“Everything in this world is like an addiction.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

“Everything in this world is like an addiction.”

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Question:  One thing about that which seems almost, I’m not going to say that it’s impossible but the fact that we live in a society and everywhere we look, it says, ‘Look here! Buy this and you’d feel better; achieve this and you’re going to feel great; get this car; get this promotion; buy these clothes; get these shoes; wear this watch; get these make-up; get the wrinkles off your face and you’re gonna feel great; you’ll feel better if you do this; everything will be great if you do this.’ And when you get them all the time, it seems like a difficult task to stop that thought process.

Than Ajahn:  That’s right but you don’t look at the other side of it; you only look at the side when you can get those things. 

What happens when you cannot get those things? You feel depressed; you feel sad; sometimes you feel like killing yourself and sometimes you do kill yourself because you cannot get what you want. So, that’s the problem: you don’t see the other half of it. And regardless of how much you acquired, did they bring any contentment or any sense of fulfilment? No, so you keep wanting for more and more.

This is like an addiction—everything in this world is like an addiction. Once you have it, you’ve got to have it all the time. 

When you no longer have it, you’ve got to keep refilling it, getting more of it and replacing whatever you lose; you’ve got to keep replacing it and keep acquiring it. But you’re going to come to a point when you are not able to do it anymore even if you are financially well off because your body won’t be able to do what your mind wants you to do. That’s why people are thinking about committing suicide when they are old. They’d say that there’s no point to live anymore because the body can no longer support their desires.

But if you do what the Buddha said, that you have to learn how to stop your mind from acquiring and you have to meditate to calm your mind, to stop your mind from desiring for things, then your mind won’t need to use the body to do anything. The mind can be happy just to be alone and do nothing; it can be happy that way. 

Look at the Buddha, if you study his biography, he was a prince but when he looked at the future of his body, he saw that he’s going to be an old man, a sick man and he’s going to die. 

Regardless of how much wealth he had, he wasn’t going to be able to enjoy them so he wanted to find something different and then he saw a monk. He understood that the monk was looking for a different kind of happiness, the happiness that he could find within himself, the happiness that arises from his meditation practice. So, the prince gave up his wealth, gave up his princely status and went to become a monk. And eventually, he found the happiness within himself; he’s always happy and he never went back to live in the palace; he continued to live as a monk in the forest. He lived a life of simplicity: just had one meal a day, stayed under a roof to protect him from the animals, and had only one set of robes. 

And yet, he was much happier than when he was in the palace.

So, if you want to get out of whatever problem you are in, I think this is a solution for you but it is not easy, because it’s like going against your nature; your nature is to keep acquiring things. In order to be happy, you have to have money; you have to have things; you have to be able to do what you want to do. 

But there will always be roadblock on your way so sometimes, you cannot get what you want; sometimes you lose what you have which causes you sadness, anger or bad feelings. If you choose the path of the Buddha, you’ll find that you’d become peaceful and the roadblock you have to overcome is your own desires, your own nature—the nature that you used to be that is to go after things.

Doing charity means giving up your wealth—don’t depend on your money to make you happy. 

If you can stop spending money, you can stop working; when you’re not working, you’ll have time to meditate. And if you know how to meditate correctly, you will succeed and you will find peace and happiness without having to have anything. So, that’s basically what the Buddha teaches Buddhists to do: to give up wealth by practicing charity; only keep what you need to maintain your life, maintain your body. You don’t use money to buy things to make you happy because no matter how much things you buy, you can only be happy briefly and you’ll end up buying more and more things, spending more and more money. When you need to spend a lot of money, you will have to go look for money; you have to work. And if you have to work, you won’t have time to meditate. So, you have to reverse the process—instead of making money, give your money away; stop using money to make you happy and go to temple and meditate to stop your desire. Once you can stop your desire, your mind will be happy.

“Dhamma in English, Oct 31, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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