The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
25th August, 2022
“Watching the mind means watching your thoughts and stopping your thoughts.”
Question: “Mindfulness of mind seems to be clearer to me than mindfulness of the body. Is it important to focus on the mind or in the body?”
Than Ajahn: “If you’re using your body, then you have to be mindful of your body. If you don’t watch what your body is doing, your mind can be doing something incorrectly. Like walking, if you don’t watch where you’re walking, you might walk into a tree or you might fall down because you step on the slippery road.
Mindfulness means to be careful in what you are doing. If your body is moving, then you have to be mindful of your body. If your body is sitting still, then you can watch your mind. In watching the mind, you have to know what you are watching, and know what you’re supposed to do.
The purpose of watching the mind is to stop your mind from thinking. If you cannot stop your mind from thinking and you still watch it, it doesn’t do you any good. Why do you want to stop your thinking? It’s because your thinking creates cravings and desires which follows by depression, restlessness and agitation.
So, watching the mind means watching your thoughts and stopping your thoughts. You have to learn how to stop your thoughts. You need something to stop your thoughts. The easiest way is to recite a mantra.
Keep reciting a mantra or keep watching your breath. You have to go back to have something to stop your mind from thinking.
Watching your mind is just to make sure that your mind is not doing anything bad. If your mind is not thinking, or if it’s not creating any problem, then it’s ok. But when it starts to create problems, you have to know how to stop it. If you don’t know how to stop your thoughts, watching the mind will not give any benefit.”
From “Dhamma in English to layperson from France, Mar 5-8, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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