Everything In Balance | 15 Mar 2024

Ajahn Anan emphasizes the profound importance of balance in both our body and mind as the foundation for spiritual growth. He explains that just as our physical health depends on the equilibrium of the body's elements, our mental well-being is rooted in cultivating balance through moral conduct, mindfulness, and concentration.

By addressing and overcoming mental hindrances like anger and doubt, we can nurture a mind that is peaceful and clear. Through dedicated meditation practice, we gain deeper insights into the true nature of the self, realizing its inherent emptiness.

Ajahn Anan encourages us to persist with sincere effort, as this path leads to a radiant, pure mind, ultimately guiding us to a deeper understanding of the Dhamma and liberation from suffering.

Transcript

Today I will talk in regards to having equilibrium,

Balance.

The body has processes to regulate it,

To have a state of equilibrium.

Movement of the body,

Movement of the limbs,

Comes from the processes of nerves in the brain,

Which adjust to maintain balance constantly.

This is in regards to the body.

There are four elements of earth,

Water,

Fire,

And wind.

If they are not in balance,

They change,

And sickness arises.

We have illness,

Fever,

And pain.

When our body is too cold or too hot,

Our fire elements are too weak or too much,

So it's not balanced.

If it's out of balance,

Then it comes up as sickness,

Fever,

And pain.

Even the food we eat must be just right.

If too much,

Then the body will change its state,

Consuming too much sugar,

And the body needs to create insulin to adjust the balance in the blood,

Not to have too much acidity,

Alkaline,

Glucose,

Or cholesterol.

If it's out of balance,

Then sickness arises.

And in regards to the mind,

We have the aspiration for it to have completeness,

Or to have letting go.

Completeness is about the mind's states of kusala,

Goodness,

Skillfulness.

We abandon wrongdoing and develop merit.

We develop goodness till it's complete.

We practice goodness until it's fully there.

We know that to abandon wrongdoing,

The bad karma,

This is a quality of sila,

Moral conduct,

Virtue.

So we keep the five moral precepts,

Or for the Dhamma practitioner,

They have the eight precepts.

Dhamma practitioners keeping the eight precepts would be counted as a venerable one,

A yogawachara.

It is an individual who aims for liberation,

Freedom.

They are a venerable one,

An excellent person,

And there are just a few people who aim to be liberated from suffering.

So it shows that our hearts see suffering.

We have bhanya,

Wisdom to see the suffering of birth,

Aging,

Sickness and death,

Of separation.

Even if we have everything complete and abundant already,

But one day we will have loved friends whom we have to pass away from each other.

We have earned wealth,

Money and treasures that we have to be parted from.

We reflect that this is suffering arising already.

And so,

What do we do to not have to be parted from it ever again?

We have to build barami,

Our spiritual perfections,

To get to a certain point and then we won't be parted from them again.

The mind will be perfect and we are with them completely together.

Each person has no attachment and clinging,

Their minds are pure.

This is the path that we are looking for,

Which is nibbana.

And it's not too far away from our efforts and determination.

If we are determined,

Intent,

And we make an effort,

Then our minds can have balance.

Here in the beginning,

The mind is balanced by samadhi,

Concentration.

We try to develop sati,

Mindfulness,

Constantly.

Because if we don't have mindfulness,

Then our mind won't be in balance.

The mind is scattered,

Going off to the sense and mental objects that we like or dislike.

Doubts will enter.

And it all makes our mind to be disordered.

Having anger,

Ill will,

Anxiety and worries.

Or however much we sleep,

But we are still tired.

Whenever we meditate,

We feel tired.

This is called a hindrance.

But if we are too exhausted and have sleepiness,

Then that's normal.

We can rest then.

There are states of liking,

Disliking,

Drowsiness,

Doubt,

Restlessness.

These five things have been friends to the mind for a long time already.

The mind has associated and been together with them for a long time.

And we like it and accept them in as well.

We see the sense and mental objects that we like.

And this is an old friend coming to present it to us.

But we need to understand that these states of mind obstruct the mind to not have the balance of samadhi.

We don't gain the balance of samadhi.

We aren't peaceful and calm.

So we need to train in developing it.

