The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
12 February 2024
Question: If we have upekkhā, does it mean that we don’t get involved in other people’s business, including our family and friends?
Than Ajahn: Well, there are two kinds of upekkhā:
(1) one kind of upekkhā is when you are in samādhi—when you’re in samādhi, you don’t get involved with anybody; when you meditate and your mind becomes calm, peaceful and upekkhā, you don’t get involved with anybody at that time;
(2) after you’ve come out of your meditation, when you can still maintain upekkhā, you can get involved with people without emotional force in your involvement.
You get involved with people without emotions involved. You have no prejudice towards those people that you are involved with. There are no such things, whether you like them or you hate them in your mind.
You deal with them on the basis of the fact itself. If the people you’re involved with need food, you give them food. If they need shelter, you find shelter for them. So, you can still get involved with other people, but you don’t have any emotional feelings attached to them. If you couldn’t help them, you wouldn’t feel bad because you’ve tried your best. This is how the mind would be like without any emotions: it can still deal with people and you do it without any love, hate, fear or delusion.
“Dhamma in English, Apr 22, 2019.”
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Layperson: Than Ajahn, when someone says something to us, it stops there. Anything that we take in, whether we get angry or we can let it go, they are all our own creation.
Than Ajahn: Right. The reaction is based on our own likes and dislikes.
When we like something, we feel good. When we dislike something, we feel bad. We react differently to different event. If we can get rid of our likes and dislikes, we will have no desire to react to it. We’ll have no reaction to whatever people say, emotionally.
Layperson: We used to blame others instead of looking into ourselves.
Than Ajahn: Right. You have to get rid of your likes and dislikes. And the way to do it is to have upekkhā. In order to have upekkhā, you have to practice a lot of meditation. The calmer your mind is, the more likes or dislikes disappear.
Layperson: Yes, I’ve learned to look at it now.
Than Ajahn: You have to look at what people do or say like the weather. You can’t control the weather, right? You can’t tell the rain to stop or fall. You can’t tell people to say good things or bad things, to do good things or bad things. You just watch them, just observe them.
That’s all. You just know what they do, but you don’t have any likes or dislikes about the things they do.
Layperson: Yes, I’ve seen it now. I know how to cut it off.
Than Ajahn: Right, just know it for what it is. Accept it for what it is.
Don’t have any desire for it to be different than what it is. Don’t try to change bananas into apples. Just accept bananas as bananas and apples as apples. Then, you’ll have no problems with things or people.
They come and go. The way to be able to do this is by having strong mindfulness.
Strong mindfulness will make your mind becomes neutral. It becomes upekkhā. So, develop a lot of mindfulness and sit in meditation.
Bring the mind to become still. Then, the mind will become neutral. It becomes upekkhā. There’s no love, no hatred, no fear, no delusion.
Layperson: That is when the mind doesn’t move at all, right?
Than Ajahn: It doesn’t think. It just knows what’s going on. It doesn’t react emotionally.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 21, 2018.”
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Question: I meditate a lot, sometimes many hours a day.
Sometimes I can be in a very blissful and bright state where there is very little thought arising and the mind feel "upekkhā like." Then all of a sudden, I enter into a negative mood and I’m unable to let go of it.
What do you recommend me to do then?
Than Ajahn: You have to use mindfulness to stop it. As soon as your mind starts going into negative direction, you pull it back by using mindfulness, either by using a mantra or something else. If you have strong mindfulness, you may not even need to have a mantra. You just tell it to stop or direct it to think the other way.
If you cannot stop it or let it think the other way, it means your mindfulness is not strong.
Then, you’ll need to use a mantra or other object to let your mind to concentrate on, to bring your mindfulness back.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 27, 2018.”
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Question: Sometimes I can bring a feeling of upekkhā into my heart when I want it. I would like to know that at the moment of my death whether I should bring that feeling of upekkhā and at the same time recite mentally ‘buddho, buddho’, in order to help me to have a good rebirth.
Than Ajahn: If you have upekkhā, you don’t need to use ‘buddho’. You use ‘buddho’ because you want to have upekkhā. If you can have upekkhā, then you will have a good birth after you die.
“Dhamma in English, Oct 27, 2016.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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