Just Do It! Just keep breathing in and out like this. Dont be interested in anything else. It doesnt matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Dont pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. Dont take up anything else. Theres no need to think about gaining things. Dont take up anything at all. Simply know the in- breath and the out-breath. The in-breath and the out-breath. Bud on the in-breath; dho on the out-breath. Just stay with the breath in this way until you are aware of the in-breath and aware of the out-breath....aware of the in-breath....aware of the out-breath. Be aware in this way until the mind is peaceful, without irritation, without agitation, merely the breath going out and coming in. Let your mind remain in this state. You dont need a goal yet. Its this state that is the first stage of practice. If the mind is at ease, if its at peace then it will be naturally aware. As you keep doing it, the breath diminishes, becomes softer. The body becomes pliable, the mind becomes pliable. Its a natural process. Sitting is comfortable: youre not dull, you dont nod, youre not sleepy. The mind has a natural fluency about whatever it does. It is still. It is at peace. And then when you leave the samādhi, you say to yourself, Wow, what was that? You recall the peace that youve just experienced. And you never forget it. The thing which follows along with us is called sati, the power of recollection, and sampajañña, self-awareness. Whatever we say or do, wherever we go, on almsround or whatever, in eating the meal, washing our alms bowl, then be aware of what its all about. Be constantly mindful. Follow the mind. When youre practising walking meditation (cankama), have a walking path, say from one tree to another, about 50 feet in length. Walking cankama is the same as sitting meditation. Focus your awareness: Now, I am going to put forth effort. With strong recollection and self-awareness I am going to pacify my mind. The object of concentration depends on the person. Find what suits you. Some people spread mettā to all sentient beings and then leading with their right foot, walk at a normal pace, using the mantra Buddho in conjunction with the walking. Continually being aware of that object. If the mind becomes agitated then stop, calm the mind and then resume walking. Constantly self-aware. Aware at the beginning of the path, aware at every stage of the path, the beginning, the middle and the end. Make this knowing continuous. This is a method, focussing on walking cankama. Walking cankama means walking to and fro. Its not easy. Some people see us walking up and down and think were crazy. They dont realize that walking cankama gives rise to great wisdom. Walk to and fro. If youre tired then stand and still your mind. Focus on making the breathing comfortable. When it is reasonably comfortable then switch the attention to walking again, The postures change by themselves. Standing, walking, sitting, lying down. They change. We cant just sit all the time, stand all the time or lie down all the time. We have to spend our time with these different postures, make all four postures beneficial. This is the action. We just keep doing it. Its not easy. To make it easy to visualise, take this glass and set it down here for two minutes. When the two minutes are up then move it over there for two minutes. Then move it over here for two minutes. Keep doing that. Do it again and again until you start to suffer, until you doubt, until wisdom arises. What am I thinking about, lifting a glass backwards and forwards like a madman. The mind will think in its habitual way according to the phenomena. It doesnt matter what anyone says. Just keep lifting that glass. Every two minutes, okay - dont daydream, not five minutes. As soon as two minutes are up then move it over here. Focus on that. This is the matter of action. Looking at the in-breaths and out-breaths is the same. Sit with your right foot resting on your left leg, sit straight, watch the inhalation to its full extent until it completely disappears in the abdomen. When the inhalation is complete then allow the breath out until the lungs are empty. Dont force it. It doesnt matter how long or short or soft the breath is, let it be just right for you. Sit and watch the inhalation and the exhalation, make yourself comfortable with that. Dont allow your mind to get lost. If it gets lost then stop, look to see where its got to, why it is not following the breath. Go after it and bring it back. Get it to stay with the breath, and, without doubt, one day you will see the reward. Just keep doing it. Do it as if you wont gain anything, as if nothing will happen, as if you dont know whos doing it, but keep doing it anyway. Like rice in the barn. You take it out and sow it in the fields, as if you were throwing it away, sow it throughout the fields, without being interested in it, and yet it sprouts, rice plants grow up, you transplant it and youve got sweet green rice. Thats what its about. This is the same. Just sit there. Sometimes you might think, Why am I watching the breath so intently. Even if I didnt watch it, it would still keep going in and out. Well, youll always finds something to think about. Thats a view. It is an expression of the mind. Forget it. Keep trying over and over again and make the mind peaceful. Once the mind is at peace, the breath will diminish, the body will become relaxed, the mind will become subtle. They will be in a state of balance until it will seem as if there is no breath, but nothing happens