Stopping

The other night Ajahn Sucitto talked about kamma at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery—kamma that leads to the ending of kamma and the aspect of stopping. I think we overlook the importance of that. We get so caught up in doing and becoming and activity and engagement that we neglect to attend to stopping. Stopping isn’t just sitting around doing nothing, because that’s a doing as well. It’s stopping habits of greed, irritation, and confusion and attending to stepping back, desisting, and ceasing. Pay attention to stopping during daily work and in meditation, to recognize how much the mind gets swept up in activity and identification with the activity. Pay attention to stopping. What does that feel like? What is the experience of stopping and ceasing to engage with mental activity and mental impulses? We need to stop unskillful activity and recognize the origin of unskillful activity in order to engage, put forth effort, and attend to our duties and responsibilities. However, we must also cultivate an attitude of stopping and ceasing in the midst of activity: stopping frantic obsession, worry, fear, competition and aversion. We try to replace our desire, greed, and aversion with being good little Buddhists. That’s a doing and is fraught with its own complications. Instead, we can attend to stopping and ceasing and realize that we can trust in fundamental clarity and wisdom.