Paying attention to the mind or acknowledging having a mind is the foundation of mindfulness. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche and Matthieu Ricard said this at the Bhutan Innovation Forum while speaking on mindfulness and compassion: A vision for peace and prosperity. The two speakers said mindfulness is basically about being aware and training your mind to become a better human being.
Knowing that there is a mind is important. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche said people tend to take mind for granted. He said it is also important to know others have minds to know others have opinions as well. When asked about the specific practices of mindfulness and compassion that can be implemented to foster a vision for peace and prosperity in communities, Rinpoche said the most fundamental thing is to acknowledge having a mind.
“Mind has certain abilities that no others have, something so unique. Like lamp and light, it illuminates surroundings, but it also illuminates itself. Likewise, mind understands or interacts with objective world but mind is also capable of seeing itself, simultaneously. For example, let’s say I am losing my temper or I am getting excited. I can train myself to be conscious of that. This is a big deal because you are conscious of whatever you are thinking, there are chances of you being fanatical, polarized, chances of you becoming stupid basically. The first and the most fundamental is I think knowing the mind.”
The speakers also said selfishness makes life miserable leaving everyone miserable at the end. Therefore, the speakers reiterated the importance of consideration for others.
In line with this, Matthieu Ricard, a Philosopher and Buddhist monk said, it is important to balance the three indexes of financial wealth, environmental wealth and social wealth to create empathetic economics.
“The classical way of maximizing personal preferences and Economics purely based on reasons cannot solve two main issues: poverty in the midst of plenty, and stepping out of maximizing your personal preferences. Second is the common. Common means the quality of the air, ocean and democracy. We need to associate the voice of care with the voice of reason and this is crucial.”
The speakers said laziness, delusion, distraction, and looking for happiness in the wrong place, are some of the challenges to practising mindfulness. And therefore, they said it is important to be mindful.
Kinley Dem
