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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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The mind, if mindfulness and awareness are watching over it,
won't meet with any suffering as the result of its actions. If
suffering does arise, we'll immediately be aware of it and able to
put it out. This is one point of the practice we can work at
constantly. And we can test ourselves by seeing how refined and subtle
our all-around awareness is inside the mind. Whenever the mind slips
away and goes out to receive external sensory contact: Can it maintain
its basic stance of mindfulness or internal awareness? The practice we
need to work at in our everyday life is to have constant mindfulness,
constant all-around present awareness like this. This is something we
work at in every posture: sitting, standing, walking, and lying down.
Make sure that your mindfulness stays continuous.
Living in this world -- the mental and physical phenomena of
these five aggregates -- gives us plenty to contemplate. We must try
to watch them, to contemplate them, so that we can understand them --
because the truths we must learn how to read in this body and mind are
here to be read with every moment. We don't have to get wrapped up
with any other extraneous themes, because all the themes we need are
right here in the body and mind. As long as we can keep the mind
constantly aware all around, we can contemplate them.
If you contemplate mental and physical events to see how they
arise and disband right in the here and now, and don't get involved
with external things -- like sights making contact with the eyes, or
sounds with the ears -- then there really aren't a lot of issues. The
mind can be at normalcy, at equilibrium -- calm and undisturbed by
defilement or the stresses that come from sensory contact. It can look
after itself and maintain its balance. You'll come to sense that if
you're aware right at awareness in and of itself, without going out to
get involved in external things like the mental labels and thoughts
that will tend to arise, the mind will see their constant arising and
disbanding -- and won't be embroiled in anything. This way it can be
disengaged, empty, and free. But if it goes out to label things as
good or evil, as me or mine, or gets attached to anything, it'll
become unsettled and disturbed.
You have to know that if the mind can be still, totally and
presently aware, and capable of contemplating with every activity,
then blatant forms of suffering and stress will dissolve away. Even if
they start to form, you can be alert to them and disperse them
immediately. Once you see this actually happening -- even in only the
beginning stages -- it can disperse a lot of the confusion and turmoil
in your heart. In other words, don't let yourself dwell on the past or
latch onto thoughts of the future. As for the events arising and
passing away in the present, you have to leave them alone. Whatever
your duties, simply do them as you have to -- and the mind won't get
worked up about anything. It will be able, to at least some extent, to
be empty and still.
This one thing is something you have to be very careful about.
You have to see this for yourself: that if your mindfulness and
discernment are constantly in charge, the truths of the arising and
disbanding of mental and physical phenomena are always there for you
to see, always there for you to know. If you look at the body,
you'll have to see it simply as physical properties. If you look at
feelings, you'll have to see them as changing and inconstant:
pleasure, pain, neither pleasure nor pain. To see these things is to
see the truth within yourself. Don't let yourself get caught up with
your external duties. Simply keep watch in this way inside. If your
awareness is the sort that lets you read yourself correctly, the mind
will be able to stay at normalcy, at equilibrium, at stillness,
without any resistance.
If the mind can stay with itself and not go out looking for
things to criticize or latch onto, it can maintain a natural form of
stillness. So this is something we have to try for in our every
activity. Keep your conversations to a minimum, and there won't be a
whole lot of issues. Keep watch right at the mind. When you keep watch
at the mind and your mindfulness is continuous, your senses can stay
restrained.
Being mindful to keep watch in this way is something you have to
work at. Try it and see: Can you keep this sort of awareness
continuous? What sort of things can still get the mind engaged? What
sorts of thoughts and labels of good and bad, me and mine does it
think up? Then look to see if these things arise and disband.
The sensations that arise from external contact and internal
contact all have the same sorts of characteristics. You have to look
till you can see this. If you know how to look, you'll see it -- and
the mind will grow calm.
