The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

16 May 2026

Monk:  Tan Ajahn, the title of one of your books is ธารู้ (thārū̂) or the knowing element. In that book, you also use another name which is กายทิพย์  (kāythip) or the divine body. 

I’ve never heard of that term before. What is the divine body or the knowing element?

Tan Ajahn:  The knowing element is the mind, which doesn’t exist in the body. The mind exists in another world. We call it the spiritual world, the divine world or whatever term you want to use. But it’s not in the physical world like the body. 

The mind and the body are connected through the viññāṇa from the mind. This is how the mind receives the objects coming into the sensual organs: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. The mind is connected to the body through the viññāṇa in the nāma-khandhas. 

We call it viññāṇa (consciousness).

But the mind is never in the physical world. 

It’s not in the world where the physical body is. Even if this world were to explode because of some catastrophic phenomenon, it wouldn’t catch the mind; it wouldn’t affect the mind because the mind isn’t in the world. 

It’s only the body that would be exploded along with the world. But the mind is in a different place, in the spiritual world. So sometimes we call this ‘kāythip’ which is the spiritual body or the divine body, depending on how people translate ‘kāythip.’

I always compare the mind to someone on this Earth controlling a spacecraft. Someone who controls the spacecraft isn’t in the spacecraft. Whatever happens to the spacecraft doesn’t affect the controller. 

The mind is like the controller of the body so whatever happens to the body doesn’t affect the mind. Physically, whatever happens to the body doesn’t affect the mind. 

But due to the delusion of the mind to think that the mind is the body, that’s when the mind becomes hurt – because of delusion, because of the misunderstanding of the truth. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

1 May 2026

Monk :  Tan Ajahn, you spoke about Luang Ta Mahā Boowa and how you feel that he had practiced through the whole scope of practice. I’ve been struck by the talks, many of which you’ve translated. I’ve listened to your translation of Luang Ta Mahā Boowa speaking about aspects of the mind and awakening that I’ve never heard spoken so clearly elsewhere. I specifically remember one instance where he talked about states beyond space and time. Most Westerners, when they think of the word cessation or cooling nibbāna, have an intuition of cold blankness. I wonder how you would respond to a perception like that, specifically in relation to Luang Ta Mahā Boowa’s description of states that most of us have not had access to? 

Tan Ajahn:  Well, this is the state you access in meditation. When your mind eventually enters the fourth jhana, that’s when your thoughts stop functioning temporarily and all that you have left is the emptiness of mental space, which is comparable to the physical space when you are in space. 

When you die, you’ll be all alone. All that is left is ‘you’ or the knower. Actually, there’s no ‘you’ anymore because the ‘you’ is a mental fabrication. Once the mental fabrication stops functioning, then the ‘you’ disappears. 

And all that is left is the knower, knowing the emptiness and the state of equanimity within the mind itself. So this is what you will experience when you eventually get to that point. 

Monk:  How does one move from that state to liberation?

Tan Ajahn:  You don’t. This is the end of meditation. 

This is the result of what you get: calm, peacefulness, equanimity and a sense of peace and happiness, which the Buddha described as ‘the happiness that arises from a calm mind excels all types of happiness.’ 

Once you have this, then you have something to bargain with your defilements. Your defilements want to look for happiness but they want to find it through the sensual objects. If you study the teachings, you’ll realize that all sensual objects have the ‘Three Characteristics’ as their character. 

They are dukkha because they are temporary. They are not permanent. 

You may enjoy a meal but once it’s gone, it’s gone and you are left hungry and empty again, and it leaves you desiring more food. 

When you cannot get it, then you become unhappy. So, this is the thing you can bargain down and say that you don’t need to have happiness from sensual objects anymore. All you have to do is go into jhāna anytime you feel like you want to have happiness. The only drawback about jhāna is that it is not permanent. You have to keep going back to get that happiness from peace of mind. 

If you want to have this type of happiness be permanent, you need to develop vipassana (wisdom) to eliminate the defilements, which are the ones that destroy the peace that you gain from jhāna. Because when you come out of jhāna and start to think, the defilements will start coming up again and they will eventually drag you to go look for something – to see, to hear, to drink or to smell, and so forth, without even knowing it because you’ve been so used to looking for this type of happiness all the time. 

But once we have the other type of happiness that we can experience from meditation, then we can use the wisdom that the Buddha teaches us to develop, to see the three characteristics in the objects that your defilements want to have, that they’re going to hurt you sooner or later. They’re going to give you dukkha because of their temporary nature or their uncertain nature. They keep constantly changing. What is good can become bad, right? 

It’s the same with what you get. At first when you get it, it’s good, but a few days later, it might break down or you might lose it. So this is the nature of things that we want to teach the mind every time we desire or crave for them: that they are temporary happiness because they keep changing and they are not under your control (anattā). Right? Things are not under your control. You cannot say, ’This thing is going to be like this all the time,’ because it can change or it can disappear at any time without any warning. 

So this is what you want to teach your mind: to see that what you crave for is not real happiness, but it’s real dukkha without knowing it. It’s dukkha in disguise in the form of happiness, of pleasure. They are like drugs. 

People get addicted to drugs. They think, ‘Oh, this is pleasure,’ right? Smoke a joint or take some pills. They are high for a few hours and then after that, the effects of the drugs disappear. Then they come back down and then they feel lonely and sad, and have the desire to go back up again so they can become addicted. And anytime they cannot get what they are addicted to, then what do they get? They get dukkha (suffering). So everything is like this. This is what you want to teach your mind.

“Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

30 April 2026

Monk:  Tan Ajahn, what was most meaningful to you in the figure of Luang Ta Mahā Boowa as a teacher? What inspired faith in you, both at first and going forward, and what kind of qualities of his were most meaningful to you as a teacher? 

Tan Ajahn:  Well, to be honest, I didn’t know him at the time of my ordination. But while I was staying at Wat Bovorn, I met a few Westerners who had been to Wat Pa Baan Taad and came back mentioning Tan Ajahn Mahā Boowa. I also got a chance to read a book ‘Wisdom Develops Samādhi’ translated by Tan Ajahn Paññāḍḍho so I could get some inkling of what Tan Ajahn Mahā Boowa’s teachings were about. 

Previously, I was dependent on the teachings of the Buddha himself. I read the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta, a sutta that I used as my manual of practice. I followed the practice of developing mindfulness using the body (kāyagatasati) and ānāpānasati [mindfulness of breathing] while sitting in meditation. I didn’t really know much about the Thai Forest tradition; I was just looking for a place to practice. 

I practiced for about a year at home and found that I needed to grow more, so I needed to go live in a monastery and become a monk. First, I ordained, then started looking for a monastery. Then I found out about the Thai Forest tradition, and Luang Ta Mahā Boowa was somehow easily accessible to me at that time because of the recommendation of the monks who had visited him and told me how to get there. 

So I wrote a letter to Tan Ajahn Paññāḍḍho and asked permission to go pay a visit, really. 

My goal was to look for a place to practice. I didn’t want to be involved with any rituals, any chanting or invitations and so on. I just wanted to do the practice. I needed a quiet place. As for a teacher, it wasn’t something I was looking for because I thought I already had a teacher: the texts I read from the suttas. I read just a few suttas: Dhammacakkappavattana sutta (the First discourse), the Anattalakkhaṇa sutta, the Ādittapariyāya sutta and the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta. These were what pretty much I needed to guide me in my practice. So at that time, I was looking for a place to practice more than looking for a teacher. 

But after having been there, I realized that having a teacher is much more precious because there are many ways of practice that aren’t shown in the suttas, like fasting and sitting for long periods of time to overcome the pain of the body. These are things you learn from a teacher. Ajahn Mahā Boowa practiced sitting meditation all night to endure the painful feelings of the body, for instance. He also did a lot of fasting to stimulate his practice. And he also lived alone in the wild. 

These were things that I hadn’t thought of before when I was practicing at home. So I gained a lot of precious tips from being with a teacher, and also from the way he drove us to practice to be mindful. Every time we were around him, we had to be very mindful because if we did something wrong, we could be corrected right there, in front of everybody. So everybody was quite nervous or quite on their toes when they were in front of him. But he meant well. He didn’t mean to hurt or try to harm us or anything like that. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

29 April 2026

Monk:  Tan Ajahn, I’ve heard that the actual content of Luang Ta Mahā Boowa’s talks—either Ajahn Paññā or Ajahn Dick mentioned—wasn’t all that relevant. People could just listen, and there was a power in Luang Ta’s voice. And sometimes, people’s questions would be resolved after listening to just an hour-long talk. Can the voice of Dhamma speak in this way? It is not something we are familiar with in the West. What are your thoughts on the quality of speaking Dhamma? 

Tan Ajahn:  I think it depends on each individual who listens; maybe it has different effects on each person. 

But for me, it was the understanding he taught that gave me the wisdom, the insight into what I needed to do to achieve the results from my practice. For me, it was more about the content of the talk than the power of his voice or anything like that. 

But maybe for different people, each talk has different effects. It may also depend on each person’s level of practice. If you are just there trying to develop mindfulness and samādhi, you might not need to listen much to its content to understand, because you only want something to help push your mind into calm. But if you are at the level of understanding where you want to understand what the Dhamma practice is about, then you need to listen and think about what he says as he speaks so that you can see the picture and understand what you need to do in your practice.

“Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

18 April 2026

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: four 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 four 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 four, 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 four? 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 Eight Precepts, 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. 

~ Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

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 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. 

- - - - - 

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

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

"Believe in the Buddha's teachings"

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

30 March 2026

"Believe in the Buddha's teachings"

The Buddha taught that nothing is ours in this world, even our bodies are not ours. One day, we must return them to their original owners, the earth, water, wind and fire. Then our minds must move on. Whether we are happy or sad depends on the merits and sins we have done. If we do good deeds, we will go to happiness and prosperity. If we do bad deeds, we will go to bad deeds, suffering and mental agitation. We have a choice: to do good or bad deeds, to cling or not to cling. If we do not cling, we will be at ease. When we have to part from something, we will not cry or be sad or sorrowful. It is considered normal because we know that the things we have are not ours. We borrowed them. One day, the owner will come to claim them back. 

There is no need to cry or be sad or sorrowful.

This is the benefit we will receive from coming to the temple, listening to sermons and practicing Dhamma. 

Our minds will be peaceful and happy. Amidst the chaos and various bad events, our minds will be able to get through things smoothly, conveniently and comfortably as if nothing had happened. 

Therefore, I ask that all of you have faith in the Buddha's teachings and practice them as much as possible. For the benefits that will follow. 

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

“Dhamma in English, Apr 30, 2024.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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