The Teaching Of Ajahn Suchart.
22 July 2024"Committing to a rains retreat.” by Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“We have now made a resolution to remain in this monastery throughout the next three months: not to stay overnight elsewhere except in cases of emergency.
According to the disciplinary rules (vinaya), a monk is allowed to take leave to care for an ill parent or teacher for no more than seven days and seven nights.
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” part 2
“You are not allowed to leave the monastery grounds before dawn. Leaving the monastery grounds before dawn is considered breaking vassa. For example, if you were to go on your alms round before dawn and return once it’s light, then it would be considered breaking vassa. However, if there’s a reason for you to leave the monastery during the night and you’re able to return before dawn, then it’s not considered breaking your observance.
There are two ways to determine whether it is light. One is to look at leaves. If you can clearly see each leaf on a tree, then it’s considered light. The other is to look at your palm lines. If you can clearly see your palm lines when your arm is fully extended, then it’s considered light.
You can leave the monastery grounds if you have a duty to perform, such as going on an alms round. So, when you go on your alms round in the morning, you shouldn’t have to bring your outer robe with you; otherwise, it would mean that it’s not light yet. You should wait until you’re able to leave behind your outer robe and then go on your alms round. If you were to leave before dawn and then return once it’s light, then it would be considered breaking vassa.
This is a disciplinary matter that the Buddha laid down so that each of you has time to remain in one place to study and practise the Dhamma continually. The purpose of ordination is to learn Dhamma theory and the Buddha’s teachings (pariyatti). This is so we know the right way to practise.
Once we know the theory or method, we can then put it into practice (paṭipatti). When we’ve practised properly, a result from having penetrated the truth (paṭivedha) will arise. Together they form a triad of theory, practice, and attainment.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 3
“An attainment is a result of practice. And what is the result of the Buddhist practice? It is the four paths (magga), four fruits (phala), and one enlightenment (nibbāna). They are the goal—the result of ordination, Dhamma study, and proper practice—which is to be liberated from thej cycles (vaṭṭa) of rebirth, ageing, illnesses, and death.
There are four levels of attainment. The first level is called sotāpatti phala, or the result of stream-entry. There will be at most only seven more times of rebirth before attaining nibbāna.
Stream-enterers (sotāpanna) will not be reborn into the lower realms (apāya-bhumi)—anything lower than those of human and heavenly beings. The second level is that of once-returner (sakadāgāmı). There will be at most only one more rebirth.
If once-returners were to be reborn, they would only be reborn one more time into the human realm. The third level is that of non-returner (anāgāmı). Non-returners will no longer be reborn as humans. They will instead be reborn into the heavenly realm of pure abode (brahmā) before attaining arahantship. If they practise to the level of arahant, they will no longer be in the perpetual cycles of rebirth and death, thus reaching enlightenment.
The Buddha referred to the practice towards these results as the four maggas, four phalas, and one nibbāna. Each level’s path involves a cultivation of moral virtue (sıla), meditative absorption (samādhi), and wisdom (paññā). Sotāpannas must cultivate their level of sıla, samādhi, and paññā. Sakadāgāmıs must cultivate their level of sıla, samādhi, and paññā; so is the same for anāgāmıs and arahants. Each of them uses sıla, samādhi, and paññā as means to achieve various levels of attainment.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 4
“If you want and manage to practise correctly just as you chant to recollect the Saṅgha’s qualities, ‘Supaṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho. Uju-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṇgho. Ñāya-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvakasaṅgho. Sāmı-cipaṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho’, you will then attain the four paths and their results respectively.
You will reach the level of sotāpanna, and then move on to that of sakadāgāmı, of anāgāmı, and of arahant. This is your duty. The duty of a monk is to study, to practise, and to attain enlightenment.
It is not your duty to build permanent structures and objects or to raise funds to build such things. The Buddha left those affairs to lay devotees and their faith, for they are the ones with financial means to build shrine halls (uposatha), stupas (chedis), huts (kuṭis), halls (sālās), and so on. For monks like us, the ones without money, it is not our duty to build such things.
