3 things that will make our life happy
Ven. Narongchai Thanachayo, President of iMONASTERY Chiang Mai said, “People who have mindfulness, awareness, and concentration will be able to live in this world no matter what the situation is. They will be able to maintain the quality of their minds, to be clear, pure, and happy..”
Have you ever noticed yourself? You get bored with work, you argue with friends around you, you can’t focus on your concentration, you can’t focus on the continuity of your concentration, you work for 5 minutes and then you have to check your phone, Facebook, or email. Your mind doesn’t focus on what’s in front of you. Have you ever asked yourself..? Why isn’t your mindfulness strong? Why isn’t your concentration strong?
A person with mindfulness is a person with concentration.
A person with concentration is a person with mindfulness.
Most people are familiar with practicing meditation or are familiar with practicing mindfulness to gain concentration because mindfulness and concentration go hand in hand. It’s a science. It’s not strange that if you have mindfulness, concentration will occur automatically. It’s just that if our mindfulness is short, our concentration will be short. The longer our mindfulness is, the longer our concentration will be. These two things go together. The problem is that our concentration is not strong enough to respond to stimuli through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. When something stimulates our awareness, we lose it. Our concentration is lost, leading to irritation, anger, greed, and delusion. These things are what make people’s lives today unhappy and unable to fully apply meditation practice in their daily lives.
We often say that we train mindfulness to gain concentration, but we often don’t know how to train mindfulness to gain awareness, or how to train awareness to gain concentration. This is because we lack a connector, causing mindfulness and concentration to be inconsistent because we lack an important connector called “awareness.”
Awareness has an English name of “Integrating wisdom.”
Integrating means integration.
Wisdom means wisdom. Integrating wisdom means integrating wisdom, which is an integration between mindfulness and concentration.
It’s like a person in the middle. The left arm is mindfulness, the right arm is concentration. If mindfulness doesn’t work, it means that the two arms don’t work together. What connects the two arms is mindfulness. When mindfulness is good, Our mindfulness and concentration will be good. These 3 things will help each other.
… In the past, we practiced “mindfulness” to find “concentration”, but we never noticed “consciousness”. How can we practice this connector? Mindfulness is the ability to remember. Integrating wisdom is the ability to be fully aware and always aware. We must develop both of these throughout our lives. These two things will integrate and reinforce all the virtues that we will practice from now on. For example, if we make merit, we must have mindfulness and awareness. If we keep the precepts, we must have mindfulness and awareness. If we meditate, we must have mindfulness. These are virtues that are of great benefit and must be practiced and developed throughout our lives. Some people may say that I meditate without practicing mindfulness, or that I only practice mindfulness but not mindfulness. This shows that our knowledge is incomplete because we do not see the whole picture completely and do not know how it is connected. People who lack mindfulness are careless people. Living is like dying. Being mindful points to the virtue called mindfulness. Therefore, mindfulness and mindfulness are very important.
In practice, mindfulness is like a rope. It pulls things that pass by to a stop, which is pulling the mind to stop it from floating outside. Like a cowboy who is about to catch a horse, if our mind is running all the time, we cannot meditate because we lack mindfulness. Mindfulness must pull the mind. If the horse, which is the mind, can pull it back, then concentration can be established and discernment will come to consider the emotions of the mind there, such as discernment to consider what we are distracted about, what we are suffering from, etc. When mindfulness can pull the mind to stay in place, discernment can consider and concentration will form.
Example: – When we are about to hammer a nail, our mindfulness is, I will hammer the nail, my hand holds the nail, our mindfulness starts working, how to hammer the nail, discernment is the one who calculates which angle to hold the nail, which position to hammer, light or heavy, discernment will firmly determine the exact angle and discernment will start to strike. The beginning of striking is when discernment starts working when hammering the nail down continuously. The continuous hammering of the mind is called concentration, which is the concentration on hammering the nail until the nail is completely embedded in the wood. All three things, mindfulness, awareness, and concentration, work together automatically. – When we bite our own mouth while eating, we lack mindfulness. When we choke on water, we lack mindfulness. But if we have mindfulness and awareness, we will be with our eating. We know how much food to scoop, how much to eat, and how many times to chew. This is the characteristic of a person with mindfulness.
How to practice mindfulness and awareness in daily life.. We have seen people brushing their teeth and talking on the phone at the same time. When we do many things at the same time, it will make us lose our mindfulness. When brushing our teeth, we should determine that I will brush my teeth. I will reach for the toothbrush, toothpaste, squeeze the toothpaste, slowly squeeze the toothpaste, and then brush my teeth. How many times do I brush my upper and lower teeth? If we brush our teeth thinking about other things, mindfulness will not be with us. But if we practice with every activity in our daily life, we will succeed. We will never put the toothbrush in our mouth. Because we always practice mindfulness and awareness
Benefits of practicing mindfulness and awareness
– Careful
– Detailed, observant
– Calm mind, focused
– Happy with work
– Is the foundation for developing higher wisdom
Sleeping with mindfulness
– Mindfulness, intentionally determining sleep
– Mindfulness determining breathing
– Mindfulness watching breathing
– Setting the time to wake up
Prosperity always comes to those who are mindful. Those who are mindful will receive happiness because mindfulness will be the cause of wisdom, which is discernment. Discernment and discernment work together. Our concentration will be good. If we cross the road and keep looking at our phones, this is carelessness. It will lead to danger, to accidents at work and in life. Therefore, if we are mindful, we will be able to catch the emotions that stimulate us. For example, if someone scolds us, we are angry now, not angry now, or we will forgive now. Discernment will gradually help catch our emotions that arise. Discernment works to consider our decisions and will definitely come out well. Our lives will be able to proceed smoothly and happily. We have learned about mindfulness, discernment, and concentration in order to live happily and ultimately achieve success.