Perhaps one of the most radical aspects of the Buddha’s teachings is the assertion that the factors at work in the cosmos at large are the same as those at work in the way each individual mind processes experience. These processes, rather than the sensory data that they process, are primary in one’s experience of the cosmos…[T]he way out [of suffering] is to be found by focusing directly on the processes of present experience. ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Wings p.15
This teaching offers a dramatically different way to approach life and points to the means to happiness and ease in living life skillfully, neither being thrown off by life experience or trapped by it. When we turn to seeing and understanding processes, the details of experience are not so painful, in fact we can see the impersonal nature of unfolding events, the causes and conditions at play in a particular circumstance, and the more universal nature in the unfolding. Not identifying with what is happening in personal experience is an especially significant choice.
Through personal practice and deep investigation of these early teachings we enrich our life experience by (as Thanissaro reminds us) developing new frames of reference, modifying our quality of awareness, and choosing skillful modes of analysis.