When the Buddha was still alive, he never built a temple, not even one. Each temple was established as a result of lay devotees’ faith in, and admiration for, the Buddha. They wished to provide the Buddha and monks with dwellings and places to study, to practise and to attain enlightenment. Such is the duty of lay devotees—to build permanent structures and so on.
The duty of a monk is to cultivate sıla, samādhi, and paññā. Samādhi and paññā, in particular, are the most important. While you duly maintain the 227 precepts, samādhi and paññā require mental cultivation (bhāvanā). Samatha bhāvanā, or the development of tranquility, is to cultivate samādhi. Vipassanā bhāvanā, or the development of insight, is to cultivate paññā.
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 5
*“Samādhi alone isn’t enough to eradicate mental craving and desire. Samādhi is only able to suppress them. It’s just like a rock on a patch of grass that prevents the grass from growing: the grass will continue to grow once the rock has been removed.”*
When the mind becomes concentrated and absorbed in calmness, your mental defilements (kilesas) and craving (taṇhā) will disappear. They will stop working for a while but not disappear permanently. Once you come out of samādhi, you will resume thinking about things, seeing things, and hearing things. Your craving and desire will reappear. If you want to eradicate your craving and desire for good, you will need to resort to paññā by practising vipassanā bhāvanā.
The development of insight is to be carried out once you’ve come out of samādhi. When the mind is in absorption, during which the mind is resting, it is not possible to cultivate wisdom. The mind recharges just like the body does. You cannot go out and work while you sleep, but once you have enough rest and get up, you can then resume working and doing things. The cultivation of wisdom is like the function of your body: it can only be carried out once you’ve come out of samādhi.
In leaving that calm absorption, you will need to contemplate your physical body. This is because you still misperceive your body and cling to it—you still suffer because of your body. You need to contemplate and see clearly: your body is impermanent— it is not who or what you are and it does not belong to you.
Thinking that your body is you and yours will make you want it to be permanent and last forever. Once you have cravings, discontentment (dukkha) will then arise. You need to contemplate in order to realise that your body is impermanent and not you or yours. Once you see it clearly, you won’t have the desire for your body to last forever and not to change. It ought to change with time: having been born, your body will age, get ill, and die eventually. No one can prevent it. It’s a matter of your physical body. Your physical body does not belong to you and is not who or what you are.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 6
“The Buddha taught us to identify and contemplate thirty-two parts of the body in order to see that the body is not who or what you are. The body consists of thirty-two parts, such as head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, spleen, heart, liver, membranes, kidneys, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, undigested food, faeces, and other bodily fluids.
The Buddha told us to contemplate each part on its own and consider whether we can truly identify ourselves with any of them. Is your head hair who or what you are? Is your body hair who or what you are? Are your nails, teeth, and skin who or what you are? You ought to identify each and every single part and contemplate whether any of them is who or what you are. Are you your head hair? Are you your body hair? By contemplating this way, you will see clearly that they are simply head hair, body hair, nails, and teeth and nothing more. It is, in fact, your delusion to think that head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, and bones are who or what you are and that they belong to you.
You need to train yourself to contemplate these bodily parts on a regular basis. You will come to realise that they are not who or what you are. You will see that your true self is merely the one who is contemplating and investigating. You are, in fact, the perceiver and the thinker who are contemplating your body. Your body is merely an object of contemplation, not who or what you are. If you can see it clearly, you will become detached from your body. There won’t be any desire for your body not to age, get ill, and die. When there is no desire, there is no dukkha.
