..續本文上一頁fulness puts the attention back into the present moment. For you, the onlooker, it”s something that is automatic. You don”t need to choose to do it. It happens automatically, because mindfulness has been instructed in the same way that a gatekeeper, once instructed, does all the work. You don”t have to give any more instructions. You can just watch the gatekeeper do the work. This is trusting the mind, knowing the mind, knowing its nature and working with its nature.
I encourage you to play around with the mind and know its capabilities. One of the first things that I was told on my first meditation retreat as a student was that there is no need to set the alarm for getting up in the morning. (Actually I think we were getting up at five o”clock in the morning at that retreat. It was a "soft retreat".) The Teacher said, just to determine the waking time, and to tell yourself before going to bed at night, "I”m going to get up at five to five." (That was just five minutes before someone was going to ring the bell.) "Don”t set your alarms." That was the first time I ever tried that. It worked every morning. I told myself very clearly and carefully as I went to sleep, "I will get up at five to five." I didn”t need to look at my clock or ask, "Is it five to five yet
" I could actually trust the mind, and when I woke up and opened my eyes and looked at my clock, it was five minutes to five--give or take two minutes. It”s incredible how the mind works. I don”t know how it did it, how it remembered, but it did. It works in exactly the same way if you give clear instructions, if you program your mind: "Now is the time to watch the present moment." " Be in the present moment." "Be in the present moment." That”s all you need to do. Then you can let the mind do the work.
It”s also important when you”re instructing the gatekeeper to know not just what you”re supposed to be doing but also what you”re not supposed to be doing -- in other words to know the dangers on the path. It”s important to know the dangers as well as the goal because this enables the gatekeeper to know who is allowed in and also who is not allowed in. They need to be very clear about both types of "people". It”s not enough to just have a list of who”s allowed in. If the gatekeeper hasn”t got a list of who”s not allowed in, then they could easily make mistakes.
The Gatekeeper at Stage One. Now in the first of these stages of meditation, Present Moment Awareness, the goal -- who”s allowed in -- is just anything in the present moment. It can be the sound of a bird. It can be the sound of a truck in the distance. It can be the wind going past. It can be someone coughing or banging the door. It doesn”t matter. If it is something happening now, then it is part of the present moment awareness. It can be the breath. It can be a Samadhi Nimitta. It can be a Jhana. That”s all part of the present moment. So be very clear of what”s allowed in, and welcome that.
Again, one should also be very clear of what”s not allowed in. What are the dangers to present moment awareness
Those dangers are any thought, any perception, any view of the past or the future. That is, any looking "back" or any looking "forward". It”s important to know those dangers, to articulate them very clearly. Sometimes when I make my resolutions I actually include the danger in the resolution. "I”ll be aware of the present moment, but I”ll not go off into the past or the future." "I”ll be aware of the present moment, but I”ll disregard the past or the future." "I”ll be aware of the present moment, and I”ll disregard the past and the future." Saying that to oneself, instructing the gatekeeper about the dangers as well as the goals, helps mindfulness do its task. What happens then is that when the dangers to that stage…
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