Being excellent individuals,

We need to train ourselves.

We see that these five masters make our minds all disturbed.

So we will make our minds have stillness,

Peacefulness and happiness come up bit by bit,

Little by little.

For us to make our minds completely still,

Our parami may not be there yet.

And if we desire it a lot,

We will suffer.

That desire will make our minds not be in balance.

To do it in balance means we do it with letting go as well.

When we sit meditation and are peaceful,

We accept that.

If we are not peaceful,

We accept that.

We won't be peaceful every day.

Until we can get more skilled at it and we can do it every day.

It's like we're new at doing something.

We aren't good at cooking food yet.

And we start to cook some dish.

If the taste is not delicious or just right,

It will be too sour,

Too sweet,

Too salty.

It's not balanced.

Dhamma practice is like that.

We start practicing and we won't yet be able to have the mind peaceful.

But we slowly train in it.

When we have these five hindrances that are covering the mind constantly,

Then we need to develop mindfulness.

We can develop mindfulness of the body that I mentioned previously,

Watching the in and out breath,

The movements of the body,

Or mentally repeating butto,

Dhammo,

Sankho.

So we have mindfulness.

At the times we are listening,

We can chant internally along with it as well.

We are training ourselves,

Our minds,

At the same time.

We read the news.

We see it and we train the mind as well.

The mind is quick.

It can take in news and communications.

So we need to keep up the mental repetition.

Watching TV and movies,

We mentally repeat a meditation object along with it.

If we don't do it like this,

Then the mind will be completely with the sense object.

The mind has been sent out completely.

And the mind that goes out is samudaya.

It's the cause for suffering to arise.

The mind that stays inside is magga,

The path.

The mind inside means the mind that has mindfulness.

We chant and meditate,

And we have mindfulness with it.

We watch the mind.

If the mind is thinking too much,

We teach the mind that it's not us.

We start to proliferate,

And we teach it,

It's not a self,

Not me,

It's not us.

That which thinks is sankhara,

Mental formation.

That which is aware of the thoughts is vijnana,

Consciousness.

It is not us as well.

Both thinking and being aware,

Or not being aware,

Are not us.

We teach the mind like this.

When we have peacefulness arising bit by bit,

We are adjusting the balance of the mind to be in samadhi.

Here,

Khanika samadhi,

Or momentary concentration,

Is a mind that has balance arising a little.

We have a little bit of rapture,

And a little bit of bliss.

But now we have hope.

Oh,

It's just like this.

The mind that is empty of sense objects,

Of disturbance,

It has balance,

Like this.

It has excellent happiness,

Like this.

And as we adjust the balance more,

Sometimes the hand disappears from our awareness.

The foot disappears.

The feeling of the body as being empty comes up suddenly.

It is all light.

We feel that it is comfortable.

Before we felt we had a body,

And it was heavy.

The khandhas,

Aggregates,

Are heavy.

The bodily aggregate is something that is heavy,

And we aren't aware of this.

And we have this feeling constantly.

Now the mind that has attached to the body puts it down temporarily.

It is samadhi.

The mind that disperses all the attachment to the body will gather in samadhi bit by bit.

It will be upajara samadhi,

Access concentration.

It will be very light,

Like we have no body.

We feel that it is comfortable.

And as the lightness grows,

It's like the body is floating.

We are sitting up in the air.

Here there is no body.

It's empty.

It makes the mind feel at ease.

The mind has happiness.

This is the balance arising from samadhi called upajara samadhi.

It is concentration that is close to being one-pointed.

It is firm.

And how is this samadhi good?

When this balance arises,

Then what?

Then we will adjust the balance here to contemplate and look at the mind,

Citta-nupassana.

Nupassana is insight into the mind.

The mind starts to move and proliferate,

And we will know it instantly that it is not us.

There isn't anything there.

All things are emptiness.

It is emptiness.

There isn't anything.

There's no self.

When it just moves,

Then we know it instantly.

This insight-knowing is called wisdom coming from meditation.

There is the wisdom that comes from memorizing and having heard that the thoughts are not us.

When we think and contemplate this,

We can accept it,

But it's not yet clear and apparent to us.

But the wisdom that comes from insight meditation,

We'll know clearly into it.

