Quote from A Beautiful Way of Living the Meditation Teachings of Godwin Samararatne
A Beautiful Way of Living: the Meditation Teachings of Godwin Samararatne
Edited and compiled by Dennis Candy and Sampath Dissanayake, with a foreword by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 2011. 192 pages.
Retreatant: I do not have a question but I would like to tell you about an experience. I wanted to do my "homework," so I wanted to examine where my ideas come from. I found it takes a long time for a thought to come. A thought only came when I stopped trying to examine the process.
Godwin: A very interesting experience. I would like to say something, because it brings out a very important principle. When we do not want thoughts to come, when we are focussing on breathing what happens? They come and come and come. And when we say, "Now let any thoughts come," they do not come! Why is the mind functioning in opposition to us? When a child is disobedient we say he is obstinate. Why are our minds so very obstinate? That is a very important question to explore. The same thing with emotions--when we invite the monsters to come, they do not come.
I will offer a very simple explanation. This is connected with the reason why I have been saying: Make friends with the mind. You cannot tell the mind: "Do this, do not do that," like a child. Yet this is what we are doing here in meditation. We come here, we sit in an unusual position and tell the mind: "No thoughts, no sounds, no one should be moving, no one should cough." We want something different, something special from the mind. Then after meditation we go out and then our mind can do anything it wants! So this is what is called meditation. Coming here, sitting, the fighting, the battle, and afterwards we go out. This is why I say, after the bell is the best meditation! Because you are not doing anything special, you are just relaxed.
Oh, you have to be friendly, you have to be gentle, if you want to understand a child. By telling the child: "Do this, do that," you cannot understand the child. But if you want to understand the child, create space for her, just watch her in a friendly way, then you will understand--this is what the child likes, this is what the child does not like. In the same way, you should have this connection with your thoughts, this is why I have been so much emphasizing this friendliness, this gentleness, just finding out. Thank you for sharing the experience. -- pages 48-49
Quote submitted by Jennifer Knight
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