..续本文上一页n”t suffer when he was blamed for things he didn”t do. A lot of terrible things happened to the Buddha. According to the Scriptures, he had to put up with a lot of really miserable conditions: difficult monks and nuns; being attacked by a drunken elephant; his own cousin tried to murder him - yet the Buddha didn”t suffer. Was he just impervious, like it didn”t matter and he didn”t feel a thing

　　When we feel the ageing process, the pain of disease, or discomfort; when things go wrong, and we get blamed for things we haven”t done; or when there is the death of a loved one - there”s a natural feeling - but do we have to create suffering around it

　　 We see that there”s the way it is, the kammic inheritence in the present, which is like this - but that suffering is caused through attachment to these conditions. When there isn”t attachment, then we still feel - there”s the kammic inheritance of our life - but we do not create anger, resentment, resistance, blame, self-pity, fear, or desire around it.

　　Ask yourself: ”Why is there so much stress in a society that”s aimed at trying to create a technology to make life easier

　　” We”ve actually made it much more stressful. There are electric washers, driers, microwave ovens, and dishwashers so that the housewife isn”t stuck in the kitchen, having to do all kinds of tedious chores day after day, so there”s more time for - what

　　 Travelling, worrying and feeling stressed out - getting involved in all kinds of things that we wouldn”t have been able to before, when life was much more basic! We have all these labour-saving devices, but then we fill our time up with activities that create stressful psychological problems.

　　So I advise people to try to simplify things - not to fill the time with activities, but to have more free time to develop meditation in daily life. See meditation and mindfulness as something to really treasure and respect, rather than something only to be done in a routine way before going to work in the morning. If you regard meditation as something you just do when you have the time for it, after a while you won”t have time for it any more - I guarantee it! Everything else seems much more urgent than meditation, because meditation looks like you”re just sitting there not doing anything. Your family might think: ”He”s just sitting there, he”s not doing anything. What good is that

　　 He should be doing something.”

　　That”s the kind of society we live in; but for yourself, if you”re really interested in developing meditation, then give it an important place - really develop a lifestyle in a way that gives you opportunities for silent reflection. Develop samatha and vipassana,* and then integrate them into daily life. Then you can learn a lot about the way it is.

　　* samatha and vipassana: inclinations in meditation aimed respectively at steadying the mind and investigating the object of meditation.

　　With cittanupassana you can be aware of what you”re feeling in regards to other people. If you feel anger towards your husband, you can at least notice that: ”Right now there”s anger, and it”s like this...”, rather than getting caught up in blaming him, or trying to not admit it. Admitting it doesn”t mean that it”s permanent, or anything other than: ”It”s like this.” - and that helps to relieve the tension, because you”re not caught. Consider how, if you”re infatuated with somebody, you don”t want to think that there”s anything wrong with them; even if they have their faults it doesn”t seem to matter, you can brush them aside. But when you”re blaming someone, it”s hard to remember anything good they”ve ever done, though you can remember accurately everything they”ve ever done wrong!

　　In this practice of mindfulness, we are willing to bear with the nasty side of life in our own minds. We are willing to let bad thoughts, resentments, all these kinds of negative emotions be conscious - to let them be the way they are. We come to trust in our Refuge, and just let mind-states be the way they are, without creating guilt or resistance around them. It still feels this way: if it”s a bad thought it still feels bad, but our relationship to it is one of kindness, or patience. That then allows the condition to cease. It”s resolved; it ceases. So if we recognise and understand our moods and their effects, we no longer create suffering around them or in our relationships with other human beings.

　　Forest Sangha Newsletter: October 2000, Number 54

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