Now I guess it kind of depends on what has been referred to as a spin. If we think of it as just a mind that keeps moving, keeps just spinning, spinning, spinning, no matter what it is, whether it is aversion, anger, greed or whatever, just keeps spinning, how do we stop it? Well, mindfulness is what stops it and it is just a matter of getting that mindfulness in there, you know, and that's a practice on the mindfulness level.
The mental noting, in particular, is a very good way of stopping mind spins. The minute you note, the spin is gone, it is actually stopped, even though it might take off straight away again, at that moment of noting there is no mind spin. Mindfulness and a mind spin cannot be in the same moment at the same time, as far as we understand. So the minute you mentally note, you stop the mind spin. Now it doesn't mean it won't go straight back into it and that's where you need more techniques and basically all the techniques we have given you are to stop mind spins.
Reflections can help bend energy, bending the energy of the thoughts, bending the energy of the mind spin. The mind spin is caught up, for example, on tons of negativities, "I'm no good, I can't do this, I can't do that," you note that you have got a negative mind state, you have got self-hatred, this or that. Then you start reflecting on your good past Kamma, "Oh, but I've done a lot of good things in my life, I am a meditator, I've done retreats, etc. etc.," you can get out of that mind spin. So we work with bending the mind energies a lot.
The mindfulness is good in the sense of stopping mind spins, but it doesn't always stop them from coming again. So Wise Reflection is a totally opposite thought in a sense, or bending of the thoughts in a different direction, so that it becomes beneficial thoughts instead of unbeneficial thoughts. Think about it, basically every bit of your mental Dukkha is coming from an unwise thought. There is basically no mental Dukkha that is coming from a wise thought, it's coming from an unwise thought. So when you have a wise thought, you don't have mental Dukkha. It's very simple in that aspect, a little harder to do.