Look at Your Mind Before Outer Conditions
As we live, we keep looking outside. We see other people's situations, changes in the world, and the conditions before our eyes, and our minds are easily shaken this way and that. But if we only chase what is outside, we miss the most important thing: our own mind.
The teaching says, "If you see the Dharma as outside the mind, you circle through birth and death; when you awaken to the one mind, birth and death are cut off forever." This does not mean we should refuse to see the world. It means we should step out of a life that is dragged around by outer conditions, discriminating and clinging, and first see clearly how our own mind is moving.
Even while living in the same world, suffering may grow or wisdom may grow depending on the mind with which we see. Things outside us certainly happen, but being attached to them and tossed around by them is also the working of our own mind. So practice begins not with changing the world first, but with observing and setting our own mind upright.
When we see our own mind clearly, discrimination gradually thins, and affection and attachment lose their force. Only then can we live in the world with a freer mind, without being dragged around by outer conditions.
Today, may we not give our mind away only to outer events. May we first look after our own mind, and live the day through clear awareness rather than discrimination.
When we place the mind only on outer conditions, we are easily shaken and fall into discrimination. But when we see our own mind clearly, attachment decreases and life becomes lighter. Today, may we look at our mind first, before looking outside.
