New Year, new mind

New year, new life? New year, new career? New year, new partner?

Venerable Phra Paisal Visalo, a well-respected monk and the abbot of Wat Pasukato in Chaiyaphum, reminds us that this new year offers an opportunity for us to ponder life – and the fact that we are another year closer to death.

No, he doesn’t want us to face 2012 in distress.

“Rather, it means we should consider this time as a golden opportunity that opens a door to a new life. It’s a great time to eliminate mental residues,” Phra Paisal explains.

One way to do this is to practise mindfulness, he suggested in a talk at a New Year Mindfulness Festival held by the Buddhadasa Intapanyo Archive, otherwise known as Suan Mokh Bangkok.

This year, 2555, is the 2600th anniversary of the Enlightenment of the Buddha. Participants spent the New Year’s Eve chanting and meditating.

“When we are mindful of each and every thing occurring within us and around us in the present moment, our mind will always become new,” Phra Paisal said. “This is because, with mindfulness of the present moment, accumulated emotions will disappear.

“For many people, time passes but their minds go on clinging to the past. Their minds are still inundated with the months of October and November, when the heavy flooding hit our country.”

The monk shared a story about a doctor walking through his hospital and seeing a woman, perhaps the relative of a patient, crying loudly. She was clearly suffering a great deal.

The doctor kept walking, but he felt he should have done something. To this day he avoids that particular hospital corridor altogether.

Clinging to suffering is like hugging a durian, Phra Paisal said. “There is only hurt. We need to cut away the hurtful rind to enjoy the sumptuous fruit inside. We need to let go of suffering, but to learn our lesson, we need analyse it.

“When the mind sticks to the past, there is no way a new life can happen. This new year, let us have a refreshed mind to welcome new good things and the sheer joy we already have in us. To practise mindfulness is to give a truly great present to oneself.”

 SOUL FITNESS
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