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Observations on the Art of Meditation by Translated from the Thai This work may be freely copied, printed, and redistributed
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For those of you who've never sat in meditation, here is how it's
done: Fold your legs, one on top of the other, but don't cut off the
nerves or the blood flow, or else the breath energy in your legs will
stagnate and cause you pain. Sit straight and place your hands one on
top of the other on your lap. Hold your head up straight and keep your
back straight, too -- as you had a yardstick sticking down your spine.
You have to work at keeping it straight, you know. Don't spend the
time slouching down and then stretching up again, or else the mind
won't be able to settle down and be still....
Keep the body straight and your mindfulness firm -- firmly with
the breath. However coarse or refined your breath may be, simply
breathe in naturally. You don't have to force the breath or tense your
body. Simply breathe in and out in a relaxed way. Only then will the
mind begin to settle down. As soon as the breath grows normally
refined and the mind has begun to settle down, focus your attention on
the mind itself. If it slips off elsewhere, or any thoughts come in to
intrude, simply know right there at the mind. Know the mind right at
the mind with every in-and-out breath for the entire hour....
When you focus on the breath, using the breath as a leash to tie
the mind in place so that it doesn't go wandering off, you have to use
your endurance. That is, you have to endure pain. For example, when
you sit for a long time there's going to be pain, because you've never
sat for so long before. So first make sure that you keep the mind
normal and neutral. When pain arises, don't focus on the pain. Let go
of it as much as you can. Let go of it and focus on your mind....For
those of you who've never done this before, it may take a while.
Whenever any pain or anything arises, if the mind is affected by
craving or defilement, it'll struggle because it doesn't want the
pain. All it wants is pleasure.
This is where you have to be patient and endure the pain,
because pain is something that has to occur. If there's pleasure,
don't get enthralled with it. If there's pain don't push it away.
Start out by keeping the mind neutral as your basic stance. Then
whenever pleasure or pain arises, don't get pleased or upset. Keep the
mind continuously neutral and figure out how to let go. If there's a
lot of pain, you first have to endure it and then relax your
attachments. Don't think of the pain as being your pain. Let it be
the pain of the body, the pain of nature.
If the mind latches tight onto anything, it really suffers. It
struggles. So here we patiently endure and let go. You have to
practice so that you're really good at handling pain. If you can let
go of physical pain, you'll be able to let go of all sorts of other
suffering and pain as well....Keep watching the pain, knowing the
pain, letting it go. Once you can let it go, you don't have to use a
lot of endurance. It takes a lot of endurance only at the beginning.
Once the pain arises, separate the mind from it. Let it be the pain of
the body. Don't let the mind be pained, too....
This is something that requires equanimity. If you can maintain
equanimity in the face of pleasure or pain, it can make the mind
peaceful -- peaceful even though the pain is still pain. The mind
keeps knowing, enduring the pain so as to let it go.
After you've worked at this a good while, you'll come to see how
important the ways of the mind are. The mind may be hard to train, but
if you keep training it -- if you have the time, you can practice at
home, at night or early in the morning, keeping watch on your mind --
you'll gain the understanding that comes from mindfulness and
discernment. Those who don't train the mind like this go through life
-- birth, ageing, illness, and death -- not knowing a thing about the
mind at all.
When you know your own mind, then when any really heavy illness
comes along, the fact that you know your mind will make the pain less
and less. But this is something you have to work at doing correctly.
It's not easy, yet once the mind is well trained, there's no match for
it. It can do away with pain and suffering, and doesn't get restless
and agitated. It grows still and cool -- refreshed and blooming right
there within itself. So try to experience this still, quiet mind....
This is a really important skill to develop, because it will make
craving, defilement, and attachment grow weaker and weaker. All of us
have defilements, you know. Greed, anger, and delusion cloud all of
our hearts. If we haven't trained ourselves in meditation, our hearts
are constantly burning with suffering and stress. Even the pleasure we
feel over external things is pleasure only in half-measures, because
there's suffering and stress in the delusion that thinks it's
pleasure. As for the pleasure that comes from the practice, it's a
cool pleasure that lets go of everything, really free from any sense
of me or mine. I ask you reach the Dhamma that is the real meat inside
this thing undisturbed by defilement, undisturbed by pain or anything
else.
Even though there's pain in the body, you have to figure out how
to let it go. The body's simply the four elements -- earth, water,
wind, and fire. It has to keep showing its inconstancy and
stressfulness, so keep your mindfulness neutral, at equanimity. Let
the mind be above its feelings -- above pleasure, above pain, above
everything....
All it really takes is endurance -- endurance and relinquishment,
letting things go, seeing that they're not us, not ours. This is a
point you have to hammer at, over and over again. When we say you have
to endure, you really have to endure. Don't be willing to
surrender. Craving is going to keep coming up and whispering --
telling you to change things, to try for this or that kind of pleasure
-- but don't you listen to it. You have to listen to the Buddha -- the
Buddha who tells you to let go of craving. Otherwise craving will
plaster and paint things over; the mind will struggle and won't be
able to settle down. So you have to give it your all. Look at this
hour as a special hour -- special in that you're using special
endurance to keep watch on your own heart and mind. K. Khao-suan-luang
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