*Ageing, illnesses, and death are not the causes of your dukkha. The cause of your discontentment is your craving—craving not to age, craving not to get ill, and craving not to die.* You can see clearly that your body is inevitably subject to illnesses and death due to impermanence and selflessness. You cannot prevent illnesses and death from happening to your body and you cannot hold on to your body. If your physical body is truly yours, then it should be with you forever. If it doesn’t last forever, how can you assume that it is yours? Looking at it rationally will give you courage to detach yourselves from your body.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 7
*“You should seek and go to places that used to make you afraid of dying in order to see whether you are still attached to your body. If you don’t consider your body as who or what you are and as yours, you will not care. No matter what happens to your body, you will be happy and prepared. It is as if your body belongs to someone else, just as you aren’t normally bothered when something happens to other people’s body. This is a contemplation to eliminate any fear of illnesses and death.* Illnesses are just the same: they are unpleasant sensations (dukkha-vedanā). They belong to your physical body, not you— you only come into contact with and acknowledge them. If you only perceive and acknowledge them and do not have any desire for them to go away, then you won’t suffer.
Dukkha arises out of your desire for a physical pain to go away. You need to sit until it hurts to teach yourself that the pain belongs to your body, not you. You are simply the observer and the perceiver. You don’t need to want it to go away because if there’s craving, then there’s dukkha. Your inability to tolerate the pain has nothing to do with the pain itself but your desire to be without it. There will be no dukkha if you don’t wish for it to go away. You will then be able to live happily with the pain.
When you’re ill and have no medication, you won’t be bothered. If there are no painkillers, it is not a problem as most aches and pains have to do with your mind. If you have the wisdom to cure them by not desiring them to go away, most pain in your mind will disappear and only minor physical pain will remain. There is then no need to take painkillers. This is how to contemplate your physical body: to become detached from them so that you no longer suffer because of your body.
You are all heading towards old age, illnesses, and death. If you don’t prepare yourself to handle them, you will not be able to face them without suffering. This is the goal of the cultivation of wisdom, or vipassanā bhāvanā. It is to see the truth—to see things as they are and not according to your thoughts and feelings.
*Your thoughts and feelings arise from your delusion—from not knowing the truth. It makes us mistake things: to see things that are wrong or bad as right or good, to see things that are impermanent as permanent, to see things that are not who or what you are as you, and to see suffering as happiness (sukha).*
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 8
“The cultivation of wisdom is for you to see any existing things as they truly are. You are not changing anything. The only thing that you change is your mind. This is only to turn your ignorance into wisdom: to know what is what, to know that your physical body is not you or yours, to know that your body is impermanent, and to know that any physical pain belongs to your physical body and not to you. If you can see your body clearly, then you will not be troubled by the ageing, illnesses, and death of your physical body.
Another aspect that you need to contemplate is the unattractiveness of your physical body. If you consider your body as something beautiful and attractive, there will then be sensual passion (kāmarāga). Once sensual desires arise, there will be lust. Once there is lust, there will be sexual desires. It will be very tormenting to not be able to fulfil them. If it were to happen to a monk, then that monk would not be able to remain in robes and would eventually have to disrobe because he wants to sleep with those he considers beautiful and attractive.
Your sexual desires will diminish if you contemplate the foulness of your body, such as their ageing, illnesses, death, decomposition, and internal organs. This is why your ordinator taught you to recite during your ordinations the five key words, ‘kesā, lomā, nakhā, dantā, taco’, meaning head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, and skin, respectively. Your ordinator taught you to contemplate the unattractiveness of your body—to consider various organs and conditions within your body and not just their external features and appearance. Seeing only the attractive parts of your body will conjure up sexual desires, which makes it difficult to remain celibate, thus leading to disrobing in the end.
This all concerns the cultivation of pañña. You alternate it with the cultivation of samādhi because after a period of contemplation, you will be exhausted. So you need to take a break to rest your mind. You need to stop contemplating and get into samādhi to recharge. This is just like your body that needs rest and sleep and food after a long day of work.
When you wake up, you can resume your work. When you contemplate to the point where your mind is no longer interested or distracted, you need to stop and get back into samādhi and calm your mind. You should alternate them accordingly until you can rid yourself completely of various desires and cravings that are in your mind. Once you have eradicated all these cravings, there will no longer be any dukkha in your mind.
