The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
6 March 2024
“The Buddha taught the natural way… Be mindful of the activity you are doing. When you are looking to the left, just know that you are looking to the left. When you are looking to the right, just know that you are looking to the right. It is not looking to the right yet thinking about what you just saw on the left.”
Question: Can doing mindful prostration lead to absorption?
Than Ajahn: You can develop mindfulness without having to prostrate. You develop mindfulness through daily activities. When you are walking, you are mindful of walking. When you are eating, you are mindful of eating. When you are washing, you are mindful of washing. So you be mindful of the normal daily activities.
Don’t try to do something abnormal. When you walk three steps and you prostrate and then you walk another three steps and you prostrate again, this is not natural.
The Buddha taught the natural way. In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Buddha taught us to just be aware of our body activities.
Be aware in whatever activity you are doing. Be mindful of the activity you are doing. When you are looking to the left, just know that you are looking to the left. When you are looking to the right, just know that you are looking to the right. It is not looking to the right yet thinking about what you just saw on the left.
To be mindful means that you are with the body activities. If you are with the body activities, it means that you can control your mind. You don’t let the mind go here and there. Once you can control your mind, when you sit down, you can go into absorption.
You need to have mindfulness. If you think you can be mindful by doing mindful prostration, it is okay, but eventually you have to sit down and meditate using ānāpānasati, watching your breath, fixing your attention at one point. This is the only way for the mind to become totally absorbed, to become one.
By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
Youtube: Dhamma in English
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