The best way to separate the mind from the body is to meditate.

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

“The best way to separate the mind from the body is to meditate.”

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Question:  When I got up in the morning, my body felt very tired. I felt like I was very tired although I knew that it was just the body. How can I separate the mind, the body, me, the feelings and the emotions?

Than Ajahn: You have to acknowledge them. You acknowledge that this is the body who feels tired. The mind is ‘the one who knows’. You have to separate the mind from the body. You treat the body like a patient and the mind is the doctor. The doctor will look at the body and ask, ‘how are you?’ The body will say, ‘I am sick.’ The doctor then asks the body to take some medicines. 

The doctor doesn’t have to get sick with the body.

Know that the mind is ‘the one who knows’. The mind is the one who acknowledges what’s happening to the body. The mind is not sick. However, due to the mind’s ignorance and its habits which thinks that the mind is the body, so whatever happens to the body, the mind thinks that it feels that way too. 

You have to teach the mind that it doesn’t get sick with the body. 

The mind get sick due to its delusion to think that the mind is the body. And it takes time to convince the mind otherwise.

The best way to separate the mind from the body is to meditate. When you meditate, you automatically detach your mind from your body. Your mind becomes neutral. It then can look at the body as merely the body. You need to meditate to really separate the mind from the body. If you can’t do it yet, at least you tell the mind to observe the body which somewhat may help.

If you have the right attitude, you can see the body as someone else’s body. When you see other people get sick, you don’t get sick, do you? So, try to look at your body as someone else’s body. You merely observing it. But the best thing to do this is to meditate. When you meditate, you have the strength to actually separate the mind from the body. By merely telling yourself to separate the mind from the body, sometimes you are not strong enough to really do so.

You have to meditate with mindfulness. You need a lot of mindfulness before you can meditate successfully. Try to stop thinking. Stop wandering to the past or to the future.

Keep the mind in the present. 

Merely know what’s going on without having any commentary on what’s going on. Like watching your body, just watch the body. Stay with the body. Don’t let the mind go away to the past or to the future. If you can do this, when you meditate, your mind can become concentrated on your breath. Your mind can become calm and it can separate itself from the body temporarily.

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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