About This Teaching
Speaking to a lay group taking the eight precepts for a retreat, Ajahn Dtun explains that moving from five to eight precepts strengthens sīla and is itself the practice of several pāramī: renunciation in leaving home, wisdom in seeing the value of practice, patience in giving up usual comforts, and resolve in staying for the whole period. Taken together, the ten perfections come down to sīla, samādhi and paññā.
He urges the group to keep mindfulness continuously from waking until falling asleep, in every posture, watching the mind and using mindfulness and wisdom to let go of unwholesome thoughts, or the strength of samādhi when mindfulness is not enough. For a restless mind he suggests a few deep breaths, then 'bud' on the in-breath and 'dho' on the out-breath.
If images or sounds arise in meditation, beginners should not be interested in them but stay with their meditation object; experienced meditators may use helpful visions of the body to see impermanence and not-self. He compares meditation to physical exercise: just as a trained body can lift heavy weights, a mind strengthened by samādhi can lift greed, anger and suffering out of the heart.