Question: Mindfulness and thinking are not the same thing. Can Ajahn please elaborate on this?
Than Ajahn: Mindfulness is to be aware of one object, like a mantra, Buddho, Buddho, or being mindful of the body activity from the time you get up. As soon as your body rises from your sleeping position, to sitting down, to standing up, to walking, your mindfulness has to be there right away. Just to know about the body activity only and not to think about other things. If you think about other things, then you are not mindful of your body anymore. Or you can be mindful of your mantra, by reciting Buddho, Buddho, Buddho during your activity. This is being mindful.
Thinking is simply the mind activity about what to do or where to go. Thinking can be good and it can also be bad. But for most people, we usually think about bad things, think about hurting ourselves. What I mean by hurting ourselves is thinking about greed, hatred and delusion. Normally this is how an unenlightened person’s mind thinks. When he sees something, he wants to possess it, to cling to it. This is a bad thought. To think a good thought, when you see something you like, you should think, no – you should not have it, because it is impermanent, it can cause you suffering.
Because you will be possessive, you will be attached, and when you lose that thing, you will become unhappy. So you have to train your mind to think in a different direction, not possessing but letting go, giving up. But normally it is hard to do if your mind has no calm, no jhāna, because you have nothing to replace the happiness that you get from things. But when you have jhāna, when you have happiness inside your mind, then you can tell your mind not to get or possess this or that thing. You will have a way of making yourself happy without having to have those things.
Dhamma in English, Nov 11, 2014.
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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