Samadhi.

when the mind is concentrated and one-pointed, mind and heart are at ease…#WednesdayWisdom

• The Buddha taught us to look within, don’t look outwards. Or if you look outwards then look within, to see the cause and effect therein. We look for the truth in all things, because external objects and internal objects are always affecting each other. We sit and contemplate.
• We practice to develop a certain type of awareness until it becomes stronger than our previous awareness. This causes wisdom and insight to arise within the mind, enabling us to clearly know the workings of the mind, the language of the mind and the ways and means of all the defilements.
• When we sit, we want to make the mind still but it won’t be still. This is practicing out of desire, but we don’t realise it. We have the desire for calm. Our mind is already disturbed and then we further disturb things by wanting to make it calm. This very wanting is the cause, it’s increasing the burden. The more we desire calm the more disturbed the mind becomes, until we often just give up. We end up sitting and struggling with ourselves.
• As we continue to practice, we begin to understand: there is nothing to worry about. We establish a feeling of being relaxed and unworried, securely, in the mind. Once the mind is concentrated and one-pointed, no mind-object will be able to penetrate or disturb it, and we are will able to sit in the meditation posture for as long as we want, sustaining concentration without any feelings of pain and discomfort.
• Having developed samadhi to this level, we are able to enter or leave it at will, at our convenience, simply withdrawing at ease, rather than because of feeling lazy or tired.
• Entering and leaving this samadhi without any problems, the mind and heart are at ease. Genuine samadhi like this means that sitting meditation and entering samadhi for just thirty minutes or an hour will enable you to remain cool and peaceful for many days afterwards. Experiencing the effects of samadhi like this has a purifying effect on the mind. Whatever you experience will become an object for contemplation. “This is where the practice really begins. It is the fruit which arises as samadhi matures.”

Inspired by and extract taken from ‘Mind And Heart Are At Ease’ by Ajahn Chah

May this teaching lead you to happiness; may it help you grow in truth. May you be freed from the suffering of birth and death.

• Virtue (Sila) is the beautiful beginning of the Dhamma path — read the first of this series of three articles here:

You may also like these Dhamma articles: