Page 136 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

simply to pass, without paying too much attention to them. One

thinks, 'The mind is like the sky, and the unskillful thoughts are
like the clouds. They come, and they go.' Don't get too upset

about them or worked up over them. Don't beat your breast, or
be unduly aware of them. Just let them go, let them pass, let
them float away. Cultivate a 'witness-like' sort of attitude

towards them, just observing them in a detached sort of manner
and reflecting that, since they came into one's mind from

outside they have nothing to do with one and are not, in fact,
one's own thoughts. If you keep this up long enough, the
unskillful thoughts will usually go.

If these methods do not succeed, there is a fourth method:

forcible suppression. The Buddha says that if you cannot get rid
of unskillful mental states by any of the previous methods, then
do it by force. Grit your teeth and, with an effort of will,

suppress it. Notice that we say 'suppress' and not ‘repress'.
Repression is an unconscious process, but here you are acting

quite consciously. You know what you are doing, and why, so
that all the terrible consequences which the psychologists tell us
come about as a result of repression won't occur when, as a last

resort, you have recourse to this method.

But what if these four standard methods of eradicating the
arisen unskillful thoughts fail? Sometimes it may happen that
even when you grit your teeth and try to suppress it the

unskillful thought simply will not be suppressed. Like grass when
the foot that was crushing it moves on, it springs up again as

soon as the pressure is removed. When that happens, what can
one do? Can one, in fact, do anything at all? If you are operating

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