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 9
“The contemplation of your body and sensations are only the first two tests. The third test is the contemplation of the foulness of your body. The fourth test is the contemplation of your mind (citta). Your mind is also subject to the three characteristics of all existence and beings (tilakkhaṅa), namely impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anattā).
The term, citta, refers to various moods and mental states that are in your mind. Your mind are in a constant flux—depending on the day it can range from being clear and happy to gloomy and sad. It is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self. You need to contemplate in order to become detached from its conditions just in the same way. This is to not have any desire for your mind to be in a certain way. Whatever condition it is in, just be aware of that. So you won’t have any desire. When there’s no desire, then there’s no suffering. Without suffering, then there’s no problem.
That’s all the problem there is when it comes to dukkha. The cause of dukkha is craving. The means to eliminate the cause of craving is sıla, samādhi, and paññā, which are what you are here to learn and practise.
"I’d like to conclude the Dhamma talk here. May you be blessed with merit.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
Exceeding this permissible leave period is considered breaking one’s observance of rains retreat (vassa).
Breaking vassa means not being able to benefit from the five merits of committing to a rains retreat. For instance, you will not be able to receive a kaṭhina (festival at the end of vassa) cloth—only those who maintain their observance can receive the cloth.
Breaking vassa means not being able to benefit from the five merits of committing to a rains retreat. For instance, you will not be able to receive a kaṭhina (festival at the end of vassa) cloth—only those who maintain their observance can receive the cloth.
However, breaking vassa will not affect your period of ordination—the number of years you have been in robes. Such is an example of an exception that allows monks to be away with consent for seven days and seven nights.
To commit to a rains retreat, you need to be aware of the monastery grounds you are to remain in. Most monasteries have surrounding walls to mark their boundaries. But Wat Yansangwararam—being a part of His Majesty the King’s Royal Project—is situated on a vast piece of land, so it is necessary to inform everyone of its boundaries.
Let’s begin from the entrance of the monastery: the gate just before the roundabout is the starting point.
To commit to a rains retreat, you need to be aware of the monastery grounds you are to remain in. Most monasteries have surrounding walls to mark their boundaries. But Wat Yansangwararam—being a part of His Majesty the King’s Royal Project—is situated on a vast piece of land, so it is necessary to inform everyone of its boundaries.
Let’s begin from the entrance of the monastery: the gate just before the roundabout is the starting point.
The road that runs along the Geriatric Centre and the Agricultural Centre and leads to the Land Development section marks the boundary on one side.
The monastery grounds also include the lodging area of Dhamma practitioners, His Majesty the King’s residence, the Mondop hill, Khao Chi-On, and the Non-Hunting Wildlife Reserve area. From the Reserve area, the road that runs behind the monks’ residence area and leads to the Sian Vihāra and loops back to the roundabout along the International Sālā marks the boundary on the other side. These are the monastery grounds you are to remain in during the rains retreat.”
The monastery grounds also include the lodging area of Dhamma practitioners, His Majesty the King’s residence, the Mondop hill, Khao Chi-On, and the Non-Hunting Wildlife Reserve area. From the Reserve area, the road that runs behind the monks’ residence area and leads to the Sian Vihāra and loops back to the roundabout along the International Sālā marks the boundary on the other side. These are the monastery grounds you are to remain in during the rains retreat.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” part 2
“You are not allowed to leave the monastery grounds before dawn. Leaving the monastery grounds before dawn is considered breaking vassa. For example, if you were to go on your alms round before dawn and return once it’s light, then it would be considered breaking vassa. However, if there’s a reason for you to leave the monastery during the night and you’re able to return before dawn, then it’s not considered breaking your observance.
There are two ways to determine whether it is light. One is to look at leaves. If you can clearly see each leaf on a tree, then it’s considered light. The other is to look at your palm lines. If you can clearly see your palm lines when your arm is fully extended, then it’s considered light.
