“We need to have this knowledge about the true nature of the body in order to let go of our delusion…”
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“A monk doesn’t seek any happiness from anything in this world. We only seek happiness that arises from mental calm. In order to be able to have this mental calm, we need mindfulness. In Pāli we call it sati. Sati is the instrument or the tool that will stop the mind from thinking.
When the mind stops thinking then the mind will become calm, peaceful and happy. So what we have to constantly do from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep is to develop mindfulness, being mindful with one thing, like using a mantra, using the name of the Buddha: ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’.
We just keep reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ all the time, regardless of whatever we do. This is in order to stop us from thinking about other things. The exception is when we have to think about some other things, then we can temporarily stop reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ and think of the things that we really have to think about, like what we have to do.
When we are doing something, we have to use our thoughts, then we stop reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ for a while. After we finish with whatever we have to think, then we should come back and recite ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ in order to prevent the mind from thinking aimlessly and uselessly.
When the mind doesn’t think, we can stop reciting, we can just watch the mind. We watch the mind that doesn’t think and we keep it that way. Whenever the mind starts thinking aimlessly again, then we should start reciting the mantra again, ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’.
When we have time to sit, we should sit down, close our eyes, and recite ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ again, and eventually the mind will come to perfect stillness. The mind will stop thinking, the mind will enter into fourth jhāna or appanā-samādhi. That’s where we want the mind to go, to enter where there is no thinking. All that is left is only the one who knows and a sense of peace and happiness. This is what we want to acquire.
Once we have acquired it, we want to maintain it. When the mind is in appanā-samādhi, we should not do anything. We should just maintain our mindfulness, just watch this state of mind for as long as possible. It is not the time yet to develop wisdom such as contemplation of the body. This will have to come after the mind withdraws from samādhi.
After the mind remains in the appanā state for a while, it will then withdraw. When it withdraws, it will come back to its normal state, and be aware of sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile objects, and start to think again. When the mind starts thinking we should direct the mind towards body contemplation, to study the true nature of the body by going through the 32 parts of the body, by separating these 32 parts of the body to see that truly there is nobody in this body. There are only the 32 parts. This is the way to develop wisdom or paññā.
We need to have this knowledge about the true nature of the body in order to let go of our delusion, our attachment to the body and our desire to keep the body in this state all the time. The truth is we cannot have the body with us all the time. One day sooner or later, this body will have to leave us, but if we know this will happen and we are willing to let go of the body, then we will not be affected when the body leaves us in the future."
“Singapore via skype – talks given to monks, Aug 9, 2015.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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