Purification of mind is not just spiritual jargon but necessary for happiness. No matter how gross or subtle, our speech, mental intentions and bodily actions affect us. Training and cleaning citta involves bringing uplifting qualities to mind and refraining from contracting to the unpleasant. This is how our kamma can begin to change.
Precepts are what most skillfully link citta to the world of sense contact. Without this ethical sense, citta runs out and gets into damaging circumstances. Precepts are the way you communicate the Dhamma through your actions into the world.
With the sīla practice in place, we give attention to samādhi practice – finding our center within the world of sense contact. From this steady place we are present, witnessing, attuning to how citta is touched by it all.
Citta requires strength to meet the afflictive perceptions and meanings that compress it. Shutting down and distracting ourselves is understandable, but inadequate. Cultivation of spiritual faculties gives citta tools and capacity to meet phenomena with compassion and skillful action.
