Past retreats

Trisikkha Meditation Center, Plant City, Florida USA

“Some people love to go to restaurants, with the most delicious food, great music and beautiful servers. They spend heaps of money to consume it all at once. Such people are not true Buddhists. True Buddhists will see this as a big waste of money. When we are listening to the band, and we put a forkful of this scrumptious food in our mouth, we don’t even taste it. If we are watching the beautiful women walking around, we could eat a whole plate of food without being conscious of it. What a waste! We intended to gain pleasure through the good music, delicious flavours and beautiful views, and we can only be aware of one at a time! When we are listening to music, we aren’t able to register the flavor of our food. The mind has to switch up between each, and we get busy doing one, we miss out on the others.

Let’s notice that the mind that goes to see is temporary. The mind that listens is temporary. And the mind that thinks is temporary. All kinds of mind are temporary. A happy mind is temporary. A suffering mind is temporary. A good mind is temporary. A greedy, angry or deluded mind is temporary. Let’s observe the truth of the five aggregates, or more easily put, of our body and mind. The body exhibits the truth that it is always under oppression by suffering. The mind and it’s mental and emotional states are all impermanent and out of control. Whether happy, unhappy, good or bad, whether we remember something or can’t, whether the mind moves to see, to hear or to think, we can’t prevent any of it.

Let’s test this out. There is a Buddha statue here. Let’s all take a good look at the Buddha.

Let’s just keep looking and no thinking is allowed…

Now, are there thoughts? Of course, there are! We can’t prevent it. Let’s stop trying. and stop looking! We don’t want to burn a hole in the Buddha!

Can we see? Even though we fully intend to just look, our minds still move to think. We can’t prevent this mind from thinking. We can’t prevent it from going to look. We can’t prevent it from going to listen. The components of seeing are the form, the eyes, light, and when met with the attention towards seeing, seeing will occur. These are things that are not under our power to control.
Freedom from Suffering Page 32
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
http://www.dhamma.com/en/ and
http://www.trisikkhameditationcenter.org/

Trisikkha Meditation Center, Plant City, Florida USA

“Mental fabrications arise out of habit. The mind will fabricate in the ways that it is used to. If we are used to harming people, then the mind will fabricate harmful mental states. If we are used to being loving and kind, then those are the states most often created in the mind.

However, no matter if our minds fabricate kind or unkind states, each state is a temporary one. A good state, like wanting to listen to the Dhamma, comes up and then falls away. If I keep talking and talking, eventually we won’t want to listen anymore. We’ll want to go home. It lasts only temporarily. The same is true for bad mental states. When we are children and we are angry at a friend, we decide we’ll be angry at them forever and ever. Nevermind forever, in just a few minutes we are friendly with them again!

Sometimes we are sad and crying. And with the tears still on our face, we start to laugh. Can we see? The mind states, or mental formations and fabrications, are changing all of the time. The mind itself is also changing all of the time. One moment it is looking, the next it is listening and the next it is thinking. When we are watching television, normally we think that the eyes are watching, the ears are listening, and the mind is thinking all at the same time. But the truth is that they are working one at a time. In the moment that we are watching, we are not listening. In the moment that we are listening, we are not thinking. In the moment we are thinking, we are not watching or listening. This is why when we are reading a book, and our mind wanders off the story into other thoughts, we don’t know what we just read. I’m sure we’ve experienced this. Our eyes are staring at the pages, but we have no idea what we are looking at when we are lost in thought. So the mind is arising and falling very quickly with each object in its awareness, one at a time. When it arises at the eye, it doesn’t arise at the ear. When it arises at the ear to hear, it doesn’t arise at the eye or in thought.”

Freedom from Suffering Page 30

<<<<<<<<<<<<<
http://www.dhamma.com/en/ and
http://www.trisikkhameditationcenter.org/

Trisikkha Meditation Center, Plant City, Florida USA

“…Student 4: I think I must be over-focusing. Every time I start walking meditation my neck hurts so much.
LP: You are surely over-focusing. When you decide to do the meditation, you stiffen up, create stress, and then pressure enters the head and neck. Just walk casually, enjoyably. Watch the body walk. When you are uncomfortable, know it. When the mind goes off to think, know that too.
Student 5: I have been practicing about a year now. I think mindfulness is arising quite often. I can see anger, greed, jealousy, and I can see the mind getting lost. I can see all these things arise and fall again and again. The other day I saw anger arise and then fall immediately, then the mind went to the ears to hear. It knew it was the wind, and then anger arose again. This was all in succession.

LP: Your practice is good. You are starting to see things just as they are.”

Student 7: I am also not so good at Samatha. When the mind starts to settle down it wanders off.

LP: Then there is no need to do Samatha. You are a thinker anyway, so you should watch the mind. Keep watching and knowing and it will get peaceful on its own. If the mind wanders, just know it has done so. Do your best to let mental states arise and know so afterward. You tend to think too quickly when something arises that it will soon drop off instead of really knowing what is there. You are letting intellect lead you too much. We don’t get results that way.
Student 8: I do walking meditation every day for 15 minutes. I’m happier than before, and less annoyed with myself. I notice that lately, however, I can walk and be completely unaware for long periods, totally lost in thought.
LP: Practice as much as possible in your daily life as well. Sometimes when we set aside time to meditate, we just try to get through the allotted period and are happy when it is over. We aren’t as aware of the phenomena that arise as we are of the time. If walking isn’t working, then do some sitting meditation too, or do some chanting and notice when the mind goes off. If we are able to notice the mind float off into thought often, we become much more aware and get lost much less.
To See theTruth Page 130

The Teachings of Venerable Pramote Pamojjo
Please log on : http://www.dhamma.com/en/...
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<