“The development of insight”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

“The development of insight”

“…Insight means to perceive things as they are, not as how you think they are. For instance, the Buddha said that there is no self in the body, but we think there is a self in the body. We think that the body is “I,” “mine” or “myself.”

This is delusional; it is not the correct truth.

The truth is that the body is just a composition of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. You get these four elements from the food that you eat. The food you eat, like fruits, vegetables, and grains, comes from the earth. They have to have earth, water, fire (heat), and air.

They are the combination of these four elements, and when you ingest them into your body, they turn into 32 parts of the body. They become the hair of your head, hair of your body, skin, teeth, nails, and all the internal organs. This body is composed of the four elements. 

When this body stops functioning, these four elements disintegrate, going their separate ways. When this body dies, the first two things to leave are air (the wind element) and heat (the fire element). The body becomes cold.

The air is the smell that comes out of the body. Later on, the water element comes out of the body. Eventually the body will just be left with the hard part, the earth element, such as the skeleton and the skin that is all dried up. And when the body is left long enough, the body will decompose and return back to the earth.

This is the development of insight. You have to train your mind to think in this manner, in order to see that this body is not you. You are the one who is investigating the body.

The one who investigates and the one who is being investigated cannot be the same thing.

You are the mind, who is the one investigating the body.

The body is not the mind. The body and the mind are like twins, which join together at the time of conception in the womb, when the sperm and egg combine to form a body.

The mind that needs a new body comes along to take possession of that body.

The mind is the spirit that died from a previous life. It is just like our mind. When we die, our mind will separate from this body and seek a new one.

When there is conception in the womb, the mind will take possession of that particular new body. When you are born, the mind thinks that this mind is the body, and the body is the mind.

This is avijjā or delusion, not knowing the truth of the mind and body that they are two separate things. The mind is the controller of the body. The body is like a toy. The mind is like the owner of the toy, like the driver of a car. The car is the body, and the driver is the mind.

The problem is that the mind does not know this. The mind thinks that the body is itself, so whatever happens to the body affects the mind negatively.

The mind becomes sad and afraid. However, if you know that the body is not yourself, you can overcome this bad feeling. If you know something does not belong to you, you will not be affected by whatever happens to it.

If you know that a car is not yours, whatever happens to the car will not affect you. If you think the car belongs to you and something happens to it, you will be affected because of your delusion, your ignorance, and not knowing the truth. This is what is called insight.

We have to teach the mind the true story and have to keep reminding it at all time.

Whatever happens to the body, we should leave it alone.

We should not worry about it, because if you study the course of the body, you’ll know that the body will eventually get old, get sick and die. No matter how you feel about it, it will still happen.

Even if you are afraid of getting old, getting sick and dying, sickness and death will happen anyway.

If you know that it is not you, you will not be affected by whatever happens to the body.

This is on the intellectual level.

You have to raise it to another level, putting it to the test, subjecting the body to all sorts of hardship, like becoming a monk…”

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g