When the mind is composed, how can I investigate the 5 aggregates?

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

5th April, 2022

Question (M1):  When the mind is composed, how can I investigate the 5 aggregates?

Phra Ajahn:  When the mind is composed, you don’t do anything. When you’ve composed your mind, you want to make it calm and happy. 

When the mind is calm and happy, try to maintain it for as long as possible—don’t do any contemplation or investigation yet. You wait until the mind withdraws from that composed state, when it comes back to the normal state like the state you are in right now, then you can start to investigate or contemplate on the body, the feelings or the mental object. 

You don’t do it when the mind is composed. 

When you composed the mind, you want to build up the strength for the mind; you want to add mental strength first because in order to study the body, the feelings or the mental object, you need to have a composed and strong mind. If your mind is not yet composed, you will not be able to study the body, the feelings or the mental states for a long time.

There are two different sections in the practice:

(i) the first section is to develop calm (samādhi), to make the mind become strong, because samādhi gives the mind the strength to study anything you want to study; if your mind is not strong, your mind won’t be able to concentrate on the study, so you need to compose the mind first, to make the mind strong;

(ii) the second section is when the mind is strong enough, then you can tell the mind to study the nature of the body, the nature of the feelings and the nature of the mental objects.

“Dhamma in English, Jan 3, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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