80. Preliminary Practice

By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī

October 9, 1982

"The mind is the thinker, the one who thinks. Mindfulness is that very same heart. Only when there is mind does mindfulness arise. Mindfulness controls the mind. If we can control it like this, it's called being under our power. We don't go under the power of the mind. Then we can use the mind, you see."

Today I will teach you the basic method of meditation practice. We are Buddhists in truth. Having taken refuge, we must practice accordingly for it to be correct. Don't just listen passively. Listening without practicing yields no experience, no understanding. Listening on and on for a long time, eventually you'll get bored. Some people listen and study, then go and talk about it to others, gaining followers, and then get excited thinking they have attained. That happens. In truth, a practitioner must be someone who does more than just hear and listen. Practice is extremely important. Even if one hasn't studied much, if one can practice correctly and reach the Dhamma, one will know and see for oneself. In the time of the Buddha, people didn't study very much. They studied a little, just the basics of meditation subjects, and yet they attained the paths, fruits, and Nibbāna in great numbers. Today, people study far too much. They talk all over the place, throughout the whole country. In truth, they don't know themselves. As Buddhists, we must practice for it to be correct. We do, we practice more than we listen. Practice here means reaching the mind, reaching the heart. If you don't reach the heart, it's no good. Practicing Dhamma requires reaching the heart first. The heart is what knows and sees first. The heart is what reaches Dhamma first. We talk everywhere, all over the country: everything is mind, everything is heart. Even those who have never trained in practice talk about mind and heart. Most people talk like that. But in truth, they don't know what the heart is like, they don't know what the mind is like, so they can't grasp the principle. Therefore, you must train to see the mind, to see the heart first.

I have explained about the mind and the heart many times already. The Buddha also taught: whatever is mind, that is heart; whatever is heart, that is mind. Mind and heart are the same thing. But why are they spoken of as two? Because they perform different functions and have different characteristics. In training, you must train the mind, not the heart. The mind is the thinker, the one who thinks, the fabricator, the composer of all perceptions and emotions. All defilements are fabricated by the mind. Training and cultivation must be done on the mind alone. And what will we use to train? Use mindfulness to train the mind. Please have mindfulness in all four postures—standing, walking, sitting, lying down—always aware of the mind at all times. All defilements will gradually diminish and disappear. Don't be in too much of a hurry to attain the paths and fruits. People who practice want to attain paths, fruits, and Nibbāna too quickly. Set that aside first. Take the defilements and contemplate them first. If attainment comes too easily, returning to being an ordinary worldling is also easy, you see. Once you've attained paths and fruits, where will you go? Defilements reside with the mind. We have mindfulness controlling the mind. Try to think: you see it every moment—standing, walking, sitting, lying down—then where can it go? You see everything as either good or bad. What is bad should be abandoned. What is good should be cultivated. Just keep practicing this much—abandon evil, do good—and that's the end of the matter.

Buddhism teaches to abandon evil and do good. When you see the mind in this way, whatever you think or feel at all times, the mind feels shame and compunction. It gradually lets go, gradually releases. The reason we are so chaotic and restless is simply because we don't see the mind. Think about it. Anger: we don't know anger. Only after getting angry do we know it. We know 'angry' but not the anger itself. We know the word 'anger' but not the one who is angry—that is the mind itself. If you get to know the one who is angry, it disappears instantly. And so on. Therefore, contemplate to see the mind. When you can contemplate and control the mind like this, the matter of practice is settled. You don't need to look elsewhere. Just use mindfulness to control the mind at all times, that's enough.

Mindfulness is the one who remembers. The mind is the thinker, the one who thinks. Mindfulness is that very heart. Only when there is mind does mindfulness arise. Mindfulness controls the mind. If we can control it like this, it's called being under our power. We don't go under the power of the mind. Then we can use the mind, you see. Use it to be angry or not to be angry. But if it doesn't get angry and we tell it to be angry, it can get angry, but it's pretending. For example, when scolding children or disciples, you make an angry face, but inside the heart remains cool. That's pretending to be angry. But the real 'us' is not angry. That is comfortable. When the mind is under our power like this, if we want to get angry at someone, we can make it pretend to be angry, or we can keep it calm.

