“If you sit and you cannot focus, it means you don’t have strong enough mindfulness.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

“If you sit and you cannot focus, it means you don’t have strong enough mindfulness.”

"Meditation is to focus your attention on one object such as on your breath. When you sit, you close your eyes and focus your attention on your breath. 

Keep watching your breath, the in-and-out breath, watching it at one point, at the tip of the nose where the air comes into contact with the body. Don’t follow the air going inside or follow the air going outside. Just stay at one point, at the entrance, at the tip of the nose where you can feel the contact of the air and the body.

If you can stay focus on one point, eventually your mind will become calm. When your mind becomes calm, you will feel happy, light, and content.

You don’t want to have anything else. You don’t need anything. 

Once you know how to do this, then you can always do it any time you want to. If you sit and you cannot focus, it means you don’t have strong enough mindfulness.

So you should develop mindfulness first which you can do it all day long, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep by fixing your attention on something, like a mantra. You can recite Buddho, Buddho, Buddho while you’re doing things.

Instead of letting your mind think aimlessly, you force it to think only of Buddho, Buddho, Buddho while you do things that you don’t need to use your thought such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, combing your hair, getting dressed, eating, so forth.

You restrain your thought by using the mantra, Buddho, Buddho. If you can do this, then you’ll have strong mindfulness. 

And when you sit, you can then focus on your breath. Or you can use the mantra if you like. If you like the mantra, you can continue using the mantra while you sit in meditation. And if you don’t think about other things, then your mind will become calm and peaceful, and happy.

Then, you don’t need to spend money on things, spend money on your vacation, or spend money on people or whatever you want. Then, you don’t have to work. Then, you’ll become a monk."

Dhamma for the Asking,
Laypeople from SriLanka, Nov 3, 2017.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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