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Listening to Sam Harris today talk with one of the original mindfulness and attention researchers. They talked about the 4 foundations of mindfulness in a way that unlocked probably a basic, but new way for me to look at them. I had just never thought of how in a practice someone would tend to focus on one of them. It made me realize I've focused on the body as a locus of meditation.
Mindfulness of the body: (kāyā)
Mindfulness of feelings: (vedanā)
Mindfulness of the mind or heart: (citta)
Mindfulness of qualities: (dhamma)
They were talking in the context of attention development and he asked the question if when someone begins practicing mindfulness meditation if there is a distinction in the quality of mindfulness one develops depending on which foundation they focus on. An interesting discussion followed.

Also mentioned later was how mindfulness meditation, as opposed to other forms with different aims, doesn't necessarily reduce the amount of thoughts one has. Rather it changes our relationship with them, we don't take them so seriously.

Only the first half is freely available, but I believe I have the ability to share the whole episode with someone if they wanted to hear the second half.

@Steve_B said:

@sciencebuff said:
I guess what has concerned me often is that that interpretation is not under my control.

Whose control is it under?

My understanding is: no one's, ever. Otherwise we could all just control ourselves into infinite happiness, all the time. That obviously isn't the case.

On the other hand "resigning" your self to infinite happiness isn't an instant cure either, nor even a long term one, for most people.

Yet both of these can yield some fruit.

As far as I can tell, it seems consciousness is ruled by a set of laws outside itself, that it is completely at the mercy of, yet the laws are consciousness itself.

@sciencebuff said:
like me who think too much.

It's not that you actually think too much—thoughts are constantly arising, one after the other. The issue is the lack of space, in the form of awareness, between these thoughts. The "sense of self," or the "I," becomes fused with the thoughts. There's no breathing room between the sense of self and the thoughts themselves.

This continuous fusion means that the sense of self becomes the thought, and the thought then assumes it is the thinker. In reality, the only 'thinker' behind the thought is the thought itself, which has hijacked the sense of self, taking it on a ride.

At first, this might not make much sense, but after a while, when this food for thought has been thoroughly chewed over, the penny will drop.

Or to put it in a way which is easier on the thoughts...

It’s not that you think far too much,
thoughts keep flowing, they’re always in touch.
But the space in between, where awareness should be,
is missing, and that’s where the problem we see.

The "I" that you feel, this sense of your self,
gets fused with each thought, placed high on the shelf.
No breathing room there, between thought and the self,
and so, thoughts take over, claiming their wealth.

This fusion means "I" becomes just the thought,
and that thought thinks it’s thinking, but really, it’s caught.
For the thought is the "thinker," hijacking your mind,
taking "you" on a journey, a ride that’s unkind.

At first, it may seem that it’s hard to make sense,
but chew on this thought, and with time, recompense.
When the penny drops, and the truth’s in your sight,
you’ll see through the fusion, and step into the light.

@sciencebuff said:
For the longest time I had the interpretation of reality that life was half pleasure/life and half pain/death and that rebirth was at best neutral or the background in which this happened. It really disturbed me to live in a world of half pain. Is this really the nature of things or is rebirth good too and things are at least 2/3 good and 1/3 bad?

Why not good all the time?
Because that is simply not possible for everything that arises comes to an end.
You sit for too long and your butt hurts, you walk and sooner or later your leg hurts.
Sitting, standing, walking or lying... you can get no satisfaction.
Unrealistic expectations leads to stress.

https://home.csulb.edu/~wweinste/HsinHsinMing.html

The Great Way* is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for, or against, anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

Just a thought:
Buddhism is not about suffering.
Yes, we recognize suffering as manifest in our lives.
Famously, there are the Four Great Sufferings of birth, sickness, old age, and death.
However, we come to see these sufferings as manifest from our fundamental darkness (ignorance).
Through our Buddhist practice, we begin to awaken to the reality that, while suffering may be a part of life, it is our ignorance or fundamental darkness which is the root of our suffering.
We,through our practice and study change the sufferings, though they may indeed be painful in the moment, into great joy. Loss becomes the source of gain.
We overcome the suffering to bring forth the great joy, treasure of life and our oneness with all life and our environment.
When we face hardship, suffering, we find it is not suffering, but opportunity to grow, to "change our karma", to "Change poison to medicine". We come to value life with all it's imperfections. We emerge from the Fundamental Darkness into the Wondrous Light of the life of a Bodhisattva, of a Buddha.
Each moment is a moment to embrace, to nourish our lives, to celebrate life, regardless of outward appearances, as we are.
Buddhism is about opening up to, embracing and celebrating the wonder, the beauty, the splendor which is life, and sharing, celebrating life with others.

Peace to all

I had the interpretation of reality

It is the other way around. The interpretation had you. It is only 'correct' for you and the time you have it. Same for everyone.

Another thought. There are different sorts of suffering, there's the actual event and then there is what we make of it in our mind, what sort of context the painful event exists in.

For example, if we go to the gym and wake up sore the next morning. That pain doesn't cause much mental suffering because we understand its cause and the bigger picture benefit it will bring. If we woke up one morning and just felt like that we'd probably start freaking out and go to the doctor.

When we accept that life contains some level of dissatisfaction and unpleasantness, when difficulties happen we can meet them with a greater degree of equanimity. If we feel that things should generally be good and easy, inevitable difficulties will generate more mental suffering.

@sciencebuff said:
For the longest time I had the interpretation of reality that life was half pleasure/life and half pain/death and that rebirth was at best neutral or the background in which this happened. It really disturbed me to live in a world of half pain. Is this really the nature of things or is rebirth good too and things are at least 2/3 good and 1/3 bad?

If you care about your happiness and actively work to gain happiness and shed unhappiness, you can create a life that during your productive adult years is at least 80% happy. During the later years of your life it depends a lot on how your health develops, a long-term illness can present major challenges.