The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

20 January 2025

Q: A person can achieve Sovan status (become a Sotapanna) if he can get rid of the first three fetters namely sakkāya–diṭṭhi, vicikicchā, and sīlabbata–parāmāsa. What steps should a Buddhist follow to get rid of these three fetters? Could you enlighten the readers on the procedure to be followed to get rid of the three fetters?

A: First you have to develop equanimity through jhāna. In order for you to develop equanimity through jhana, you need to have sīla (morality). You need to keep the Eight Precepts first and you have to practise this consistently and continuously, all the time, doing nothing else. You have to be a professional practitioner. 

You cannot go to work and then come back and practise on your day off because this will not give you enough time to keep the practice going forward. In order for you to practise - to go forward- you have to give up everything and concentrate all of your efforts on the practice of sīla (morality), meditation, and wisdom. 

So you have to go and look for a quiet place –somewhere in a forest - or live in a quiet monastery which would allow you to do the practice all day long. 

Once you can do this - when you get to a quiet surrounding like the monastery - then you have to keep at least the Eight Precepts. Then you have to practise mindfulness all day long from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep and meditate whenever you have the time to get your mind to the fourth jhāna, so that you can achieve equanimity. 

Once you become well-versed or proficient in your samādhi practice, when you come out of samādhi, you have to teach your mind that the body is not you. The body is temporary, it is anicca; it is subjected to ageing, sickness, and death. So you have to teach your mind to accept ageing, sickness, and death.

When the body becomes sick and gets painful, you have to accept it. Do not try to reject or deny it. Don’t try to get rid of the painful feelings that arise from your sickness. 

You have to learn to live with it, to take it as it comes. 

It is the same with death. When the body dies you should accept it because it is anattā. The body is not you. It is not something you can stop or prevent from happening. You just have to let it happen. 

Once you can let go of your attachment to the body and your painful feelings, then you have overcome the first Fetter (sakkāya–diṭṭhi) 

When you let go of the sakkāya–diṭṭhi, and when you experience the peace of mind of letting go, then you will see the Four Noble Truths clearly in your mind. 

This means you see the Dhamma. Once you see the Dhamma, you have no doubt in the Buddha- whether he existed or not, because the Dhamma came from the Buddha. And the one who can see the Dhamma is the Sangha which is you. So you have no more doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma, and the Sangha. Thus you have overcome the second fetter (vicikicchā).

Then you will have no attachment to rites or rituals (sīlabbata–parāmāsa) which is the third fetter. You won’t have any attachment to rites or rituals because you see that your suffering, stress, and bad feelings all arise from your craving, and your bad action (bad kamma) so you will not do any more bad kamma. You will never break the Five Precepts for the rest of your life. 

And you do not have to do any rites and rituals when you have stress in your mind. 

When you are not feeling good about something, you understand that it is the nature of things to be like that. 

Then you can let go and accept things as they come. 

So this is basically what you will have to teach the mind with wisdom: to see that everything is anicca, dukkha, and anattā. 

This includes your body and your feelings. 

You cannot control them, you have to face them calmly with equanimity. Then you will have no stress or dukkha. 

“Dhamma in English, Apr 23, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

17 January 2025

Q:  Even when one gets old and the mind starts to deteriorate, the mind still can see the Four Noble Truths.

Than Ajahn:  Yes, because the Four Noble Truths is not in the body, it’s in the mind. The mind sees things that appear in the mind. So when you get dukkha (stress), your stress is in the mind not in your body. If you have mindfulness, you’ll see, ‘Right now, I am stressful,’ then you start to investigate and you’ll find that the cause of your stress is your desire or your expectation. 

You want something and when you can’t get what you want, you feel stressful. For instance, you don’t want to get sick so when you get sick, you feel stressful because you don’t want to get sick. You see this in your mind. 

If you want to get rid of your stress, you can do it by using samādhi and wisdom. Samādhi is to stop your mind from craving; and wisdom is to tell your mind that to crave is to create stress so you have to stop craving for things. You see this automatically, right away, in your mind if you keep practising mindfulness.

