The mind is the source of all calamities and virtues in this world. Negative thoughts will create negative things, otherwise positive thoughts will create positive things as well.
Sometimes the mind becomes wildly uncontrollable like a Sun-Go-Kong magic monkey who constantly jumps and moves nonstop. The mouth can be controlled when it will speak and still, the body can be set to be still and move, but the mind is the most difficult thing to control. The mind that is difficult to control will then affect our mouth and body. So that uncontrollable mind will produce various actions from speech and actions that can cause suffering. Happiness can be achieved if we have managed to control the mind well.
The Buddha said: "It is difficult to be controlled by a wicked mind and to wander as it pleases, it is good to control the mind, a good mind control will bring happiness." (Dhammapada, 35)
There is often a misunderstanding that meditation is emptying the mind so that we are afraid to meditate. The mind is not a form containing where it needs to be emptied. The mind is always moving and attached to the various forms of desire that arise from sight, smell and perceived feeling. So that happy mind wanders need to be controlled by silencing the form of outer sight, negating the sound of outside hearing, describing smell and perceived taste. The outer forms that are seen are only the mind-makers within us. Understanding this will lead us to a deep level of personal authenticity that can only be felt intuitively.
Mahabhikshu The Sixth Elders Zen, Hui-neng one day arrives at the Fa-hsing Vihara and sees the two monks disagreeing with an emotion once in front of a flagpole.
One of the monks said, "If there is no wind, how can the flag fly? That is why I say that the wind is moving."
The other bhikshu replied with emotion too, "If there is no flag, how can we know that the wind is moving? So I think that the flag is moving." This argument eventually turns into a coachman's debate in which each insists on their own most correct opinion.
Hui-neng finally intervened and said, "There's really nothing to argue about, I want to solve this problem, it's not a moving wind, nor a moving flag.
One's view is often different because of the underlying concepts of thought which make a difference. When our mind is calm, everything will be in happiness. As the mind moves, various concepts will be formed. Without realizing the essence of the problem the mind itself will bundle us in an endless circle of suffering. How to escape from that conception of mind is important and one of the main points of the Buddha's teaching. Mind is often formed by attachment to intellectual understanding. In reality we can be trapped in thinking and not thinking is a contradiction. But the meaning implied in it, has its own meaning.
Thinking Not to Think
A Mahabhikshu Zen is meditating. A young monk passed by, waiting for him to finish meditation, and asked, "The temperature sits here silently like a rock. What's the temperature of mind?"
Mahabhikshu answered, "I am thinking of not thinking."
The young monk asked further, "How does temperature do it?"
Mahabhikshu replied, "With no thinking."
Thoughts are not necessarily sought to be controlled, but a subdued consciousness with no imaginative thoughts will lead us to the stage of attainment of enlightenment.
Not Successfully Finding the Mind
Shen-kuang Hui-k'o went to Bodhidharma and said, "My mind is not calm, please help me to calm my chaotic mind!"
Bodhidharma replied, "Where to bring your mind here! I will calm him down for you!"
Hui-k'o amazedly exclaimed, "I can not find my mind!"
Bodhidharma smiled and said, "I have calmed your mind."
At that very moment Hui-k'o attained enlightenment.
The mind is hard to find or to see because it is so gentle, subtle and moving as it pleases. If we can keep our minds we will live with wisdom and happiness.
The Buddha said: "The mind is very difficult to see, very soft and smooth, the mind moves at will, the wise man always keeps his mind, the one who keeps his mind happy." (Dhammapada, 36)
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