Keep Looking Inside

Years back, someone asked why we close our eyes when we meditate. After all, the purpose of the meditation, they said, was to develop goodwill so you can help the world.

The Buddha never said that we’re here to help the world. We’re here to solve the problem of suffering inside. And in solving our own suffering, of course, we place less of a burden on other people. But the real work is inside. The real problem is inside—and the solution is inside.

It’s too bad that our eyes point out all the time. If only they could turn around and look inside the mind, we’d see there’s a lot that needs to be done. But there are also a lot of good qualities that we have inside that we can depend on. So look inside.

We focus on the breath to get a sense of how it feels to be in the body. Try to inhabit the whole body, all the way from the head down to the feet. Think of the breath as a whole-body process. Every cell in the body is breathing in, breathing out. If there’s any disturbance, you want to notice it, particularly disturbances coming from the mind.

As Ajaan Suwat used to say, if you want to look for the cause of suffering, look at where there’s any disturbance, any unquietness in the mind. The problem is in there. The cause of the problem is in there. So look in there. As you breathe through the disturbances, you find that you get more and more sensitive. Things that used to be too subtle to notice suddenly become more clear.

But first you’ve got to clear out the really obvious stuff: all the hindrances, all the manifestations of greed, aversion, and delusion. Anywhere you see them come up, you’ve got to take care of them right there. So when there’s anger, when there’s lust, when there’s fear—whatever—focus less on the object of those things and more on the activity of the mind engaging in those things. What’s it talking about? How does it portray the situation to itself? Could it portray the situation in a different way, that would be less aggravating?

That’s where the issue is. When you take care of that issue, then you can live in the world in peace. The world may not be at peace, but you can be at peace. That’s what you’re responsible for. So keep your focus inside, and you’ll be on the right track.