No.271 - “Whenever you need to be calm, you should be able to enter into it.

“Whenever you need to be calm, you should be able to enter into it. Because this is your sanctuary, a place away from your stress and problems.”

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Question (M): How would I know when to think about the Dhamma?

Than Ajahn: It’s when you are able to stop your mind when it starts to go thinking in the way that it shouldn’t be thinking. It’s like driving a car. When you know that the car starts to go off the road, you can bring it back to the main road. You’re in control of your car.

Once you are in control of your mind, then you can go think about the Dhamma. If you cannot control your mind, sometimes you’ll still get angry, sometimes you’ll still be restless, sometimes you’ll still worried about this and that. So, you have to be able to stop these things first.

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Question (M): When you mentioned about ‘control your mind,’ do you mean that controlling the mind all the time or sometimes?

Than Ajahn: Most of the time. Eventually, all the time. Whenever you need to be calm, you should be able to enter into it. Because this is your sanctuary, a place away from your stress and problems. Sometimes, when you cannot solve your problems, at least you can get away from it first. If you can’t enter calm when you need it, then you shouldn’t go to think of the Dhamma yet.

So, you have to be able to bring you mind into calm any time you need it. Once you know that you can do that, you can then go and study the Dhamma to find out the reason why you should let go of everything. It’s to see that everything is impermanent. If you cling to it, when thing changes, it can make you unhappy. If you don’t cling to it, when thing changes or disappears, it cannot make you unhappy or sad. You have to be able to detach from everything. If you can calm your mind, you can detach from everything. Calming your mind is a way of detaching yourself from everything.

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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