“It is like eating. If you keep eating, one day you will get full. If you keep on practising, one day you will attain your goal.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

10 March 2023

“It is like eating. If you keep eating, one day you will get full. If you keep on practising, one day you will attain your goal.”

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Question: So when I stand up, will the separation last for a long time afterwards?

Than Ajahn: No. When you come out of samādhi, the separation: the body and the mind will rejoin. Then, you need to use wisdom to remind yourself that we are two different parts but we are together right now and we must not cling to this body because the body is only a temporary part of our life.

You should stick to the mind. Just to be aware. Just know.

Don’t have any desire to have anything to remain with you all the time, because it cannot.

Everything comes and goes. That’s the duty of wisdom.

When you come out of samādhi, you remind yourself that the mind is not the body, that one day the body will disappear. The mind will separate from the body forever and if you cling to the body, you will only create dukkha in the mind.

If you don’t want any dukkha then you will have to let it go.

You can find something fearful that causes you to have fear of death. Then, you have to let go of your body and that fear of death will disappear. That’s why you have to go into the forest to be alone, to find some place fearful, some place that might present you a life and death situation.

When you face something fearful like a tiger or a snake, then you can have a choice of clinging or letting go. If you cling then you will have dukkha. If you let go then you will have peace because the dukkha will disappear. Once you have let go then you know that it is better to let go of the body than to cling to it.

When you cling to the body, you’ll have dukkha. When you let go of the clinging, you’ll have peace of mind.

However, you will need to have samādhi first. When you don’t have samādhi, when you are faced with life and death situation, you are not able to stop your clinging. Your clinging will be stronger than your thought of letting go.

Even though your logic tells you to let go, the mind won’t listen because the mind is still driven by delusion. It still thinks that it is going to die with the body.

You need to have samādhi first, so that you can resist this clinging and can get rid of this clinging. When you are in samādhi, you are already rid of this clinging temporarily.

But when you come out of it, the clinging returns. Samādhi cannot destroy the clinging permanently. You need wisdom to tell the mind to let go of the clinging because by clinging you are only creating dukkha in your mind. If you don’t want dukkha, you have to let go.

I hope you will all meet your goal one day. If you all try hard enough, I think one day you will. Wherever there is a will, there is a way. It is like eating. If you keep eating, one day you will get full, right? If you keep on practising, one day you will attain your goal. As soon as you stop you will never reach your goal.

“Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, Jun 9, 2015”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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