The Deeper Meaning of Mindfulness

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We can learn to deal with impermanence gracefully, but this occurs only when we recognize the erroneous preconception of permanence and are mindful of the transient nature of people and things.

Trusting That Unsatisfactory Things Bring Happiness

What gives us pleasure also brings us problems: The perfect partner leaves us, our beloved child rebels, the promotion that elevates our status increases the hours we must work. The pleasures of cyclic existence continually let us down, yet we keep coming back for more, thinking that this time lasting happiness will ensue.

Through being mindful of the second distortion, we realize that most of what society has taught us about happiness is simply untrue. We must seek lasting happiness through eliminating the actual causes of misery-afflictive emotions and the actions (karma) motivated by them.

Believing the Unattractive to Be Attractive

The 'body beautiful' is one of our favorite fixations. But if the body is so attractive, why do we go to so much effort to change it? 'Staying young' is a major commercial enterprise in this country. But what if we harmonized ourselves with reality? We are aging. Can we learn to be joyful with wrinkled skin, gray hair, lack of sexual interest, and sagging muscles? Aging doesn't have to be distressing, but our wrong view makes it so.

Grasping at Things That Have No Inherent Self

The most detrimental distorted view sees a self in the body and mind. We think and feel that there is a real 'me' here, and that I am the most important 'me' in the world. We create an image of a person and then obsess about living in accord with this fabrication: We pretend to be who we think we are. Yet even at a superficial level, many of our thoughts about ourselves are incorrect: We are not inherently ugly, beautiful, talented, inadequate, lazy, stupid, inept, or any of the other charming or disparaging qualities we attribute to ourselves.

Not only do we believe that there is a real, enduring 'me' who is (or should be) in control of our bodies, minds, and lives, we also believe that other people and objects have some findable essence. We trust that things exist in the way they appear to exist. Thus we believe that someone who appears to be an enemy is inherently despicable and dangerous. We fight to protect our possessions as 'mine.' Due to the ignorance that imputes a solid and unchanging essence to selfless and changing phenomena, a host of afflictive emotions arises, and we fall under the sway of craving, fear, hostility, anxiety, resentment, arrogance, and laziness.

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