In avoiding mistakes, the important point is composure. If we have composure guarding our thoughts, words, and deeds at every moment, we won't make any mistakes at all. The mistakes we make are due to lack of composure. We're forgetful, absentminded, heedless, complacent, exuberant, or deluded — and thus we make mistakes. Remember the maxim, "Keep your composure as a protective shield, and you'll do bravely in the field."
Every form of life — human, animal, even plant life — survives through struggle, in line with the saying, "Life is struggle." At whatever moment we can no longer keep up the struggle, we have to die. So as long as we keep our composure, then even when death comes, only the body dies — just as with the life of the Lord Buddha and the arahants: They had full composure with every mental moment, so that they never made mistakes. That was how they reached deathlessness, the state of immortality. Thus their death was called parinibbana: the disbanding and extinguishing of nothing more than the physical and mental phenomena termed the five aggregates (khandha): body, feeling, perception, mental processes, and consciousness.
Thus we should develop composure (mindfulness before acting, speaking and thinking) and self-awareness (clear comprehension while acting, speaking, and thinking). Once we are done, we should use mindfulness to check back and consider if anything is defective or if everything is in proper order. If anything is defective, then immediately make corrections so as to be perfect the next time around. If everything is already in order, keep trying to have things in even better order until reaching the ultimate.
by Chao Khun Nararatana Rajamanit (Tryk Dhammavitakko)
translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, 7 June 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/nararatana/iridescence.html . Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
Every form of life — human, animal, even plant life — survives through struggle, in line with the saying, "Life is struggle." At whatever moment we can no longer keep up the struggle, we have to die. So as long as we keep our composure, then even when death comes, only the body dies — just as with the life of the Lord Buddha and the arahants: They had full composure with every mental moment, so that they never made mistakes. That was how they reached deathlessness, the state of immortality. Thus their death was called parinibbana: the disbanding and extinguishing of nothing more than the physical and mental phenomena termed the five aggregates (khandha): body, feeling, perception, mental processes, and consciousness.
Thus we should develop composure (mindfulness before acting, speaking and thinking) and self-awareness (clear comprehension while acting, speaking, and thinking). Once we are done, we should use mindfulness to check back and consider if anything is defective or if everything is in proper order. If anything is defective, then immediately make corrections so as to be perfect the next time around. If everything is already in order, keep trying to have things in even better order until reaching the ultimate.
by Chao Khun Nararatana Rajamanit (Tryk Dhammavitakko)
translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, 7 June 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/nararatana/iridescence.html . Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
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