Right now, your mind goes outside of your mind, you see things, you see people. So you don’t see what’s going on inside your mind. 

But when you start to develop mindfulness, you start pulling your mind back inside so you start to see the inner activities or mental activities that you normally don’t see because you keep seeing the external activities. 

The external activities come through the body. You need the body to see or to hear things and the body faculties deteriorate e.g. you are not able to see things clearly, your eyes get blurry, your ears can’t pick up sound clearly, your brain doesn’t function as good as when you are younger, your body can’t do things you used to do. 

But the mind is different. Your mind doesn’t deteriorate with your body. So you can always see the inner activities of the mind if you use mindfulness to pull the mind away from the body.

When you meditate, you are pulling your mind away from the body, you bring it inside. 

So when it starts to pull inside, you’ll start to see the four nāma-khandhas (saññā, vedanā, sankhāra, viññāṇa) and see how they work together then you understand that when you have stress, it’s because of your craving or desire. So you see this all inside your mind. 

But first, you have to bring your mind back inside. 

Right now you keep looking at other things outside so you don’t see the real cause of your problem which is inside your mind. 

So no matter how old you are, you can see the Four Noble Truths if you have the tools. 

And the tools are mindfulness and wisdom which you have to learn to develop. 

“Dhamma in English, Feb 10, 2024.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

4 January 2025

Q: My daughter is 13yo and she has cancer since she was 9yo. She has many operations and treatment that make her body in a lot of pain. Her question is ‘Why does this happen to me? I’m a good person, I barely start my life, why life is so unfair? Why life brings so much suffering to me?’ One time I tried to use the concept of kamma to explain to her and she said, ‘Okay, I get it. I was a bad person so I don’t deserve a good life.’ Dear LuangPhor, I don’t have the wisdom to answer her, please help.

Than Ajahn:  Well, the Buddha said that life is anicca. 

Life is not certain. It is not fixed. It varies from person to person due to the past kamma that each person has done. If we did bad kamma in the past, we have to reap the fruit of the bad kamma in this life. If we did good kamma, we would reap the benefit of good kamma that we did. But we can’t go back and erase our past kamma. We can’t change the past. But we can still be happy with what we get by accepting things as they are. 

Don’t try to reject something you don’t like because trying to reject things will cause you to have more suffering, more stress and anxiety. You can accept that this is the way things are, this is what you are given and just accept it. Then there will be no stress, and your mind can be calm, peaceful and happy. In this way, maybe you can be happier than someone who has a healthy body. 

When people have a healthy body, it does not mean that they are happy inside their mind. 

With a healthy body, they want to have more things, they want to do more things, and get more things. And when they can’t get what they want, they can be as unhappy as someone who is sick. 

So it’s not whether your body is good or bad. 

It’s how you make your mind happy or sad. 

And making your mind happy or sad is something you can do regardless of the condition of your body. 

The Buddha said that if you want to be happy inside, happy with your mind, then try to use wisdom. Try to accept the truth – that life is not certain, life varies from person to person; some people have a longer life, some people have a shorter life. 

You can make yourself feel better if you think of people who are worse than you are like someone who is blind, someone who is more sick than you are, who has to lie in bed. If you can look at it this way then you might not feel too bad about your situation. And then you can accept the truth that you are what you are, and you can be happy regardless of what you are if you know how to let go of your attachment, your cravings or desire. 

The problem that causes us to be unhappy is our desire. 

We want something more than what we have. And when we can’t get what we want, we become sad regardless of whether our body is good or not good, whether we are rich or poor. This sadness is caused by our desire for things. So try not to have any desire. Try to take things as they come. Be happy with what you have, be thankful for what you get. Then you can be happy. 

No matter how well or sick we are, one day, we are all going to be at the same point, at same place – we all will go to the cemetery. 

It’s just a matter of time, sooner or later. 

That’s all. If you can think like this, you can release the pressure in your mind and it can make you feel better. 

You can be happy right now. Just stop your desire. And the way to do it is to learn how to meditate. Just sit down, close your eyes and watch your breath. Keep watching your breath. Don’t let your mind thinks about anything. If you don’t think, then you won’t have any desire for things. And when you don’t have desire, your mind can become peaceful and happy. 

