[SmuffNuSMaxqh]

When our mind is still, we are happy because we are at peace. Our thoughts are not straying to the past or the future. When our mind is not still, when our thoughts stray to the future or the past, we remind ourselves that these thoughts are not our self, that they have in effect nothing to do with us, being nothing more than passing phenomena.

When we are fully mindful of sense contacts and their effects, we can sever the causal chain linking sense contacts to the arising of dukkha. When we fail to remain fully mindful, and are unable to sever the causal chain linking sense contacts to the arising of dukkha, we remind ourselves that none of the links of the causal chain, none of the sense contacts and their effects, are our self; they are all just passing phenomena.

If we do put our happiness in someone else's lap, this putting is not done by our self. It is a process of nature. We do not encourage it, we do not try to prevent it. We simply observe it without adding to it. If we cannot refrain from adding to it, then we do not add to what we have added. We leave the process alone to arise and fall away on its own terms, as much as we can. It will pass, as all phenomena do.

Whatever is happening in our mind, we allow it to arise and pass away as free from adding, subtracting, pushing and pulling, as we can manage, by allowing the process to proceed on its own terms, because it is has nothing to do with our self. We do not ascribe to it any more importance than it deserves.

How do we stop it? We don't. To try to stop it is to act in a fashion not in accordance with the Dhamma. We allow it to proceed on its own terms, but we do not encourage it or strengthen it by adding another layer to it, the layer of worry and thinking. If we cannot refrain from encouraging it, we refrain from encouraging the encouraging. We leave the core phenomenon alone to arise and pass away, as free from interference as possible.

If it is hard to meditate, then that is the nature of our meditation at this time. Judging our meditation is not in accordance with the Dhamma. We must simply sit.

Thinking we have made progress, then thinking that we have regressed to a former undesirable state, is not something to be considered or judged. Whatever we think is not to be judged or taken seriously, even thoughts about how much progress we have made; these are simply thoughts, and they are not our self.