Questions and Answers on the Contemplative Practice of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness (24)

 Question: There is a lot of dust in a room that normally cannot be seen; only when sunlight shines into the room can the dust be seen. Sitting in meditation is the same. Normally one is not aware of how many wandering thoughts one has, but when sitting in meditation one begins to become aware of them, like a ray of sunlight shining into the room. Why is it that during meditation one can observe the abundance of one's wandering thoughts? 

Answer: Everyone normally has a great many wandering thoughts—big and small, fine and fragmentary, countless—coming and going, going and coming, never stopping. Because the mind is not concentrated, or the mind is not pure enough, one cannot observe the arising and ceasing of these thoughts. When the mind is pure, one has meditative concentration (samādhi), and one's thoughts are focused, one will discover that there are many thoughts in one's mind. Therefore meditative concentration is a good thing: it gives us the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), enables us to concentrate our energy, and makes the mind subtle, so that we can discover problems that normally go unnoticed. Once a problem is discovered, there will be a way to solve it, and thus wisdom arises. 

Everyone also normally has a great deal of affliction, but because it has become habitual, one does not feel it. Only when one has free time and the energy to observe oneself over and over does one discover that one's mind is full of afflictions. Once you know you have afflictions, things become easier; sooner or later a sense of shame and remorse will arise, and when your mental strength is sufficient, you will be able to subdue these afflictions. Not knowing one's own afflictions does not mean one has no afflictions; it is because one has not yet awakened, because one is unwilling to discover and acknowledge them.