The Thing Itself
Our Dharma Book KM Group will be meeting tonight to continue our discussion of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, by Joseph Goldstein. We’ve begun exploring the section on “Mindfulness of Mind,” which includes these instructions from the Satipatthana Sutta:
One knows a lustful mind to be “lustful,” and a mind without lust to be “without lust.” One knows an angry mind to be “angry,” and a mind without anger to be “without anger.” One knows a deluded mind to be “deluded,” and a mind without delusion to be “without delusion;” one knows a contracted mind to be “contracted,’ and a distracted mind to be “distracted.”
Joseph explains, “A clear recognition of what is what–this is lust, this is its absence–then becomes the frame for the deeper direct experience of the mind state itself, free of any words or concepts. Michael Cunningham, in his novel The Hours, write, ‘Everything in the world has its own secret name–a name that cannot be conveyed in language but is simply the sight and feel of the thing itself.’ This is mindfulness sinking into the object and knowing it fully.”
To think of mindfulness as a way to “hear” these secret names……I love that!
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The image above is from a promo for the movie based on Michael Cunningham’s book, The Hours. The text reads: The time to hide is over. The time to regret is gone. The time to live is now. (click to enlarge)