So the point we have to practice in this latter stage doesn't
have a whole lot of issues. There's nothing you have to do, nothing
you have to label, nothing you have to think a whole lot about. Simply
look carefully and contemplate, and in this very lifetime you'll have
a chance to be calm and at peace, to know yourself more profoundly
within. You'll come to see that the Dhamma is amazing right here in
your own heart. Don't go searching for the Dhamma outside, for it
lies within. Peace lies within, but we have to contemplate so that
we're aware all around -- subtly, deep down. If you look just on the
surface, you won't understand anything. Even if the mind is at
normalcy on the ordinary, everyday level, you won't understand much of
anything at all.
You have to contemplate so that you're aware all around in a
skillful way. The word "skillful" is something you can't explain with
words, but you can know for yourself when you see the way in which
awareness within the heart becomes special, when you see what this
special awareness is about. This is something you can know for
yourself.
And there's not really much to it: simply arising, persisting,
disbanding. Look until this becomes plain -- really, really plain --
and everything disappears. All suppositions, all conventional
formulations, all those aggregates and properties get swept away,
leaving nothing but awareness pure and simple, not involved with
anything at all -- and there's nothing you have to do to it. Simply
stay still and watch, be aware, letting go with every moment.
Simply watching this one thing is enough to do away with all
sorts of defilements, all sorts of suffering and stress. If you don't
know how to watch it, the mind is sure to get disturbed. It's sure to
label things and concoct thoughts. As soon as there's contact at the
senses, it'll go looking for things to latch onto, liking and
disliking the objects it meets in the present and then getting
involved with the past and future, spinning a web to entangle itself.
If you truly look at each moment in the present, there's really
nothing at all. You'll see with every mental moment that things
disband, disband, disband -- really nothing at all. The important
point is that you don't go forming issues out of nothing. The physical
elements perform their duties in line with their elementary physical
nature. The mental elements keep sensing in line with their own
affairs. But our stupidity is what goes looking for issues to cook up,
to label, to think about. It goes looking for things to latch onto and
then gets the mind into a turmoil. This point is all we really have to
see for ourselves. This is the problem we have to solve for ourselves.
If things are left to their nature, pure and simple, there's no "us,"
no "them." This is a singular truth that will arise for us to know and
see. There's nothing else we can know or see that can match it in any
way. Once you know and see this one thing, it extinguishes all
suffering and stress. The mind will be empty and free, with no
meanings, no attachments, for anything at all.
This is why looking inward is so special in so many ways.
Whatever arises, simply stop still to look at it. Don't get excited by
it. If you become excited when any special intuitions arise when the
mind is still, you'll get the mind worked up into a turmoil. If you
become afraid that this or that will happen, that too will get you in
a turmoil. So you have to stop and look, stop and know. The first
thing is simply to look. The first thing is simply to know. And don't
latch onto what you know -- because whatever it is, it's simply a
phenomenon that arises and disbands, arises and disbands, changing as
part of its nature.
So your awareness has to take a firm stance right at the mind in
and of itself. In the beginning stages you have to know that when
mindfulness is standing firm, the mind won't be affected by the
objects of sensory contact. Keep working at maintaining this stance,
holding firm to this stance. If you gain a sense of this for yourself,
really knowing and seeing for yourself, your mindfulness will become
even more firm. If anything arises in any way at all, you'll be able
to let it go -- and all the many troubles and turmoils of the mind
will dissolve away.
If mindfulness slips and the mind goes out giving meanings to
anything, latching onto anything, troubles will arise, so you have to
keep checking on this with every moment. There's nothing else that's
so worth checking on. You have to keep check on the mind in and of
itself, contemplating the mind in and of itself. Or else you can
contemplate the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves,
or the phenomenon of arising and disbanding -- i.e., the Dhamma -- in
and of itself. All of these things are themes you can keep track of
entirely within yourself. You don't have to keep track of a lot of
themes, because having a lot of themes is what will make you restless
and distracted. First you'll practice this theme, then you'll practice
that, then you'll make comparisons, all of which will keep the mind
from growing still.
