Thus associating with good persons, becoming full, fills up hearing the good Dhamma. Hearing the good Dhamma, becoming full, fills up faith. Faith, becoming full, fills up careful attention. Careful attention, becoming full, fills up mindfulness and clear comprehension. Mindfulness and clear comprehension, becoming full, fill up restraint of the sense faculties. Restraint of the sense faculties, becoming full, fills up the three kinds of good conduct. The three kinds of good conduct, becoming full, fill up the four establishments of mindfulness. The four establishments of mindfulness, becoming full, fill up the seven factors of enlightenment. The seven factors of enlightenment, becoming full, fill up true knowledge and liberation. Thus there is nutriment for true knowledge and liberation, and in this way they become full.
Avijjāsutta: Ignorance (AN 10.61), translation by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
In the Buddha’s Teaching, there is a very important concept — yoniso manasikāra. It is translated in various ways, including into Sinhala. For example, it is translated as wise attention, seeing the arising, wise contemplation. I think the best translation is wise contemplation or right contemplation. There is also ayoniso manasikāra, in this case, the prefix “a-” gives negation: unwise contemplation.
Bhikkhus, when one attends carelessly, unarisen sensual desire arises and arisen sensual desire increases and expands; when one attends carelessly, unarisen ill will arises and arisen ill will increases and expands; when one attends carelessly, unarisen sloth and torpor arise and arisen sloth and torpor increase and expand; when one attends carelessly, unarisen restlessness and remorse arise and arisen restlessness and remorse increase and expand; when one attends carelessly, unarisen doubt arises and arisen doubt increases and expands. Also, the unarisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness does not arise and the arisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness ceases …the unarisen enlightenment factor of equanimity does not arise and the arisen enlightenment factor of equanimity ceases.
When one attends carefully, bhikkhus, unarisen sensual desire does not arise and arisen sensual desire is abandoned. When one attends carefully, unarisen ill will …sloth and torpor …restlessness and remorse …doubt does not arise and arisen doubt is abandoned. Also, the unarisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness arises and the arisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness comes to fulfilment by development …the unarisen enlightenment factor of equanimity arises and the arisen enlightenment factor of equanimity comes to fulfilment by development.
Ayonisomanasikārasutta: Careless Attention (SN 46.24),
translation by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
The Buddha says that his Teaching will be useful to those who know and see. And what do they know and see? Wise contemplations and unwise contemplations.
Bhikkhus, I say that the destruction of the taints is for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and see. Who knows and sees what? Wise attention and unwise attention. When one attends unwisely, unarisen taints arise and arisen taints increase. When one attends wisely, unarisen taints do not arise and arisen taints are abandoned.
Sabbāsavasutta: All the Taints (MN 2), translation by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
This means that the entire Buddha’s Teaching is intended for those who can think correctly, who can direct their mind. If we simply pray to the Buddha, the Teaching will not be useful to us; praying to the Buddha is useless. Blind faith (amūlika saddhā: believing something without reasoning, without looking, without studying and without knowing) is also not encouraged in the Buddha’s Teaching; one needs to believe correctly: reasoned faith (ākāravant saddhā), and it only appears when a person contemplations correctly.
Let’s take a look at what right contemplations (wise contemplations), yoniso manasikāra, are. If we consider how a human differs from animals, the primary difference would be the ability to think, use logic, form understanding, recall experiences, and reflect on them. But even though we know how to think, we do not know how to think correctly.
How to think correctly? It means thinking in a way that does not cause suffering. If, while we are thinking, we experience some aversion, anger, hatred, or greed — these are signs that we are thinking incorrectly. If we examine all our suffering — almost all of it arises in the mind, through thinking.
Suffering can be divided into several types. There is physical pain: from sitting in one position for too long, from heat or cold, from illnesses, and so on. In the Buddha’s Teaching, this suffering is not considered the type of suffering we need to eliminate; it is an inevitable result of having a body. As long as we have a body, we cannot get rid of this type of suffering. However, it is considered that physical suffering is negligible compared to our mental suffering. And it is precisely this mental suffering that we work with.
