Page 33 - Dhamma Practice

Our body is dictated by our mind. Hence, it is important what kind of mind it is that has enough power to dictate our body. Is the wholesome mind dominant, or the unwholesome mind? In other words—is the mind good or wicked? A wicked mind can drive us and spur us. The way that it can drive our body is when the mind fully experiences that conscious phenomenon until it can experience no more—so the phenomenon appears via our bodily movements and our words. The mind experiences the phenomenon thousands of times before it appears through the body. Hence, we need to extinguish it in our mind.
How do we stop the conscious phenomenon inside us? Whenever we have a sense of “self, self, self”, we would feel more and more cramped. And, the unwholesome mind would gain strength, and this would affect our physical body. Our face tenses up, and even our small body becomes heavy. From a light body, our footsteps become heavy and loud. Notice that when we separate the physical and mental phenomena, making our mind bigger than our body, our physical body that is heavy will become unburdened and light. Why? This is because the attachment automatically clears and eases. Therefore, we must have the awareness to contemplate the conscious phenomenon that emerges from our action. When practicing vipassana, we must have the clear intention to know what we are observing—our mind or the physical phenomenon.
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