Observing the Mind

A key set of advanced practices are now available in the collection Great Insights Through Mindfulness under the title Observing the Mind.

With these practices, you will progressively learn to observe your thoughts, learn about their nature, and gain new knowledge.

These practices are designed in the same spirit as the rest of the Great Insights Through Mindfulness collection; you may stay with the same practices for weeks or months at a time until you become immersed in the method.  This practice set of settling the mind is also called ‘Taking the Mind as the Path’.

Panchen Lozang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662), the tutor of the Fifth Dalai Lama of Tibet, explained this practice as follows [1] :
Whatever sorts of thoughts arise, without suppressing them, recognize what they emerge from and what they dissolve into; and stay focused while you observe their nature. By doing so, eventually, the motion of thoughts ceases, and there is stillness... each time you observe the nature of thoughts that arise, they will vanish by themselves following which, a vacuity appears. Likewise, if you also examine the mind when it remains without movement, you will see an unobscured, clear and vivid vacuity, without any difference between the former and latter states. That is well known among meditators and is called “the union of stillness and motion.”

Discover the course: Observing the Mind.

1. B. Alan Wallace, “Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity”, chap. 8 “Theory: Knowing and Healing the Mind”. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

“Such poetry. With its soft progression, it presents us with such clarity and knowledge of the mind!“
”It’s as if I have a friend, a sage, every morning, or at any time of the day, who guides me and inspires me ... what a luck!”
“Best teachings of any app, goes much deeper than most!“

Discover What They Say.
Continue

News

View all

The Foundations of Vipashyana

New contemplation on true happiness

New Course: A Taste of Inner Freedom

The Foundations of Vipashyana

New reflections in your toolbox

When our beliefs are challenged

Meditation and our emotional landscape

Explore Imagine Clarity by Topic

Creativity and Meditation

What is Your Vision?

The Union of Stillness and Motion

A Path of Insight Continues

Mindfulness of Phenomena: A Path of Insight: …

A Path of Insight: Mindfulness of the Mind (3/4)

Mindfulness of Sensations: A Path of Insight (2/4)

A Path of Insight: Mindfulness of the Body (1/4)

Starting where you are

New Awareness of Awareness Practices

Awareness, View, and Conduct

At the heart of hope

New advanced course: The Awareness of Awareness

Observing the Mind

What is a Spiritual Path?

What reality?

Clarity, Compassion and Genuine Happiness

Defining your goals

Walking mindfully

The spark of creativity

How can I train my mind?

Conative intelligence and flourishing

Essential qualities in leadership

New loving-kindness practices

Meditation Practice Foundations

Thoughts of the day

Heart to heart

Finding the Moment

Knowing yourself to know the world

This summer: Emergences

This summer: Mind & Life Europe

This summer in Arles

Creative Journey with Maria João Pires

Meditate with Imagine Clarity in Arles

Music and meditation evenings in the Théâtre …

50 years in the Himalayas, exhibition of …

Discover the redesigned Imagine Clarity app

Everyday meditations

Mindfulness of Phenomena

Join the Newsletter

In our complex world, refining our view from within is vital. Join the Imagine Clarity newsletter to receive inspiration and advice on meditation, personal growth, and the cultivation of wisdom and deeper insight.