Keeping the Heart Bright and Happy, Even in Lockdown | Ajahn Dhammasiha

Even if we're not able to visit Dhammagiri due to lockdown, we always can recollect our generous actions done in the past. This 'Cāgānussati' was actually recommended by the Buddha as one of the main meditation objects for the laity. If we remember and rejoice in our past good actions, the mind will be bright and joyful, quite similar to the happiness we experience when we're actually doing it in the first place. Likewise, we can rejoice in the good actions of others that we have witnessed in the past, even if we're currently not able to physically join up with our friends. We develop symathetic joy ('Muditā') for all the puñña and sacrifice we have seen our Dhamma friends doing previously. Finally, the lockdown is an opportunity to turn our mind inside. Mindfully observing the feelings, emotions and thoughts in our heart, and making an effort ('Sammā-vāyāma') to abandon the unwholesome ones, and to develop the wholesome ones, is even more puññna (good karma) than practising generosity by offering material objects. However, it's important when turning the mind inside, not to latch onto negative emotions, regrets and old traumas. Instead, we focus our attention on whatever good states we can find, or generate, like loving kindness or recollection of the Buddha. Once we focus exclusively on the bright, wholesome states, they will grow and ultimately fill our mind with such radience that any dark corners are fuly illuminated, and the whole mind is bright and radiant: Samādhi. The mind experiencing samādhi wil not be scared, confined or limited by any external lockdowns, but has found an endless source of happiness inside.www.dhammagiri.org.auwww.facebook.com/dhammagiri-forest-hermitagewww.youtube.com/channel/UCJINt0JJBfFm_x0FZcU9QJwwww.tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive.