Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

happily in a monastery, or in any community; it’s a great problem for living happilyand gaining deep meditation. When one is sitting on one’s cushion that fault-findingmind is one of the big obstacles, and you can understand that the fault finding mind isvery far removed from equanimity, from just looking on. With the fault-finding mindyou are dealing with saññā, perception. Perception is searching out things tocomplain about. It’s a fascinating aspect of the mind to be able to see, to be able tocapture this essence, because you see that this creates so much suffering anddisappointment and problems for you now and for lifetimes to come. Why is it thatthe mind is bent on finding faults? Sure the faults are there, but they are surroundedby things that we can be grateful for, things that we can develop loving kindnesstowards, things that we can develop the beautiful nimmitta towards, things we can beat peace with. Why is it that so many human beings incline towards finding faults?They find faults with their fellows in the holy life, find faults in the monastery, findfaults in themselves, find faults in the Dhamma, and find faults in the meditationcushions. ‘It’s not good enough, they’re too lumpy’. You can see that the faultfindingmind creates work. It creates conflict; it creates things to do; and it goes inthe opposite direction to peace.If, when we look at something which we cannot change in the monastery, or in ourdaily lives, when there is something which is irritating us – I’m not talking aboutphysical pain, I’m talking about irritations in the schedule, in the routine etc. – whenwe can’t change it we can develop equanimity towards it. We know we haveequanimity towards that irritation if the mind starts to become peaceful again.There’s nothing we can do, so we do nothing. We just sit and be with it, and if it’strue equanimity there’s a lack of activity for the mind and it’s fully accepted. Themind is just looking on. The ‘doer’, the fault-finding mind, has ceased and the mindhas developed a sense of stillness and peace.When you start sitting in meditation and something is irritating you – whether it’s athought from the past, in the bottom, or it’s too cold or too hot in your room – if youcan’t change it, if you can’t do anything about it, try to develop equanimity. Formany years in my early life as a monk I practised that by using a mantra called “Nodesire! No desire! No desire!” I would use that mantra in the way that I encourage all167