Được dạy bởi Sư Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu
Dịch Việt: Việt Hùng
Lời người dịch: Trong các bài Hỏi & Đáp như vậy, tôi sẽ chủ yếu dịch thoát ý, chứ không chặt chữ. Một mặt đây là việc tôi làm để có thể nghiền ngẫm phần trả lời của Sư Yuttadhammo. Một mặt, tôi chia sẻ lại đây, và hy vọng nó hữu ích cho các thiền sinh Vipassana tham khảo.
Bài pháp ngắn này được đăng tải trên Youtube vào ngày 03/10/2010. Phần English transcript ở cuối bài. Link Youtube của bài nói ở đây: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj-1mq0Lyok
Mặc dù đã cố gắng tốt nhất trong khả năng của mình, tôi chắc chắn không thể ghi xuống được một cách chính xác 100% tất cả các từ ngữ, đặc biệt là các từ Pali mà Sư đề cập trong bài pháp. Tôi sẽ tiếp tục cập nhật bản ghi, bất cứ khi nào tôi thấy được những điểm còn thiếu sót.
Con xin thành kính đảnh lễ tạ ơn Sư Yuttadhammo về bài pháp thoại ngắn quí báu này. Con nguyện cho Sư được mọi thuận lợi và sức khoẻ trong hành trình tâm linh của Sư.
Các bạn có thể tìm hiểu thêm thông tin của Sư Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu và các lời dạy của Sư tại trang web: https://www.sirimangalo.org/.
English Transcript (quickly jotting down)
Question: Hi, welcome back to us. Sorry, I’ve been busy lately. I haven’t had a chance to put any videos up. We’ve been trying to get ready to go to Thailand, where I’ll be spending the next two months. I’m leaving at the end of this month and I’ll be there until around Christmas. Anyway, next question comes from insideisvoid, who asks: when I get set to meditate, should I try to seclude myself from things that might distract me, like keeping pets out of the room or switching off devices that make sounds? Or should I allow those things? Should I allow those things in order to overcome them in meditation? Thanks.
I think there are cases where you want to avoid certain things, pets, I think would be one of them. Because of the conscious interaction and the persistence of the phenomenon. The real point here is that, it’s how comfortable you are. Because in the end, there should be no difference between our formal practice and our practice in daily life. Formal practice is just that. It’s formal. It’s a way of formalizing the act of being mindful. So the benefit of it is that. It’s easier, it’s more intense. It’s like taking things out of the environment, so that you can do laboratory experience experiments. And the experiment in the laboratory is much more pure. Really the only way to train yourself in the principles that were working and we’re talking about here is to take yourself away from those things. Now, that really only applies to those things that are going to be a distraction in your meditation. Sounds like like a clock ticking or air conditioning or even external sounds outside, most of the sounds that we have to deal with, cars going by or whatever, don’t need to be a distraction. Obviously, they can become a part of the meditation. It’s where it gets to the point where it’s going to interrupt your meditation and it’s going to take you away from your stomach rising. A cat crawling over you and clawing you can be an object of meditation. But the intensity of it and the conscious interaction will necessarily be a diversion.
I think what you’ll find more is that when you try to avoid certain phenomena, that they actually distract you more in life and it becomes an obsession and that becomes something that blocks you in the practice. For instance, people who try to take a clock out of the room or or remove certain sounds will find that they then can never meditate with those sounds. When I first started, everyone, we were always, you know, trying to get the clock out of the room, put it under a pillow or so on. I had an alarm clock someone gave me and I was sticking it under a pillow and then I could still hear it. And I have a blanket on top of that until I could no longer hear it. Because I found that I was walking when I did my walking meditation, I’d be walking in sync with the clock all the time. And when I did my sitting meditation, I’d be breathing in the sink or um. But then the problem came when I moved to another room with a couple of other meditators and there was a clock in the room and I had no opportunity to remove it. It drove me crazy because it had gotten worse because of my inability to accept it. Until finally I just gave up. And and, you know, if I was walking in sync with a clock, I was walking in sync with the clock and eventually was able to overcome it. And that’s obviously very important in the meditation practice to overcome our attachment as opposed to defeating them. So, things like pets, people, music, I would I would recommend all of these things should be removed from your meditation practice.
So there are people talking in the room. That’s incredibly difficult to meditate. Because you’re obviously thinking about what they’re talking. If there’s music, that’s quite difficult to meditate. Because your mind gets into this rhythm and it’s kind of like a stimulus and it keeps you happy. It keeps you calm. It doesn’t allow you to deal with the natural state of the mind. Pets, obviously, as I said, can be a distraction as well.
So those are the few specific things, the more extreme sort of stimulants. But as far as noises and finding a quiet place, I would recommend against it. In fact, I would recommend trying to practice in places where you wouldn’t normally do. When I’m in an airport, I’ll be going to Thailand. When I’m in the airport, I’ll do a walking meditation and sitting meditation, even with incredibly loud noise, even with people talking and vacuuming and vehicles going by or whatever. Because you can pull these things into your meditation practice. In most cases, I would say, you know, just let it be and let the noise become a part of your meditation as opposed to letting it build up the the aversion to it. OK, so hope that helps.