About This Answer
A woman describes situations that press deeply on her heart and leave her upset. Ajahn Dtun, through an interpreter, says that being moved by emotions shows mindfulness and concentration are still weak, so the mind and its moods become one and the same. Simply continuing to think about problems lacks the strength to cut through them.
He compares the mind to a knife: a blunt one is useless, and concentration is the sharpening. Rather than holding on to thoughts and emotions, which the interpreter likens to grabbing hot embers, one may need to turn to a meditation object, rest the mind, and later return to contemplate the emotion with greater strength. Concentration alone cuts emotions out only temporarily.
On alternating between themes, he says one can move between watching the breath, the word buddho, death meditation or body contemplation as the mind wishes. Strong attraction to forms can be countered by reflecting on unattractiveness, and heedlessness by recollecting death.