The Spider I got a good example from watching spiders. A spider makes a web like a net. It weaves its web and spreads it at different openings. I once sat and contemplated one. It hung up its web like a movie screen, and when it was done it curled itself up quietly right in the middle of the web.
Fallen Mangoes Use your stillness to contemplate sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas that make contact, regardless of whether they're good or bad, happy or sad. It's as if a person has climbed a mango tree and is shaking it so that the mangoes fall to the ground. We're un
A Kiln Try to see these things clearly in yourself: That's called paccattam. Whatever outside object comes in and makes contact, it'll always be paccattam without stop. To put it in simple terms, it's like firing charcoal or bricks. Have you ever seen a kiln for firing charcoal or bricks? They bui
Leaving the Cobra Alone Objects and moods of the mind are like cobras whose poison is fierce. If nothing gets in the way of the cobra, it slithers along in line with its nature. Even though it contains poison, it doesn't show it. It doesn't cause us any danger because we don't get near it. The cob
Living with a Cobra Remember this: All the objects of the mind, regardless of whether they're things you like or things you don't like, are like poisonous cobras. If they attack and bite you, you can die. Objects are like cobras whose poison is fierce. The objects we like have lots of poison. The
A Mischievous Child It's as if a mischievous child is having some fun, irritating us until we have to yell at it and spank it. We have to understand that that's simply the nature of the child. When you understand this, you can let the child go ahead and play. Your sense of bother and irritation wi
Chicken in a Cage When mindfulness and the mind in charge come together, there's a kind of feeling. If the mind is ready to be at peace, it'll be caged in a peaceful place, like a chicken we've put into a cage. The chicken doesn't leave the cage but it can walk back and forth in the cage. Its walk
Receiving Visitors Make your mind aware and awake. Keep looking after it. If anyone comes to visit, wave them away. There's no place for them to sit, for there's only one seat. Try to sit here receiving visitors all day long. This is what's meant by "buddho." Stay firmly right here. Keep
Keeping Watch If you're forgetful for a minute, you're crazy for a minute. If your mindfulness lapses two minutes, you're crazy for two minutes. If it lapses for half a day, you're crazy for half a day. That's how it is. Mindfulness means keeping something in mind. When you do or say anything, yo
Sending off a Relative Watch the breath. Focus on the breath. Gather the mind at the breath. In other words, make it aware at the breath in the present. You don't have to be aware of a lot of things. Focus on inclining the mind, inclining the mind, to get more and more refined, more and more refin
Teaching a Child Sometimes the breath isn't right. It's too long, too short, and it puts you in a frenzy. That's because you're fixing your mind too strongly on it, you're squeezing it too much. It's like teaching a child how to sit. If you beat it every time, will it become intelligent? You're co
Sowing Rice Sit watching your in-and-out breath. Stay relaxed and comfortable, but don't let yourself get distracted. If you're distracted, stop. Look to see where the mind went and why it isn't following the breath. Go looking for it and bring it back. Get it to keep running along with the breath
Standard Form The standard way to sit in concentration is to sit with your legs crossed, right leg on top of the left leg, right hand on top of the left hand. Sit up straight. Some people say you can do it walking, you can do it sitting, so can you do it kneeling? Sure — but you're beginning st...
Teaching a Child ...So in this practice we're told to sit. That's the practice of sitting. And then you keep watching. There will be good moods and bad moods all mixed together in line with their normal nature. Don't simply praise your mind; don't simply punish it. Have a sense of time and place w
Beating the Buffalo The mind is like the buffalo. Its objects are like the rice plants. Awareness is like the buffalo's owner. What do you do when you keep herd on a buffalo? You let the buffalo loose, but you try to keep watch over it. If it gets near the rice plants, you yell at it. When the buf
Herding Water Buffalo ...It's the same with the practice. When we keep watch over our mind, when awareness keeps watch over its own mind, whoever keeps track of the mind will escape from Mara's snares. It's like keeping herd on a water buffalo: one, rice plants; two, buffalo; three, buffalo's
Water Drops, Water Streams Start out by contemplating your own mind. Always be careful to look after your five precepts. If you make a mistake, stop, come back, and start over again. Maybe you'll go astray and make another mistake. When you realize it, come back, start over again, each and every t
Catching a Lizard The way to focus your mind on an object, to catch hold of the object, is to acquaint yourself with your mind and to acquaint yourself with your objects. It's like the way men catch a lizard. The lizard lies inside the hollow of a termite's nest with six holes. The men close off f
The Food You Like The object of your tranquility meditation, if it's not in line with your character, won't give rise to dispassion or chastened dismay. The object in line with your character is the one you find yourself thinking about often. We don't usually notice this, but we should notice this
Painting a Picture Success in the practice is connected with discernment: insight meditation, where discernment and the mind stay together. Some people don't have to do very much and yet these things come together on their own. People with discernment don't have to do much at all. Concentration is