Chapter 5—Turning problems into mindfulness tool
Almost everybody has complex problems that cannot be solved. Here we will not emphasize on the external problems which are the original sources of mental suffering. Instead, we will talk about ‘mental behavior’ which is an internal problem. If we can solve the internal problem, no matter how serious the external problem is, it would not cause much mental suffering. Or even if it is causing a great deal of mental suffering, you will not lose your mind committing seriously bad acts like those who could not see their way out.
There are 5 types of mental behaviors which can be called ‘mental illness’ as they can cause a great deal of suffering, as well as harm to one’s health, physically and mentally. They can be arranged in the order of their harmful effects, or even critical danger to the present world, as follows.
1) Sexually perverted illness—being obsessed with sex, without any restraint, and may potentially commit sexual crime.
2) Revengeful illness—being rancorous to the point of unconsciously committing shocking homicide.
3) Easily discouraged illness—feeling depressed and torpid to the point of not wanting to live any longer.
4) Anxiety neurosis illness—being stressed out to the point of being insane.
5) Indecisive illness—being uncertain, and sloppy, up to being unable to succeed in any task.
If anybody has one of these illnesses as a nature, one can realize by oneself, even though it has not resulted in the most serious consequence of each type yet, that at least it may have already caused grief and suffering to some extent, on a daily basis or even on a moment-to-moment basis.
The bad habit or mental behavior, that occurs regularly, can never be differentiated into whether it is harming us in the worldly aspect or spiritual aspect. As long as the mental behavior still remains negative, then the worldly life will go downhill relentlessly, and the spiritual life will not progress any further as well.
If you try to be aware of your breath regularly as stated in the previous chapters until it becomes automatic to a certain level, you will be amazed that all sorts of mental illnesses have subsided without any need for medication, consulting a doctor, or waiting for the external problem to resolve.
However, for an urban population there is an illness that is very difficult to cure. It is anxiety and stress. One could not successfully get rid of the storm of distracting thoughts popping up in one’s head, because one needs to work, plus available jobs nowadays are full of all sorts of obstacles. If the way of thinking while you are working is incorrect, you will never be able to stop distracting thoughts with any kind of tricks. It is because most of the time of your life is being spent in generating more distracting thoughts.
As already mentioned earlier in this chapter that we are going to observe the bad habits of the mind, as being a problem, now let us talk about using Vipassana to cure stress or anxiety neurosis. The following technique in theory may seem to be too simple to believe that it would work. Yet in practice it may seem to be too difficult to do. So please keep your mind neutral and try to experiment with it many, many times. You will find out by yourself that you do not need to study complex medical knowledge like a psychiatrist, yet you can resolve stress and anxiety by yourself.
First of all, you need to seriously explore yourself whether the way you think leads to stress. In another word, are you ‘stressful from thinking’, or not? Try to answer the following questions.
1) Feeling uneasy while thinking, as if the more you think the more pressure you feel.
2) After finish thinking about an issue, yet you still feel like it is unfinished.
3) When you try to relax, yet you are still endlessly being obsessed with the thought.
4) Even a trivial matter can make you frowningly think or at least make you feel tense.
5) Being impatient or always over-investing yourself in thinking above and beyond any reason.
After exploring yourself, the more this list is applicable to you, it means the more stress you have. It does not matter how much it matches you, as the main thing is you have realized that you are still a stressful person whenever you think, or in other words, the way you think is truly based upon a stressful nature.
Vipassana principle to solve the stressful thinking habit
1) First of all, you have to throw away your previous beliefs which you used to think that stress originates from the external encounter, such as pressure in the work place or at home. Just set yourself into a new perspective. Make yourself believe that stress only derives from the way you think. In order to narrow the scope of solving the problems, you need to correct only the nature of your thinking itself.
2) While you are thinking about something, please observe whether you are stressful or not. That is feeling dense in your head, your eyebrows wrinkled, feeling tense in your forehead, chest getting tight, stiff in your hands and feet. Do you have any of the above symptoms, or all of them, or not? If there is any, stop thinking temporary and turn your interest to being aware of the characteristic of stress, which is happening in your body at the spot where you can perceive most clearly. Reflect upon it that it was something ‘extra’ from the thought. Do not try to do anything more than realizing such extra. Merely observe it. Then you will see that such extra has spontaneously disintegrated. It may take a short or long while, but it will eventually disintegrate. Just only try to do it wholeheartedly.
