The Senses run after objects like Wild Horses!
The eye likes to see beautiful and attractive forms. The ear likes to hear
sounds
that
are beautiful, melodious and pleasing to the mind. The nose likes
to smell things
that
are pleasantly scented, making one feel elated & joyful.
The tongue likes to taste things
that are
delicious. The body likes to touch
and feel things that are soft and smooth,
which
produces a mental state of
absorbed fascination all the time without ever having too
much of
it.
All of this originates from the mind, which is the overlord of all these
sense
sources. The mind is the one that wants to play about with them all the time
without
being the least bit concerned to consider what is right or wrong,
what is good
or bad.
All the mind wants, is to fulfill its desires. This makes
all the fields of
sense,
including the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body, whirl
about according to the
emotional
dictates of the mind. It is the mental
defilements that
force the mind to this rampage of
struggling for stimuli.
When guarding each sense field, we must keep a guard on the mind
at the
same time. The mind is the ringleader, which constantly creates the desire
to
see sights, to hear sounds, to smell scents, to taste foods and to sense
touches. The mind
is the
one that desires, that craves, that is ever hungry
and thirsty, the one that goes
searching
for sensations. So the mind uses its
instruments, which are the eyes, ear, nose,
tongue
and body, as the paths by
which it travels out to search for all sorts of objects that induce pleasure.
So you must guard the mind with awareness and investigate it carefully with
understanding.
Don't let it roam about getting involved in things, which are
dangerous. Use
awareness
to control the mind & understanding to examine
the
objects that arise
from making contact with forms, sounds, smells,
tastes and things which
contact the
body, so as to learn the basic truth of
such momentary contacts. Then mind will remain
detached and
indifferent.
It will not love some things and hate others, and so become
angry. It will
then easily enter into a state of calm & peacefulness without always being
burdened or troubled by external matters. When the mind is replete and
satisfied in
that calm state, it will withdraw from it & examine the internal
sense sources of the
eyes, ears,
nose, tongue and body as being merely empty
instruments of the mind. It will then
examine
those objects in relation to the
mind, seeing that they both become
intimately
blended together, as though
they were one and the same thing. You will see that sensations
are things,
which infiltrate the mind, and so are not one & the same thing
as the
mind,
which nevertheless run out after these empty sensations as wild horses...
More on the Sense Sources
(Ayatana):
The_Source_of_All,
Sour_Sense_Sources,
Hands_and_Feet,
Mistaken_Reference,
The_Fisherman's_Hook,
Source_of_What
Things_that_can_be_clung_to,
Guarding_the_Sense_Door.
Source (edited extract): Venerable Ajaan Khao Anālayo Biography.
by Ajaan Mahā Boowa ñānasampanno.
Translated by Ajaan Paññāvaddho:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/pdfs/Ajaan_Khao_Analayo_Bio.pdf
Published by:
Forest Dhamma Books. Baan Taad Forest Monastery. Udon
Thani 41000, Thailand
fdbooks@gmail.com,
www.forestdhammabooks.com
Venerable Ajaan Khao Anālayo. 1888-1983. He
was a Bhikkhu for 64 years!
"Anālayo" means: Without Desire...
~ no attachments..
