The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
17 April 2026
Q: We learned that if we are angry or have a bad mind, we’re going to have all the bad kamma to ourselves, but in reality, when we have contact with other people, sometimes we feel angry or annoyed. This anger keeps on coming up again and again although intellectually we know that if we are angry we are the stupid one but when the defilement arises, the mind makes the narratives that thing should be like this or like that and there is also a lot of judgment. What is easiest to do when we realised that our defilements like anger, jealousy, getting annoyed, hatred are arising? What is the first thing we must do if we don’t have samādhi?
Phra Ajahn: Ok. If you don’t have the time to go develop samādhi then in your daily life you should try to develop mindfulness. Use mindfulness to stop your defilement. You can stop it temporarily but it’s still better than nothing. The easiest way to develop or use mindfulness is to recite a mantra such as ‘Budho, Budho.’ As soon as you know you’re getting angry then you should stop engaging that particular thing or person and use ‘Budho Budho’ to pull your mind away from that problem. Just keep reciting ‘Budho Budho’ for a few minutes then your anger will disappear. This is the quick and easy way but a temporarily way.
If you want to get a long lasting fix, you need to go into seclusion from time to time to develop your mind to become calmer and stronger; and you should develop wisdom or the knowledge that the Buddha teaches us to apply when you get angry. He said that our anger arises from our cravings, our desire for things or people to do what we want them to do. Once we cannot get what we want, then we get angry. If you want to eliminate anger entirely, then you have to stop your desires or your cravings for things or for people. You have to accept them for what they are. When you can do that, then your mind will never be angry.
So you need to have time. Like when you are on holidays, when you don’t have to work, instead of going to places to enjoy, you should go to a meditation retreat. Go to a monastery to develop samādhi and wisdom so that when you go back home, you have something to use to help your mind to get rid of your defilement. If you cannot, then try to develop mindfulness by reciting a mantra as much as possible in your daily life.
When you do things that you don’t need to think, you should use a mantra. Like when you prepare yourself to go to work in the morning, as soon as you get up, keep reciting the mantra. When you’re washing your face, brushing your teeth, getting dressed or whatever, just keep reciting the mantra then you will be capable to use the mantra later on when you need to. If you don’t practice, when the time comes for you to recite the mantra, you cannot do it because your mind will keep thinking about things that make you angry.
But if you know how to use the mantra beforehand, when things happen then you can apply the mantra right away.
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Q: Buddhism says that we have to have wisdom or be wise, it means that we should be smart spiritually, right?
Phra Ajahn: No. Smart by truth. You know the truth of our suffering or our sadness or bad feelings. The Buddha said that our sufferings arise from our desires or our cravings. And all we have to do is to stop our cravings and desires by accepting things as they are because we cannot control or manage them all the time.
Sometimes we can control them, sometime we can manage them but sometimes we cannot do it. When we cannot control them then we have to accept them for what they are.
Like your body, right now you can control part of it but some parts of it, you cannot control.
When it gets sick, you cannot control it so you just have to accept, ‘Ok, I’m sick’ and try to live with the sickness. Try to fix it as good as you can but if you cannot fix it, you just accept it for what it is. Then you will not be sad or have any bad feeling toward your sickness.
“Dhamma in English, Sep 29, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
