“Don’t do anything when the mind becomes calm and peaceful. Don’t start investigation or contemplation during that time.”

“Don’t do anything when the mind becomes calm and peaceful. Don’t start investigation or contemplation during that time.”

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Question: What is the meditation technique practised here?

Than Ajahn: It is the same everywhere. You can use ānāpānasati or the mantra Buddho. It is up to you. The method that you are comfortable with and you find it useful and can produce (good) results. Basically you must have mindfulness all the time before you can sit and succeed in your meditation. If you don’t have mindfulness, when you sit, your mind will not stop thinking but will keep wandering, thinking about this and that instead of focusing on your meditation subject.

First, you have to bring your mind to stop wandering. You have to maintain mindfulness all day long, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. You need to have something for your mind to be fixed on to and do not let it move around. You can use a mantra: Buddho Buddho Buddho; or you can watch your body activities. If you can bring your mind to a stationary state, then when you sit down, you can succeed in your meditation.

If you have mindfulness, when you sit in meditation, you can watch your breathing. You can use your breathing as your meditation subject. Just focus on your breathing, and don’t think about other things. Don’t worry about the breathing whether it is short or long, whether it is coarse or fine. Just be aware of the breath.

Use the breathing as your point of focus to keep your mind from wandering, and going to places. If you concentrate continuously, your mind will suddenly drop into calm. When the mind becomes calm, there is nothing for you to do because the mind will just stop doing anything. Then you can just be aware and let the mind rest for as long as possible.

Don’t do anything when the mind becomes calm and peaceful. Don’t start investigation or contemplation during that time. You have to wait until the mind withdraws from that calm state because you want to establish the strength of calm mind to resist your defilements later on. It is like your body. You need to rest your body before you go out and work. So you don’t want to do anything when the body goes to sleep. You don’t want to wake it up, you want to let the body sleep for as long as it wants.

After the body has rested. You can then get up and can go to work with strength. It is the same with the mind; the mind needs the strength of upekkhā.

“Dhamma in English, Jun 23, 2015.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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