The Committee of the Mind
There are many different ideas of “you” in your mind, each with its own agenda. Each of these “you's” is a member of the committee of the mind. This is why the mind is less like a single mind and more like an unruly throng of people: lots of different voices, with lots of different opinions about what you should do. Some members of the committee are open and honest about the assumptions underlying their central desires. Others are more obscure and devious. This is because each committee member is like a politician, with its own supporters and strategies for satisfying their desires. [...]
One of the purposes of meditation is to bring these dealings out into the open, so that you can bring more order to the committee—so that your desires for happiness work less at cross purposes, and more in harmony as you realize that they don’t always have to be in conflict. Thinking of these desires as a committee also helps you realize that when the practice of meditation goes against some of your desires, it doesn’t go against all of your desires. You’re not being starved. You don’t have to identify with the desires being thwarted through meditation, because you have other, more skillful desires to identify with. The choice is yours. You can also use the more skillful members of the committee to train the less skillful ones so that they stop sabotaging your efforts to find a genuine happiness. Always remember that genuine happiness is possible, and the mind can train itself to find that happiness. […]
There are many dimensions to the mind, dimensions often obscured by the squabbling of the committee members and their fixation with fleeting forms of happiness. One of those dimensions is totally unconditioned. In other words, it’s not dependent on conditions at all. It’s not affected by space or time. It’s an experience of total, unalloyed freedom and happiness. This is because it’s free from hunger and from the need to feed. But even though this dimension is unconditioned, it can be attained by changing the conditions in the mind: developing the skillful members of the committee so that your choices become more and more conducive to genuine happiness. [...]
You can think of the unconditioned dimension as like the fresh water in salt water. The ordinary mind is like salt water, which makes you sick when you drink it. If you simply let the salt water sit still, the fresh water won’t separate out on its own. You have to make an effort to distil it. The act of distilling doesn’t create fresh water. It simply brings out the fresh water already there, providing you with all the nourishment you need to quench your thirst.
-- Thanissaro Bhikku
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What do you understand by the unconditioned dimension of your mind? What ways of distilling the unconditioned dimension of your mind have worked for you? Can you share a personal story where you were able to tap into the unconditioned dimension of your mind?
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10 Past Reflections
On Sep 3, 2019 dominic wrote :
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On Nov 22, 2013 Sanjay Mali wrote :
I have a great experience about meditation. When I started it, for first 4 -5 days I just continued in confusion. Then a stage slowly began to arise when I started forgiving everybody ( ? ). Then I started praying for well being for those I respect and for those I hate. Then a stage came I was doing just nothing and time passed by. I was so fresh and energized after meditation that I remained always happy and worry-less.
Only thing I wonder is how I stopped it ? Is that also a stage of mind enrichment ?
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On Nov 6, 2013 Lois wrote :
I have acknowledged the 'committee of my mind' for a long time, have begun to recognize the various members which have produced much chaos often. Recently I have opened to listening more to the voices and 'sorting them out', and listening deeper to which voice(s) has clarity. This article has expressed simply and clearly what I've felt for a long time. Thank you so much.
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On Oct 1, 2013 Thierry wrote :
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On Sep 30, 2013 ganoba wrote :
I like the two metaphors. Mind as a disjointed crowd with each member pushing its own agenda.
Meditation helps the members to realise that they are members of the same family.
The other metaphor of distillation of sea water is also very illustrative of the process of meditation.
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On Sep 30, 2013 Rajesh wrote :
This is a beautiful passage. Thanissaro Bhikku has illustrated the fragmented aspect of the mind in way that's clear and easy to understand. I am yet to experience the unconditioned dimension but his reminder that genuine happiness is possible is reassuring. The passage also made me think about how working with one's own desires and those of other family members is indeed like a committee and everyone's voice and opinion needs to be given due understanding and respect.
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On Sep 29, 2013 david doane wrote :
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On Sep 27, 2013 Conrad P Pritscher wrote :
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