New Moon Teaching Three
Without understanding the power of conditioning, the mind continues to be led astray! In terms of conditioning, we are the product of our beliefs. In order to see the truth, it is necessary for one to have no fixed opinions about anything and to have reached no fixed conclusions. Opinions and conclusions change with new information & insights. Staying alive to your surroundings, to be neither for, nor against, means that one is able to see that the reality is neither this nor that.
To believe is to fix the mind. Yet, life is not fixed. Life flows from ‘this’ to ‘that’
To fix the mind is to condition it to respond in a particular way. This is not how life is in the reality. The mind’s nature tends towards interference. We want life to fit into our way of doing things rather than us fitting in with life. To act based on a belief structure or system is to react rather than respond. Reaction is different from response.
Reaction is mind. This is the wandering mind
Response is no-mind. This is the shining mind
By reacting and allowing the wandering mind to be the master, the shining mind becomes the servant. This sets up the urge to control life. Wanting to control life, we see challenges as opportunities to mould and shape people and things. We therefore tend to react to challenges based on the need to stay in control of the situation. We do this in order to preserve what we believe to be true and it becomes habit. We are generally comfortable with habit and uncomfortable with change. Yet, the only constant in the universe is change.
Learning to respond to the challenge of life rather than habitually react is essential
To create an environment that supports response, it is necessary to familiarise oneself with the principles of nourishment. It is recommended that we form a strategy around these principles and implement it effectively in order to hold off the forces of negativity. This is quite the challenge! This means clarifying the purity of ones intent in doing the things one does. If the five passions have a grip on the mind, the approach will be sullied, corrupted, polluted and defiled. Sincerity is everything.
