Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

from peace. The will ‘to be’ is a form of papañca that creates much turmoil and manyproblems in our world. It takes you out to try and achieve some fame or status. Itmakes you defend yourself when you think that other people are criticising you.These are all the movements of the mind that try to say ‘I am’. Bhavāsava, is takingyou in the wrong direction. It’s affirming existence, affirming being, rather thangoing in the opposite direction of ‘letting go’.With and avijjāsava the mind goes out because of delusion. It’s stupid to want to goout into the world. How much do you need in this world? Sometimes as the abbot ofa monastery I have to be very careful because if most of the monks in the monasteryare puthujjanas, it’s so easy for them to want more and more, whether it’s heaters,coolers, or walking meditation paths. For example, sooner or later, when we haveroads through the monastery, we might even be able to have meals on wheels and takethe food to each monk’s hut. Then you would only have to come outside to put yourbowl out. You wouldn’t even need to come to the sālā (hall). We could have a P.A.system for the chanting, so that you could chant anumodanā into a microphone and allthe lay people could hear you. Whatever it is, papañca can do this endlessly, but itmisses the point. The point is that trying to make everything comfortable, stable, andeasy is just the mind going out into the world.The Present MomentIt’s so easy to make plans in the mind, to plan the perfect monastery, the perfect hut.It is so easy to plan the perfect hermitage, but that is going out into the world, that’skāmāsava. It’s much better in a monastery such as this, which is comfortable enoughas it is, to go into your hut as much as you can. You go into the hut and intosimplicity. The Buddha taught santuhi as part of the gradual training. It meanscontentment with little, contentment with what you have. It doesn’t matter if it’s thebest; it’s good enough. What’s the purpose of the food? What’s the purpose of thehut? What’s the purpose of all your requisites? The purpose is not to win an awardfor the best monastery in the world. The purpose of all this is not to have touristscoming around and saying how beautiful the monastery is, or how wonderful your hutis. The purpose of these requisites is to give you the opportunity to let go byproviding the basic needs of the body, so that you don’t need to be so concerned with192