Accepting the Present
Ajahn Sumedho
Suffering is the illusion that we project onto life because of our ignorance and through the habits of our unawakened heart or mind.
If, instead of focusing on this illusion, we look into the present moment, whatever it is, then we can see that, ‘This is the way it is.’ By recollecting we bring the moment to consciousness. It reminds us that this is the way it is right now. We’re not trying to say it should be any particular way, or that it shouldn’t be any particular way. Even if it seems absolutely terrible right now, we are not judging it as terrible; we are merely acknowledging that this is the way it is.
Using the ability to reflect in this manner is very helpful in difficult personal situations, and also when we are considering the problems of the world. This is the way it is, isn’t it? I’m not saying that we don’t care about the way it is, but we are accepting the way it is so that we can really understand it. We can’t understand anything that we can’t accept.
If we want to understand something rotten, we have to accept its rottenness. It doesn’t mean we like it. We can’t like rottenness because it’s repulsive; but we can accept it. And once we have accepted the rottenness of it, then we can begin to understand it.
Try this type of reflection with your own mental states. If you judge a rotten mental state saying, ‘Oh, I’m a rotten person: I shouldn’t think like that; I shouldn’t feel like that; there is something wrong with me.’, then you have not accepted it. You’ve judged it, and either you blame somebody else, or you blame yourself. That is not acceptance; that is merely reaction and judgment.
The more you react out of ignorance – rejecting and suppressing – the more you find those very things following you about. Rejection and suppression haunt you, and you are caught in a vortex of misery that you are creating in your mind.
Now, acceptance doesn’t mean approval or liking, but it does imply a willingness to bear what is unpleasant and an ability to endure its nastiness and its pain. Through endurance you find that the condition can cease; you can let it go.
You can let go of things when you accept them, but until you do accept them, your life is merely a series of reactions – running away if the condition is bad or grasping at it if it is good.
This reflection by Ajahn Sumedho is from the book, Ajahn Sumedho Anthology, Volume 2, Seeds of Understanding, (pdf) pp. 239-240.