We usually do not notice our mental suffering, but in fact, it greatly affects our body and our overall well-being. We begin to feel it in the body: when our mood worsens, we feel our body differently, it becomes heavy. Even the slightest unpleasant sensations are perceived very sharply, we cannot tolerate them, more aversion arises in the mind, and we want them to go away, which leads to anger. Thus, when suffering arises in the mind, it affects the body, unpleasant physical sensations develop and increase, so an initial unpleasant sensation in the body is not the same as what we will ultimately feel. What we feel is already the influence of our mind on the body.
We can say that almost all of our suffering is created by ourselves at every moment. Even now, we are creating it, although we may not see it. How does this suffering arise? It arises through our thinking. When we think certain thoughts, it seems to us that these are just thoughts and that they are unimportant. But they all contain certain sensations, emotions, and all of this affects the mind. When there is a flow of thoughts in the mind, a certain state gradually emerges, and we begin to see the whole world through this state of mind.
Our state of mind determines how we perceive the world, so if we think incorrectly, we cannot change anything: our suffering completely depends on the external world. We do not control our mind; we are entirely dependent on the world: we think as the world dictates to us. Therefore, it is very important to be able to think correctly. Only in this way can we free ourselves, only in this way can we find happiness and peace. This is why the Buddha says that his Teaching will be useful to those who have yoniso manasikāra.
Let’s now look at how we can apply all this in practice, how we can think correctly. We were just meditating, and we could hear children shouting and playing outside. If the mind gets distracted by this, after the sounds of the game from the street, some thoughts and memories arise. Perhaps about one’s own childhood, maybe about other children, or something else. So the mind wanders in the past until we realize at some point that we are not meditating. After this, thoughts immediately arise: “Because the children are noisy, I cannot meditate.” What happens after this, when we think like this? Immediately, the children become responsible for the fact that I am not meditating: my mind is wandering, I am distracted, and the children are to blame.
Let’s now figure out what happened to the mind. It was wrong thinking, but how can we think wisely? To meditate we simply need to return to the object of awareness, but to do this we need to somehow direct our mind. To get used to directing our mind, we sometimes need some wise thoughts, because when we realize that we have not been meditating for the last five minutes, the next thoughts will inevitably be some sort of worries, and regret will arise. And this regret either goes outward, towards the external world, and is directed at the children as some kind of aversion, or it goes inward and is directed at oneself. “I cannot meditate, I lost mindfulness again, I don’t know how to meditate, why am I so unmindful” — such thoughts appear, and thus I am to blame. Both of these are ayoniso manasikāra.
To prevent this regret from being directed either at the external world or at ourselves, and to avoid suffering from it, we definitely need some wise contemplations. For example, if we think that we simply lacked mindfulness at that moment, and that’s why some thoughts arose, and now I can return to the object of mindfulness, then even though this will also be thoughts, it will be wise contemplation.
According to the Buddha’s Teaching, practice is not only sitting meditation; practice is available to us everywhere. We can practice at home, on the street, and at work. If we have anger, hatred in our mind, we should practice kindness and compassion. How do we do this? We can think about the harm that anger causes us, how it primarily makes us feel bad. The thoughts that arise in the mind are our kamma (or karma in Sanskrit). And the ill will that arises in our mind is our unwholesome kamma; it will bring us unwholesome results, not to someone else. It will harm us both in this life and in future lives.
We should somehow direct our stream of thoughts in another direction. If we are angry at someone we know who is doing something we do not like, we can remember some of their good qualities, their good deeds, and use this to let go of our anger.
The Teaching describes many different ways in which we can develop our kindness and combat unwholesome states of mind. In the Vitakkasaṇṭhānasutta (The Removal of Distracting Thoughts, MN 20), five methods are explained, all of which are yoniso manasikāra:1.Switching to wholesome thoughts.2.Reflecting on the dangers of unwholesome thoughts.3.Forgetting unwholesome thoughts (which means stopping paying attention to them).4.Relaxing unwholesome thoughts.5.Suppressing unwholesome thoughts.
If there are some unpleasant sensations that we cannot influence, we can simply stop thinking about them, stop winding ourselves up, and just observe these sensations. When we truly observe our sensations, we can see that it’s not as bad as it seems. We can observe and practice the right patience. We can think: “How many more similar unpleasant moments will I have to endure in life, so I will practice, I will not torment myself — I will just observe the unpleasant sensations arising in my body.” Such thoughts are also yoniso manasikāra. They make us feel better, they help us develop wisdom, patience, diligence — these are the right contemplations.
