The teachings of Ajahn Suchart
Question from Indonesia: How to start meditation for beginners?
Than Ajahn: First of all you have to develop mindfulness. You have to be able to control your thoughts.
Stop your thoughts as much as possible. Generally, there are two methods that we use to develop mindfulness. First method is to recite a mantra. Keep reciting a mantra regardless of what you do. Keep reciting a mantra whenever you do activities that don’t need to use thinking, like when you’re taking a shower, washing your clothes, eating. These are activities that don’t need any thinking. When the mind wants to think aimlessly, you use a mantra to stop it. You recite ‘Buddho, Buddho, Buddho.’
The second method is to watch what your body is doing. For example, when you are eating, you have to watch it from the time you spoon the food, put the food in your mouth, chew it and swallow it. And then, restart the cycle again: spoon the food, put it in the mouth, chew the food and swallow it. You have to be this mindful in order to stop your mind from thinking. This is the second method of developing mindfulness, by keep concentrating on what you’re doing. When you have this level of mindfulness, when you sit, you will be able to watch your breath as your object of concentration. Keep watching your breath at the tip of your nose where the air enters and leaves the body. It enters and leaves the body at the tip of the nose. Keep watching the breath at that point.
Don’t follow the breath going in. Don’t follow it going out. Keep watching it. Don’t manage the breath.
Don’t force the breath to become short or long. Leave the breath alone. The breath will then change naturally. When you first start, the breath will be short. As the mind becomes peaceful and calm, and when the body is rested, the breath will be longer and softer.
Just be aware. Just know what the breath is. Don’t manage the breath. Use the breath as the anchor to stop your mind from thinking about other things. If you can do this, your mind will eventually become still and very happy. Then, you know that the true happiness is within yourself. You don’t need to go and look for anything else to make you happy if you can succeed in your meditation.
“Dhamma in English, Apr 25, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube:
No comments:
Post a Comment