This comes from meditation.

We become more intelligent.

There is a balance coming up of another type,

Which is the balance of the mind that is not liking or disliking,

The mind that is pure and radiant.

And this is better than before.

Before we had entered samadhi,

And it was still,

Because we had controlled it to not have thoughts,

Like grass that is covered by a rock.

The five hindrances are covered over by samadhi.

But whenever the samadhi disappears,

The kilesas,

The defilements,

Come up again.

Whenever we take the rock off,

The grass grows again.

But when we have insight,

It is like we are pulling out the defilements out of the heart bit by bit.

The mind becomes more balanced naturally.

I will give you an example of how this is.

One day I was contemplating on someone who had died.

The mind was peaceful.

From reflecting that,

Life is uncertain like this.

We are born and we must die.

So the mind was peaceful and still.

The mind,

Peaceful and still at this level,

Was upajara samadhi.

And after this,

I started to proliferate on who this person who had died was.

Initially,

It was just someone who had died.

There was no male,

No female,

No child,

No adult,

No occupation.

There was nothing.

The mind then started to proliferate.

And right here,

It was the right time.

There was knowing arising.

And this knowing was not a thought.

It was a knowing that,

If I have to explain it in words,

Then it was the knowing that there was no one there.

There was no one who had died.

The four elements had broken apart and decayed.

It's not a being,

Person,

Self,

Me,

Or them.

There was knowing like this.

The mind was bright.

When the mind is bright,

And the dhamma arises,

It's amazing.

We see it as being simply so,

The way it is.

It's simply a body.

It's not a being,

Person,

Self,

Me,

Or them.

We walk around,

And it is not the body.

And it is also not a being,

Not a person,

Not us or other,

Too.

We look at other people and see it like that.

If you compare it to the present day,

It's like we see an AI,

Like a robot.

A robot walking,

Tuk-tuk,

Tuk-tuk,

Tuk-tuk.

What is it?

It's not a being,

A person,

A self,

A me,

Or them.

We will know it like that.

If we have contacted the dhamma,

We see the dhamma,

Then it will be like that.

So the equilibrium of the body is important.

When our body is in a good equilibrium,

We have no sickness.

And then developing mindfulness and samadhi is easier to do.

And when it's easier to do,

Then samadhi arises.

And we try to contemplate this bodily heap,

And into the mind,

Into all the thoughts,

Seeing it as not-self,

Not-being-our-self.

And wisdom arises.

The balance of the mind arises.

It is understanding the dhamma.

It is a mind that goes beyond the world,

Arising bit by bit.

So here we try to train in it.

We train and struggle with it.

In the beginning it is hard and difficult.

But when we do it,

We will get more completeness arising.

When we have the completeness of samadhi,

Then teaching the mind that the body is not us is easy.

We take our right hand and hold the finger on our left hand,

And we know the bones are not us.

How could it be ours?

If our mind is still,

We see it as bones,

As being elements.

It's not us.

Whichever part we hold,

It's not us.

But if the mind is not in balance,

And it's all taken as ours,

We can't let go.

We go on following likes and dislikes.

So we train in cultivating in sila,

Samadhi,

And panna,

So that we will have completeness,

And so that we can let go.

So we try to have mindfulness like this.

Our efforts are not too much nor too little.

Our samadhi is not too much to the point we are deluded in samadhi,

But not too little that it doesn't give us benefit.

It has to be just right.

We have the wisdom that we can accept that we are currently dealing with ourself,

Dealing with our mind that is still deluded and doesn't yet understand the truth.

So we try to train and instruct the mind.

When we make an effort like this,

Without stopping,

We will have to gain it.

The faith,

Effort,

Mindfulness,

Samadhi,

And wisdom,

We will have to gain it.

We have effort without stopping.

We practice without stopping.

And we practice it right as well.

We have right effort.

If we put forth effort but it's not correct,

Then no matter how much we do,

We won't have results.

But if we put forth effort correctly,

We know the right method,

Then we will get results.

And ultimately,

We will see the Dhamma and attain to the Dhamma in this life.

May you grow in blessings.

Reviews

Very timely lesson. A keeper for me. 🙏

🙏🏾 you.