The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
Question: Before I study Buddhism, I thought I was humble and wasn’t arrogant. But the more I study and practice Buddhism, I realized that I am very arrogant and I like to compare myself to others and feel that I am more important than others. What is arrogance in Buddhism and how to deal with it?
Than Ajahn: Well, according to Buddhism, arrogance is the result of the mind’s delusion, the mind not knowing what itself is. So, it forms an impression of itself as a kind of being that is above other people because when the mind feels that it’s better than other people, it makes the mind feels good, so it wants to be better than other people. But this can be a problem because every being thinks the same way, hence, there will be constant conflicts and constant fights against other beings. This is the harmfulness of being arrogant i.e. you put yourself in trouble.
But if you think of yourself the other way, then you’ll get yourself out of trouble. If you think yourself as nobody, which is the real nature of the mind, then you’ll get yourself out of trouble.
You’re the mind. The real nature of the mind is ‘the one who knows’ or ‘the knowing’. But with the delusion in the mind, the mind thinks that it is a supreme being, it’s higher and better than other beings.
To get to the root of this delusion, you have to meditate. When you meditate, you stop your mind from thinking, from creating this perception of your self. When your mind becomes totally still, when there is no thinking, there is no sense of self within the mind, and then you realize that the sense of self is only self-created, it’s created by the mind, by the thoughts. And this kind of thinking of self will put you in a lot of trouble because you always want to become better than other people and you have to prove it that you’re better than other people or other beings.
You can get into fights with other people when they do not accept your supremacy because they think they are better than you, yet you think you’re better than them, and then each of you have to prove it by killing each other.
But if you change your attitude and say, ‘I’m nobody. I’m just a piece of rag that anybody can step upon,’ then you won’t run into any problems with anybody. You can live in peace and happiness. True peace and happiness is when you have no conflict with anybody. As soon as you have a conflict, you’ll never find peace because if you beat (defeat) someone else, then another person will defeat you because everyone wants to be the champ. If you’re the champion, then you have to keep protecting your championship, but in reality, you cannot protect it all the time because eventually, you’re going to get older and older. Look at all the champions. After they become champs for a few years, they have to lose their championships because somebody younger, stronger and better will come and take over their position.
So, if you don’t want to live a life of conflicts, if you don’t want to live a life of disappointment, then you should live according to who you really are: you are nobody. Live like a ‘nobody.’ Then, you’ll find peace and happiness within yourself.
“Dhamma in English, Apr 22, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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