Police and Thieves
As I progress in my practice of understanding the workings of the mind better, the analogy of playing a game of police and thieves rings true.
You see – it is not enough to learn the principles taught to us by our teachers. The Right Information about the nature of the mind is often not easily understood. Because of the dynamics and elusive nature of the mind, which hides layers of complexities, there is more to our practice than just regurgitating principles.
Just as thieves that often operate in the shadows, defilements arising out of views, meanings, emotions, and memories are in states of flux, making it challenging to pinpoint their exact nature because they are compounded. Like a shroud, we ride as if on waves and are always caught in conflict whether it is within ourselves or with others, and we don’t even know why.
Like vigilant police officers, meditators like us must use keen observational skills – skills that are not gained overnight but only through consistency of practice. The skills of checking the mind for what is present or absent, using the 3-Meditator’s Job as the principles; and asking questions that may not give the answers but would at least, cast restraints on the norms of how we usually think about and react to issues.
Let’s not kid ourselves that if we gain insight or understanding once in a while, it will always stay with us. Defilements like thieves are deceiving and you never take them for granted. Old habits die hard, and it takes being cheated many times over to get wise eventually.
Thieves are constantly devising new ways to evade capture, requiring the police to adapt and evolve their strategies. And like them, we need to train our minds through experience and the knowledge gained through them. Through constantly being aware, with the Right Attitude to learn (not to crave for results), and with the Right Information always in support, our minds can eventually recognise each unique characteristic – whether greed, aversion, or delusion, WE SEE THEM! Only by arresting them at source, can we arrest the effects.
Let’s make a decision here and now. Do we want to be the police that finally arrest the thieves to bring about eternal peace, or do we want to be thieves destined to repeat cycles of evasion (from the truth), always suffering fear, in lack, and uncertainty?
A Recruit of the WISE Police Academy,
Yvonne Loh
18 June 2024