“You have to stick to your meditation object.”

“You have to stick to your meditation object.”

Question from Norway: I heard you said in a talk that one should let go of nimittas and light in meditation. I often get the sense of white light when I meditate. When I sustain this white light for a while and I fixate my mind at a specific body part, it brings me great joy. It makes the mind feel focused and open at the same time. Is this the correct way to meditate?

Than Ajahn:  No, you have to stick to your meditation object. If you use a mantra, you should continue on with your mantra. If you use the breath, just keep focusing on your breath.

If you don’t stick to your meditation object, you will not reach the destination, which is having calm and upekkhā where the mind becomes neutral, the mind has no desire, no love or hatred, no fear, no delusion. If you don’t stick to your meditation object, your mind will not be able to reach singularity, to become one. When it’s not becoming one, it means it still thinks, it will not become neutral. You want to make the mind neutral because this is when the mind is the happiest.

Question: Sometimes images of bones and skeleton parts will occur in this bright light that I mentioned in my previous question, and when this happens I feel very liberated. Should I immediately let go of the bone images, or should I try to maintain them for a while and let the mind get even brighter?

Than Ajahn:  It depends on what you want. If you don’t want upekkhā, if you don’t want the mind to become one, you can pay attention to whatever comes up in your meditation. But that will be against the purpose of meditation.

The purpose of meditation is to calm your mind, to stop your mind from reacting. You want to make your mind to just purely know. If you pay attention to other objects, your mind will be distracted. And it will not become one. You will never achieve samādhi.

“Q&A session, Mar 28, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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