DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - The Stillness of being, -and a question about 'emptiness'

**ElectraDupu** · 10-05-2010, 10:20 PM

This little quote is from Ajahn Sumedho, UK abbot with the Theravada Thai Forest Tradition. Its taken from the chapter "Only one breath" from "The Way it Is" which is available to read online.

For me its a reminder not to try to hold onto past states, or onto states that I think I haven't achieved, or that might be attainable in the future.... but to just relax with the here and now.

"The dangers in meditation practice is the habit of grasping at things, grasping at states; so the concept that's most useful is the concept of letting go, rather than of attaining and achieving.

If you say today that yesterday you had a really super meditation, absolutely fantastic, just what you've always dreamed of, and then today you try to get the same wonderful experience as yesterday, but you get more restless and more agitated than ever before - now why is that?

Why can't we get what we want? It's because we're trying to attain something that we remember; rather than really working with the way things are, as they happen to be now. So the correct way is one of mindfulness, of looking at the way it is now, rather than remembering yesterday and trying to get to that state again." Source:
http://www.amaravati.org/abm/english..._is/13oob.html

10-05-2010, 10:20 PM	#22
ElectraDupu Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 428 Senior Member	This little quote is from Ajahn Sumedho, UK abbot with the Theravada Thai Forest Tradition. Its taken from the chapter "Only one breath" from "The Way it Is" which is available to read online. For me its a reminder not to try to hold onto past states, or onto states that I think I haven't achieved, or that might be attainable in the future.... but to just relax with the here and now. "The dangers in meditation practice is the habit of grasping at things, grasping at states; so the concept that's most useful is the concept of letting go, rather than of attaining and achieving. If you say today that yesterday you had a really super meditation, absolutely fantastic, just what you've always dreamed of, and then today you try to get the same wonderful experience as yesterday, but you get more restless and more agitated than ever before - now why is that? Why can't we get what we want? It's because we're trying to attain something that we remember; rather than really working with the way things are, as they happen to be now. So the correct way is one of mindfulness, of looking at the way it is now, rather than remembering yesterday and trying to get to that state again." Source: http://www.amaravati.org/abm/english..._is/13oob.html
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