3) When you see the state of stress disappear, there will be a light feeling replacing that previous spot of stress, plus being aware of your present posture, such as sitting or standing. Try to be aware of the state of light physical feeling for a while to differentiate between the state of heavy feeling of the previous moment and the state of light feeling of the present moment. Reflecting upon the difference between the heavy feeling state and the light feeling state will play a very important role because heavy feeling state and light feeling state are what the mind would remember. Therefore, when one tries to observe it until gaining the perception capable of differentiating between the two states, the following result is the wisdom to see things as they truly are. That is heavy state is simply a condition of body and mind. Light state is also simply a condition of body and mind. There is no single particular condition that is you yourself permanently. The more you realize the differences between such conditions, the more you will gain the wisdom to realize that every condition is not your true self-entity.
With only these 3 simple principles, when you are back thinking about your duty again with the more comfortable body and lighter mind, you will see that in the past you were making yourself stressful unnecessarily because we would be best working or solving problems when our body and mind are clear, calm and peaceful. It is analogous to clearing the street ready for hundreds of speedy caravans of thoughts.
Try to practice step by step as advised in the following, as a basic exercise that one can experiment with while reading this book.
1) Observe your reading habit whether you are focusing or feeling comfortable. If you are focusing, you will see a limited numbers of alphabets. But if you feel comfortable, without frowning, relaxing your forehead muscles, and keeping your neck and back straight, you can glance wider. If you know that your reading habit is with focusing, initially, try to observe the nature of staring, and body stiffness, and acknowledge it as a reflection of your mind which is heavily focusing unnecessary. Just stop reading to observe the residual tension in your mind. Only a couple seconds, you will feel a little lighter. Try to memorize such nature to use in further reading. If you become stressful again, then stop reading again. If you do it frequently, it will gradually become your new permanent habit, but this cannot be done overnight or in a week. The comfortable reading habit may be a good start and can be done immediately while you are reading at this very moment!
2) Walk into a place where there are trees, grass and clear weather. If the sky is clear, it would be perfect. And if you can walk bare feet on the soft grass, it would be wonderful. Then observe yourself while your eyes are looking at flowers, while your ears are listening to the birds singing, while your feet touch the grass, what your mind is thinking. If it is nothing related to the flowers that you are seeing, the sound of birds that you are listening to, or the grass that you are touching, all of which can be counted as the ‘root’ of stress, without exception even the wish to have your loved one to appreciate the garden together. If your thought is circling around the observation in the color or the shape of flowers or trees, that is an example of being free of stress.
3) During the day, when you meet anyone, chatting about anything, or being alone and pondering in something, try to observe, observe and observe whether in a moment you are stressful and then think, think and then become more stressful, or free of stress and then think. Just compare them frequently until you realize that stress is but an existing condition to be aware of. Free of stress or comfort is but another existing condition to be aware of. There is no particular condition that is you yourself. You do not have to bury yourself in such condition forever. Then it can be said that you know how to practice basic Vipassana.
After practicing for a couple days, try to evaluate by investigating yourself with the following list. If these conditions appear ‘more frequently’ or even ‘occur regularly’, that means you are free of stress prior to thinking.
1) Feeling relaxed while thinking, as if the more you think the more you are mindfully aware.
2) When finish thinking, you feel lighthearted. Your job is finished with nothing left behind.
3) When you want to rest, you feel free and very comfortable.
4) Even there is a serious problem to think about, yet your face is relaxed, and your body remains comfortable.
5) Remain calm while awaiting for a reasonable consequence appropriate to time, and waste very little energy in thinking, yet gaining a perfect result.
If you evaluate yourself and find out that you have all these 5 characteristics, try to observe any minute amount of stress or tension that may arise while you are absent-minded, as well as reflect upon any trace of stress that may have sneaked in amidst comfortable body and mind, that it is impermanent. When you are aware of it, it will disintegrate as a norm. But once disintegrated, you cannot make it disappear forever, because stress is not you yourself, and you yourself are not stress.
Conclusion
This chapter talks about the huge problem facing mankind of this current era which is stress, though in fact it can be solved easily. One does not need to attend a training course, nor ask for any remedy from anywhere else. Simply know how to think, and think proficiently from a relaxing nature. Within a few days, those horrible solid lumps inside your skull and your chest will dissolve completely. The important thing is people do not know how to think from a relaxing nature. Therefore, one adds more stress to it relentlessly. One day it will explode which is regretful, as
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