The Citta Fly Wheel

The Citta Fly Wheel

Fragments from a letter to a disciple, 1989.

'. . . I couldn't help laughing about your meditation practice on TA's birthday. I suggest that the borrowed flat is your body. T's 30 young friends are kilesas, the badly cooked food could be dissatisfaction with what enters through the senses. Some of the others I'm not sure about but you should be able to work it out. In fact, as your Citta produced it, you are the only person who can work it out properly. One can learn from these things provided that one has not been "infected" by a learnt psychological system (e.g.. Freud). What you describe displays anxiety - and it is worth remembering that the Aramana (objects and symbols that support and set-up states of the Citta) which have been operative prior to sleeping (maybe several hours before) can cause emotional states like anxiety which continue on like a fly wheel. Then one's dreams put up symbols and situations to 'explain' and support the anxiety. In other words, in ordinary life, an external situation may give rise to an anxiety. In a dream, the anxiety gives rise to the (projected) external situation . . ."

" . . . How to cope with it? I suggest that the key to it is thinking - incessant thinking. Stop the thinking and the problems cease, the anxiety ceases and the restlessness ceases. How to stop thoughts? Use a Parikamma such as Buddho and place your attention at your heart. Not by feeling it, but by mind. Try doing the same for the heart and think of the heart saying "Buddho" and listen to it coming from the heart. If you can't hear it, pay more attention to the heart - listen hard.

Try this and see if it helps.

All for now,
Pa~n~navadho . . ."