The Dharma is medicine for the heart

Ajahn Khamdee via Ven. Sujato; Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven, S. Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I sit because it's good to sit.

When we listen to the Dharma to put it into practice, we're said to be studying medicine for the heart and mind.

Once we've learned the Dharma, we train ourselves in line with it. Once the mind/heart attains concentration, we will have strategies and techniques for looking after our own heart and mind.

When, for example, suffering arises in the heart and mind, we'll be able to contemplate it for ourselves and treat it by ourselves. We'll be our own doctors.

This is why the Buddha taught that there are great benefits, great results, for those who practice generosity (letting go), virtue, and meditation. People who do this are called "sages."

The word sage here can apply to  anyone who knows -- male or female, of any race or religion, young or old -- who knows the affairs of the heart and mind.

But these affairs are hard to know. Most people abandon their own minds, throw them away. This is why so many people in the world lose out on life: They abandon the mind that can act as such a wonderful refuge.

So the mind is a crucial thing to train. And, as I've said, we train it through generosity, virtue, and meditation.