Cooling the Fires of the Mind: The Path of the Reflective Mind

Cooling The Fires Of The Mind: The Path Of Reflective Mindfulness.

The Buddha spoke of the heat, a grasping the mind clings onto when getting stuck and not seeing clearly.

We are being presented with a change to our lives that we did not expect. Not only from self-seclusion and self distancing, though from a long unresolved history of social injustice that has flared up. At times we may feel calm, then suddenly moments of grief and anger can take over. I’ve noticed this within myself when I’m not allowing for space to cool the mind. The passionate heat that arises from good intentions can come forward and effect others. Hence, we then have regret to work with also. All this is like a hot fire we wish to move away from.

Our thoughts have this amazing emotional ability of clinging to believe and assume the world is to be what we think. Yet, in reality it’s about our ability to readjust that allows us to move out of our dark shadows of fear and anguish. I’ve found the way to this change has been my mindfulness meditation practice, which offers a cooling to the mind.

The path toward calm and clarity involves kindness and self compassion for ourselves and others.

We are human organisms in the very early stages of our formation and awakening. Can we give space to ourselves and others for not being the perfect saint we wish all of us could be every moment. This is our practice. Taking our good intentions in hand to continually learn, grow and find ways to change old patterns and habits. Without creating this space of goodness in learning how to let go of stuck thinking, how can any of us expect change to even have room to happen?

Words from the Buddha’s Fire Sermon to the monks: Thus, The Buddha, Blessed One spoke to the Bhikkhus. All is burning and what is the all that is burning? The ear is burning, the nose is burning, the tongue is burning , the body is burning. The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion.

May we all practice together with good intentions for ourselves and others.