So in this fifth day of mindfulness of the mind, I want to emphasize that there's many things that we can notice about the mind. It's multifaceted. And we can spend, you know, endless time in labyrinth of the mind, being mindful of other things. But in offering these teachings of mindfulness, I believe I can interpret them that the Buddha's pointing our attention to what is most useful to notice, and, and what is incense onward, leading to freedom to peace. And so these eight categories that he talks about in mindfulness of the mind, are divided into two general categories, two general divisions, one has to do with the mind that's relating to things. And so greedy mind relates to things a mind of generosity relates to something. And this is the mind that is kind of involved with the world. And that's an important part of the mind. And we wonder, find a way to come to a mind which is wholesome and healthy. And at some point, the meditation as it settles, there's a shift. And what becomes more important is not what the mind is relating to, or how the minds relating or the relating mind, but rather, it's the mind that is at ease with peace. So it's not actively involved in relating that part of the mind, that or awareness, that begins to be spacious, settled. And, and, and so to start noticing, is elec to think of it as the mind in and of itself, independent of what the mind knows. So the quality of the quality of awareness. So we might be aware of something. But at some point, we become more interested in the quality of awareness than what we're aware of. It certainly can possibly be disassociated in unhealthy ways if we don't notice what's happening, but to start noticing the, the quality of the mind, and then that is what allows the mind to begin to settle more deeply. So the second to the last of these eight categories, is to know a settled mind as a settled mind. And to know an unsettled mind as an unsettled mind. So here, we're beginning to track how well the mind is settled or not settled. Sometimes the translation here is no a concentrated mind is a concentrated mind. But the word is not try being translated is not Samadi the usual word for concentration, but it's some heat essay m a long a, h iita, which means to be a settle, to compose, to be unified, to be stable. So at some point, we start feeling that this in degrees, that the mind is starting to get settled, starting to get composed a unified, stable, and we start feeling the mind become good doesn't move so much. You know, there's a sound that we get interested in it, the mind moves, kind of to notice what that is, we say the mind wanders away into thought, direct your mind to the breathing and the you know, place your mind in your, you know, in your, in your torso, as you feel the breathing. It's all these expressions involve movement. But at some point, the mind doesn't need to move anymore. It can be aware, and be very still, it becomes like a big open space, where things arise in the space and are known with the mind doesn't have to go anywhere, because it's happening within within the space. And so things are known, but they arise within the mind, in a sense, in awareness. And so awareness doesn't have to go anywhere, or move anywhere or turn anywhere. It's just very, still very spacious, very open.
And that mind becomes some people you know, it's settled, composed, stable, though, it depends how we want to translate these terms. Different people orient a little differently to different ones. And it's possible to know when the mind is not stable and steady. And that's the task is to know that difference. And to know that difference makes a world of difference. And the instructions here are just to know, just to be familiar with it, it doesn't say adjust it, change it to make it better. There's something very powerful begins happening. When we just meet the experience with knowing mind. We're just there to be with it to recognize it. And so to recognize when the mind is not settled, the more settled the mind becomes, the more we'll recognize how the mind is unsettled. And, you know, sometimes we can feel that my mind has really settled. And then some other time in meditation, we realize, Oh, it's possible, given more settled, and then what was settled, is seen as for being more a little bit unsettled, and is often can be kind of step and step where we think we've reached some level of peace. And you know why this piece is really it? And then later, we find Oh, no, that's greater potential for peace as possible. And this is simply becoming familiar with how it is, allow something to deepen, to open, to relax. And the idea of familiarity of just knowing just knowing very, very simply, the kind of the goal is to just be Don't be excited by the mind state, if it's exalted, and big and wonderful, and lots of joy and rapture, or lots of peace NECK WHEN Amity or would it or lots of agitation lots of difficulty in the mind, the idea is to become very Aquinas about our easeful with it, especially when the meditation goes deeper and deeper. And then, and the idea is to become kind of like as, as, as familiar weather as easy with it, as brushing your teeth. He knows it's that ordinary becomes seen as just okay, no, nothing exciting. It's wonderful, but not exciting, the mind doesn't move or get excited by, by itself, and its state. And, and this, this ability to discover not necessarily, it's not necessarily having a particular mind state that's important. What becomes more important is the knowing of whatever the mind state is, the mind states begins to change and settle as it's known. But do don't get enamored with the mind state, we stay appreciating the significance of the knowing. And as we learned that knowing can be more and more equanimous and peaceful than something, let's go. And then it's the last state of mind that in this list, and that's a liberated mind. One knows a liberated mind as a liberated mind. And then when also recognizes what an unliberated my dislike. And so something, let's go. And in the wake of letting go, we know something new about the mind, we know the mind that has let go. And, and the deeper that letting go. You know, they're also a stages of letting go. And we might let go deeply and think, Wow, that was full. And then later, we discovered there's deeper levels of more levels of letting go. And the more we let go, the more well recognize when we haven't let go when the mind is not liberated. And, and that's actually quite important. Because whatever degree of liberation letting go we have of the mind, that becomes a support a guide a to highlight, where there's still practice to be done, where there's where we still cling and get caught. And rather being disappointed. That's really an incurred, useful thing. That's where the path of practice is found. becoming familiar and seeing how we're caught. And we go through the cycle again, until the mind settles and gets something let's go more deeply and more deeply. So mindfulness of the mind.
And sometimes we're aware of the agitated mind as agitated. Sometimes we're aware of this settled, stable mind as a subtle stapled mind. And sometimes we'll know a liberated mind as a liberated mind, and, and will cycle through all these and remembering that it's not the state of the mind that's so important. It's the knowing of it. That's where something really significant happens. So thank you very much.
