The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
28 September 2023
Question: I have a lot of problems at home with very bad anxiety. I just want some advice.
Than Ajahn: Okay, what are you anxious about? What causes your anxiety?
Question: I’m not sure. I just have a lot of sweating and am feeling sick to my stomach but I’m not quite sure what is the cause of this anxiety.
Than Ajahn: According to Buddhism, our anxiety is usually caused by the uncertainty of things in life.
The problem is we want certainty. But the truth is nothing is certain. So, what we have to do is to adapt our mind to the uncertainty of life. We have to embrace them, accept them, because if we don’t accept them, we’ll always be anxious, we’ll always be worried.
The Buddha said that we should study the truth of life.
According to the Buddha’s wisdom, he said that life is impermanent. Everything in life is not permanent.
Everything is in the state of changing. You cannot expect things to be the same all the time. So, you have to prepare yourself by teaching yourself that what they are today might not be the same tomorrow. If you can accept this truth, then you can adapt and adjust your mind accordingly.
When you adjust your mind to embrace the truth, then your mind will not be anxious. If you cannot do it yet, what you should first do is to try to still your mind, to lessen your thoughts about things by meditating, by concentrating your mind on one particular object such as your breath. If you sit down, just concentrate on watching your breath, so you can forget about other things. Keep focusing on your in and out breath. Just know when you’re breathing in, know when you’re breathing out. Just keep watching your breath and then you will stop thinking for a while.
When you stop thinking, you’ll find a sense of peace and serenity and you will realize that the problem is not what happens. The problem is your thoughts worrying about what’s going to happen. So, you just stop worrying, stop thinking and let things be. Let nature be.
Let the truth be.
There are things that we cannot do anything about. But they cannot hurt us mentally or emotionally. They could only hurt your body which is being subjected to this thing, regardless whether it will be good or bad.
Your body will eventually have to die. If you can accept this fact about things you don't like, then you can live with them. So, try to live with them.
The problem is we don’t want to live with things we don’t like. And the only way that we can force our mind to live with things we don’t like is by meditating.
When we meditate, we stop our reaction towards things we don’t like, and let the things we don’t like embrace us.
Layperson: Ok, thank you.
Than Ajahn: Do you understand what I said?
Layperson: Yeah.
Than Ajahn: Do you think you can do something about it?
Layperson: I think you are correct. I think I try to control everything.
Than Ajahn: Yes. Try to go along with things, flow with the events. Don’t try to control them all the time.
Control what you can control but stop controlling things that you cannot control.
Then, you’ll be ok. Alright?
Layperson: Thank you.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 25, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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