Slowing down the MomentumAnyone who lives freed
from habits of clinging,
to past, present or future,
possessing nothing,
is a great being.
Dhammapada v. 421
The momentum of our inner story-telling can be intimidating. Or perhaps it’s movies that we have to endure: over and over again, rearranging fragments of memories, making movies with ‘me’ in the prominent role. Probably it is not that our personal history really warrants such attention, and surely we would stop the inner noise if we could. So what feeds this momentum? Judging, taking sides, accepting and rejecting. Once again we are reminded of the need for here-and-now, whole body-mind, judgement-free awareness, with particular emphasis on the latter. How do we free awareness from the compulsion of taking sides, of judging? We watch it. With a frame of reference established in the body, we gain a perspective on the habitual mental activity that we experience as judging, and we learn to not judge it. No judging the judging mind. If we stop judging the inner activity, the momentum could cease.
With Metta,
Bhikkhu Munindo
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