Joyful Wisdom

Joyful Wisdom
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche


Left to its own, the mind is like a resless bird, always flitting from branch to branch or sweeping down from a tree to the ground and then flitting up into another tree. In this analogy, the branches, the ground, and the other represent the demands we receive from our five senses, as well as thoughts asnd emotions. They all seem very interesting and powerfully attractive. And since there’s always something going on in and around us, it’s very hard for the poor restless bird to settle. N owonder so many of the people I meet complain of being stressed most of the time! This kind of flitting about while our senses are overloaded and our thoughts and emotions are demanding recognition makes it very hard to stay relaxed and rested.

Most of us, when we look at something, hear something, or watch a thought or emotion, have some sort of judgement about the experience. This judgement can be understood in terms of three basics “branches”: the “I like it” branch, the “I don’t like it” branch, or the “I don’t know” branch. Each of these branches spreads out into smaller branches : pleasant, not pleasant or I like it because…. Could be good or bad branch…..the possibilities represented by all these branches tempt the little bird to flutter between them, investigating each one.

Practice letting go of our judgements and opinions and just looking at, or paying attention to, what we see from whatever branch we’re sitting on. Attending to our experience this way allows us to distingusih our judgements and opionions from the simple experience of seeing.

In most cases, our experiences are conditioned by the branch we’re sitting on and the screen of branches before us. In that momemnt of pausing to just be aware, we open ourselve not only to the possibility of bypassing habitual ideas, emotions, and responses to physical sensation, but also to responding freshly to each experience as it occurs.