NO MATTER WHAT, DON’T GIVE UP, JUST KEEP ON MEDITATING

NO MATTER WHAT, DON’T GIVE UP, JUST KEEP ON MEDITATING

Sometimes meditation is easy; sometimes it's hard. But whether it's easy or hard, we have to keep our minds on an even keel. When it gets easy, don't get complacent. If you get complacent, things start loosening up, like screws loosening up in your car. After a while things begin to rattle and then they fall off. At the same time when things don't go well, don't get upset. Rule number one in either case is to keep the mind on an even keel. Have a strong sense of the observer, the part of the mind that's simply watching what's going on, and identify as much as you can with that.

Ajaan Suwat once mentioned that when he first went to stay with Ajaan Mun his mind seemed to be all over the place. He'd sit and meditate and be thinking about this, thinking about that, and he was afraid to tell Ajaan Mun for fear of what Ajaan Mun might say. But then he realized, "I'm here to learn." So he went to see Ajaan Mun, to see what kind of advice he would give.

And Ajaan Mun's response was this: "Well, at least you're aware of what's happening. That's better than not being aware of your distractions at all." Then he quoted the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness: Being aware of a scattered mind when it's scattered counts as one of the foundations of mindfulness.

Ajaan Suwat handled that lesson really well. 

He realized that Ajaan Mun was not praising him but simply giving him some comfort, giving him some encouragement. He wasn't saying that where he was was just fine, but he was reminding him that it wasn't a total disaster, that the fact that he was meditating was better than not meditating at all.

This often happens with people: Things don't go well in their meditation and they say, "Well, tonight's just not my night to meditate. I'd do better to stop." Not meditating is not the answer. Even though it may not be pleasant, sitting through a bad meditation is better than not meditating. There may be some point in the course of the meditation when you finally come to your senses, when you see something in there that you didn't see before. This is why that sense of the observer is so important…”

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Excerpt from “The Observer” in Meditations 1: Forty Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

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You can read the full talk here:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/meditations.html#observer