Recollection of the Buddha

When you recollect the Buddha, it’s not just a matter of repeating his name. You want to think about the qualities he exemplified in his life. He took care of his own responsibilities—in other words, the way he was causing himself suffering—but he also went beyond that. He helped his family. He helped the world.

In the same way, we should take him as our example, looking after the needs of our own mind, because our mind is full of greed, aversion, and delusion. It holds on to these things, and yet these are the things that it should learn to let go if it doesn’t want to suffer. It’s afraid to let go. It likes its greed. It likes its anger. It likes its delusion. Which is why we need help from admirable friends, people who point out to us where we’re causing ourselves a lot of suffering and yet we don’t need to. We have to learn how to sacrifice some of the things that we really, really like.

Think of the Buddha again. He had to sacrifice his life in the palace. You can imagine someone who’s been brought up in a palace, how difficult it would be to go out and live even in an ordinary house, much less to go out and live in the forest. But that’s what he knew he had to do, and so he did it. So think of the things that you’re holding on to that are really to your detriment. Tell yourself you can learn to let them go.

Then you think of the people around you. You think of the world at large. What can you do for them? The people around you? You can help them as you can. Can you sacrifice some of your time? After all, we all depend on one another. We live off of the sacrifices made by other people. Look at this monastery. Everything we have here was a gift. Somebody had to sacrifice something for this to be here. So we show our respect for that, we show our gratitude for that, by practicing as much as we can.

And the practice isn’t just sitting here with our eyes closed and doing walking meditation. All the tasks that need to be done to keep this place functional are part of our responsibilities too. That’s how we show that we appreciate all the sacrifices that have been made for us.

Then for the world at large, spread thoughts of goodwill in all directions, every day, every day. Make this a constant practice. Ajaan Mun would do this three times a day—in the morning when he woke up, in the afternoon when he woke up from his nap, in the evening before going to bed. He spread goodwill in all directions. Not just a minute or two. He had a chant that went along with it. The chant had various versions. Some of them could take half an hour, some of them could take an hour to chant. But he wanted to make goodwill the frame for his practice. That’s one of the reasons why his practice succeeded.

So there are sacrifices we have to make for our own good, for the good of the people immediately around us, and for the world at large. That’s one of the lessons we learn if we really recollect the Buddha. We don’t just repeat his name, as I said. We think about his qualities and how we can take those qualities within us. When we take his qualities within us, the Buddha becomes our refuge. Those qualities themselves are our genuine refuge. Let’s work on making them complete.