From Frames of Reference

　　In using the mind as a frame of reference, there are three aspects to deal with:

　　A. The mind inside.

　　B. The mind outside.

　　C. The mind in and of itself.

　　”The mind inside” refers to a state exclusively in the heart when it isn”t involved with any outer preoccupations. ”The mind outside” refers to its interaction with such outer preoccupations as sights, sounds, etc. ”The mind in and of itself” refers to the act of singling out any aspect of the mind as it appears, whether inside or out.

　　As for the modes of the mind inside, there are three —

　　1. Raga-citta: a mental state infused with desire or passion.

　　2. Dosa-citta: a sense of inner irritation and displeasure.

　　3. Moha-citta: a cloudy, murky or confused state of mind, in which it is unable to consider anything; in short, delusion.

　　The mind outside is pided into the same three aspects — states of passion, irritation and delusion — but these are said to be ”outside” because once any of these aspects arises, it tends to go out and latch onto an outer preoccupation that simply serves to further aggravate the original state of passion, irritation or delusion. The mind then doesn”t clearly or truly understand its objects. Its knowledge goes off in various directions, away from the truth: seeing beauty, for instance, in things that aren”t beautiful, constancy in things that are inconstant, pleasure in things that are painful, and self in things that are not-self.

　　All of these things are aspects of the mind outside.

　　”The mind in and of itself” refers to the act of singling out any one of these aspects of the mind. For example, sometimes passion arises, sometimes anger, sometimes delusion: Whichever aspect may be arising in the present, single it out. With your alertness firmly in place, be mindful of that aspect of the mind, without making reference to any other objects — and without letting any hopes or wants arise in that particular mental moment at all. Then focus unwaveringly on investigating that state of mind until you know its truth. The truth of these states is that sometimes, once they”ve arisen, they flare up and spread; sometimes they die away. Their nature is to arise for a moment and then dissolve away with nothing of any substance or worth. When you are intent on examining things in this way — with your mindfulness, alertness, and powers of focused investigation firmly in place — then none of these defilements, even though they may be appearing, will have the chance to grow or spread. This is like the baskets or jars used to cover new lettuce plants: If no one removes the baskets, the plants will never have a chance to grow, and will simply wither away and die. Thus you have to keep your alertness right with each mental state as it arises. Keep mindfulness constantly referring to its object, and use your powers of focused investigation to burn into those defilements so as to keep them away from the heart at all times.

　　To put this another way, all of the mental states mentioned above are like lettuce or green-gram seeds. Mindfulness is like a basket. Alertness is the person who scatters the seeds, while the power of focused investigation is the heat of the sun that burns them up.

　　So far, we have mentioned only bad mental states. Their opposites are good mental states: viraga-citta — the mind free from the grip of passion; adosa-citta — the mind free from the annoyance or anger that can lead to loss and ruin; amoha-citta — the mind free from delusion, intoxication and misunderstandings. These are skillful states of mind (kusala-citta), which form the root of all that is good. When they arise, maintain them and observe them so that you can come to know the level of your mind.

　　There are four levels of good mental states —

　　1. Kamavacara-…

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