Like colored glasses, mind-states or emotions affect our experience.  The world feels very different when we are angry or at ease.

 

Mind-states can be either wholesome, like generosity and kindness, or unwholesome, like fear and cruelty.  All unwholesome mind-states can be traced back to greed, hatred, and delusion, which come up out of a sense of lack.

 

Mind-states are like weather passing through the "sky" of our minds.  Some appear stormy; others are light.  They are all visitors to our awareness.  We do not invite them.  They come and go by themselves.

 

Whether the mind-states are pleasant or unpleasant, our practice is the same: being aware of them as passing experiences—here and gone, not solid, not able to be grasped. A wonder, a human experience.
Notice how body sensations, feeling-tones, and mind-states interact in your experience.

 

Our entire task in meditation is not to "identify" with mind-states or anything else that is changing.  This means not claiming mind-states as "me" or "mine," not "owning" them or thinking they are special.

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