“The first key to success in meditation is that you have to cultivate the ability to focus your mind.”

“The first key to success in meditation is that you have to cultivate the ability to focus your mind.”

The Buddha found the right way. The problem is not the body. The problem is in the mind that is deluded. The mind takes something that doesn’t belong to itself and thinks that it is itself. So whatever happens to that thing, the mind suffers. This is the work that we do in Buddhist practice — not to correct the body, but to cure the mind that is sick through delusion.

We need the practice of meditation and insight. If we don’t do this, the mind does not have the strength to take and pass the test. Now you know the truth, but you cannot let go of the body yet because the force of attachment is stronger than the force of detachment.

What you need to do now is to develop the force of detachment by calming your mind. As your mind drops into calm, it temporarily detaches from the body and everything else. This is why we need to do meditation. In order to meditate you need to have the ability to focus. You have to be able to focus your mind, to stop your mind from thinking about this and that, from going here and there.

If you continue thinking, when you sit in meditation you cannot focus your mind on your meditation object. Your mind will think about other things while you are trying to focus on your breathing. You will not be able to sit for hours, and you will not experience any peace or calm.

The first key to success in meditation is that you have to cultivate the ability to focus your mind. Secondly, you have to sit down and calm your mind until it becomes totally peaceful. Thirdly, you have to develop insight by teaching your mind the truth.

The truth is that the mind is one thing and the body is another thing. If the mind clings to anything, it becomes agitated, depressed, and stressful because nothing in this world is permanent. If you want something to last forever, you will always be stressed because nothing lasts. Now you think something lasts a long time and you can get it, but the next day it could be gone.

You must learn to detach. Don’t cling to anything. Always remind yourself that everything is temporary. Everything that you have is temporary. Every experience that you are experiencing is temporary. If you are attached to it, when it disappears, you will be depressed. For example, if you have friends over to visit you, you are happy, but when they leave, you are left alone and feel sad and lonely.

If you can focus your mind, focus on your breathing, sitting in meditation and forgetting about everything else, your mind will drop into peace, and you will have real happiness. This is what you should do as a monk or a Buddhist.

Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g