The words 'our heart' and 'our mind' refer to that very thing—the place where we can control it, where we can train and cultivate it. That is called our true mind. This is exactly where we should train. When you can train like this, the mind will converge into concentration. Then it converges into one. The mind becoming one is called the heart. The true heart—the heart does not think, does not conceive, does not fabricate, does not compose. It remains still. You can test it like this: hold your breath for a moment. You will feel nothing, just a neutral knowing. That is the true heart. This is just a test to grasp the heart. We can use this heart for benefit as well. For example, when it is angry, hateful, lustful, or fond of something, if you 'hold the heart' for a moment, it will disappear for a while. It can be tested and used quite well. But it only works temporarily. How should you train so that the heart remains for a long time? That requires training the mind, as explained from the beginning. You must train and cultivate the mind until it is under your power. Then it will have a quality similar to losing mindfulness—a flash, like falling off a cliff, from a height, or into a pit. It flashes and then becomes peacefully still. That is called the mind converging. When it happens, it happens on its own. You don't think or wish for it to happen. When the mind converges, it has no thoughts, no fabrications of any kind. No past, no future. Only the knowing essence remains. In our training and purification of the mind at the beginning stage, as it gradually lets go of everything, releases everything, only the heart remains. Then it converges into one. This single heart is something very difficult to achieve. All defilements—the so-called 1,500 defilements, 108 cravings—arise from this single heart. They are manifestations of the heart. The true mind-heart is only one thing.

Training the mind to reach the heart—the method of practicing meditation is just this. Whatever methods people use to practice, it's fine. Whether you recite 'Buddho', 'Sammā Arahang', 'rising and falling', or mindfulness of breathing, it's not a problem. Those recitations are just lures to bring the mind into the repetition. But people who misunderstand think they are special and boast to their friends: 'My way is right, your way is wrong,' and so on, all sorts of things. True Buddhism is not like that. It must be the same. No one is wrong or right. When practice reaches the unified mind, the mind converges into absorption. Then it's finished. When the mind converges into absorption, that is the ultimate point of concentration practice. There is no difference.

Therefore, train the mind according to the Buddha's teaching. He taught meditation practice, which is mind training. When you see the mind, when you can grasp the mind, that's enough. You don't need to look for anything else. Now that we can grasp the mind, mindfulness or guarding the mind happens automatically, without intention. It happens on its own. Whether standing, walking, sitting, lying down, or engaging in any activities, at that time one never forgets. One is fully established.

The preliminary stage of meditation practice is to first reach the mind as one—that is, to reach the heart. The further, more detailed aspects that are vast and numerous will come by themselves later. The Buddha taught for 45 years after his enlightenment, without end, and he taught just that single mind. If we cannot grasp the mind, listening to Dhamma talks is meaningless. We just listen like that, not reaching the mind. But if we reach the mind, listening to Dhamma talks is delightful, very enjoyable. Well, that's enough for now.

(Sitting meditation)

(Teacher leads the instruction)

First, establish your mind firmly right within your own body. Do not let it wander outside. When contemplating, contemplate only within your own body. Do not send your contemplation outside this body. Because inside this body there are many things to contemplate, all worthy of contemplation. When contemplated, they give rise to disenchantment. They are all Dhamma. For preliminary practice, we must practice right here first, then we will be on the right track. If you practice wrongly, it wastes a great deal of time.

When you have established the mind within this body, the mind is in a limited, narrow sphere, not going far. The mind has a chance to converge more easily because the purpose of meditation is precisely to make the mind converge into concentration. Whatever method of meditation you use, it aims at this single point. When you can make the mind converge, that is correct according to your intention. That is the preliminary practice. Take the simple approach. No need to chant or study from texts and waste time. To study and know your own mind—that is enough studying. What more do you want? Studying for the sake of future habitual tendencies—in truth, if we study this matter of the mind and have not yet attained paths, fruits, and Nibbāna, it will still serve as a habitual tendency for our future anyway. Please decide to focus on the present: make the mind converge into this one place first. If the mind has not yet reached paths, fruits, and Nibbāna, past and future will come by themselves. No need to doubt.

Alright, let's meditate.