Ajahn Maha Bua

“‘Try to make the mind stay with just a single Dhamma theme—its meditation word.’ Don’t get involved with other topics at that moment. If you let it think of the texts while practicing concentration, [the mind] won’t be willing to stick just with that practice. A great deal of extraneous knowledge will interfere, disrupting the mind until everything is a turmoil, and no stillness will result.”

“However much Dhamma the Buddha taught, we gather it all to our own confusion. It’s as if we were building a hut and yet went around to gather up plans for hundred-story buildings and spread them out for a look. They just don’t go together. The plan for a building and the plan for a hut are as different as earth and sky, and yet here we are going to gather the mind into one point, which is like building a hut. Only after we have the strength can we then begin enlarging it into a building.”

“When the mind becomes more refined, then whatever appears, whatever state arises, we are bound to know, and to know increasingly, in line with the strength of our own mindfulness and discernment.”

“Your basic problem is that you don’t yet know yourself inside and simply want to know what’s outside. This will only make you agitated and confused, without serving any purpose.”