Beholding The Mind

June, 2007 … view from my porch.

Question: “If someone is determined to reach enlightenment, what is the most essential method he can practice?”
Answer: “The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is beholding the mind.”
Question: “But how can one method include all others?”
Answer: “The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.”
-Bodhidharma

The most intelligent decision you can always make is either to let go of a thought, or to continue it.

But of course to do that, you must be aware of your mind.

More and more, choose not to be bothered by ideas… Ideas about how anything should be.

Again, to do that, you must be aware of your mind.

When you know you are aware, or in other words—when you are beholding the mind—you are free from the burden of identity.

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“Everything good has awareness for its root.”
-Bodhidharma