Close your eyes gently. Relax the whole body and mind.
We should close our eyes in order to detach from attachment to using our eyes and light and seeing and what we can see with our eyes. The more we can choose our eyes, the more we can detach from using the eyes and light and seeing and what they can see with their eyes.
I meet many patients at the hospital who want to die. They attach to opening their eyes, to the light, to seeing, to what they can see with their eyes. That’s why it is difficult to close their eyes.
It’s because of their attachment to using their eyes. Some patients worry that if they choose their eyes, they will not beable to open them again. That’s why we should use our eyes for using only without attachment.
Using it with attachment is dangerous. There are many side effects because of using the eyes with attachment.If we are not closing our eyes on practicing meditation, we can’t know about our attachment to using the eyes. If there is ignorance, there will be attachment. If there is attachment, there will be ignorance. For sure. Because of closing eyes and practicing meditation and detachment we can know more and more about attachment concerning using our eyes. In this way, there will be less and less attachment in the mind concerning using our eyes. This is the way to be using only the eyes.
Having no experience about our own attachment is mindfulness. Not having no experience about our attachment is ignorance. The more we close our eyes and practice meditation, the more we will know about our attachment to the eyes by closing our eyes and practicing meditation. Knowing about attachment is mindfulness. If we don’t choose our eyes and practice meditation, it is difficult to know about our attachment concerning with choosing our eyes and practicing meditation. That’s ignorance.
Closing eyes or not closing eyes, practicing meditation or not practicing meditation, are the different causes of actions, and then there will be different results or consequences or reactions.
Knowing the cause and effect or action and reaction is the power of mindfulness. Not knowing the cause and effect of action and reaction is the cause of illusion.
Because of attachment to our eyes or our life, we dare not lose our eyes or our life. If we can detach from our eyes or our life we will dare to lose our eyes and our life. Every action concerning Buddha Dhamma and Sangha is meaningful. Only by practicing can we understand with our own experience. That’s why we should follow the Buddha in every physical, verbal or mental action as much as we can. We should follow every physical, verbal and mental action of the Buddha as much as we can.
There’s temperature in our body, in this Dhamma hall and outside Dhamma hall. We need to be mindful of the low and high temperature of our body, our Dhamma hall, or our outside surroundings in order to detach from temperature or hotness and coolness. If we are working or running or doing housework or at home or doing our daily activities, our body temperature will increase. In this way, there will be sweat in our body. If we practice meditation with stillness and silence, or the body temperature will not increase.
The more we can sit and stay in silence, the body temperature will be less and less than before. If we don’t practice meditation like this, it is difficult to know the body temperature by ourselves. We will know only when we see the parameter. If we don’t know our body temperature, the temperature of our room, our environment, then we cannot adjust. Only when we know our body temperature, if it increases, then we can adjust as necessary.
Whenever there’s light, there will be heat or temperature. If there’s no light, there will also be temperature but there will not be hotness, but coolness. Because of turning on the solar lights, the temperature in this Dhamma hall will increase, there will be more heat.
Because of turning off the solar lights in this meditation hall, the temperature of the room will stop increasing with the light. But this is daytime, so the sun is rising nearer to the eyes, so the temperature outside the Dhamma hall will increase. That’s why the temperature in the Dhamma hall will also increase. There will be more heat because of sunshine, not because of solar light.
As a mediator, we should detach from all living beings and nonliving beings and all electrical equipment, modern technology, in order to be using only without healing and attachment in mind. In order to detach from the temperature of hotness and coldness, we need to be mindful of the present temperature, or hotness and coolness. In order to be mindful of the present temperature, we need to detach from other objects of mindfulness. If we can’t detach from other objects, we can’t be mindful of the present temperature. If we are not mindful of our body temperature, or the temperature of the room, the environment, we can’t detach from it.
These are a few points about mindfulness and detachment for those who are practicing this method of meditation. Because of turning on the solar lights, the temperature of the room will increase. Because of turning off the solar lights, the temperature of the room will decrease, so we can feel better, less hot than before. This is the power of mindfulness and detachment.
The real mediator is the present moment mind. Therefore by practicing mindfulness and detachment, we can let the present mind survive by itself. If we don’t practice mindfulness and detachment, our present moment mind will have more ignorance and attachment. In this way, our present moment mind will not be peaceful, healthy and wealthy.
Lighting or no lighting, hotness or coolness,… all these opposite conditions are not to be rejected or attached to, but to be using only or not using only, experiencing or not experiencing only, knowing our not knowing only with mindfulness and detachment. This is the right understanding and right practice we all should try to get success.