“If you don’t force yourself and leave it for the desire to do it (meditate), this is very seldom can be successful unless you have developed this meditation habits before in your previous lives.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

14 July 2024

“If you don’t force yourself and leave it for the desire to do it (meditate), this is very seldom can be successful unless you have developed this meditation habits before in your previous lives.”

Question:  How can I keep the non-stop-wandering mind to calm down during ānāpānasati meditation?

Than Ajahn:  You have to focus only at the breathing and not let your mind go think about other things. Just keep focusing on the breathing. Just be aware of your breathing in and breathing out. Don’t think about the breath itself. Don’t think about anything else. Just be aware. 

…….

Question:  How can I be able to meditate longer than 30 minutes?

Than Ajahn:  You just have to keep doing it and do it a lot then you can extend your time. The most important thing is that you have to keep maintaining mindfulness even after you sit. If you want to sit for a long time, you need a strong mindfulness. And you can have a strong mindfulness by developing mindfulness all day long. 

…….

Question:  When I meditate for 30 minutes or an hour, should I bring my mind on aniccā, dukkha, anattā or should I keep going on samatha?

Than Ajahn:  When you do not have samatha yet, you have to develop samatha first. Vipassanā is the second level and you need the support of samatha because if your mind does not have samatha, your mind will be restless and it will not like to think about aniccā, dukkha, anattā.

…….

Question:  I realised that I always avoid meditation even though I can get calm when I meditated. Am I less in paramῑ or what influence this laziness?

Than Ajahn:  Generally the mind of ordinary people are inclined towards the happiness from the senses: from seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting, so it is not easy for people to meditate. In order to meditate, people have to force themselves to do it. 

If you don’t force yourself and leave it for the desire to do it (meditate), this is very seldom can be successful unless you have developed this meditation habits before in your previous lives. If you have developed a lot of meditation in your previous lives then you might find it easier and more incline to meditate than to watch tv. So if you are more incline to watching tv than meditating, it means that you used to do that (watching tv) before. 

It is similar to when you used to use your right hand you will keep using your right hand, you don’t want to use your left hand, and if you want to use your left hand to do something, you have to force yourself to do it. 

The same way when you are looking for happiness, whether it is inside or outside of the mind. Most people are used to look for happiness outside the mind and they go and find happiness through their senses but for some other people who might in their past lives used to find happiness inside, they tend to like to meditate more than watching tv. So this is your past actions.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g