Understand that ‘self’ is a designation for the flow of mind-body processes, not a substantial reality. This insight helps you avoid identifying with phenomena, thereby reducing suffering and leading to liberation.
When experiencing suffering, use it as a wake-up call to investigate what unwholesome mind state is causing it. This direct investigation helps you understand the causes of suffering and unhook from it.
Cultivate a sense of humor about your own mind and its ‘ridiculous’ thoughts and reactivity. Seeing the impersonality of these patterns with humor is an effective way to avoid being caught by them.
Practice mindfulness by recognizing what’s present in the moment without greed, aversion, or delusion. Accepting difficult emotions without wanting them to go away changes your relationship to them and reveals their impermanence.
Continuously monitor the quality of your effort or energy in practice and daily life, like tuning a lute. Adjust if you’re too tense (relax) or too loose (be more mindful) to find balance.
Instead of trying to ’let go,’ practice ’letting it be,’ which acknowledges the truth of impermanence. If you let things be without interference, they will naturally arise and pass away.
To prevent unwholesome states, investigate the circumstances and sense doors (seeing, hearing, etc.) from which they predominantly arise. Understanding their causes allows you to take appropriate action.
Actively practice being mindful of the act of seeing throughout your day. This can prevent unwholesome states like judgment and reactivity that often arise from unmindful visual input.
When unwholesome states arise, strengthen your mindfulness by focusing very precisely and carefully on sensations. Fully occupying your mind with precise mindfulness can dissolve the unwholesome state.
Use wholesome states as antidotes to unwholesome ones; for example, cultivate loving-kindness (metta) for anger, sympathetic joy (mudita) for envy, or renunciation for greed. This shifts the mind into a more wholesome state.
Engage in small acts of renunciation, such as saying ’no’ to minor desires that are not important or necessary. This simple practice strengthens your mind and conserves energy.
Use the word ‘steadiness’ instead of ‘concentration’ to describe the quality of mind you’re cultivating. This avoids the connotation of over-effort and helps foster relaxation.
Have an aspiration to develop qualities like steadiness, as it sets a direction, but then let go of clinging, grasping, or expectation. Trust that consistent practice will lead to the desired outcome.
Don’t worry excessively about whether you’re meditating ‘correctly,’ as this can lead to judgment and self-judgment. Recognize this thought pattern and release it.
Periodically ask yourself, ‘What’s the attitude in my mind?’ to check how you are relating to your experience. This question often helps the mind settle back into true mindfulness.
When caught up in a lot of thoughts, ask yourself, ‘Is this useful?’ or ‘Is this not useful?’ Most thoughts are not useful, and this question helps the mind settle back into a more mindful state.
When thoughts like ‘Am I doing it right?’ arise, label them as ‘practice assessment tapes’ (PATs). Seeing and naming this thought pattern helps the mind release from it.
Cultivate steadiness by having the soft intention to be steady for the duration of each in-breath and out-breath. This gentle intentionality builds one-pointedness.
In the beginning of practice, emphasize using a primary object like the breath to develop fixed object concentration and strengthen steadiness.
In Vipassana practice, combine focus on a primary object with becoming mindful and one-pointed on other predominant changing objects that arise. This intermingling develops stronger samadhi.
Don’t just know the eight steps of the path; actively put them into practice in both formal meditation and daily life. This is the path to liberation.
Undertake a project to investigate and study each step of the Eightfold Path in depth, perhaps dedicating a month to each step. This deep exploration makes the teachings come alive.