There’s a sutta I love where the Buddha emphasizes a simple teaching about the present moment. It’s from The Satipatthana Sutta, which is instructional for how to practice being here now. It says:
“The past should not be chased, the future not desired. What is past is gone, what is yet to come is not reached. In every moment, see clearly what arises.”
This is what we’re doing when we practice insight meditation—mindfulness is a practice of insight. We gain insights into the nature of our own psyches and how life works, how reality works.
One of the great insights we come to see is that there is a law of cause and effect. This law can be seen directly in the mind. Thoughts affect the body, and they affect external reality. Mind states affect the body, and they affect external reality. And the body affects the mind.
This is happening all the time—every moment of our lives.
The Buddha laid this down clearly in the Kusala Sutta. “Kusala” is often translated as “wholesome,” though that’s not a perfect translation. It’s not about apple pie or some kind of outward purity.
What it really means is: mind states that are beneficial. Mind states that are constructive versus destructive. The Dalai Lama often uses the words “positive and negative,” which is close, but not quite exact.
The law of cause and effect is simple: if you cultivate wholesome mind states—if you think, act, or speak from a wholesome place—happiness follows. It leads to harmony, well-being, peace. If you act from destructive mind states, it will lawfully and necessarily lead to suffering.
When you really understand this, it changes the way you see others. You don’t have to go around trying to teach everyone how to live. Of course, in society we hold people accountable for what they do, but in your own heart you understand: when we harm others, it really hurts us. That suffering is inevitable.
I have so much empathy for someone who’s done terrible harm in the world—someone who’s murdered, for example. Because I know they will suffer the consequences of that harm. It’s lawful. The pain comes with the act itself.
This is why our spiritual practice is, in a way, simply “minding our own business.” And that’s wonderful, because it’s the one thing we can actually do something about.
We can always be asking ourselves: What seeds am I planting right now? Am I acting from a helpful place, or from a destructive one?
Mindfulness itself is a wholesome action. It plants those wholesome seeds. This is the path upward, the habituation of the mind to what is beneficial for us. Every moment of awareness is a moment we are free.