Often it can be difficult to see how spiritual views and pursuits that aim towards states of peace, joy, love, happiness and compassion can be reconciled with the very dark and heavy bombardment one gets from the news of terrible things that occur daily around the world.
The practice of being mindful of the breath while sitting in meditation strengthens one’s capacity for mindfulness in daily life. It is in daily life, in the context of this discussion, that the ability to be mindful of mental events allows one to deal wisely with desire and aversion as they arise in response to feelings. Goldstein describes each mind-moment that is free of greed, hatred and delusion as having a certain purifying force in the flow of consciousness. Therefore it is important to cultivate such mind-moments not just on the cushion during meditation but also during daily life. Combined with deep insight in the fundamental nature of phenomena arising out of mediation practice the weeds in the mind can be pushed back and eventually removed for good.
