Skillful Adjustments

…There’s a skillful way to adjust. There’s this phrase that comes up when the Buddha is talking about meditation practice: from time to time give attention to this or that quality. It comes in a few lists where the Buddha is talking about meditation. It is appropriate from time to time to check your posture, from time to time adjust the mind in various ways, adjust your effort, adjust how you’re focusing, adjust your attitude.

But if we’re constantly trying to rely on that sort of adjustment, then, we’re often glossing over the opportunity that’s staring us right there in the face, which is really just to let go and accept it. It’s easier when we have this kind of space and we’ve cultivated the meditation practice a bit to experiment: go back and forth with the way of the world, which is constantly fiddling, and the way of Dhamma, which is a kind of release through acceptance or through letting go of the desire. Accepting it as it is.

It’s interesting when you do that because the pain is there, but the feeling in the heart is one of full acceptance or sense of it being unproblematic. It’s not a problem.

This reflection by Ajahn Sudanto is adapted from the talk, Skillful Adjustments.