to you. When you reach this point, dont panic, dont get up and run out, because you think youve stopped breathing. It just means that your mind is at peace. You dont have to do anything. Just sit there and look at whatever is present. Sometimes you may wonder, Eh, am I breathing? This is the same mistake. It is the thinking mind. Whatever happens, allow things to take their natural course, no matter what feeling arises. Know it, look at it. But dont be deluded by it. Keep doing it, keep doing it. Do it often. After the meal, air your robe on a line, and get straight out onto the walking meditation path. Keep thinking Buddho, Buddho. Think it all the time that youre walking. Concentrate on the word Buddho as you walk. Wear the path down, wear it down until its a trench and its halfway up your calves, or up to your knees. Just keep walking. Its not just strolling along in a perfunctory way, thinking about this and that for a length of the path, and then going up into your hut and looking at your sleeping mat, How inviting! Then laying down and snoring away like a pig. If you do that you wont get anything from the practice at all. Keep doing it until youre fed up and then see how far that laziness goes. Keep looking until you come to the end of laziness. Whatever it is you experience you have to go all the way through it before you overcome it. Its not as if you can just repeat the word peace to yourself and then as soon as you sit, you expect peace will arise like at the click of a switch, and when it doesnt then you give up, lazy. If thats the case youll never be peaceful. Its easy to talk about and hard to do. Its like monks who are thinking of disrobing saying, Rice farming doesnt seem so difficult to me. Id be better off as a rice farmer. They start farming without knowing about cows or buffaloes, harrows or ploughs, nothing at all. They find out that when you talk about farming it sounds easy, but when you actually try it you get to know exactly what the difficulties are. Everyone would like to search for peace in that way. Actually, peace does lie right there, but you dont know it yet. You can follow after it, you can talk about it as much as you like, but you wont know what it is. So, do it. Follow it until you know in pace with the breath, concentrating on the breath using the mantra Buddha. Just that much. Dont let the mind wander off anywhere else. At this time have this knowing. Do this. Study just this much. Just keep doing it, doing it in this way. If you start thinking that nothing is happening, just carry on anyway. Just carry on regardless and you will get to know the breath. Okay, so give it a try! If you sit in this way and the mind gets the hang of it, the mind will reach an optimum, just right state. When the mind is peaceful the self-awareness arises naturally. Then if you want to sit right through the night, you feel nothing, because the mind is enjoying itself. When you get this far, when youre good at it, then you might find you want to give Dhamma talks to your friends until the cows come home. Thats how it goes sometimes. Its like the time when Por Sang was still a postulant. One night hed been walking cankama and then began to sit. His mind became lucid and sharp. He wanted to expound the Dhamma. He couldnt stop. I heard the sound of someone teaching over in that bamboo grove, really belting it out. I thought, Is that someone giving a Dhamma talk, or is it the sound of someone complaining about something? It didnt stop. So I got my flashlight and went over to have a look. I was right. There in the bamboo grove, sitting cross-legged in the light of a lantern, was Por Sang, talking so fast I couldnt keep up. So I called out to him, Por Sang, have you gone crazy? He said, I dont know what it is, I just want to talk the Dhamma. I sit down and Ive got to talk, I walk and Ive got to talk. Ive just got to expound the Dhamma all the time. I dont know where its going to end. I thought to myself, When people practice the Dhamma theres no limit to the things that can happen. So keep doing it, dont stop. Dont follow your moods. Go against the grain. Practise when you feel lazy and practice when you feel diligent. Practice when youre sitting and practice when youre walking. When you lay down, focus on your breathing and tell yourself, I will not indulge in the pleasure of laying down. Teach your heart in this way. Get up as soon as you awaken, and carry on putting forth effort. Eating, tell yourself, I eat this food, not with craving, but as medicine, to sustain my body for a day and a night, only in order that I may continue my practice. When you lay down then teach your mind. When you eat then teach your mind. Maintain that attitude constantly. If youre going to stand up, then be aware of that. If youre going to lie down, then be aware of that. Whatever you do, then be aware. When you lie down, lie on your right side and focus on the breath, using the mantra Buddho until you fall asleep. Then when you wake up its as if Buddho has been there all the time, its not been interrupted. For peace to arise, there needs to be mindfulness there all the time. Dont go looking at other people. Dont be interested in other peoples affairs; just be interested in your own affairs. When you do sitting meditation, sit straight; dont lean your head too far back or too far forwards. Keep a balanced just-right posture like a Buddha image. Then your mind will be bright and clear. Endure for as long as you can before changing your posture. If it hurts, let it hurt. Dont be in a hurry to change your position. Dont think to yourself, Oh! Its too much. Take a rest. Patiently endure until the pain has reached a peak, then endure some more. Endure, endure until you cant keep up the mantra Buddho. Then take the point where it hurts as your object. Oh! Pain. Pain. Real pain. You can make the pain your meditation object rather than Buddho. Focus on it continuously. Keep sitting. When the pain has reached its limit, see what happens. The Buddha said that pain arises by itself and disappears by itself. Let it die; dont give up. Sometimes you may break out in a sweat. Big beads, as large as corn kernels rolling down your chest. But when youve passed through painful feeling once, then you will know all about it. Keep doing it. Dont push yourself too much. Just keep steadily practising. Be aware while youre eating. You chew and swallow. Where does the food go to? Know what foods agree with you and what foods disagree. Try gauging the amount of food. As you eat keep looking and when you think that after another five mouthfuls youll be full, then stop and drink some water and you will have eaten just the right amount. Try it. See whether or not you can do it. But thats not the way we usually do it. When we feel full we take another five mouthfuls. Thats what the mind tells us. It doesnt know how to teach itself. The Buddha told us to keep watching as we eat. Stop five mouthfuls before youre full and drink some water and it will be just right. If you sit or walk afterwards, then you dont feel heavy. Your meditation will improve. But we dont want to do it. Were full up and we take another five mouthfuls. Thats the way that craving and defilement is, it goes a different way from the teachings of the Buddha. Someone who lacks a genuine wish to train their minds will be unable to do it. Keep watching your mind. Be vigilant with sleep. Your success will depend on being aware of the skilful means. Sometimes the time you go to sleep may vary some nights you have an early night and other times a late night. But try practising like this: whatever time you go to sleep, just sleep at one stretch. As soon as you wake up, then get up immediately. Dont go back to sleep. Whether you sleep a lot or a little, just sleep at one stretch. Make a resolution that as soon as you wake up, even if you havent had enough sleep, you will get up, wash your face, and then start to walk cankama or sit meditation. Know how to train yourself in this way. Its not something you can know through listening to someone else. You will know through training yourself, through practice, through doing it. And so I tell you to practice. This practice of the heart is difficult. When you are doing sitting meditation, then let your mind have only one object. Let it stay with the in-breath and the out-breath and your mind will gradually become calm. If your mind is in turmoil, then it will have many objects. For instance, as soon as you sit, do you think of your home? Some people think of eating Chinese noodles. When youre first ordained you feel hungry, dont you? You want to eat and drink. You think about all kinds of food. Your mind is going crazy. If thats whats going to happen, then let it. But as soon as you overcome it, then it will disappear. Do it! Have you ever walked cankama? What was it like as you walked? Did your mind wander? If it did, then stop and let it come back. If it wanders off a lot, then dont breathe. Hold your breath until your lungs are about to burst. It will come back by itself. No matter how bad it is, if its racing around all over the place, then hold your breath. As your lungs are about to burst, your mind will return. You must energize the mind. Training the mind isnt like training animals. The mind is truly hard to train. Dont be easily discouraged. If you hold your breath, you will be unable to think of anything and the mind will run back to you of its own accord. Its like the water in this bottle. When we tip it out slowly then the water drips out...drip...drip...drip. But when we tip the bottle up farther the water runs out in a continuous stream, not in separate drops as before. Our mindfulness is similar. If we accelerate our efforts, practice in an even, continuous way, the mindfulness will be uninterrupted like a stream of water. No matter whether we are standing, walking, sitting or lying down, that knowledge is uninterrupted, flowing like a stream of water. Our practice of the heart is like this. After a moment, its thinking of this and thinking of that. It is agitated and mindfulness is not continuous. But whatever it thinks about, never mind, just keep putting forth effort. It will be like the drops of water that become more frequent until they join up and become a stream. Then our knowledge will be encompassing. Standing, sitting, walking or laying down, whatever you are doing, this knowing will look after you. Start right now. Give it a try. But dont hurry. If you just sit there watching to see what will happen, then youll be wasting your time. So be careful. If you try too hard then you wont be successful, but if you dont try at all then you wont be successful either. A Dhamma talk by Ajahn Chah ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php Footnotes ...1 A lively talk, in Lao dialect, given to the Assembly of newly-ordained Monks at Wat Pah Pong on the day of entering the Rains Retreat, July 1978 ...,2 Previously a different translation of this Dhamma talk was printed under the title Start Doing It!
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 12:02:02 +0000