You can leave the monastery grounds if you have a duty to perform, such as going on an alms round. So, when you go on your alms round in the morning, you shouldn’t have to bring your outer robe with you; otherwise, it would mean that it’s not light yet. You should wait until you’re able to leave behind your outer robe and then go on your alms round. If you were to leave before dawn and then return once it’s light, then it would be considered breaking vassa.
This is a disciplinary matter that the Buddha laid down so that each of you has time to remain in one place to study and practise the Dhamma continually. The purpose of ordination is to learn Dhamma theory and the Buddha’s teachings (pariyatti). This is so we know the right way to practise.
Once we know the theory or method, we can then put it into practice (paṭipatti). When we’ve practised properly, a result from having penetrated the truth (paṭivedha) will arise. Together they form a triad of theory, practice, and attainment.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 3
“An attainment is a result of practice. And what is the result of the Buddhist practice? It is the four paths (magga), four fruits (phala), and one enlightenment (nibbāna). They are the goal—the result of ordination, Dhamma study, and proper practice—which is to be liberated from thej cycles (vaṭṭa) of rebirth, ageing, illnesses, and death.
There are four levels of attainment. The first level is called sotāpatti phala, or the result of stream-entry. There will be at most only seven more times of rebirth before attaining nibbāna.
Stream-enterers (sotāpanna) will not be reborn into the lower realms (apāya-bhumi)—anything lower than those of human and heavenly beings. The second level is that of once-returner (sakadāgāmı). There will be at most only one more rebirth.
If once-returners were to be reborn, they would only be reborn one more time into the human realm. The third level is that of non-returner (anāgāmı). Non-returners will no longer be reborn as humans. They will instead be reborn into the heavenly realm of pure abode (brahmā) before attaining arahantship. If they practise to the level of arahant, they will no longer be in the perpetual cycles of rebirth and death, thus reaching enlightenment.
The Buddha referred to the practice towards these results as the four maggas, four phalas, and one nibbāna. Each level’s path involves a cultivation of moral virtue (sıla), meditative absorption (samādhi), and wisdom (paññā). Sotāpannas must cultivate their level of sıla, samādhi, and paññā. Sakadāgāmıs must cultivate their level of sıla, samādhi, and paññā; so is the same for anāgāmıs and arahants. Each of them uses sıla, samādhi, and paññā as means to achieve various levels of attainment.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 4
“If you want and manage to practise correctly just as you chant to recollect the Saṅgha’s qualities, ‘Supaṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho. Uju-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṇgho. Ñāya-paṭipanno bhagavato sāvakasaṅgho. Sāmı-cipaṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho’, you will then attain the four paths and their results respectively.
You will reach the level of sotāpanna, and then move on to that of sakadāgāmı, of anāgāmı, and of arahant. This is your duty. The duty of a monk is to study, to practise, and to attain enlightenment.
It is not your duty to build permanent structures and objects or to raise funds to build such things. The Buddha left those affairs to lay devotees and their faith, for they are the ones with financial means to build shrine halls (uposatha), stupas (chedis), huts (kuṭis), halls (sālās), and so on. For monks like us, the ones without money, it is not our duty to build such things.
When the Buddha was still alive, he never built a temple, not even one. Each temple was established as a result of lay devotees’ faith in, and admiration for, the Buddha. They wished to provide the Buddha and monks with dwellings and places to study, to practise and to attain enlightenment. Such is the duty of lay devotees—to build permanent structures and so on.
The duty of a monk is to cultivate sıla, samādhi, and paññā. Samādhi and paññā, in particular, are the most important. While you duly maintain the 227 precepts, samādhi and paññā require mental cultivation (bhāvanā). Samatha bhāvanā, or the development of tranquility, is to cultivate samādhi. Vipassanā bhāvanā, or the development of insight, is to cultivate paññā.
