(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

<Please note: the word “thoughts” in this post include emotions.>

There are many books with titles similar to “change-your-mind-and-you’ll-change-your-life.“ The theme of these books is, essentially, that mind is the pre-eminent cause for how we experience life. Why? Because mind produces thoughts. And thoughts are all-powerful.

Your experiences will definitely change as you change the way you think. <source: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s book Transforming Problems Into Happiness.>

But what if we find that — for whatever reason — we cannot “change” our minds? We feel too stuck sometimes. Pema Chodron calls this situation shenpa. We can tell ourselves to “stop thinking this negative or destructive thought.” But that just emphasizes the thought even more. It’s like saying “Don’t think of an elephant.”

So we think of an elephant.

There are three things that I try to remember when I feel totally stuck.

1. Thoughts are not reality. They are something we superimpose\project onto reality.
2. We don’t necessarily actually “change” our mind. Instead, by simple and consistent acknowledgement (mindfulness) of what is arising in our mind, something magical takes place.
   
3. Rather than resist the thought, or indulge in it, substitute a positive one. His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama stresses the important of this. It is part of training our mind in everyday life. So for anger, substitute patience. For hatred, we can substitute acceptance. The teachers do not talk about becoming “less angry” — they talk about developing a positive attribute, like patience. But aren’t they just two sides of the same coin? Yes. But trying to be “less angry” is still negative. We want to focus on the positive. Focus brings fruition. We can grab the other end of the stick. Lama Zopa Rinpoche puts it like this:
   

The antidote to anger is patience. However, the angry thought itself cannot practice patience or think of the shortcomings of anger; another thought needs to remember the shortcoming of anger and practice patience.

In everyday life, when I need to change the direction of my energy quickly, I say “I wish you happiness and all causes of happiness.”

Number 1 above involves learning, knowledge. Number 2 involves formal practice. Number 3 involves what is called “post meditation practice.”

Rather than try to “change” our mind, I find it more helpful to think in terms of “choice.” We can choose what we focus on. Or to put it another way, choice precedes change. Make a choice that is different from our habitual pattern. Then “change” starts happening by itself.

For me, the good news is that we don’t have to “change” our minds. Our mind, in its primordial state, is just fine as it is.

So what are we really dealing with here when we talk about changing our minds? Answer: the objects of mind, which are thoughts. And thoughts produce our karma. More precisely, it is attachment to our thoughts that produce our karma. Or, to put it another way:

We don’t attach to things; we attach to our stories about them. Byron Katie – Twitter, July 22’09

If you found this post, helpful, please tell a friend! Then consider subscribing to this weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar. Then follow one of the three sets of simple, step-by-step instructions. Thank you.