Return to site

Remove Aversion to Find Inner Peace

broken image

Make peace with whatever you are experiencing in everyday life and in meditation in order to let go of the fault finding mind. Remind yourself in every moment, with every breath that ' This is good enough'. In this way, you can reside and be content with the present moment. Then the mind opens up and the thoughts quiet down. Aversion prevents the piti (rapture , gladness, energy) which is the prerequisite to successful mala meditation practice. That's why it's important to let go of the fault finding mind.

If I am tired when I start my mantra yoga practice, the tiredness is the object of the mind. It's what is between me and that tiredness that matters ( meaning to watch the emotion that arise in you when relating with the tiredness, make sure that you don't relate with that tiredness by creating anger or getting upset at the tiredness) . If you are angry or upset you are actually feeding the hindrances ( aversion). Why am I so tired? Am I getting angry and upset at that tiredness? It's not the tiredness that is the problem. Tiredness is natural, but the disturbing of the tiredness ( the emotion that you use to relate to tiredness) . The problem is not that life or samsara disturbs you, it's the disturbance that you put in between the observer and the observed that is the problem. Once you start to look at that you find out how easy it is to meditate. I don't know what you do when you sit down and you close your eyes, but don't just look at the object in your mind, look at how you are looking at it. Are you actually creating peace, are you creating freedom? Or are you just creating more desire, more wanting, more will will, more frustration, or more fear? Look at where those things arise from, and once you get the idea of putting your mindfulness in that space between the observer and the observed ( the emotions that arise when relating with the object, person, place) , you will see the play of all the defilements. Where are they coming from? They are coming from the stupidity of the mind. It's only because you don't look in the right place that delusions can grow . Once you spot that area which is the cause and source of these defilements and hindrances, you can put your mindfulness there and see this whole process happening.

When you start to see that , it's so easy. Whatever you have to experience, even if it's a sore throat right now, a disappointment, or something that doesn't go right, who cares! It's not the event you have to experience; it's how you are experiencing it. So even if it is pain or things I don't like, I make sure I watch between the observer and that unpleasant experience and put peace and freedom there. I never put craving there, or desire, or wanting it to be different. I never put ill will there or the thought ' Why me' , ' This is not right'. I never put control there, thinking I can do something about it. It's about " non-doing", putting a piece of 'non-doing' between me and the object that I am looking at . It says in the Buddha's second sermon, the teaching on non-self, the Anattalakkhana Sutta ( SN XXII.59), that if these objects of the mine were yours to control, you could say to them, ' May you be like this, may you be like that'. These objects are anatta: not me, not mind, not a self; '"you can't do anything about them", said the Buddha. So leave them alone, let them go. Whether it's rupa, bodily things, material things, or whether it's feelings, perceptions, mental formations, or consciousness, leave them alone ( the 5 aggregates). They just arise and fall according to their conditions ( for example, a lot of our perceptions about the object/ observed are pre-conceived notions based on conditionings, our emotions are conditioned response). It's not me, it's not mine, it's not self; it's just an empty process, nothing to do with me. So , I can put that freedom between myself as the observer and the object.

Listen or chant the 8 mantras in the video below to create a deep state of inner peace. If chanting the mantras we recommend using a set of buddhist prayer beads to help guide and focus your mind and your chanting. You can select and use the mala beads based on your Zodiac to align the energies of the malas and the mantras to your specific personality and energy.