Food for the Heart

My 6 highlights

• We detach by seeing things clearly.

• You have to become fed up with your dislikes and your likes, your suffering and your happiness.

• That which “looks over” the various factors that arise in meditation is sati, mindfulness.

• In our practice we just look directly at the mind. Whenever our practice begins to slacken off, we notice this and make it firmer—but then, after awhile, it goes slack again. That’s the way the mind pulls us around. But people with good mindfulness take a firm hold and constantly reestablish themselves, pulling themselves back, training, practicing, and developing.

• Sati is life. Whenever we don’t have sati, when we are heedless, it’s as if we are dead. If we have no sati, then our speech and actions have no meaning. Sati

• So don’t be in a hurry and try to push or rush your practice. Do your meditation gently and gradually, step by step. If you become peaceful, then accept it; if you don’t become peaceful, then accept that. That’s the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and keep at it persistently.