Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Walking Toward Enlightenment

We don’t think, “Oh, there is a rock, therefore I have to step over it.” We just do it. That instinct of self-defense comes from store consciousness.

there are deep concentrations when mind consciousness completely stops operating—there’s no thinking, no planning, nothing—yet store consciousness continues to operate. Deep walking meditation can be like this. Your body is moving and your store consciousness continues to be working, but you are not aware of it.

Through producing your thoughts, speech, and actions, you create your environment. You always have the opportunity to arrange yourself and arrange your environment in such a way as to water the positive seeds in yourself. That is the secret to happiness.

In meditation you usually use independent mind consciousness. We close our eyes, we close our ears, we don’t want to be disturbed by what we see or hear. The concentration is being performed by mind consciousness alone.

If you are absorbed in deep reflection, you don’t see, you don’t hear, you don’t touch anymore. In that deep place of reflection, mind consciousness is working alone.

It’s very important to surround yourself with people who have loving kindness, understanding, and compassion, because day and night we are influenced by the collective consciousness.

Mind consciousness is, at various times, all fifty-one mental formations, be they positive, negative, or neutral.

Thinking without a thinker. Feeling without a feeler. What is our anger without our “self”? This is the object of our meditation. All the fifty-one mental formations take place and manifest without a self behind them arranging for this to appear, and then for that to appear.

When we understand the interconnectedness of our bodies and our minds, the simple act of walking like the Buddha can feel supremely easy and pleasurable.