Luang Por Liem: The Ways of the Peaceful - Wat Pah Nanachat

espectful starts to feel smoother and smoother, and the sitting
posture doesn’t make it feel like you are straining the leash any
more. One can do these things if one keeps exercising oneself.
The training of all these external aspects is necessary. One
needs to rely on the continuity of one’s efforts. In the end one is
able to do things. The reason for such practices is because, in
keeping to our intentions as monks, we want to take on a life of
simplicity. To sit on the floor, for example, is plain and simple,
because there is no need to arrange the place with objects to sit on
or cushions to support one, just like in those places that the
Buddha considered to be simple dwellings 21 . The Buddha wanted
us to live in a way where we develop an attitude that is orientated
towards nature. This is an important aspect.
We need to train and develop in our practice. Any aspect of
the practice relies on training, on doing things over and over.
There are certain qualities in the life of an anagarika, one who
isn’t bound to a home, that the Buddha called treasures. They are
valuable goods. You probably know some of them. One of them
has to do with our body – it is what the Buddha called
kayasamvara, restraint of the body. It concerns our bodily
behaviour. Possessing restraint towards the body helps us to see
things clearly, because our attention needs to be connected to our
bodily movements, activities and the respective feelings in each
posture. We need to directly know these things in time, and – for
the sake of restraint – we also need to be able to tell right away
whether each bodily action or movement is appropriate for an
21 e.g. living at the root of a tree, out in the open, or in empty houses, as
mentioned in the thirteen ascetic practices allowed by the Buddha.
55