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 5
*“Samādhi alone isn’t enough to eradicate mental craving and desire. Samādhi is only able to suppress them. It’s just like a rock on a patch of grass that prevents the grass from growing: the grass will continue to grow once the rock has been removed.”*
When the mind becomes concentrated and absorbed in calmness, your mental defilements (kilesas) and craving (taṇhā) will disappear. They will stop working for a while but not disappear permanently. Once you come out of samādhi, you will resume thinking about things, seeing things, and hearing things. Your craving and desire will reappear. If you want to eradicate your craving and desire for good, you will need to resort to paññā by practising vipassanā bhāvanā.
The development of insight is to be carried out once you’ve come out of samādhi. When the mind is in absorption, during which the mind is resting, it is not possible to cultivate wisdom. The mind recharges just like the body does. You cannot go out and work while you sleep, but once you have enough rest and get up, you can then resume working and doing things. The cultivation of wisdom is like the function of your body: it can only be carried out once you’ve come out of samādhi.
In leaving that calm absorption, you will need to contemplate your physical body. This is because you still misperceive your body and cling to it—you still suffer because of your body. You need to contemplate and see clearly: your body is impermanent— it is not who or what you are and it does not belong to you.
Thinking that your body is you and yours will make you want it to be permanent and last forever. Once you have cravings, discontentment (dukkha) will then arise. You need to contemplate in order to realise that your body is impermanent and not you or yours. Once you see it clearly, you won’t have the desire for your body to last forever and not to change. It ought to change with time: having been born, your body will age, get ill, and die eventually. No one can prevent it. It’s a matter of your physical body. Your physical body does not belong to you and is not who or what you are.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 6
“The Buddha taught us to identify and contemplate thirty-two parts of the body in order to see that the body is not who or what you are. The body consists of thirty-two parts, such as head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, spleen, heart, liver, membranes, kidneys, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, undigested food, faeces, and other bodily fluids.
The Buddha told us to contemplate each part on its own and consider whether we can truly identify ourselves with any of them. Is your head hair who or what you are? Is your body hair who or what you are? Are your nails, teeth, and skin who or what you are? You ought to identify each and every single part and contemplate whether any of them is who or what you are. Are you your head hair? Are you your body hair? By contemplating this way, you will see clearly that they are simply head hair, body hair, nails, and teeth and nothing more. It is, in fact, your delusion to think that head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, and bones are who or what you are and that they belong to you.
You need to train yourself to contemplate these bodily parts on a regular basis. You will come to realise that they are not who or what you are. You will see that your true self is merely the one who is contemplating and investigating. You are, in fact, the perceiver and the thinker who are contemplating your body. Your body is merely an object of contemplation, not who or what you are. If you can see it clearly, you will become detached from your body. There won’t be any desire for your body not to age, get ill, and die. When there is no desire, there is no dukkha.
*Ageing, illnesses, and death are not the causes of your dukkha. The cause of your discontentment is your craving—craving not to age, craving not to get ill, and craving not to die.* You can see clearly that your body is inevitably subject to illnesses and death due to impermanence and selflessness. You cannot prevent illnesses and death from happening to your body and you cannot hold on to your body. If your physical body is truly yours, then it should be with you forever. If it doesn’t last forever, how can you assume that it is yours? Looking at it rationally will give you courage to detach yourselves from your body.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 7
*“You should seek and go to places that used to make you afraid of dying in order to see whether you are still attached to your body. If you don’t consider your body as who or what you are and as yours, you will not care. No matter what happens to your body, you will be happy and prepared. It is as if your body belongs to someone else, just as you aren’t normally bothered when something happens to other people’s body. This is a contemplation to eliminate any fear of illnesses and death.* Illnesses are just the same: they are unpleasant sensations (dukkha-vedanā). They belong to your physical body, not you— you only come into contact with and acknowledge them. If you only perceive and acknowledge them and do not have any desire for them to go away, then you won’t suffer.
Dukkha arises out of your desire for a physical pain to go away. You need to sit until it hurts to teach yourself that the pain belongs to your body, not you. You are simply the observer and the perceiver. You don’t need to want it to go away because if there’s craving, then there’s dukkha. Your inability to tolerate the pain has nothing to do with the pain itself but your desire to be without it. There will be no dukkha if you don’t wish for it to go away. You will then be able to live happily with the pain.
