How can one awaken to the thoughts of one's own mind?

If you want to understand yourself, to know whether your mental activities are wholesome or unwholesome, defiled or pure, what should you do? Why is it that many people can continuously follow along with their defiled mental activities and afflictive mental activities, creating defiled karmic actions? It is because they lack awakened awareness and the power of observation; they do not know and do not consider what the result of each of their mental activities and thoughts will be, what retribution it will bring. They only want to vent their emotions, and feel satisfied once they feel comfortable inside. As for the fact that they may later feel very uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable, they simply cannot be bothered with it. This is the foolishness, ignorance, and shortsightedness of sentient beings.

How can one awaken to one's own mental activities and thoughts? First, one must believe in and accept cause and effect, then understand cause and effect, knowing that all bodily, verbal, and mental actions have their causes and effects. When conditions ripen, one will certainly experience the retribution of good and evil. Everything one has done toward people and matters must ultimately be borne by oneself: doing good brings good retribution, doing evil brings evil retribution—this is the law of cause and effect from which one cannot escape. In that case, one will deliberately pay attention to one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions. However, because the power of meditative concentration and the power of wisdom are insufficient, one will often still habitually create unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental actions without being aware of it.

This requires cultivating meditative concentration to supplement the power of concentration, and raising the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), making the mind more refined and one's observational power more acute, so that one can capture one's own thoughts at any moment, and can even observe the deepest thoughts and ideas within the mind, or afflictive thoughts. In this way one can achieve a deep and thorough understanding of oneself. Even if one cannot quickly correct unwholesome thoughts or subdue one's afflictions, as long as one knows them, over time one will certainly, gradually and imperceptibly, change oneself—so much so that one may even be astonished at one's own transformation.

One can cultivate the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the four foundations of mindfulness, which equally cultivates meditative concentration and wisdom—the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā—to increase one's power of concentration and power of wisdom, and raise one's awakened awareness. Then, in daily interactions and conduct, introspect on one's own thoughts, introspect on what one truly thinks deep inside, and then ask oneself: What benefit does doing this bring to others and to myself? What consequences will it have? Is this result liberating for me or binding? Am I willing to bear such a result in the future, and could I bear it?

Observing one's own mind and the contemplative practice of the four foundations of mindfulness follow the same principle: the four foundations of mindfulness begin with concentration and culminate in wisdom; the goal is wisdom. Only when wisdom arises can one eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), realize the fruits, and attain liberation. Observing one's own thoughts works the same way. What is the result of observation? The result is the arising of the wisdom that knows oneself and knows the consequences. With such wisdom, one will inevitably be able to subdue and eradicate afflictions, and in the future enjoy the happy retribution of wholesome karma. The arising of thoughts and intentions determines a person's fortune and misfortune: evil and unwholesome thoughts invite misfortune and deplete merit; wholesome thoughts generate merit and avert disaster. Many people, when encountering all kinds of favorable and adverse circumstances, do not know what exactly caused them. Those with coarse minds do not even want to think about what caused them, believing that adverse conditions and circumstances arise naturally, not knowing that they were invited by their own karmic actions. Because one's evil deeds create unwholesome karma, merit cannot long endure and misfortune cannot be avoided; one bobs and drifts in the sea of suffering that is human life, rising and sinking as one chases after circumstances.

If one does not observe one's own mind, wisdom will not arise, because when the mind consciousness does not engage in the observation of thoughts, it presents the dharmas directly to the manas, letting the manas face them as they truly are. After facing them, the manas will take notice and focus on the dharmas, and there will be deliberation (manasikāra/manana); after deliberation in accordance with the Dharma, there will be a result. If the mind consciousness does not observe, and the mind is scattered, the manas will not dwell on the contemplated dharma; it will neither know the dharma nor realize the dharma. When the mind consciousness observes in a scattered way without meditative concentration, the manas will likewise be scattered and engage in grasping, unable to gather on the contemplated dharma, unable to observe and deliberate on the dharma as it truly is; thus it will neither know the dharma nor realize the dharma. Therefore, the Chan masters of the past and the disciples in the Buddha's time, although they did not understand the dharma of the manas, were still able to see the mind and realize the fruits, precisely because they all possessed profound meditative concentration.

If one does not observe one's own mind, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses will not direct their attention (manaskāra) to this dharma, and there will be no subsequent operation of the mental factors of contact, feeling, perception, and volition, nor will the mental factors of concentration and wisdom appear—naturally, one will know nothing. Not observing one's own mind, one will flow along with thoughts: "I am the thought, the thought is me," trapped within and unable to extricate oneself. The single word "knowing" is extremely important. Thoughts are like thieves: when a thief comes into the house, one must know and be aware, watching him. When the thief knows he has been discovered, he will be too embarrassed to steal and will slink away.

Therefore, when sense objects come, one must know; when thoughts arise, one must know. Do not run after sense objects, do not let thoughts continue flowing on, and thereby maintain right awareness. Before, when one did not know, one was as foolish as a dog chasing a thrown clod: seeing someone throw a stone, it chases after it; hearing a sound, it barks wildly, not knowing it is merely the wind blowing the grass. People and foolish dogs are no different: all day long they take sense objects as real, giving rise to mental activity and thoughts, conflicts and disputes over self and others, "I am high, you are low," fighting until heads are broken and blood flows for a single mouthful of food—sentient beings are both pitiable and lamentable. In order to change oneself, one must diligently practice the work of observing one's own mind.