The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
4 September 2024“Against the Defilements.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
When you listen, you have to make sure that you fully understand. When there’s understanding, it will stay with you or in your heart. You’ll start thinking in line with what you’ve heard. When you’re able to think on your own, you won’t then really need to listen so much, because you’ll be more inclined to think on your own than to listen.
The Buddha compared the Dhamma from listening to someone else as water in a jar, whereas the Dhamma that arises from your own mind and contemplation is like an immense amount of water in an ocean.
But first, you have to rely on the wisdom of respectable teachers to motivate you as you don’t yet know how to cultivate your own. However, whether you gain something from them depends mainly on your meditation practice. If you have yet to gain concentration, your defilements will be overpowering.
It is like anaesthetising a patient before an operation: without anaesthesia, the patient will scream and move, making it difficult to perform the operation. But with anaesthesia, the patient will be unconscious and still, making it easy for the doctor to operate.
It is the same with contemplating Dhamma. If your defilements are still active, they will intervene after a short while of contemplation. They will obstruct, oppose, and trick you into thinking about something else. In order to gain substantial results from your cultivation of wisdom, you will first need to gain concentration (samādhi). It will then result in experiential wisdom (bhāvanā-maya-paññā).
As for the wisdom derived from listening to Dhamma talks or thinking, it does not require so much concentration.
Just as you’re listening to today’s Dhamma talk, it doesn’t require a lot of concentration. You just need to have enough concentration to focus on listening and you’ll gain some benefits from it. It won’t yet turn into experiential wisdom, which is gained through cultivation.
Experiential wisdom will arise from having gained concentration, or samādhi. You will have taken into consideration the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self characteristics that are inherent in forms, sounds, odours, tastes, and touch. You will have contemplated the nature of body, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness so consistently—your awareness becomes uninterrupted—to the point where these aggregates become interconnected and all encompassing.
It will be the same as how you might have noticed that all of the Buddha’s teachings are, in fact, interrelated.
The development of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) aligns with the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths, in turn, align with the three marks of existence (tilakkhana)—they all come together. You’ll understand and see how the pieces all come together to form a big picture. At the moment, you still see it as individual pieces, not yet together to form a larger whole.
But once you’ve gained samadhi and have kept contemplating, you’ll discern the big picture. You’ll appreciate it. All of the Buddha’s teachings—84,000 in total—lead to one thing: suffering and the cessation of suffering. It is not unlike water in the oceans: no matter how expansive the oceans may be, the water still tastes the same—salty. No matter how many teachings there are, they all point towards suffering and the cessation of suffering—the Four Noble Truths.
In the beginning, if you don’t yet know how to derive this wisdom, you have to rely on listening to Dhamma talks.
You’re very fortunate that you have all this equipment these days—to have listening devices that are easy and convenient to use. It is a matter of how you listen to the Dhamma talks. There are two ways: you can just hear but not understand them, like a ladle that sits in a pot of soup. Or you can listen and absorb the content like tasting soup with your tongue. You don’t need to understand everything, but you should understand some of it. If you don’t understand anything you’ve listened to, then it is useless.”
“Against the Defilements.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
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