“The practice is to get rid of the emotional side of the mind but we still maintain the rational side.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

17 August 2024

“The practice is to get rid of the emotional side of the mind but we still maintain the rational side.”

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Question:  For a Sotāpanna, I suppose in his mind he is no longer interested in his body, regardless of whether the body is sick or not sick. He has no concern whether the bed is clean or has been used before. 

He is indifferent to it. Is that a wrong way of looking at it?

Than Ajahn:  You will have to become a Sotāpanna to really understand it. So it is better not to speculate on it. Even though you might not be attached to your body, you know that you still need the body to do some other good things, then you tend to protect your body, but not emotionally involved in protecting it. 

You protect it rationally. 

If you find that the bed is dirty, then why sleep on it? Get a new bed sheet. So, you still protect your body. 

You still look after your body but you’re not emotionally involved with what’s happening with the body. 

That’s all. You still have rationality. If you are sick, you still go and see a doctor. If the doctor can help you, then why not go and see the doctor? He can give you some medicine. 

However, if you happen to be in the forest by yourself and there is no doctor, then you will have to accept your fate. Either way, you’re not emotionally involved, whether you can be cured or not. You wouldn’t be affected. If you can cure it, fine, do it. If you cannot cure it, OK, just accept it. It’s your fate but you won’t feel bad because of it. 

The practice is to get rid of the emotional side of the mind but we still maintain the rational side. The Buddha is the most rational person in the world and this is zero emotion. His mind is no longer emotional but rational. Everything he did is all rational.

Concerning terminal cancer, people tend to lose their rationality and become emotional. They try to hang on to the body, so their relatives will use every method to prolong the lives of their beloved ones even though it’s not going to help them or stop the terminal cancer anyway. It’s just prolonging their suffering. 

That’s why for forest monks, sometimes when they get sick and when they know their time is near, they just refuse treatment. They just stay in the forest and let the body fade away.

Dhamma in English, Apr 3, 2017. 

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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