คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
ได้อารมณ์สติกับสบายแล้ว แต่ยังต้องพยายามอยู่ ทำอย่างไรให้เป็นธรรมชาติAlready Getting the Feeling of Mindfulness and Ease, But Still Have to Try — How to Make It Natural
ความสบายเป็นอารมณ์ของกุศล เมื่อกุศลเป็นเจ้าเรือนความสบายจะปรากฏขึ้นเอง แต่เมื่ออกุศลเป็นเจ้าเรือนจะรู้สึกต้องทน ความสบายมีหลายระดับ สิ่งสำคัญคือให้กำหนดรู้สืบต่อไปได้เรื่อย ๆ ในทุกอิริยาบถEase is the wholesome's own emotion; when the wholesome is master of the house, ease arises on its own. When the unwholesome is master of the house, it feels like endurance instead. Ease comes in many levels — what matters is sustaining continuous awareness across every posture.
A monk who had recently completed the novice-monk course and had only been listening to Pra Ajarn for a short while asked: he gets the feeling of and ease every time he sits, but the problem is he has to work at producing it. How can it arise naturally on its own?
To make it natural requires observation. The revered teacher taught four principles: mindfulness, ease, consistency, and observation — to be applied in every activity, every posture. Since ease is specifically 's own emotion, whenever the wholesome possesses the mind as master of the house, its quality — and ease — arises on its own, and we can register it easily. But sometimes possesses the mind as master of the house instead; its quality is suffering, a state that must be endured and is hard to endure, so settling into it feels forced and strained.
When the unwholesome is master of the house, we register awareness at whatever level the mind can manage to sustain. Ordinarily, when the unwholesome possesses the mind, it does feel like enduring restlessness — but we look for whatever level of ease the mind can still hold onto. Ease comes in many levels across many situations — like a sick person suffering from pain, who, in the meantime, manages to keep that pain at a bearable level. That, too, counts as ease at the level of "just bearable." It doesn't have to be the ease of sitting under a cool tree or lying on a soft mattress, because ease looks different in each situation.
What matters is that this ease can sustain itself continuously across postures — whether sitting, walking, riding in a car, or eating. Register whatever signal appears, whatever level the feeling of ease is at right now. Each time we register ease it will differ — sometimes little, sometimes much — but as long as it can continue on and on. If something interrupts, simply return attention and register again. For example, even while we're in converon together, register awareness alongside it: what level is this feeling of ease at right now? Even if it feels neutral, that's fine too — just keep registering it.
What we actually want is the sphere of knowing — the sphere of mindfulness — which can register all these things. This sphere is what draws in pure merit-energy. The signal of ease, or of endurance, or of neutrality, is only a signal for the sphere of mindfulness to hold onto and rest upon.