“Seeing Above and Beyond Thinking” with Benjamin This Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

This Sunday, Benjamin will lead a practice and discussion of "Seeing Above and Beyond Thinking," drawing on an exchange between Venerable Ajahn Chah and some of his Western monks. The excerpt comes from Still, Flowing Water, a collection of Ajahn Chah's teachings translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The full passage and book are freely available here.

Question: Excuse me, sir, but when you say “quiet enough,” how quiet is that?

Ajahn Chah: Enough to be able to contemplate. Enough to have mindfulness; enough to be able to contemplate.

Question: You stay with the present without thinking about past or future?

Ajahn Chah: You can think about the past or future, but you don’t take it seriously. You can think all kinds of things, but you don’t take them seriously. It’s just a matter of thinking, so don’t follow it. If you follow the issues of fabrication, they’ll keep on fabricating issues all the time. Will they run out that way? Not at all. When you see that the mind is just the mind, that’s all—not a being, not a person, not a self, not “us” or “them”—that’s called cittānupassanā: keeping track of the mind. It’s not ours, right? Pleasure is just pleasure, that’s all. Pain is just pain, that’s all. They’re all just “that’s all” kinds of things. If you see into that, if your contemplation takes you that far, then there will be no doubts.

Question: When contemplating this way, as we normally say, it really is contemplation, right? You have to use thought-fabrications. You have to use thinking.

Ajahn Chah: You use thinking, but you also see. You see above and beyond your thinking right there. And then you don’t believe in line with that kind of thing any more. Do you understand? Your sensations are just sensations, that’s all… We think that because contemplation uses perceptions, then they must be discernment. And so we latch onto fabrications, thinking they’re discernment. But that’s not genuine discernment. Genuine discernment puts an end to issues. It knows, and that’s the end of issues. There are still fabrications, but you don’t follow in line with them. There are sensations, you’re aware of them, but you don’t follow in line with them. You keep knowing that they’re not the path any more.

All are welcome to join this exploration on Sunday! Registration and Zoom information available here.

With mettā,
Minneapolis Insight