Don’t Trust Your Mind

By Ajahn Brahm

Once you see your mind for what it is, you will realise how much trouble it has caused you.

How many times have you run away? How many times have you followed the stupid thinking mind? How many times has it led you? As if you were stupid cow? Many many times.

Sometimes you just say that’s enough, I am not going to be led by you. I will be led by the Dhamma instead, led by the Eightfold path.

The doer inside us create this critical mind. The judgmental mind, the fault finding mind. It creates so many problems and difficulties for us. Because of this “doer” we even judge beautiful people and create enemies out of them. Even the great Ariyas, we can hate them and have ill will towards them, criticise them and put them down. It’s bad Karma to criticize Ariyas.

Nevertheless, because of the judgment mind, the mind that is always under the control of this ‘Doer’ we can even criticise the Buddha. That’s because this doing mind haven’t really been seen for what it is.

The more one meditates and practice, the more one gets into the peaceful states of mind. Then one can see what this thinking mind is all about. After a while you just don’t believe it anymore.