w Paṭiccasamuppāda works from moment to moment?

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

19 October 2023

Question:  How Paṭiccasamuppāda works from moment to moment?

Than Ajahn:  Paṭiccasamuppāda is the working of the mind. The mind is driven by avijjā. Avijjā is ignorance that influence the mind. It’s the one that directs the saṅkhārā (the thoughts) to start thinking. But it thinks in the wrong way. It thinks towards the dukkha, not sukha. It thinks that sukha (happiness) is found in the sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile objects. The mind thinks towards this wrong direction. From here, it then sends the information to viññāṇa.

Viññāṇa will connect the mind to the sense organs: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. When the mind is connected to the sense organs, it can receive the sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile objects. Once the mind comes into contact with the sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile object, you’ll experience the feelings. You’ll have good or bad feelings arise. If you see good images, you’ll have good feelings arise. If you see bad images, bad feelings will arise. If you hear good sounds, you’ll have good feelings arise. If you hear bad sounds, bad feelings will arise. Once you have those feelings, you start to have desire towards those feelings. 

If it is a good feeling, you’ll be attracted to it. You’ll have desire to possess it and to keep it for as long as possible. If you have a bad feeling towards that object, you’ll have the desire to stay away or to get rid of it.

Once you have desires, you’ll have attachment to the objects. And once you have attachment to the objects, you’ll keep going back to them. This will cause you to be reborn because when you die, you lose all the objects that you like, so if you still want them, you’ll go and take birth again to experience the experiences you’ve lost. Avijjā will then direct the mind to go look for a new body. You will do this again and again. It never ends.

It will only end when you come across the teachings of the Buddha who will teach you to have wisdom to know that the things that you crave for are bad for you because they are impermanent. They only last briefly. 

They will make you addicted to them. They will force you to keep coming back for them again and again. So, the Buddha said that it’s better to have another kind of happiness. The happiness that arises from meditation. 

Hence, you should learn to meditate because once you know how to meditate, you will find a new kind of happiness. The happiness that makes you not needing your old kinds of happiness. Once you have meditation as your new form of happiness, you don’t need to travel, to go see or hear things or to do anything through your body. Then, you won’t have to come back and have a new body.


“Dhamma in English, Jul 4, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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