What Makes Us free? / Wise Speech

The quotes below were excerpted from an article titled "What Makes Us Free" which was published in the January, 2014 issue of Shambhala Sun Magazine. This was an interview with Insight Meditation teachers Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein at northern California's Spirit Rock Meditation Center, moderated by Michelle Latvala [ML]. These excerpts represent about 1% of the interview. the entire interview is available from Shambhala Sun.

A canine Buddhist zealot.

Re: Effective meditation practice:

Joseph Goldstein: 

"The other thing that can really transform the quality of practice in our lives is understanding and practicing wise speech. We speak a lot in our daily lives, but how many of us pay attention to the motivation for our words before we speak? Probably not that many! We're in conversation, whether it's at work or with friends and family, and the words just tumble out. Sometimes they're motivated by wholesome, loving qualities, and sometimes not.

My favorite Pali word is samphappalapa. It means exactly what it sounds like--useless talk. I love the practice of watching my mind about to samphappalapa, because the tendency is so strong to speak for the sake of speaking. That has no value, no purpose. By seeing that "about to", you can then think, "No, I don't have to do that." It's amazing how free we feel in that moment of restraint."

Jack Kornfield:

"When the texts begin, 'Oh nobly born' or 'You are the sons and daughters of the awakened ones,' they help us remember who we are. They point to our capacity for joy, well-being, and freedom. That motivates and strengthens our practice."

ML: "One of the Buddha's most fundamental teachings is that we need to incline the mind toward wholesome states that bring happiness and away from unwholesome states that cause suffering. Could you tell us more about how to practice that?"

Joseph Goldstein:

"So with the two truths as a framework we can think about inclining the mind toward the wholesome. The Buddha gave a very powerful discourse on this in which he described two kinds of thoughts. Put the thoughts rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion on one side, he said, and the thoughts rooted in generosity, love, and wisdom on the other. Then as we see what is arising in our minds, we can decide which thoughts we should let go of and which we should cultivate."

The Buddha said that what we frequently think about and ponder will become the inclination of our mind. When thoughts go through our mind we tend to think of them as isolated--a thought is arising, now it's passing away. What we don't consider is that every time a particular kind of thought arises, it is deepening and strengthening that neural pathway in the brain. The more frequently we think about or ponder certain kinds of thoughts, the more established these pathways become. So we are creating our lives. We are creating our future lives through the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we're having now.

So it's essential that we understand which are wholesome thoughts--those are the pathways worth deepening--and which thoughts and emotions are unskillful. Those are worth letting go of so we're not unconsciously deepening their pathways.

...all thoughts are empty. They're really very unsubstantial. There's not much to them, whatever their content is.

ML: 

One of the Buddha's most fundamental teachings is that we need to incline the mind toward wholesome states that bring happiness and away from unwholesome states that cause suffering. Could you tell us more about how to practice that?

Joseph Goldstein: [Much abbreviated like all responses quoted here].

So with the two truths as a framework, we can think about inclining the mind toward the wholesome. The Buddha gave a very powerful discourse on this in which he described two kinds of thoughts. Put the thoughts rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion on one side, he said, and the thoughts rooted on generosity, love, and wisdom on the other. Then as we see what is arising in our minds, we can decide which thoughts we should let go of and which we should cultivate.

The Buddha said that what we frequently think about and ponder will become the inclination of our mind. ...every time a particular kind of thought arises, it is deepening and strengthening that neural pathway in the brain. The more frequently we think about or ponder certain kinds of thoughts, the more established these pathways become. So we are creating our lives. We are creating our future lives through the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we're having now.

So it is essential that we understand which are wholesome thoughts---those are the pathways worth deepening--and which thoughts and emotions are unskillful. Those are worth letting go of so we're not unconsciously deepening their pathways.

...at the more ultimate level, all thoughts are empty. They're really very unsubstantial. There's not much to them, whatever their content is.

ML:

We all face adversity, conflict, and fear in our lives. How does Buddhism help us deal with them?

Jack Kornfield:

So the first thing is to recognize that life itself entails difficulty and conflict at times, and that's not the problem. The real issue [ PGO "issue"=newspeak California euphemism. = "oldspeak" New York bluntness: "problem"; "Issue" = "Problem".] is how we respond.

Joseph Goldstein:

It is interesting how often we don't take responsibility for the suffering or disturbance in our own minds. We think it's somebody else who is making us feel a certain way.

It's very empowering to realize that it's totally up to us how we relate to the situation [italics are PGO's]. Nobody makes us relate to our own emotions or external situation in a particular way. Conditions may arise that bring up anger or fear, but how we relate to them is totally up to us [italics are PGO's]. 

ML:

All of the Buddhist traditions are available and practiced in America today, which has never really happened before in Buddhist history. Can you talk about the challenges of that, as well as the benefit of incorporating different methods?

Jack Kornfield:

But Buddhism is not some system or idea or set of beliefs. It is an invitation to have a direct experience of the mystery of your own body and mind. We explore what causes our suffering and what makes us free.

...if your practice is helping you become more present with the way things are, instead of imposing some view on it, then you will start to feel freer and your practice will deepen.

ML:

What advice did your teachers in Asia give you about how to present Buddhism in the West?

Jack Kornfield:

When I was coming back to the United States from Asia, Ajahn Chah said to me, "Find whatever language works for people so you can help them understand how to alleviate suffering, how to let go of their fears and confusion. If you want to call it Christianity, do that--use whatever language is helpful to people."

Joseph Goldstein:

My first dharma teacher said: "If you want to understand the mind, sit down and observe it."