The Four Frames of Reference
August 25, 1962
The way of practice that follows the aims of the Buddha and the true Dhamma is to be truly intent on acting rightly. Every sort of duty that is ours to do should be done intently. When doing a task of any sort, even a small one, if we lack intentness, it won”t get finished in a presentable way at all, because intentness -- which is a matter of mindfulness and principles in the heart that can bring a task to completion -- is lacking in ourselves and in our work. To have mindfulness and principles of the heart in ourselves and in our work is, in and of itself, to be making the effort of the practice, regardless of whether the work is internal or external. If a person lacks intentness as a means of keeping his work in focus, then even if he is a craftsman capable of making things solid and beautiful, his lack of intentness will reduce the quality and beauty of his work. For this reason, intentness and concentration are important factors that shouldn”t be overlooked by those who aim at full results in their work.
We have gone forth from the household life. We”re meditators. We should display intentness in our every duty and be deliberate in our every task. Even when we sweep the monastery compound, clean our quarters and the meeting hall, set out sitting mats and drinking water, in all our movements, comings and going, even when looking right and glancing left, we should be mindful at every moment. This is what it means to be making the effort of the practice. In developing the habit of mindfulness, we have to use our work as our training ground. Every external task of every sort is a duty. Walking meditation and sitting meditation are duties. If we”re mindful in doing our duties, it means that our effort in the practice hasn”t lapsed. To train ourselves in the habits of those who are intent on the higher levels of Dhamma, we must begin -- with urgency -- by training ourselves to be mindful in every task of every sort from the very beginning. For the sake of the certainty and stability of your future, develop mindfulness as a habit from this moment onward until you have it constantly present within you, every moment you act and every moment you rest.
When the time comes to make the mind still, mindfulness will come to stick close by the heart and be established as soon as you make the effort, just as you want it to. At the same time, your mindfulness will have enough strength to force the mind into stillness at will. For the most part, when people are unable to make their minds still as they like, it”s because mindfulness, which is the primary factor, isn”t strong enough, and so the mind easily finds the opening to slip out after other preoccupations -- like an inquisitive child who has no one to watch over him and who can thus get into danger any time at all. The mind that”s always carried away, without any mindfulness to look after it, is thus always getting disturbed to the point where it can never find any stillness and peace. The guardians of the mind are mindfulness and discernment, which continually watch over it all the time it is thinking about various issues, and which continually try to reason with the mind to free it from the issues that come to involve it. When the mind is constantly hearing the logic of its discernment, it will be unable to disobey its discernment by thinking about and becoming attached to any issues any longer.
To train mindfulness and discernment to become progressively stronger and not to deteriorate, please train them in the method already mentioned. Don”t let yourself be careless in any useful activity of any sort, no matter how small. Otherwise the carelessness that”s already the lord of the heart will become a chronic disease taking deep root …
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