ON BRINGING QUALITIES DEVELOPED IN MEDITATION TO DAILY LIFE
“Ajaan Fuang had a student whose powers of concentration were extremely strong. After practicing with him for a while, she complained to him, “I don’t see that concentration is having any impact on the rest of my life.” She tended to have a very strong temper and her temper wasn’t going away.
And he explained to her, ‘It’s not the case that simply doing concentration is going to have some sort of magic-wand effect on the rest of your life. You have to take the lessons you’ve learned in the meditation, the qualities of mind you’ve developed in the meditation, and consciously bring them to bear on the rest of your life.’ This is one of the ways you bring out the merit of your meditation and spread it around.
So when you leave meditation, don’t really leave it. Try to think of the attitudes you’ve developed. You’ve had to develop some patience, some equanimity, some kindness for yourself. You’ve had to develop the ability to hold your thoughts in check, to exercise some restraint. Well, try to bring these qualities into your day-to-day interactions with other people.
Learn some restraint. Learn some equanimity when dealing with them.
If you’ve been meditating properly, you’ve developed these skills. But don’t just leave them on the meditation cushion. Take them along with you. See your interactions at work, your interactions at home, as part of the practice, as your opportunity to spread some of the goodness of the meditation around…”
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Excerpt from “Dedicating Merit”
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You can read the full talk here:
6 January 2023
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