Question

Can you, please, talk about the different states of mind?

Answer

Different states of mind, there are a lot of states of mind that the Buddha talked about in the Satipattana Sutta. Some of them don't really apply to us yet, some of them do. The state of mind with greed or without, the state of mind with hatred or without, the state of mind with ignorance or without. The shrunken state of mind and the unshrunken state of mind, that is to do, I think, with sloth and torpor. The distracted state of mind and the undistracted state of mind, that applies to restlessness and worry. Concentrated and unconcentrated state of mind. The developed state of mind and the undeveloped state of mind. The state of mind with nothing superior to it and the state of mind with something superior to it. The freed state of mind and the unfreed state of mind. So there are quite a lot of states of mind to be aware of.

The states of mind seem to apply to the Five Hindrances but they are more a bare awareness and not so involved with investigation. When we haven't got the awareness to be able to specifically investigate, we may understand that we are feeling sleepy and see that we are developing aversion to it. So can we just note, "sleepiness, sleepiness"? When we are distracted can we note, "distracted, distracted," rather than forming a self-image about it. It's more of what you do with these states of mind, to understand they arise and they pass. They are impermanent.

For the developed and the concentrated, some people when they get a concentrated state of mind form the idea that they can make this permanent, they don't want it to pass. So by noting it actually as a mind state that arises due to causes and passes due to causes, they don't expect it to last forever. Then they are able to note the unconcentrated state of mind when they come out of these states of concentration.

This is quite important in the practice of Vipassana, to see states of mind as not me, not mine, impermanent. Some people who develop stages of concentration get very attached to these states of mind. They miss the importance of bare awareness of these states of mind, so that when they come out of them, they are not able to reflect on the impermanence of these states of mind. If they do have more bare awareness, then they have the power to develop insight and use the experience of coming out as a way to reflect on the impermanence of those mind states so that they can develop more wisdom, more understanding about the impersonal, impermanent nature of these states of mind.

As far as the freed state of mind I don't think we have to worry about that one. I think it is talking about enlightenment.

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