“The Buddha has guaranteed that if you can put in 100 % effort, you’ll become enlightened within 7 days, 7 months or 7 years.”

“The Buddha has guaranteed that if you can put in 100 % effort, you’ll become enlightened within 7 days, 7 months or 7 years.”

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Layperson (M1):  Could you please tell us briefly what you have just sermon in the Thai language. Is it about meditation?

Than Ajahn: It’s about the practice. The result of your practice depends on the intensity of your practice. It depends on how much you put into the practice. If you put in a little into your practice, you get little result. If you put in a lot, you get a lot of result.

You have to know what you have to practice and you have to know how much you have to put in, in order to get the result. What you have to practice is dāna, sīla, samādhi and paññā. Right now, how much do you put into charity (dāna), sīla (morality), bhāvanā (meditation)? If you put in 10%, you’ll get 10% back. It’s like an investment. If you buy 10% stock, you’ll get 10% return. If you buy 50%, you’ll get 50% return. If you buy 100%, you’ll get 100% return. This is the same way with the practice in Buddhism.

For example, the enlightened monks are people who give 100% into the practice. They received 100% result. People who give 100% are usually monks. The Buddha was a monk. His noble disciples are all monks. They have put their 100% effort into the practice. So, they get 100% result. They become enlightened. If anybody wants to become enlightened, he has to put in 100% into their practice. Then, the result will be 100%, which is nibbāna.

Question (F1):  To get this 100%, does one get it within one’s life time or over different life times?

Than Ajahn:  These monks have done it in one life time. All these teachers whom you go to pay respect to, do it within one’s life time. The Buddha has guaranteed that if you can put in 100 % effort, you’ll become enlightened within 7 days, 7 months or 7 years.

You don’t need to go through many life time to accomplish it because you now have someone to teach you how to do it. But if you have no teacher, then you might have to do it several life times because you have to do it by trial and error. Right now you don’t have to do trial and error. You know exactly what you need to do. All you have to do is, ‘Do it.’

Right now you do it very little, not 100%. Like you give to charity, you give only 10%. If you want to practice charity fully, you have to give 100% because in order to become a monk, you’ll have to give up all your wealth first. If you still need your wealth, you cannot become a monk. If you cannot become a monk, you won’t have the full time to practice because you still have to look after your wealth.

Youtube video: “Dhamma in English, Aug 15, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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