The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart
Question: What causes our mind to be able to practice easily for one day, that it’s quite tame and it can resist desire quite easily, but the day after that, the mind becomes so wild, where it creates lots of disrespectful thoughts and I feel like being knocked out by the defilement helplessly?
What should we do on the day when it’s difficult to practice?
Than Ajahn: The reason why your mind changes from good to bad is due to the fact whether you have mindfulness or you don’t have mindfulness.
On the day that you have mindfulness, your mind will be behaving. On the day when you are without mindfulness, your mind will be misbehaving. So, you have to maintain mindfulness at the same level as much as possible. As soon as you stop maintaining mindfulness, your mind can start to misbehave.
On the day when your mind is not under your control, it means you don’t have mindfulness. So, you have to restart your mindfulness right away, start to recite the mantra right away. Just keep reciting the mantra for a few minutes and your mind will go back to normal again. Don’t try to reason it out because the more you try to reason it out, the more you’ll think, and the more agitated and restless you’ll become.
So, don’t try to reason with your mind. Try to tame it with mindfulness, with a mantra. As soon as your mind becomes restless and agitated, don’t ask why, don’t try to find the reason. The more you try to find the reason, the more agitated you’ll become because you don’t have enough wisdom to do it yet.
Right now, the only thing you can do is to use mindfulness.
Question: Two days before the mind became wild, I gradually switched to be an observant of bodily movement where I experienced calmness and sitting was enjoyable. Was I being led by a false calmness and then lost my mindfulness? Should I stick to a mantra?
Than Ajahn: It depends. If you use other method and you can maintain your mind to be calm, then you can do it. But as soon as you can no longer use it, then you should go back to the mantra.
Sometimes, after you use a mantra, your mind becomes mindful, then you can stop using the mantra for a while.
But after you stop for a while, when your mind starts losing mindfulness, then you have to come back to your mantra again. You don’t have to use it all the time. Use it when you feel that your mind is not under your control. If your mind is still under your control, you don’t need it. You just observe it. But as soon as the mind begins to be uncontrollable, then you have to use your mantra.
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Question: How to be mindful in every activities we do all day? For example, do I have to repeat ‘I brush my hair’ during the time I brush my hair or do I have to look at the action closely, or do I have to repeat, ‘Buddho’ in whatever action I do? What kind of technique Than Ajahn used?
Than Ajahn: It depends on how strong your mindfulness is. If you try to watch what you do but your mind still goes to think about something else, then you might need to repeat something to bring it back. Like repeating, ‘brushing my teeth, brushing my teeth’ or using a mantra, ‘Buddho, Buddho’ to bring your mind from thinking about other things back to what you do.
But if you can watch what you do and it stays with what you do, then you don’t need to recite anything. So, it depends on your mind, your ability to concentrate.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 14, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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