Maha-Rahulovada Sutta: The Greater Exhortation to Rahula MN 62

[Bryan Reigle]

Dear Ajahn Brahmali, I was reading sutta MN 62 and was wondering what the follow passage meant and how it can be put into practice.

"Rahula, develop the meditation in tune with earth. For when you are developing the meditation in tune with earth, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind."

specifically, what does the Blessed One mean by "will not stay in charge of your mind" ? And how can we put this into practice? Has anyone taught on this sutta at your monastery where I could listen to a discourse?

thank you for your time, with metta

Bryan

[Ajahn Brahmali]

Dear Bryan,

Here is my translation of the passage you are referring to:

Rāhula, develop a mind like earth. When you develop a mind like earth, agreeable and disagreeable feelings will not persist overpowering your mind.

"Persist overpowering your mind" (which I prefer over "will not stay in charge of your mind") means that you are under the influence of the five hindrances, in particular the first two, in regard to how you react to feelings that arise. Instead of standing back and just seeing feelings come and go, you are reacting to them with craving and aversion.

The point of the simile of the earth is simply that the earth does not react whatever is done to it; likewise we should not react to agreeable and disagreeable feelings. How do you do this? One good way is to always recollect that you will never be able to control your feelings and that thus in the end you will have to accept whatever comes. Whatever we can't control, we simply have accept - like the earth does. Another reflection is to remember the pain of craving and aversion, and the peace that comes from being free from them. But please keep in mind that these sorts of reflection need a lot of practice for them to really take hold. If you keep at it, your perceptions will gradually change. As your perceptions change, you will start to react less to the world around you, until one day you are like the earth!

Ajahn Brahm has done a sutta reading of MN 62

With metta.

[Bryan Reigle]

Dear Ajahn Brahmali, thank you for your wise words! As you might have surmised I have issues with aversion to music and this is the same issue again. I will work on having equanimity to unpleasant contact by practicing acceptance when there is nothing I can do about. Here is another question in the same vein, will reflection on the suffering of aversion actually reduce my aversive reactions? I have trouble believing that mere intellectual thinking will affect my deep seated defilements. I tried to play the sutta reading of MN 62 with Ajahn Brahm but my media player comes with an error saying that I need an audio codec to play this file. Do you know what this is? I've trouble playing video's on this site but never audio. Was this recording a video? In the meantime I'll try to find it on youtube instead. Thank you again for your help, with metta Bryan

[Ajahn Brahmali]

Dear Bryan,

will reflection on the suffering of aversion actually reduce my aversive reactions?

Yes, indeed. When you see the suffering you are creating for yourself, it's easier to let go. There are enough problems in life as it is, why create more?

You are right that "intellectual thinking" can only go so far. Try to see it in a deep way, particularly after a peaceful meditation. It will then penetrate deeper and affect your pereception of the situation. A large part of the spiritual path is changing out perceptions.

I've trouble playing video's on this site but never audio. Was this recording a video?

I don't know anything about the technical details. Try contacting our webmaster, Bo Schafers.

Good luck!

With metta.

[Bryan Reigle]

Dear Ajahn Brahmali, I was able to listen to MN62 with my real player instead. It was a great talk, sadhu sadhu sadhu to Ajahn Brahm. I have been accepting of things I can't change and so far it is working pretty well, not only am I practicing patience but equanimity as well.

speaking of changing perceptions I had a "weird" experience with my perception after meditation this week. I got to work early so I sat in my car and meditated on the "silent present moment awareness" a few minutes. I started walking through the parking lot towards the building. On the pavement the words "stop" and a yellow line are painted on the pavement at the end of the row. some of the yellow paint has worn off the line and I noticed it. the pattern was beautiful and I wanted to look at it deeper but I had to get into the building to start work. I also noticed the grass looked a brighter green that normal but that was probably my perception of it. I felt lighter and happy that something Ajahn Brahm teaches on finally happened to me, not that I'm looking to have it happen again, it was something to encourge me further in letting go.
with metta , Bryan

[Ajahn Brahmali]

Good on you, Bryan!

With metta.