If we see unpleasant sensations, we can observe them, practice right patience, and learn to cultivate equanimity (upekkhā) in the mind. So that when an unpleasant sensation arises in the body, the mind does not tense up, and aversion does not appear in the mind. We can think in this way, and these thoughts will support mindfulness, and this will also be yoniso manasikāra.
If we start thinking about renunciation, goodwill, and compassion, these will be right contemplations. Laypeople can also practice renunciation, for example, by combating envy. If we see someone with nice things (a car, a house, something else), and the mind starts to desire these, we can control this level of thinking. Because if I think this way, greed will develop in my mind, and I will suffer from it, and I don’t really need all these things. What I have is actually enough for me: I have everything to be happy. If a person starts thinking this way, renunciation appears in their mind. And this is necessary for a person, without it, they will inevitably suffer.
Or goodwill — you can practice it everywhere. You can appreciate the good qualities of people. Think about the kindness in the world; the world is not as bad as we think: it is full of good people, kind people. We can think about them, see them, see their actions, notice them, and appreciate them. Then we ourselves begin to change, we begin to want to practice kindness.
And compassion: when we see angry people, greedy people, or wrongdoers — we should not hate them. They lack wisdom — think about this. They suffer in this life, they cannot be happy, they have no peace in their minds. One could say that they are ill: ill with the defilements of the mind, so we can feel sorry for them. We can wish: may they find the right path, may they meet good people, may they correct their mistakes, may there be more kind people in the world. Direct your mind in the right direction. If we do not do this, we will become like them, we will become the very people we hate, the ones we do not want to see and hear. When we start to hate them, we ourselves are getting closer to becoming like them. If you do not want to be like them, you need to think differently, and this is yoniso manasikāra.
To practice yoniso manasikāra, mindfulness and vigilance are essential; we need to watch ourselves and our minds. We need to see our anger as anger, our pride as pride, greed as greed, and envy as envy; only then can we change our mind.
If we start thinking about how good we are, or conversely, how bad we are, and why we made mistakes again — this develops pride. These are just different types of pride — comparing ourselves to others. To avoid thinking this way, we must have mindfulness. You see how wise a person must be to not suffer? If we lack wisdom, we start to suffer, and we suffer wherever we are. It is very important to learn to think correctly; this skill is incomparable to any other skills.
There will come a day for all of us when we have to leave everything behind and go. We may have to lie in a hospital and endure various medical procedures: injections, IVs, medications. That day will come, and we need to be prepared. If we live a long life, as everyone wishes for us, there may come a day when we cannot even pick up a glass of water next to us. When we cannot even say that we want to drink. To avoid suffering at that moment, a person must be so wise that they are able to let go of their body, not identifying it as “me.” But if a person starts thinking: “What have I become, how did I get to this point,” then their next life will also be bad.
We have our entire lives to learn yoniso manasikāra, to develop wisdom, so I wish for you not to waste time, to think correctly, so that these merits help you to be free from all suffering, and to attain Nibbāna.
“Bhikkhus, when one attends carelessly, unarisen sensual desire arises and arisen sensual desire increases and expands; when one attends carelessly, unarisen ill will arises and arisen ill will increases and expands; when one attends carelessly, unarisen sloth and torpor arise and arisen sloth and torpor increase and expand; when one attends carelessly, unarisen restlessness and remorse arise and arisen restlessness and remorse increase and expand; when one attends carelessly, unarisen doubt arises and arisen doubt increases and expands. Also, the unarisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness does not arise and the arisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness ceases …the unarisen enlightenment factor of equanimity does not arise and the arisen enlightenment factor of equanimity ceases.
“When one attends carefully, bhikkhus, unarisen sensual desire does not arise and arisen sensual desire is abandoned. When one attends carefully, unarisen ill will …sloth and torpor …restlessness and remorse …doubt does not arise and arisen doubt is abandoned. Also, the unarisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness arises and the arisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness comes to fulfilment by development …the unarisen enlightenment factor of equanimity arises and the arisen enlightenment factor of equanimity comes to fulfilment by development.”
Ayonisomanasikārasutta: Careless Attention (SN 46.24),
translation by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
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