When you’re ill and have no medication, you won’t be bothered. If there are no painkillers, it is not a problem as most aches and pains have to do with your mind. If you have the wisdom to cure them by not desiring them to go away, most pain in your mind will disappear and only minor physical pain will remain. There is then no need to take painkillers. This is how to contemplate your physical body: to become detached from them so that you no longer suffer because of your body.
You are all heading towards old age, illnesses, and death. If you don’t prepare yourself to handle them, you will not be able to face them without suffering. This is the goal of the cultivation of wisdom, or vipassanā bhāvanā. It is to see the truth—to see things as they are and not according to your thoughts and feelings.
*Your thoughts and feelings arise from your delusion—from not knowing the truth. It makes us mistake things: to see things that are wrong or bad as right or good, to see things that are impermanent as permanent, to see things that are not who or what you are as you, and to see suffering as happiness (sukha).*
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
"Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 8
“The cultivation of wisdom is for you to see any existing things as they truly are. You are not changing anything. The only thing that you change is your mind. This is only to turn your ignorance into wisdom: to know what is what, to know that your physical body is not you or yours, to know that your body is impermanent, and to know that any physical pain belongs to your physical body and not to you. If you can see your body clearly, then you will not be troubled by the ageing, illnesses, and death of your physical body.
Another aspect that you need to contemplate is the unattractiveness of your physical body. If you consider your body as something beautiful and attractive, there will then be sensual passion (kāmarāga). Once sensual desires arise, there will be lust. Once there is lust, there will be sexual desires. It will be very tormenting to not be able to fulfil them. If it were to happen to a monk, then that monk would not be able to remain in robes and would eventually have to disrobe because he wants to sleep with those he considers beautiful and attractive.
Your sexual desires will diminish if you contemplate the foulness of your body, such as their ageing, illnesses, death, decomposition, and internal organs. This is why your ordinator taught you to recite during your ordinations the five key words, ‘kesā, lomā, nakhā, dantā, taco’, meaning head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, and skin, respectively. Your ordinator taught you to contemplate the unattractiveness of your body—to consider various organs and conditions within your body and not just their external features and appearance. Seeing only the attractive parts of your body will conjure up sexual desires, which makes it difficult to remain celibate, thus leading to disrobing in the end.
This all concerns the cultivation of pañña. You alternate it with the cultivation of samādhi because after a period of contemplation, you will be exhausted. So you need to take a break to rest your mind. You need to stop contemplating and get into samādhi to recharge. This is just like your body that needs rest and sleep and food after a long day of work.
When you wake up, you can resume your work. When you contemplate to the point where your mind is no longer interested or distracted, you need to stop and get back into samādhi and calm your mind. You should alternate them accordingly until you can rid yourself completely of various desires and cravings that are in your mind. Once you have eradicated all these cravings, there will no longer be any dukkha in your mind.
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
“Committing to a rains retreat.” Part 9
“The contemplation of your body and sensations are only the first two tests. The third test is the contemplation of the foulness of your body. The fourth test is the contemplation of your mind (citta). Your mind is also subject to the three characteristics of all existence and beings (tilakkhaṅa), namely impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anattā).
The term, citta, refers to various moods and mental states that are in your mind. Your mind are in a constant flux—depending on the day it can range from being clear and happy to gloomy and sad. It is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self. You need to contemplate in order to become detached from its conditions just in the same way. This is to not have any desire for your mind to be in a certain way. Whatever condition it is in, just be aware of that. So you won’t have any desire. When there’s no desire, then there’s no suffering. Without suffering, then there’s no problem.
That’s all the problem there is when it comes to dukkha. The cause of dukkha is craving. The means to eliminate the cause of craving is sıla, samādhi, and paññā, which are what you are here to learn and practise.
"I’d like to conclude the Dhamma talk here. May you be blessed with merit.”
“Essential Teachings.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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