The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
Seeking privacy and solitude is, therefore, very important for those practitioners who aim for liberation.
You'll waste your time by socialising with others as your mind will be focussed on other things—talking about worldly matters and sensual pleasures, making it difficult for your mind to calm down. If you're alone, there won't be as many distractions, and so it will consistently stick to the Dhamma. You'll be able to increasingly penetrate it, discerning even more clearly the four elements and the foulness of the body. That is, your awareness will be consistent and continuous.
You'll see the unattractiveness of one's body whenever you look at it. It will stick to your mind.
As soon as your mind is lured by the physical appeal, the clearly-developed Dhamma will counter it immediately. Therefore, there won't be any sexual craving and desire, for they can only exist in your mind by feeding off your thoughts about forms and beauty.
If you think that your body is you and belongs to you, it's like feeding to your own delusion (moha) and ignorance (avijjā)—to the blindness and illusion. Contemplating the truth—that your body is not self (anattā): not you or yours, and that it is merely made up of the four elements: earth, water, wind, and fire–will help eradicate these misapprehensions and blindness in your heart and mind. There is no other way.
The only way to rid yourself of these illusions is through developing your faculty of wisdom (vipassanā). However, it needs to go hand in hand with sam›dhi in order to maintain your practice. You first have to be mindful; your mind won't be calm without mindfulness.
Your defilements will be more overpowering when your mind isn't calm; they will distract you, leading you to think about worldly things, your children, your spouse, and your possessions and wealth. Your mind will get stuck thinking about them. The influence of defilements and delusions will only keep growing and lasting longer in order to keep their hold on you.
If your thoughts are in line with wisdom, they'll help loosen the grip of defilements and delusions, gradually cutting them down to nothing. Mindfulness, wisdom, and concentration are the three interrelated virtues of Dhamma; they are supported by conviction and effort (viriya). There need to be faith and conviction in the teachings of the Buddha. You have to put into practice what you've learnt with diligence and sustained effort.
So what does a practice entail? It entails a cultivation of mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. With these three virtues of Dhamma, liberation (vimutti) will surely follow. Such has been a tried and true method since the Buddha's time. Whoever uses and practises according to this method will surely reap good results. Otherwise, there won't be all these noble disciples who managed to attain enlightenment after the Buddha did until the present day.
This is because the Dhamma is timeless, that is, always relevant. It was applicable and effective then as it is still today. The only issue is that you don't put the time and effort into your practice. You might do it once a month and then complain about not making progress after five years. If that's the case, you can keep doing it at that rate for the next 100 years and still won't make any progress.”
“Essential Teachings”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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