"This exercise of watching your breath, as an
introduction to Vipassana, is not intended to just calm you down. The goal of
these first three days is mastery of the mind, meaning the ability to say to
your mind, “Do this,” and your mind obeys you. Most of our life we think we
have mastery of our mind. If I am asked to give a talk, I can stand up and give
a talk, and when the moderator of this morning’s conference holds up a sign
that says, ”Stop,” I will probably stop. We have grossly apparent mastery of the
mind. But in the Noble Silence of meditation you realize that subtly your mind
is running out of control all of the time.
“When we give the mind large externalizing tasks, at that level it is obedient to our intention; but when we give the mind quiet and inflected guidance, it is not used to obeying delicate and nuanced intentions. ... The mind is constantly moving from topic to topic, from affect to affect, and though we think we are in control of our minds, actually our minds are in control of us, dictating to us from zones beyond our will or intention what we will next think and feel.”
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