Teaching of the month - Oct 2025

MIND TRAINING

OM MANI PADME HUM
Spend a full day in mindfulness and try and see how a day is and how the mind behaves. Dharma practice is more than trying to be a holy person, it requires mind training because it is the mind that makes what a person is. Unless one knows what mind is and makes the effort to train it, his Dharma practice has not yet begun.

What makes humanhood so precious is that it offers one the opportunity to realise the nature of the mind and then the effort to control its continual confusion. This is something that animals and other sentient beings cannot do because they do not have the right conditions to turn their thoughts towards mind training. It is easy to want to be mindful, but it is extremely difficult for an untrained mind to be alert and conscious for even a minute.

This being the case, it makes the practice of the day more interesting and challenging. By pursuing it, one realises that the mind is really wild and unmanageable although not untameable. For the beginners, an hour or so of effort should prove quite sufficient; for those who have practised, a half-day attempt should be enough; while for those who have years of training and have attended retreats, a full day spent in maintaining mindfulness can be very enlightening!

The struggle will be great, and by sustaining the practice, one learns patience and perseverance. Each time the mind wanders, patiently guide it back to the practice. Accept failures and do not expect that the mind will be obedient for long. It is through such exercises that one begins to understand how the mind behaves and therefore the decision to subdue it. No matter what the result is, as long as a sincere attempt has been made, this is practice!

And in the course of practice, one will notice that his mind is more alert and conscious. This is a rewarding result, and it can encourage one to practice further. He whose mind is alert and conscious will make much gain in life!

Through sufficient practice, the happenings of the day become very noticeable and therefore more controllable. Thus, one realises that in a day, life is very changeable because the sets of feelings of an hour can change drastically. Therefore, how one feels in the morning, before mid-day, that feeling can be entirely changed. In the same way, while the day is pleasant and rewarding for some, it can be dreadful and painful for others. Yet the world is the same; the day is also the same.

This then leads to the understanding that what makes a day beautiful or ugly has been the workings of the mind. This can easily be proven because two persons of the same family need not enjoy or suffer the day together, each one of them will experience it differently! Actually, both can be the same because the day is the same, but because their minds’ projections are different, they see and feel the day differently!

Tuesday, 12th September 1989 (8th Moon 13th Day)