The Buddha Channel

Close your eyes and be sensitive to the breath. Notice where you feel the breathing process in the body—not so much the air coming in and out through the nose, but the movement of the abdomen, the movement of the chest—any place in the body where you sense that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. Let your attention settle there.

Then ask yourself if it’s comfortable. You can try longer breathing, shorter breathing, just to see which would be more comfortable. Faster, slower. Heavier, lighter. Deeper, more shallow. Keep experimenting until you find something you like. Then stay with it.

This becomes a good foundation for the mind inside so that you’re more likely to want to listen to the Dhamma. If you’re feeling irritable, tired or tense, sometimes you don’t want to hear the Dhamma. You want to hear something soothing so that it pleases you. But a lot of the lessons of the Dhamma arenot all that pleasing. So you have to tune your radio so that it’s willing to receive the channel of the Dhamma.

The Dhamma is being broadcast all the time. There’s that famous story of a senior monk from Bangkok who went to visit Ajaan Mun one time, who was dubious about the forest tradition. So he asked Ajaan Mun, “I live in Bangkok with lots of educated monks who know all the Pali Canon. Yet even there, there are times when I come up with a question that nobody can answer. What do you do out in the forest where there’s nobody to go to, to answer your questions? Where do you hear the Dhamma?”

Ajaan Mun replied, “I hear the Dhamma 24 hours a day, except when I’m asleep. As for going to other people for answers, I’ve found the best place is to train the mind, so that I can find the answers inside. As for listening to the Dhamma,” he said, “a bird sings, and you can tell there’s some stress in the bird’s heart. Leaves fall from the trees: the truth of inconstancy. The Dhamma is always broadcasting itself.” The senior monk was taken aback. He said, “Well, that shows you know how to listen.”

And that’s how we find the Dhamma. It’s always being broadcast all the time. The truths are true everywhere. It’s simply a question of whether we’re interested in learning the truth or we have other agendas. If you’re interested, that channel is always broadcasting.

So. Tune your radio, so that you’re willing to listen to what the Dhamma has to say, and you’ll find that it has a lot of good lessons for you. Sometimes they may not be what you like, but we’re not here for what we like. We’re here for what gives the best results in the long term. As the Buddha said, it’s a sign of your discernment when you realize there’s something you’d like to do but it’s going to give bad results, and you know how to talk yourself out of doing it. As for things you don’t like to do but give good results, you learn how to make yourself want to do them. That’s the sign of real wisdom. In other words, you know how to keep your mind in line and keep focused on that question of long-term results. That’s what you listen for. That’s what you look for. And the lessons, as I said, are being broadcast all the time. So tune your receivers in, and you’ll have Dhamma talks all day long.