“You can’t stop your thoughts and do vipassana at the same time because vipassanā needs to use thinking.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

29 August 2023

“You can’t stop your thoughts and do vipassana at the same time because vipassanā needs to use thinking.”

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Question: After doing samadhi, do we use vipassanā?

Than Ajahn: Vipassanā is the next stage. It’s a long way to go. 

First, try to develop mindfulness and get samādhi.

For some people, it might take years before they can have samādhi. So, don’t worry about vipassanā. You can do vipassana when you are not sitting in samādhi and when you are able to control your thought to think of vipassanā.

But it will not be effective if you don’t have samadhi.

Vipassanā is to teach your mind the truth about everything. 

Everything is impermanent. Like your money, your family, your houses, your jobs, etc. are impermanent. 

Sooner or later, things are going to end. They end when you die or before you die. So, you have to teach your mind to be prepared for it. 

If you are ready, if you can accept it, when it happens, it won’t cause you any sadness.

But if you’re not prepared for it, when it happens, it can cause you a lot of sadness to the point where you might want to kill yourself because you don’t know what to do without any money, without any job, and without your family.  If you think ahead of time and teach your mind that everything is impermanent, you then can learn to live by yourself. And if you know how to meditate, you can live by yourself without having to have anything.

So, don’t worry about vipassanā. First, try to stop your thoughts. You can’t stop your thoughts and do vipassana at the same time because vipassanā needs to use thinking. 

If you use your thought without samadhi, sometimes you may do vipassanā for a few minutes, then soon your mind will start daydreaming and thinking in the way of defilements, thinking in the direction opposite of vipassanā. So, it’s better that you are able to control your thought first before you do vipassanā.

Question: So, first is having sati (mindfulness), then samādhi, then vipassanā.

Than Ajahn: Yes.

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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