The One Seat

Back in the 1800s, there was an English poet who said, “The world is too much with us.” I wonder what he’d say now. We carry the world around in our pocket. We look at the screens, and they suck us in, into their world. We have to re-establish our world.

So. Where is your breath right now? Where is your body right now? Try to be fully aware of the body as much as you can. Then think of whatever comfortable breath energy there is. Let it spread throughout the whole body so that you can establish this as your place.

After all, it is yours. No one else can feel your body from within the way you do. No one else can know your mind from within the way you do. They may be able to read your brainwaves, but what that thought means to you, how it’s going to influence your life, they have no idea.

The problem is, for most of us, we have no idea, either. We’re not paying attention. But this is our property. This is our area. So establish yourself here as much as you can. Try not to let the world move in, because you’re going to need your safe place. There are enough dangers in the world already, and you don’t want to bring those dangers into your mind—because your mind has the potential to be dangerous. Greed, aversion, and delusion are always ready to jump up and get to work. So you have to be here to make sure that they don’t take charge, that you’re more in charge.

Ajaan Chah gives the image of having a house in which there’s one seat, and you take the one seat. Whoever’s in the seat is in power. Anybody else who comes in has to stand. And they’re there at your pleasure. If you don’t want them in the house, you can send them out. The problem is, we let them take the seat. Sometimes we don’t fight them at all. We invite them to take the seat. Then we have to run around at their pleasure. That verse that we chant again and again, says, “We’re a slave to craving.” So we have to make sure that we’re in charge.

So. Establish a good foundation; establish a good framework here in the body. Try to maintain that as much as you can. And then carry that out into the world. Don’t let the world invade you too much. You need your safe place inside to maintain your safety, to maintain your sanity. Make sure that you’re not wounded either by what the world does or what you do in response to unskillful things in the world. When you maintain your own territory like this, then you’re a lot stronger. And you’re in charge. You’re in the one seat.

Try to bolt yourself there. Don’t leave.