[Bubbles]

When we’re dealing with mind states, the same principles apply. The mind has the potential for greed and also the potential for non-greed. There’s the potential for aversion and the potential for non-aversion. There’s the potential for delusion and the potential for non-delusion. We usually don’t look for these potentials, or see them as potentials, because normally the mind is focused outside and doesn’t really look at itself. It’s like sitting in a movie theater and focusing entirely on the screen.

But when you’re practicing mindfulness of mind states, it’s like going to the side of the theater, and instead of looking at the screen, you look at the audience. You see that there’s a flickering light-beam over their heads, flashing many different colors on the screen. Now if you were part of the audience and were watching the screen, you would perceive that there are people on the screen in different locations, with a story that makes sense. But when you look from the side of the theater, you just see all these things simply as flashing colors, and you see instead the audience laughing and crying, all simply because of flashing colors.

In a similar way, you want to look at the audience in the mind and see where their states of mind are going to lead them—where they come from, where they go. In other words, you’re looking at the mind as it’s engaged in the world, but you’re not engaged along with it. You simply want to pay attention to what present actions these mind states come from, where they lead, which ones should be developed, which ones should be abandoned.

When the Buddha is teaching breath mindfulness, and talks about being aware of the mind states as a frame of reference, he doesn’t say that you just watch mind states coming and going. He actually recommends that you do something with them.

An excerpt from a book called The Karma of Mindfulness. Wanted to share this with you.

In my meditation practice over the years, it seems that it becomes a natural 'skill' or 'habit' to 'catch' my mind when it seems to drift into a state or thought that could lead to an emotional cascade either positive or negative, either with a positive feedback loop or negative feedback loop. It is highly useful, it seems that if I would personify 'Doubt' for example (and be aware when it visits me), this entity has a much weaker impact in my life. If I would personify "Fear", I would sometimes acknowledge its presence, salute it and take its hand and 'do it anyway'. For example fear of xyz (think of some common sense example). So perhaps being aware in a non-judgmental way is only a checkpoint in our path, though we can go further.

In both of these cases—with feelings and mind states—the act of taking them as frames of reference means watching them as they are happening and being less concerned with the object of the feeling or the object of the mind state, and more concerned with the role of the feelings and mind states as parts of a process: where they come from, what results they produce. Then you ardently try to direct them in a skillful direction. This is how using these two frames of reference actually becomes part of the path.

When the Buddha discusses these two frames of reference in connection with mindfulness of breathing, he doesn’t advise leaving the breath when you focus on them. Instead, he has you stay with the breath, and watch feelings or mind states in relationship to the breath. This is one of the ways in which you can use the breath to direct your feelings and mind states in a skillful direction because, as he said, when you pay careful attention to the breath, that will create feelings of pleasure. Those feelings of pleasure will have a good influence on your mind state, leading to greater concentration. At the same time, staying with the breath strengthens your mindfulness and alertness, so that you can see more clearly what you’re doing and remember the lessons you learn from your actions.

The most skillful attitude is one of equanimity. The mind has the tendency to want to make you feel guilty for being equanimous even when equanimity is the wisest attitude to develop. You have to very quickly cut those thoughts off.