Developing the Mind

The Pali word for meditation, bhavana, means to develop. So what are you developing as you sit here, as you try to stay with the breath? You’re developing mindfulness, in that you have to keep reminding yourself this is where you want to be. You don’t want to wander off someplace else. The basic habit of the mind is to wander around. It’s what’s called samsara. We think of samsara as being out there someplace, but it’s actually happening in the mind right now as it wanders around.

So try to get it to settle down and then be consistent in staying here. It’s the consistency that’s going to make a difference. The consistency is going to require mindfulness, alertness, and your ardency to really want to stick with this.

So be watchful. And remind yourself this is why you’re here. You’re trying to train the mind in good qualities. These are the bases of everything else you’re going to need in meditation: mindfulness, alertness, ardency.

So. Try to be true to your meditation. You’ve made up your mind you want to be here, you want to practice, so stick with it as much as you can. If you find yourself wandering off, just drop whatever thought that is. Come back to the breath and try to make the breath as comfortable as possible.

This is where you begin to use your discernment. You realize that the mind likes comfort. If it’s not feeling comfortable here, then it’s going to wander someplace else. So give it a sense of well-being and see this as an exploration inside.

What is this breath element in the body? Where do you feel it as you breathe in? It’s not just the air coming in and out of the nose. It’s also the sensations of energy moving around the body. Where do you feel those? And how do those relate to how your body feels in general? Can you use those breath sensations in order to ease any pains? In this way, you get interested in the breath.

That’s the other problem with sticking with the breath: Sometimes it gets boring. But it’s boring only because you’re not paying careful attention. A lot of things are always happening in the present moment. Your mind is making choices all the time. The energies in the body are moving around all the time. You want to learn about them. The more you learn about them, the more you’ll be able to use them for good purposes.

So there’s a lot to explore here. There’s a lot to enjoy. And you develop all kinds of good qualities as you do so. The mindfulness, alertness, and ardency are the basics, but you’re also developing goodwill for yourself, goodwill for others in the sense that you’re training your mind so that it doesn’t create unnecessary suffering. You’re developing the quality of truthfulness: You make up your mind you’re going to do something good and you stick with it. Stay true to that intention, and all these other good qualities will develop in its train.