we are dealing with mind through meditation.  In order to do our meditation successfully, we first of all, need to know how our mind works. Then it is possible to understand how we can change it and why to change it in certain ways. We need to understand the following:

  1. How our mind works
  2. How our mind works to make us having negative feeling
  3. How our mind works to make us having positive feeling
  4. How our mind works to make us have neither negative nor positive feeling
  5. What we can do to make us avoid negative feeling

1. How our Mind Works

  • Once we interact with outside or with our own mind internally,
  • We will identify our experience,
  • Then we compare this experience with our past experiences in our memory
  • We will make judgement as good, bad or neither both,
  • We will  feel accordingly by referring our past experience.

2. How our Mind Works to Have Negative Feeling

  • Once we interact with outside or with our own mind internally,
  • We will identify our experience,
  • Then we compare this experience with our past experiences in our memory
  • We will make judgement as bad
  • We will feel bad, or negatively by referring our past experience

3. How Our Mind Works to Have Positive Feeling

  • Once we interact with outside or with our own mind internally,
  • We will identify our experience,
  • Then we compare this experience with our past experiences in our memory
  • We will make judgement as good
  • We will feel good, or positively by referring our past experience

 

4. How Our Mind Works to Have Neutral Feeling

  • Once we interact with outside or with our own mind internally,
  • We will identify our experience,
  • Then we compare this experience with our past experiences in our memory
  • We will make judgement as neutral
  • We will feel neutral by referring our past experience
  •  

5. What We Can Do to Avoid Negative Feeling

  • Once we interact with outside or with our own mind internally,
  • We will identify our experience-----we can eliminate 3-5  by not identifying
  • Then we compare this experience with our past experiences in our memory----we can eliminate 4-5 by not comparing with past experience
  • We will make judgement as good------we can eliminate 5 by not making judgement
  • We will feel negative----too late, you are experiencing the result. But you can stop the intensity if you will not repeat from above 2-4.

Now the problem is: could we stop our mind habits which will lead to suffering? For ordinary people like us, it is impossible not to think as the way we think now. Why? Because we are used to think this way from very beginning of our this life  or the previou life period if  believe in past life experience.

Buddha said: All phenomena are empty; they are without inherent existence.

We will not suffer permanently if  we can realize emptiness of all phenomena. We will be  immune from suffering.

Unfortunately, We can not see emptiness. Then, do we have another option for solution ? Yes, we do. We can still temporary avoid suffering.

Suppose we have the ability to control our mind at the right time from 2 to 4.  My question now is: could you see your mind functions clearly, from step 1 to step 5? For most of us, the answer is no. The reason is very simple. That is our mind is too busy. We have many different thoughts all the time.

Therefore, in order to control our mind, we need do two things:

  1. We need to gain the ability to see our mind clearly from 1 to 5 above
  2. Then we  need to attain the ability to control our mind .

How? Meditation can help us fulfill the goals. Please see the next article for this topic.