..續本文上一頁ing your posture. If it hurts, let it hurt. Don”t be in a hurry to change your position. Don”t think to yourself, ””Oh! It”s too much. Take a rest.”” Patiently endure until the pain has reached a peak, then endure some more.

　　Endure, endure until you can”t 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 it”s limit, see what happens.

　　The Buddha said that pain arises by itself and disappears by itself. Let it die; don”t give up. Sometimes you may break out in a sweat. Big beads, as large as corn kernels rolling down your chest. But when you”ve passed through painful feeling once, then you will know all about it. Keep doing it. Don”t push yourself too much. Just keep steadily practising.

　　Be aware while you”re 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 you”ll 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 that”s not the way we usually do it. When we feel full we take another five mouthfuls. That”s what the mind tells us. It doesn”t know how to teach itself.

　　The Buddha told us to keep watching as we eat. Stop five mouthfuls before you”re full and drink some water and it will be just right. If you sit or walk afterwards, then you don”t feel heavy. Your meditation will improve. But we don”t want to do it. We”re full up and we take another five mouthfuls. That”s 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. Don”t 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 haven”t 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. It”s 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 you”re first ordained you feel hungry, don”t you

　　 You want to eat and drink. You think about all kinds of food. Your mind is going crazy. If that”s what”s 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 don”t breathe. Hold your breath until your lungs are about to burst. It will come back by itself. No matter how bad it is, if it”s 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 isn”t like training animals. The mind is truly hard to train. Don”t 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.

　　It”s 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, it”s 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 don”t hurry. If you just sit there watching to see what will happen, then you”ll be wasting your time. So be careful. If you try too hard then you won”t be successful, but if you don”t try at all then you won”t be successful either.

　　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!”

《Just Do It!》全文閱讀結束。