Mindfulness, The True Monarch

Mindfulness is sometimes likened to a monarch.

This monarch is surveying, supervising, impartial, aware, connected. They are not pulling, not struggling, not trying to hold things, not arrogant. It is the true monarch – the true king or queen. The false monarchs are the inner tyrant who keeps bullying you and the braggart who becomes cocksure when they get a little bit of something good.

Mindfulness doesn’t want anything, it isn’t interested in owning anything; it doesn’t need that. It’s a benevolent quality that is blessing everything. Mindfulness is established with equanimity as its tone: it’s even. It’s like a hand on the shaft of an umbrella, holding a safe and steady space in which all dhammas can be encompassed, settle down, firm up – or dissolve. This abiding in mindfulness sits in its confidence.

When we come to sitting, walking or standing practice, or in any other postures, we should have that sense of a carriage that has a quality of dignity, safety and assurance. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like. What matters is what it feels like internally. Is there anything constricted or withdrawn? Can we open to that? Opening requires both a really good connection to the ground – the earth element, the sense of being grounded – and a clear and consciously acknowledged sense of benevolence around us.

When we are in a hostile, insecure or frantic environment, when people are quarrelling or fighting, we pick that up and that affects how we feel. Now that you are in a harmonious environment, acknowledge it and sense how you feel. Most of us don’t know that feeling because the world doesn’t provide many harmonious situations.

So you have to generate it: whatever the world is doing, you’re living in your harmonious environment. There’s a boundary, ‘Let no harm come here.’ The wise monarch has that authority. Feel the front of your body, the back, the face, the throat and so forth. Get a sense of that. You stay focused internally and don’t go somewhere else. The experience of the body can change into something quite bright and clear.

The assured monarch has no need to run after or catch anything, no need to become anything. They know their place. When you sit, as if in your own court, other things can come, such as the body and the breathing; mind-states can arise, but you’re not rushing after them. If they try to push you, come back to that centre in your body, into your confidence. It’s an embodied wisdom centre.

Everything else is just weather passing over.

This reflection by Ajahn Sucitto is from the book, The Most Precious Gift, (pdf) pp. 387-388.