Control
Regular feedback after Ashtree Sangha monthly meeting
As we spoke of our meditations in this meeting one of the topics that arose was that of control. It’s easy to see how we assume that we should be in control of our body/mind. This is often held up as being our aim by some teachers or traditions. Meditation can then either become a place that accentuates our lack of control and therefore leads to disappointment, judgement or unkindness to ourselves, or becomes a battlefield to gain this control or a place where control is gained.
In being invited to let go of that wish for control, we can see that it’s easier said than done. The drive for control can become a habit… maybe even in layers of subtlety, which may take a while to see and let go of. Yet again, something to “Unlearn”!
However we may not be convinced that control needs to be let go of. We are human beings with intellect and choices. Being in control of something seems useful. What of “right effort”? How else do we achieve our aims?
If we go to the suttas we see that even the discussion “right effort” is framed by the Buddha as being a process of seeing what works and what doesn’t, and fostering that which seems useful and letting go of that which isn’t. To foster that which is useful involves actually being with your experience long enough to see it as it really is, become familiar with the raw face of it… what brings it about?… what are the results? What maintains it? Despite the long lists given in the suttas, the invitation is to not learn these lists off by heart but to actually notice if you experience such qualities in your meditations. This cannot occur if you shun them. Be with your thoughts and emotions. Allow them to flow as they wish in order to see their dependently arisen qualities. We often need to look back on the process after the fact, as it’s difficult to ‘be aware’ during so many of our mind states/feelings etc. Bringing awareness to them at the time often stops or changes them.
In the Satipattana Sutta, Buddha speaks of being with your body/feelings/thought/conditioned experiences, to “the extent necessary for knowledge and remembrance”. This phase is repeated for each foundation. To me this invites internal discernment as opposed to ‘control’. The ‘extent necessary’, will vary each time.
This isn’t totally a prescriptive process. It’s a question of what’s useful or not useful for you. You modify the process when it’s no longer useful or if it’s distressing, overwhelming, or too intense for YOU - not another person or teacher. Experiment! These are not rules, they are invitations. How can we be both kind AND wise within our own experience and body/mind? How can we see and know what is causing such distress, boredom, angst, and how it fades away? How can we be with our experience and be at peace at the same time? You might have different questions to these. Use them in your practice. This is employing curiosity, not control! Curiosity has neither attachment nor aversion. Control employs both.
Anna Markey
March 2003
(Download PDF version, 131 kB)
As we spoke of our meditations in this meeting one of the topics that arose was that of control. It’s easy to see how we assume that we should be in control of our body/mind. This is often held up as being our aim by some teachers or traditions. Meditation can then either become a place that accentuates our lack of control and therefore leads to disappointment, judgement or unkindness to ourselves, or becomes a battlefield to gain this control or a place where control is gained.
In being invited to let go of that wish for control, we can see that it’s easier said than done. The drive for control can become a habit… maybe even in layers of subtlety, which may take a while to see and let go of. Yet again, something to “Unlearn”!
However we may not be convinced that control needs to be let go of. We are human beings with intellect and choices. Being in control of something seems useful. What of “right effort”? How else do we achieve our aims?
If we go to the suttas we see that even the discussion “right effort” is framed by the Buddha as being a process of seeing what works and what doesn’t, and fostering that which seems useful and letting go of that which isn’t. To foster that which is useful involves actually being with your experience long enough to see it as it really is, become familiar with the raw face of it… what brings it about?… what are the results? What maintains it? Despite the long lists given in the suttas, the invitation is to not learn these lists off by heart but to actually notice if you experience such qualities in your meditations. This cannot occur if you shun them. Be with your thoughts and emotions. Allow them to flow as they wish in order to see their dependently arisen qualities. We often need to look back on the process after the fact, as it’s difficult to ‘be aware’ during so many of our mind states/feelings etc. Bringing awareness to them at the time often stops or changes them.
In the Satipattana Sutta, Buddha speaks of being with your body/feelings/thought/conditioned experiences, to “the extent necessary for knowledge and remembrance”. This phase is repeated for each foundation. To me this invites internal discernment as opposed to ‘control’. The ‘extent necessary’, will vary each time.
This isn’t totally a prescriptive process. It’s a question of what’s useful or not useful for you. You modify the process when it’s no longer useful or if it’s distressing, overwhelming, or too intense for YOU - not another person or teacher. Experiment! These are not rules, they are invitations. How can we be both kind AND wise within our own experience and body/mind? How can we see and know what is causing such distress, boredom, angst, and how it fades away? How can we be with our experience and be at peace at the same time? You might have different questions to these. Use them in your practice. This is employing curiosity, not control! Curiosity has neither attachment nor aversion. Control employs both.
Anna Markey
March 2003
(Download PDF version, 131 kB)