Actively dig into the roots of your biases and dismantle them to pop bubbles of delusion, which can be a relief, eye-opening, and change how you relate to yourself and others.
When experiencing suffering, struggle, or stress, investigate to find the underlying view or belief that is operating but not yet clearly seen.
Instead of trying to disbelieve your beliefs, simply acknowledge that ’this is what’s being believed,’ as this act of seeing a belief as a belief helps burst the bubble of delusion.
When you recognize a view shaping your experience, understand that it is conditioned and a natural process, which helps foster compassion for yourself rather than shame.
When reactivity or dissonance is overwhelming, take a break and redirect your attention to something else (e.g., walking), rather than repressing it or forcing yourself to bear the stress.
Engage in explicit loving kindness or compassion practice, as it can be a doorway to cultivating warmth and ease, helping to balance the mind when confronting difficult internal experiences.
Understand that loving kindness (metta) practice acts like a magnet, pulling out its opposite, which helps reveal and make visible hidden views and biases.
When observing the ‘uglier parts’ of your psyche, aim to flood your mind with warmth and tenderness, rather than a clinical or robotic non-reactivity, as true equanimity includes compassion.
To cultivate compassion, especially when coming from a mindfulness practice, explicitly look at the connection between yourself and another person.
Become clearly aware of your hidden views and biases, as this awareness creates an opportunity for choice in how you act, rather than blindly acting out of them.
Understand that your views and beliefs are shaped by personal and cultural conditioning, which helps you see them as perspectives rather than absolute truths.
Acknowledge that while it’s not your fault you’ve absorbed certain views, it is your responsibility to recognize them as conditioned ‘flavors’ rather than universal truths.
When your views are challenged by different perspectives, get curious about the ‘different flavor’ rather than retrenching or assigning blame, as this can reveal new insights.
When experiencing suffering or unease, ask yourself, ‘What’s being believed right now?’ to uncover the underlying views or beliefs that are generating the emotions.
Do not try to disbelieve a view, as this can drive it underground; instead, simply see and acknowledge it as a view so it can be fully observed.
Explore how strongly you believe a particular view, as this can reveal whether it’s a deeply held conviction or more of a habit.
Choose the meditation practice that feels most natural and easiest for you to cultivate presence and ease of heart and mind, rather than forcing a practice that creates tension.
When engaging in loving kindness or compassion practice, after offering a wish, settle back and observe how the wish lands in your mind and what it bumps up against, recognizing that dissonance is a natural part of the process.
Embrace the philosophy of ‘whatever works’ in your practice, recognizing that different approaches suit different individuals and different stages of life.
Instead of always focusing on the deep philosophical concept of ’not-self,’ explore the more accessible ‘middle layer’ of how your personal sense of self was shaped by conditioning.
Recognize that suffering can be a powerful motivator to engage in practice, prompting the question of whether it’s possible for human beings to not suffer.
When experiencing difficult mind states like anger, pay attention to them and ‘be with’ them, even if you don’t understand how it will help, as practice can quickly reveal its usefulness.
Turn with mindfulness to the direct experience of an emotion, like anger, to see its true impact on yourself and others, which can pop delusions about its effectiveness.
Trust that consistent observation of difficult emotions, like anger, contributes to the mind’s natural ability to let go, revealing a different path to happiness.
Even if reactivity doesn’t immediately disappear, observe it to create space around the experience, fostering a deeper sense of well-being.
When struggling to continue practice, reflect on your past experience and how much you’ve changed, using that knowledge to motivate and sustain you through difficult times.
When you encounter suffering and feel a curiosity about finding a way out, actively seek out teachings that can point you towards a path of practice.
Begin your practice with a degree of faith that it will be useful, knowing that once you start, you will quickly taste its benefits, which will then sustain your commitment.