in the world. Even the sound of the plane, the sound of the crows: Don’t have any greed or distress around that.

Whatever other responsibilities you may have right now, just put them all aside. It’s important that you be fully right here.

This quality of being fully present, fully aware of what’s going on: In Pali it’s called citta, intent. It’s not just intent on experiencing things. It’s also intent on noticing what you’re doing.

Because that’s the most important thing happening in the present moment is what you’re doing with the raw material coming in from the past. We go out looking for food, and we find these raw ingredients and then we fix them. It’s the going out and looking: That sets things in motion—which is why the quality of the mind you bring to this is so important. This is true for all our activities: The quality of mind that we bring to it makes all the difference.

So in this case it’s full awareness, full attention, full respect for what’s happening right now. After all, this is what’s shaping your experience now and on into the future: the little things you’re doing right now—the way you focus on the breath, the way you choose to focus on one thing rather than another and what you do with it once you’re focused on it.

The quality of mind is what determines this, so you have to be very careful to watch not only the breath but also your mind as it relates to the breath.

This is how breath meditation becomes a training for the mind. It’s not just a mechanical process. You’re looking inside to see what else you’re bringing aside from your attention, aside from your perception. Lots of things are going on: Your motivation right here is going on. You want to look at that carefully: Make sure your motivation is right, and that you really put your heart into what you’re doing.

So it’s full attention and kind of a full-heartedness we’re trying to develop here. It’s in this way that the meditation can give its best results.