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Venerable
Ajahn Sumedho -
All the Time in the World
As we sit
here during this retreat, we have to pay attention to things that are
not at all interesting. They may even be unpleasant and painful. To
patiently endure things rather than to run off in search of something
interesting is a good discipline, isn't it? It is good to be able to
just endure the boredom, the pain, the anger, the greed -- all these
things -- instead of always running away from them…Patience is such an
important virtue. If we have no patience, there is absolutely no
possibility of getting enlightened. Be extremely patient…
I used to like the kind of meditation where I could sit and get very
calm -- and then when pain would arise in the body, I'd want to get rid
of it so that I could stay in that state of calm. Then I began to see
that wanting to get rid of pain was a miserable state of mind. Sometimes
we sit for several hours; sometimes all night long. You can run away
from it, but after a while you begin to come to terms with physical
pain. I've used practice like 'having all the time in the world to be
with pain,' rather than struggling to get rid of it so that I could come
back to my 'real' meditation. I've learned to take time to be with the
pains in my body if they come up in consciousness, rather than trying to
get some bliss.
Somehow, when I would say, 'I have all the time in the world, the rest
of my life, to be with this pain,' it would stop the tendency to want to
get rid of it. My mind would actually slow down for long periods of time
without following or creating a desire. Some of you have this idea of
conquering pain, getting over the 'pain threshold' -- but that's a
disaster…
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