The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
8 February 2024
Question: After we’ve attained concentration, how should we practice vipassanā until we attain sotāpanna magga-phala?
Than Ajahn: You have to do concentration until you can concentrate all the time first. You have to be able to stop your mind from thinking all the time. If you still cannot stop your mind from thinking, you cannot direct your mind to think of vipassanā. So, you have to practice a lot of concentration until you can enter jhāna anytime, anywhere, and your mind can remain calm all the time, then you can direct your mind to think of vipassanā by thinking about aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā on your body.
Your first object of contemplation is your body:
(i) to contemplate that the body is impermanent;
(ii) it will hurt you if you cling to your body. If you don’t want to be hurt, then you should let go of your body;
(iii) you cannot control your body, you cannot cling to your body. So, you do those contemplation until you can let go of your body. Then, you become a sotāpanna—you know that ‘I’m no longer afraid of death.
I’m no longer attached to this body. I know this body is not me. I am the mind. The body is not me.’ This is what you have to do. But before you can do such contemplation, you have to be able to enter jhāna first, you have to have appanā-samādhi first.
Question: can we use other objects other than ānāpānasati and buddhanussati, like skeleton or kasiṇa?_
Than Ajahn: Yes, there are 40 different types of kammaṭṭhānas. You can choose the one that is suitable for you. Choose any method that can make your mind enter the fourth jhāna. That’s where you need to go first i.e. to make your mind enter the fourth jhāna to have upekkhā first. If you have no upekkhā or fourth jhāna, you cannot control your thoughts, you cannot tell your thought to think of aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā.
“Dhamma in English, Apr 22, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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