So meditate. Be happy that you can still walk, you can still do things because we don’t know when we are going to die. I might die tomorrow, I might go before you. Your parents may go before you even though they are healthy right now, but who can say how long they are going to live? Nobody can guarantee that. 

Try to stay in the present. Be happy in the present. 

Don’t worry about the future. Don’t worry about the past. You can’t go back to the past, you can’t erase or change the past. 

And the future hasn’t come yet. What you’ve got is right now, in the present. So try to make the best of it by keeping your mind happy, by not having any desire. 

Just take things as they come.  

“Dhamma in English, Aug 4, 2024.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

27 December 2024

Q:  You mentioned that the difference between a self in Sotāpanna and in Arahant is that one is physical and the other one is mental. Does it mean that our delusion thinks that there are two self? 

Than Ajahn:  No. It’s because the mind thinks that the mind and the body are one, are the same things but when you practice, you know that the mind and the body are two separate things. 

So you have the delusion of a self in the body as well as the delusion of a self in the mind. A Sotāpanna gets rid of the delusion of a self in the body. After that, he has to get rid of the delusion of the self in the mind, the conceit that he still has in the mind.

There are really two persons in our existence. 

We don’t know that we are twins. We thought we are one but we actually are two persons, the mind and the body. Since the mind is invisible so we then presume that the body and the mind are one. But in fact, the body and the mind are two separate entities. 

The mind is the master, the body is the servant. The mind is the one who tells the body what to do, ‘Go get me a glass of water, eat this, eat that, go here, go there,’ it’s the mind telling the body what to do. But we presumed that the body and the mind are the same person. You have to tell your body what to do right? If you don’t tell the body what to do, then the body will just sit there. If you don’t tell the body to get up, you won’t be getting up. 

Our problem is we are only taking care of the body and not the mind. We leave the mind always in a state of turmoil, in state of agitation and discontent. We feed the body with plenty of food until we overeat, give the body everything that the body needs until we overdo looking after the body. But we hardly look after the mind. 

We don’t give the mind what the mind needs. 

The mind needs you to do charity because when you give, you feel good, you feel happy. 

Like Christmas, you give presents, right? When you give presents, you feel good. But you only give once a year so you only give food [to the mind] once a year.

 You give food to the body every day, three times a day, but with the mind, you do it maybe only on Christmas, New Year, birthday or some occasions. And for the rest of the year, you leave the mind hungry all the time. 

And when the mind is hungry, you thought that body is hungry so you feed the body with more food. You don’t feed the mind. You give the body more food while the body said, ‘I don’t need more food, I’m overweight already.’ You keep feeding the body not the mind.  

When you want something that your body doesn’t need, it means your mind is hungry, not the body. But you thought that the body is hungry so you eat more food, get more drinks. In doing so, instead of making the mind full, you make the mind more hungry because you're feeding the wrong person. Instead of feeding the mind, you feed the body. 

Every time when the mind wants something, you feed the body but not the mind. The mind says, ‘I want food,’ and food for the mind is charity, doing good things for other people, making other people happy. 

When you make other people happy, your mind feels good, your mind feels fulfilled, content. If you don’t give this kind of food to the mind, then the mind will keep telling you, ‘I’m hungry,’ and you thought that the mind is hunger for sensual pleasure then you take the mind to go for holiday, to Italy for instance, but your mind will still be hungry. Once you get to Italy, then you want to go somewhere else. 

The mind then says, ‘I don’t want this, this doesn’t give me contentment.’ 

Q: So do we not listen to our mind? 

Than Ajahn:  We don’t know what the mind needs. The mind also needs the four requisites like the body. The food requisite for the mind is charity. The clothing for the mind is keeping the precepts or morality. The home for the mind is meditation (samādhi/calm). And the medicine for the mind is wisdom. These are what the mind needs in order for the mind to be happy, healthy and content. But we hardly give these things to the mind. So the mind is constantly in a state of hunger, in a state of dissatisfaction, discontent. Even if you give the mind $100 million dollars, the mind is still discontent, dissatisfied because you give it to the wrong person. All the things that you do, you do it for the body not for the mind. It’s because nobody teaches you what to give to the mind unless you come to Buddhism. 

