The Teaching Of Ajahn Suchart
22 October 2023
Question: I find that I can watch the pain for quite a while. Even when the pain can be very strong, my mind is quite still but I can’t get to the point that I can see it through to where it just dissolves and disappears.
Than Ajahn: Because you still have desire toward those pains to disappear. Even though you can live with it but deep down inside, you still don’t want it. So, you have to change your attitude by looking at the truth, the nature of the pain itself. It is something that you have to live with as long as you have a body.
You have to understand this truth that you can never be rid of the pain. In order to be able to live without having any problem with your pain, you have to embrace it, accept it. It’s part of life, part of your existence, part of your being as long as you have a body.
The only way to have no more pain is by not having a body. You have to abandon all your cravings: craving for sensual gratification, craving for being and craving for non-being. Then, you will stop rebirth. Once there is no rebirth, then there will be no pain anymore.
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Question: It’s my understanding that the pain or discomfort that arises is like the saṅkhārā or past kamma that is coming to the surface. Is it the correct way to understand it?
Than Ajahn: Sometimes it is. Sometimes, it’s the present kamma that you’ve created on your own. When you feel uncomfortable, you react by your cravings, by wanting to get rid of that discomfort. When you cannot get rid of it, then you feel worse than before. But if you accept that sometimes you cannot get rid of your discomfort, that you just have to live with it, then you’re not creating additional discomfort in your mind.
And your mind can live with the discomfort.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 14, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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