~Mind-state (emotion)

Like colored glasses that can affect our vision, mind-states, or emotions, can affect our experience. The world appears very different when we are angry and when we are at ease.

Mind-states can be either wholesome, like generosity and kindness, or unwholesome, like fear and cruelty. All unwholesome mind-states can be traced back to greed, hatred, and delusion, the roots of all suffering.

Mind-states are like clouds passing through the "sky" of our minds. Some appear dark and stormy; others are light and fluffy. They are all visitors to our awareness. We do not invite them. They come and go by themselves.

Whether the mind-states are pleasant or unpleasant, our practice is the same: being aware of them as changing, passing experiences, not solid, not able to be grasped.

Our entire task in meditation is not to "identify" with mind-states or anything else that is changing. This means not claiming mind-states as "me" or "mine", not "owning" them.

Notice also how body sensations, feeling-tones, and mind-states interact in your experience.

By practicing in this way, we continue to weaken the forces of greed, hatred, and delusion and experience the mind's natural radiance and peace, unaffected by whatever is coming and going.