Buddhism teaches you to give the 4 requisites to the mind. 

(i) If you want to give food to the mind, you do good things for other people like do charity; 

(ii) If you want to give clothing for the mind, you keep the precepts. This is like putting on nice clothing. When you put on nice clothing, when people look at you, they will feel happy, and they want to be near you. If you are morally good, people want to be close to you because they know that you are not going to hurt them. This is clothing for the mind —morality; 

(iii) Housing for the mind is meditation, jhāna. When you get to jhāna, you know that you are in a safe place, nothing can harm you. It’s like when you stay in the house, you feel protected;

(iv) When you are sick, you use the Dhamma medicine which is wisdom—the Three Characteristics of Existence or the Four Noble Truths—to tell you why your mind is sick, why you have stress. It’s because you have cravings. So stop your cravings. Once you stop cravings then your mind has no stress then your mind is well, your mind is not sick. 

Q:  Do we have to have the first 3 requisites before we get to the 4th one because without the first 3 requisites we are not able to use the medicine fully?

Than Ajahn:  Well you might be able to use it partially by studying from the text or learning from the Buddha’s teachings. You can apply it to cure some sickness that is not deeply rooted. Like when you have a cut, you can use a plaster, you don’t need a surgery. But if you have cancer, then you have to go to hospital to get surgery. 

So wisdom has many levels: lower level and higher level. The wisdom that you learn from here is on a lower level and you can apply it when you have lower-level stress. It’s like using a bandage or applying some tincture on to your wound. For wound that needs surgery [wisdom on higher level], you need to do meditation first. You need to calm the mind first before you can apply this higher type of medication. You need upekkhā. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 26, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

21 December 2024

Q:  How do you define saṃvega? 

Than Ajahn:  Well, the way I see it if you look at the world as afflicted with suffering—that is saṃvega. The world that we live in is a sad world, it is not a happy world. Everyone is afflicted with some type of unhappiness. No one is happy. And basically we are all afflicted with ageing, sickness and death. 

So just contemplate on the nature of the body—the body is subjected to ageing, sickness and death. This can give you saṃvega, sadness. What’s the point of being born here if you were born just to get old, get sick and die? But people forget this fact. 

People keep going after things and they forget that they are going to get sick, get old and die. They don’t have saṃvega.  

But if you keep contemplating on this everyday as much as you can, ‘Once I’m being born, I’m subjected to ageing, sickness and death, and separation from the loved ones,’ then it can give you a good picture of the world we live in. It's a sad world. It’s not a happy world. You don’t want to return to this world if you can, if you know the way.

“Dhamma in English, Jan 16, 2024.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

Deception is deceiving

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

20 December 2024

"Deception is deceiving"

True happiness does not depend on external things. Not with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, objects. Don't live with material things and money. Not with that person, with this person. But in the heart that does good, abandons sin, cleanses greed, anger, and delusion until it is gone. Make your heart happier. There is less suffering. Until it's finally gone. Doing good and avoiding sin are the fruits of wisdom. Is the correct opinion.  

It's called right view. 

See that only doing good deeds. Only not sinning that will make us happy. Make us have no suffering.  

Therefore we must create wisdom. Because if we just do good and avoid sin it does not create wisdom to eliminate delusion. When you die and leave this life, you will be able to forget it. 

When you are reborn, if you go to live in a society that only commits sin, we don't do good things, we will do it because we are influenced by society. 

But if you have already strengthened your intellect shows that there are reasons for doing good and not sinning. Because it makes us happy and no suffering. 

You don't have to look for happiness outside. 

We will always do good and refrain from sin. 

If there is passion, it will trick us into finding happiness from outside. It will be difficult for us to do good. It is easy to do evil and sin. 

Therefore, wisdom must be created. So you won't go and seek happiness from outside, from various things and people, instead will seek happiness within the heart. 

By keeping your mind calm to stop delusion that causes greed and desire.  When there is no greed, there will be no anger. Because anger arises when things aren't as desired. 

