It’s All Right Here

Let’s meditate. When you focus on the breath, you’ve got all four frames of reference for the establishing of mindfulness right here.

You’ve got the breath, which is part of the body in and of itself.

Then there are the feelings that go along with the breath. They can be pleasant or unpleasant. What you want to do is to create feelings that are pleasant. Nurture them. If they’re not there, figure out where the potential for pleasure is in the breath. You can experiment with different kinds of breathing. Make the breath long, short, fast, slow, heavy, light, deep, shallow. See what breathing feels best for the body right now.

And, of course, you’ve got the mind that’s alert to all this. That’s right here, too.

Then there are the mental qualities. You may have some hindrances right now that are getting in the way, in which case you have to learn how to put them aside. Then you try to develop the factors for awakening. Start with mindfulness again. Try to bring the mind to some calm. Give it energy. Be very careful to develop what’s skillful and to abandon what’s unskillful.

There you are: all four frames of reference right there.

If you want to see anything important in the practice, it’s going to be right here. You don’t have to go far away. Some people ask, where is the best place to meditate? The best place to meditate is right at your breath, right here, right now. If you wait for some other time, some other place, you never know for sure whether you’re going to be able to get to that time, get to that place.

It’s like the question someone asked Ajaan Fuang one time, as to what kind of food he likes. He said, “I like the food that I have.” The food you don’t have, you can’t eat.

In the same way, what you’re going to learn about the Dhamma is going to be right here. The lessons you can’t learn right here are not worth learning.

So. Try to keep your mind here with the breath as much as you can. Then if you want to understand feelings, understand the body, understand the mind itself, you watch right here. See how they interact. In that way, you’ve got everything you need.

So take advantage of what you’ve got right here, right now. We’re with the present moment not because it’s a wonderful moment, but because there’s work to be done right here. And the potentials for finishing the job are right here as well.

We don’t know how much longer we’re going to have on this earth, but we do know that we have right now.

And before you go, you can ask yourself, “Are you ready to go?”

A huge part of the mind will say, “No, not yet.”

Okay—why are you not ready? What’s standing in the way? Well, work on that. Work right here, right now. Then when the time does come to go, you can go with ease.

When we were born into this world, we didn’t look at the fine print. All we could see were the attractive potentials, the possibilities of human life. But those are curtailed by aging, illness, and finally death. These things are unavoidable. What is avoidable is any suffering around them.

So whatever qualities of mind you need to develop, develop them right here. Whatever ones you have to learn how to abandon—that would make you suffer—you’ve got to abandon them right here. You’ve got everything you need. It’s just a matter of settling down here and doing the work, because it’s good work.

Some people say that we in Theravada are selfish, looking after our own minds. Well, who’s going to look after our minds if we’re not looking after our minds? We can’t look after other people’s minds. They can’t look after ours.

It’s not the case that the world is pragmatic while Buddhism is unrealistic. The Buddha’s teachings are extremely pragmatic. They’re the ones that get the best results—if you apply them. And where’s your opportunity to apply them? Right here. What’s the best time? Right now. So get to work.