Sokuzan:
So mindfulness practice, or Samatha-vipassana, is the Sanskrit.
The Tibetan is shiné and laktong: calm abiding, or resting in tranquillity.
Mindfulness practice is having some kind of object of meditation.
It can be scanning the body; looking at an object;
it can be an imaginary object;
it could be an actual object in front of you,
or it could be watching the breath come and go.
It's a very strong structure that immediately triggers the self-consciousness that is looking for results, and success and failure.
So the ego-mind is brought to the fore.
“I'm not able to do that,” or “I'm doing it really good.”
“I can just follow my breath no matter what:”
Getting a really strong “me-me-me” credential there. Going the other direction is failing at it, and not having such a good, easy time of it.
It's all valuable.
It’s all awareness.
Look closely at what's coming and going in the mind-stream.
Making assumptions or having beliefs and opinions about things…
all they do is just cover you up:
cover up your instinct to see what is true;
cover up your “wisdom-mind.”
There is no right and wrong here.
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