Not sure about your mind, but if it is anything like mine, it is at times full of all kinds of stuff. There’s good stuff and bad stuff and stuff I don’t know quite what to do with, though I’m hoping I figure it out soon. When I’ve taught folks in detox to meditate almost to a person the common plea is: “I can’t get my mind to stop thinking. How can I make it stop?” For all those thoughts, there is one truth underlying it all: Our minds contain the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In any single thought moment your mind encompasses all Dharma qualities and pervades all realms.

That’s a powerful statement worthy of deep reflection. What kind of Dharma qualities are in our thoughts? Yes, that’s the rub. What kind of Dharma qualities are we manifesting in our thinking? The good, the bad, and the ugly all reflect our Dharma quality. The ten worlds are always present, and the ten worlds always have each of the ten worlds present in some form. So even your bad stuff is Dharma, and so is your good stuff. The key to our practice is not to suppress or hide from those less-than-admirable thoughts but to see where they come from, examine them, and then manifest our actions from the mind of the Buddha, from the heart of the Buddha.