Cultivating a softer happier state of being is valuable in its own right, and also has a profound purpose – to release mental programs that bind us and restrict us, so we can experience a greater sense of ease and freedom.

Training the mind involves restraint, steadying and gladdening. Then it isn’t so mesmerized by its stories. Several specific practices are described for such training.

A guided meditation that focuses on accentuating the receptive aspect. Receiving energies without spinning out or tightening up, and without the ‘push forward’ reflex. Body and breathing form the basis of this practice.

The underlying bent of the mind is craving, that leaning of the mind to have, get, find, belong. In meditation we practise with loosening that craving energy, and introducing calming subjects for recollection. Walking meditation is a skilful means for loosening and gentling the mind.

The mind drags us into places, and we easily locate ourselves there. This is what I’m stuck in, this is what I am. How to get a handle? The samādhi approach is to deal with the energy, not the topic. The sīla approach is to refer to the skilful. The pañña approach is to recognize this for what it is. We need to know how to handle the energy of the mind, and to practise ethical intentions and investigation.

In meditation, rather than getting involved with liking and disliking, we practise letting things just pass through. The movements are just shifts in energy. Learn how to move with the changes rather than reacting with sorrow, resistance or craving. Cultivate patience with your mind as it rattles on, and with a life that isn’t going the way you want, until the mind becomes big enough to hold it all.

An exploration of the action of becoming, noticing how the sense of who we are arises with reference to past, future, self or other. These are boxes that leave many things out, while homing in on our kammic tendencies. Take action on the enlightenment factors to come out of the boxes.

Mindfulness is held up as the one thing in Dhamma practice, but although it’s important, it works along with a range of factors. Descriptions of mindfulness applied to the aspects of the 8-fold path are given.

We try to avoid suffering, but end up perpetuating it instead. In meditation, we can tap into two aspects of wisdom – the ability to unhook and the ability to see. These allow us to relate to the experience of suffering in a way that brings it to an end.

Cultivation is both about doing and not doing. Sometimes it’s about restraining and letting the roots of old habits die out. This requires the ability to step back and witness, and to stand firm against emotional pressure. When we can remain as the witness, there is the immediate fruit of freedom in that moment, and the long-term fruit of changing the tendency.