?Stop? so you will succeed |
To ?stop17?: all success springs from this one action. I mean success both in the spiritual and in the earthly sense. In the material world, if we want to go somewhere quickly we have to travel in a fast vehicle such as a car or a plane. But in the world of Dhamma it is the opposite; we have to ?stop?. If we don?t stop, we won?t get there. The more we stop, the faster we go. Recall the story of Angulimala which Luang Por recounted. Angulimala believed that if he collected the fingers of 1,000 people, he would become the ruler of the world. He saw the Lord Buddha and ran after him with the intent to cut off his finger?the last finger to complete his 1,000. He called out, ?Stop, Monk, stop!? The Lord Buddha answered him, ?I have stopped already. It is you who has not stopped.?
?Stop? is the key to success. ?Stop? here means stopping your mind from wandering, bringing it to a peaceful stillness. If you cannot, you will not be able to reach the Dhammakaya within you. All Dhamma (Truth) resides within us. You have to stop your mind to reach it. This is why meditation is so important.
The Tipitaka18 has 84,000 sections. They can be summed up into three practices: purifying the body, purifying the mind, and purifying speech. These three can be further summed up in just one word: ?Stop?. Once the mind is still, it, along with the body and speech, will become purified. And this in turn will bring us much merit.
Follow my advice and learn to divide your time. When you meditate, think of nothing else but meditation. Focus only on advancing on your journey.
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