Our meditation sessions in the last couple of days have touched upon the nature of conditioned arising, and how the mind can get fooled into a state of suffering by believing that things exist permanently and as uncompounded. If I were to systematize this teaching a bit, I would say it as follows:
a) All things are created by the mind: our experience of the world is conditioned by our thinking and judgments, and therefore, we are free to substitute "positive" thoughts for "negative" thoughts, knowing that both are fundamental creations. We might think of this using the analogy of "glass half full or empty". This means that we can approach the exact same situation using very different attitudes, depending on the thoughts we put into the situation.
b) All events, even when not mediated through thoughts and judgments are based on compounded experiences. Something that seems fixed and irreversible, is actually the product of very specific causes and conditions acting in a very specific time and place, which are bound to change just like the weather. Even the "self" that experiences something turns out to be something that is impermanent and subject to causes and conditions
c) Even bad experiences are impermanent. They are based on temporary formations, so we should try to see them as dreamlike rather than projecting a fixed notion of permanence or "this is forever".
Knowing this, can we not say that everything is "good indeed"? Even depression and anxiety are not really who we are, so we can experience them without making the mistake of thinking they are irrevocably who we are.
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