“Mindfulness will enhance your memory because when you’re mindful, you know what you’re doing, so you don’t forget.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

8 September 2023

“Mindfulness will enhance your memory because when you’re mindful, you know what you’re doing, so you don’t forget.”

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Question (M): After listening to your talks, I start to give more priority to mindfulness but sometimes I feel that it makes me forget easily.

Than Ajahn: That’s not the case. I don’t think mindfulness causes loss of memory. In fact, mindfulness will enhance your memory because when you’re mindful, you know what you’re doing, so you don’t forget. You forget because you have no mindfulness. Like when you’re doing something but at the same time thinking about something else, then the next moment you’ll think, ‘Have I done that already?’ 

That’s because you don’t have mindfulness.

What you think as loss of memory, it might be you stop thinking temporarily. That might be the case. It’s because when you have mindfulness, you are not thinking and you don’t memorize things. You stop your mental activities. But this is only temporary. Any time you want to recall something, you can recall it any time you want.

When you’re mindful, you stop thinking. You stop recalling. You stop going to the past or going to the future. You keep your mind in the present. You keep your mind to what’s happening right now. Here and now.

 

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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