Gladdening the Mind
January 29, 2024

An important skill in meditating is learning how to gladden the mind. When the Buddha talks about stages in the practice, before you get to concentration there always has to be some element of gladness, or joy.

It can be based on the fact that you have faith in what you’re doing. Or you think about the fact that you’ve been observing the precepts, and that makes you harmless, without blame. Or just simply the fact that you’ve got the time and opportunity to meditate. There are so many people in the world who don’t have that opportunity right now. And you yourself haven’t always had it, but now you do. How much longer you’re going to have that opportunity, you don’t know. So make the most of it while you’ve got it.

You’re here doing something really good—looking after your mind, cleaning up the mind. And you’re not the only one who benefits. The people around you benefit as well. So it’s an all-around good activity. So it is worthy of gladness, even if the mind doesn’t seem to want to settle down quite yet. The fact that you have the opportunity to work on it is a good thing. It’s a sign that you do have some goodness to you. So there is a potential in there. Look for it. You’ll find it.

Think of Ajaan Fuang up in the mountains in Chiang Mai. It was during World War II; he was separated from his teacher and missed his teacher a lot. But he was able to get the mind into concentration. As he said, he’d go for alms in the morning and there wouldn’t be very much to eat, but it was enough to keep him going. Then he could sit down, look out across the hills, the mountains, and they were like islands in a sea of fog.

So the food was poor. The shelter was pretty meager. It was cold. But he was able to find some joy in the fact that he was there. Free.

He thought of that passage in the Canon where they talk about the monk going with just his alms bowl and his robes as his only burden—in the same way that when a bird flies, it has its wings as its only burden.

Okay, your mind is unburdened right now. Appreciate that fact, and then use that energy to get the mind even more and more still, more and more clear inside.