The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
1 July 2023
Question: My normal practice for many years was to watch vedanā, especially the unpleasant ones like pain and numbness in the legs that would arise during meditation after one or two hours sitting. Do I watch that feeling and watch how it changes?
Than Ajahn: You should watch and see that they change—this is their nature. They are not constant, not the same all the time. They can change from painful to less painful, and to not painful. What you should watch more is your reaction to them. You should not react to them in whichever way.
You should just be an observer, not a reactor.
Just leave the pain alone. Let the pain be by using the teaching of the Buddha that teaches you to separate the mind from the pain.
The mind and the pain are two separate things.
The pain belongs to the body. The mind just watches the pain. The mind is just being aware of the pain. And the mind can be peaceful and calm and not disturbed if the mind has no desire or craving to get rid of the pain. As soon as you have any desire or craving to get rid of the pain, your mind will be agitated, restless and troubled. So, this is what you need to do to protect your mind.
It’s to keep your mind still and not disturbed by not creating any desire toward the pain that you are aware of.
You have to understand the nature of pains.
They come and go. They are not under your control. You cannot tell them to come or go away. The only thing you can do is just to observe them. Just be aware of them and leave them alone. Then, your mind will not be hurt.
Your mind is only hurting yourself by desiring for the pain to change or to disappear.
Question: I’ve seen how I can wait and watch it until it disappears.
Than Ajahn: That’s fine, then. This is just the practice. What you want to do in real life is to face any kinds of pains like pain from hunger, pain from getting a cut or something like that.
You should leave them alone. You should train your mind to just be aware and not to react. If you can do this, eventually, no pain can affect your mind. You can get sick and you can still be happy, peaceful and not disturbed: this is the goal. What you do in meditation is just like doing the homework so that when you meet the real test, you can pass the test by not being disturbed by those pains that come up.
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Question: So that was how I’ve been watching the vedanā, watching the changing nature of pain, how it travels and moves, the sensation that comes and goes. But lately, I’ve been learning to get into jhāna and I need to move the body to allow it to become fully disappeared. So, I’m torn between watching the breath and moving the body.
Than Ajahn: As soon as you move your body, you’re restarting your practice. You reset your meditation.
So, you should not move your body once you started. Leave the body alone and try to concentrate on your breath. If you find concentrating on your breath is difficult, maybe you want to use a mantra to help you, it might be helpful. Sometimes when the pain becomes strong, you cannot watch your breath, then you can try to use a mantra to help you.
Just recite a mantra, ‘Buddho, Buddho,’ or ‘aniccā, aniccā,’ or any kind of mantra that will keep your mind from desiring, from reacting to the pain.
Once you can do that, when there is no craving or desire, the stress or restlessness in the mind will disappear. And you’ll feel peaceful in the midst of the pain. You will not be disturbed by the pain because what really disturbs the mind is not the pain, but your craving or your desire to get rid of the pain.
The desire to get rid of the pain is what you want to get rid of. When you cannot get rid of it yet, then you use a mantra. Because you cannot use desire to get rid of your desire. If you do, it will become more intense. So, the only way is to ignore your desire, ignore the pain and concentrate on something like your breath or your mantra. Eventually, those desires will disappear and your mind will become peaceful. Even if the pain does not disappear, it will not bother you.
What you’re doing in meditation is doing the homework. What is important is when you have to face pain or bad feeling in real life, in your daily life. It might not through the pain itself but through what you see or what you hear. It’s the same thing. It’s still considered the feelings, right?
You can get painful feeling without getting painful body, without body pain.
By seeing something you dislike, it can make you have a painful feeling.
So, you have to know how to deal with them.
Deal with them just like the way you deal with the painful feeling of the body, i.e. by leaving them alone, by seeing that it is not your business. If you see some cruelty, it’s not your business. If there is anything you can do, do it.
I’m not saying you should not do anything to help people. But if it is not within your ability to help, then you just have to be aware, and let it happen. This way, it will not create any bad feeling inside your mind.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 14, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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