When we want something and someone else blocks it, we become angry. 

The root of all problems lies in this delusion. I don't know where true happiness lies. See that happiness is outside lives with external matters.  So we ran to each other. 

Wisdom cannot keep up with our delusion and stupidity that is smarter than the Buddha's wisdom.  So it serves as a guide. 

Instead of going to the temple often We return to the temple a little, and visit often. 

The main goal of approaching Buddhism is to create right view.  To form correct opinions that true happiness lies within the heart.   

Because external things are not true happiness but only causes suffering.   It's chaotic these days. It's because of external things. 

The body is suffering. You have to take care of yourself, you have to be afraid, you have to worry abd concern about your body. 

One pile of suffering is not enough. Still looking for more suffering.  Find a partner to add another pile of suffering. And then you will have children who will be in trouble again. 

It's all suffering.  If considered with wisdom, 

You will see that there is only suffering. 

Infatuation tricks us into wanting things. 

Makes us revolve around death and rebirth in samsara. 

Revolving around in the world of lusts for the most part.   Because it is attached to images, sounds, smells, tastes, and objects. It revolves around the search for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and objects. 

Come drink, come experience, and bring happiness. 

Because if you just stay at home, you will get bored. 

Seeing the same, repetitive images makes me bored. 

You have to constantly go out and experience strange new images. 

When someone invites you to travel,  It feels like a fish getting water. Immediately rejuvenated.  But if anyone invites you into this temple has to be pulled many times 

There must be an activity, a merit-making event, a charity event in order to go. If you go sit and close your eyes and pray. I don't really want to go. 

Go find happiness within your heart. You can't go back because you're not good at it. 

You're good at finding happiness from outside.

Phra Acharn Suchat Aphichato

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

2 December 2024

Student:  One of the chanting is giving prayers to the Sangha, ’Uju-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho, Ñāya-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho, Sāmīci-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho,’ which refer to the Sangha who have practiced straightforwardly, methodically, and masterfully. Why did the Buddha have to say it three times?

Than Ajahn:  4 times. The first one is Supaṭipanno. Because this is how you should practice. 

Supaṭipanno means to practice well. Uju-paṭipanno means to practice straightforwardly. My translation of Ñāya-paṭipanno is to practice for the eradication of your suffering, for getting rid of your suffering. Sāmīci-paṭipanno is to practice correctly according to the teachings of the Buddha. 

So you need these 4 in order to practice properly to get the result. You have to Supaṭipanno, Uju-paṭipanno, Ñāya-paṭipanno and Sāmīci-paṭipanno. If you can do these 4, then you can become a noble disciple because these are the qualities of the noble disciples.

Student:  I was doing the chanting and was trying to understand the difference between these four words because they sound the same thing to me. 

Than Ajahn:  They are different. Supaṭipanno means you have to be a good student. You have to be an ‘A’ student to be Supaṭipanno. 

You have to practice all the time, 100 percent. 

If you only practice 50 percent, then this is half Supaṭipanno. 

To practice straightforwardly [Uju-paṭipanno] means to practice toward nibbāna. You don’t want to practice for any other purpose. You don't want to practice to become a deva. You don’t want to practice to become a brahma. 

You want to practice to become a noble disciple, to be an arahant.

The third one [Ñāya-paṭipanno] means that you want to practice for the eradication of dukkha in the four noble truths.

Can you do these 4? Not yet? You only practice 10% of your time, right? So you only get 10% Supaṭipanno result, not even a passing grade because a passing grade should be 50%. [laugh]

Student:  That’s true. How about Sāmīci-paṭipanno? 

Than Ajahn:  It’s to practice correctly: sammā-diṭṭhi, sammā-sankappa, sammā-kammanta. You have to practice correctly: Right-practice.  For example, when you keep the 8 precept, you are not supposed to eat after midday. You shouldn’t eat at 2 P.M. If you eat at 2 P.M., this is not considered to be practicing correctly. 

You have to not eat after midday: this is to practice correctly. 

“Dhamma in English, Jun 28, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

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