If you can take your stance at awareness, if you're skilled at
looking, the mind can be at peace. You'll know how things arise and
disband. First practice keeping awareness right within yourself so
that your mindfulness can be firm, without being affected by the
objects of sensory contact, so that it won't label things as good or
bad, pleasing or displeasing. You have to keep checking to see that
when the mind can be at normalcy, centered and neutral as its primary
stance, then -- whatever it knows or sees -- it will be able to
contemplate and let go.
The sensations in the mind that we explain at such length are
still on the level of labels. Only when there can be awareness right
at awareness will you really be able to know that the mind that is
aware of awareness in this way doesn't send its knowing outside of
this awareness. There are no issues. Nothing can be concocted in the
mind when it knows in this way. In other words, An inward-staying
The only thing you have to work at maintaining is the state of
mind at normalcy -- knowing, seeing, and still in the present. If you
don't maintain it, if you don't keep looking after it, then when
sensory contact comes it will have an effect. The mind will go out
with labels of good and bad, liking and disliking. So make sure you
maintain the basic awareness that's aware right at yourself. And don't
let there be any labeling. No matter what sort of sensory contact
comes, you have to make sure that this awareness comes first.
If you train yourself correctly in this way, everything will
stop. You won't go straying out through your senses of sight, hearing,
etc. The mind will stop and look, stop and be aware right at
awareness, so as to know the truth that all things arise and disband.
There's no real truth to anything. Only our stupidity is what latches
onto things, giving them meanings and then suffering for it --
suffering because of its ignorance, suffering because of its
unacquaintance with the five aggregates -- form, feelings,
perceptions, thought-formations, and consciousness-- all of which are
inconstant, stressful, and not-self.
Use mindfulness to gather your awareness together, and the mind
will stop getting unsettled, stop running after things. It will be
able to stop and be still. Then make it know in this way, see in this
way constantly -- at every moment, with every activity. Work at
watching and knowing the mind in and of itself: That will be enough to
cut away all sorts of issues. You won't have to concern yourself with
them.
If the body is in pain, simply keep watch of it. You can simply
keep watch of feelings in the body because the mind that's aware of
itself in this way can keep watch of anything within or without. Or it
can simply be aware of itself to the point where it lets go of things
outside, lets go of sensory contact, and keeps constant watch on the
mind in and of itself. That's when you'll know that this is what the
mind is like when it's at peace: It doesn't give meanings to anything.
It's the emptiness of the mind unattached, uninvolved, unconcerned
with anything at all.
These words - unattached, uninvolved, and unconcerned -- are
things you have to consider carefully, because what they refer to is
subtle and deep. "Uninvolved" means uninvolved with sensory contact,
undisturbed by the body or feelings. "Unconcerned" means not worried
about past, future, or present. You have to contemplate these things
until you know them skillfully. Even though they're subtle, you have
to contemplate them until you know them thoroughly. And don't go
concerning yourself with external things, because they'll keep you
unsettled, keep you running, keep you distracted with labels and
thoughts of good and bad and all that sort of thing. You have to put a
stop to these things. If you don't, your practice won't accomplish
anything, because these things keep playing up to you and deceiving
you -- i.e., once you see anything, it will fool you into seeing it as
right, wrong, good, bad, and so forth.
Eventually you have to come down to the awareness that everything
simply arises, persists, and then disbands. Make sure stay focused
on the disbanding. If you watch just the arising, you may get
carried off on a tangent, but if you focus on the disbanding you'll
see emptiness: Everything is disbanding every instant. No matter what
you look at, no matter what you see, it's there for just an instant
and then disbands. Then it arises again. Then it disbands. There's
simply arising, knowing, disbanding.
So let's watch what happens of its own accord -- because the
arising and disbanding that occurs by way of the senses is something
that happens of its own accord. You can't prevent it. You can't force
it. If you look and know it without attachment, there will be none of
the harm that comes from joy or sorrow. The mind will stay in relative
normalcy and neutrality. But if you're forgetful and start latching
on, labeling things in pairs in any way at all -- good and bad, happy
and sad, pleasing and displeasing -- the mind will become unsettled:
no longer empty, no longer still. When this happens you have to probe
on in to know why.
