Sharing on the Contemplation of Mind
Dosa mind
Why does dosa (anger or hate) occur? Is it produced by oneself or others? It
can occur when someone is exhausted, depressed, in a foul mood, or unhappy!
Recently, we held a 10-day education workshop for young Sayalays and
neighborhood children. Sayagyi Aggavati's auntie came to stay and prepare meals
for us. She is 75 years old, and she has asked her 14-year-old niece and
another young person to help her. Because they are young, they can only help just
cleaning and cutting the vegetables.
So recently, she grumbled and was dissatisfied. When we told her niece not to
be lazy, she was not pleased. She complains about numerous things.
Finally, I diagnose her with 'volunteering fatigue'. When she needs to prepare
meals at 5 a.m. to 12 p.m., 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. it was long
working hours for her. So, today, we offer her a day off for her to recover her
exhausted body and mind.
Dosa (anger) occurs when a person is unhappy owing to both external and
internal situations. The best approach is to identify the primary reason. She
is eager to assist, but her old body is unable to cope; her eyes are unable to
see and locate items in the refrigerator. She needs someone to assist her.
The best way to cure this problem, is let her rest for a few days, and assign
more capable people to help her.
Second, she is not pleased that we are advising her niece.
However, because the niece is young, this niece must follow the guidelines when
staying in a Buddhist center such as ours: wake up for chanting and meditation,
study, and no phone use. We need to help her understand this.
When we ask our neighbor to aid in cooking , this auntie is
equally unhappy. It is true that everyone cooks differently. They might have different
opinion. She just has to realize she can't accomplish everything by herself.
People also can to help due to their own good intention.
It is not easy
to control the mind. The most important is to learn how to cultivate good mind.
We cannot control the bad mind by just requesting it to disappear. The only way
to make it disappear is by the appearance of good mind. Good and peaceful mind
is just like water, anger mind is just like fire; water and fire cannot coexist
with each other.
The way to reduce the dosa mind is to find out the cause of dosa and remove it.
Or she can change it to more positive one by thinking about her good deeds in helping,
her chanting etc, and thus arise more good minds.
How to make more good and wholesome minds appear?
One should get rid of any unwarranted expectations. One
should learn to let go of cravings and hatred.
Learn to smile more!
Learn to exercise more, and talk less!
Talking leads to
more wandering mind. One can practise
more mindfulness by reducing inner chat in the mind, and chatting with others.
By reducing talk, this will reduce vitakka (thought) in us, and thus leads to
peaceful mind.
