‘Seeing’ Is a Mind That Doesn’t Move

This is Right View: seeing life as it is, knowing life as it is, experiencing life as it is and letting go. This is not ‘me’ doing something; it is a clear seeing. Awareness itself is what enables the mind to let go.

We use this teaching as an entry into learning. This approach is very tolerant and accepting, benevolent and compassionate. It’s not an approach that continues to divide, dissect, make judgments and criticize. It is an approach that is encompassing, whole, wholesome; an approach of non-contention, as Ajahn Sumedho would describe it. We are not contending with the reality of now, we are able to just see things as they are. But this is not easy.

To see something as it is, there need to be certain conditions. We need to learn to appreciate what it means to be still. Stillness is not an end to itself. But what does it mean to be still? It simply means that you stop moving with the movements of your mind. You stop agitating yourself with that which is agitated in yourself. You stop being confused with that which is confused in yourself. You stop being unhappy with that which is unhappy in yourself.

‘Seeing’ is the condition that arises naturally when we reach the place of ‘stopping’. ‘Seeing’ is a mind that doesn’t move. It has stopped. It is here, now.

This reflection by Ajahn Sundara is from the article, “On the Way to Liberation.”