All the worthless issues that arise in the mind have to be cut
away. Then you'll find that you have less and less to say, less and
less to talk about, less and less to think about. These things grow
less and less on their own. They stop on their own. But if you get
involved in a lot of issues, the mind won't be able to stay still.
So we have to keep watching things that are completely worthless and
without substance, to see that they're not-self. Keep watching them
repeatedly, because your awareness, coupled with the mindfulness and
discernment that will know the truth, has to see that, "This isn't my
self. There's no substance or worth to it at all. It simply arises and
disbands right here. It's here for just an instant and then it
disbands."
All we have to do is stop and look, stop and know clearly in this
way, and we'll be able to do away with many, many kinds of suffering
and stress. The normal stress of the aggregates will still occur -- we
can't prevent it -- but we'll know that it's the stress of nature and
won't latch onto it as ours.
So we keep watch of things that happen on their own. If we know
how to watch, we keep watching things that happen on their own. Don't
latch onto them as being you or yours. Keep this awareness firmly
established in itself, as much as you can, and there won't be much
else you'll have to remember or think about.
When you keep looking, keep knowing like this at all times,
you'll come to see that there are no big issues going on. There's just
the issue of arising, persisting, and disbanding. You don't have to
label anything as good or bad. If you simply look in this way, it's no
great weight on the heart. But if you go dragging in issues of good
and bad, self and all that, then suffering starts in a big way. The
defilements start in a big way and weigh on the heart, making it
troubled and upset. So you have to stop and look, stop and investigate
really deep down inside. It's like water covered with duckweed: Only
when we take our hand to part the duckweed and take a look will we see
that the water beneath it is crystal clear.
As you look into the mind, you have to part it, you have to stop:
stop thinking, stop labeling things as good or bad, stop everything.
You can't go branding anything. Simply keep looking, keep knowing.
When the mind is quiet you'll see that there's nothing there.
Everything is all still. Everything has all stopped inside. But as
soon as there's labeling, even in the stillness, the stopping, the
quiet, it will set things in motion. And as soon as things get set
into motion, and you don't know how to let go right from the start,
issues will arise, waves will arise. Once there are issues and waves,
they strike the mind and it goes splashing all out of control. This
splashing of the mind includes craving and defilement as well, because
avijja -- ignorance -- lies at its root....
Our major obstacle is this aggregate of perceptions, of labels.
If we aren't aware of the arising and disbanding of perceptions, these
labels will take hold. Perceptions are the chief instigators that
label things within and without, so we have to be aware of their
arising and disbanding. Once we're aware in this way, perceptions will
no longer function as a cause of suffering. In other words, they won't
give rise to any further thought-formations. The mind will be aware in
itself and able to extinguish these things in itself.
So we have to stop things at the level of perception. If we
don't, thought-formations will fashion things into issues and then
cause consciousness to wobble and waver in all sorts of ways. But
these are things we can stop and look at, things we can know with
every mental moment....If we aren't yet really acquainted with the
arising and disbanding in the mind, we won't be able to let go. We can
talk about letting go, but we can't do it because we don't yet know.
As soon as anything arises we grab hold of it -- even when actually
it's already disbanded, but since we don't really see, we don't
know....
So I ask that you understand this basic principle. Don't go
grasping after this thing or that, or else you'll get yourself all
unsettled. The basic theme is within: look on in, keep knowing on in
until you penetrate everything. The mind will then be free from
turmoil. Empty. Quiet. Aware. So keep continuous watch of the mind in
and of itself, and you'll come to the point where you simply run out
of things to say. Everything will stop on its own, grow still on its
own, because the underlying condition that has stopped and is still
is already there, simply that we aren't aware of it yet.
K. Khao-suan-luang
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