The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
2 March 2024
Question: What is craving for non-being?
Than Ajahn: Well, craving for non-being can be many levels. The common level (at our level) is ‘not to have things we don’t want to have’ such as we don’t want to lose things, we don’t want to lose our body.
You want to have the body—that’s craving for being; you don’t want to lose the body—that’s craving for non-being. So, when you don’t want to get old, get sick or die, this is craving for ‘non-being,’ the opposite of craving for ‘being.’ With craving for ‘being’ you want to be something, you want to become this and that.
Once you become this and that, you don’t want to lose it. Once you become a president, you don’t want to lose it. Once you become a prime minister, you don’t want to lose it. Once you become a wife, you don’t want to lose it, you don’t want to lose the status that you have.
You want to become the wife all the time; you want to become president all the time; you want to be alive all the time; you don’t want to die: these are all craving for ‘non-being’ at common level.
On the higher level, craving for non-being means you don’t want to have anything, you want to enter into arūpa-jhāna (not having anything)—this is also craving for non-being.
Craving for rūpa-jhāna is craving for being.
These are cravings on a higher level.
So, there are many levels of cravings. But for ordinary people, it usually means craving for the things we have, and once we have them, we don’t want to lose them.
Question: How not to have this craving for non-being?
Than Ajahn: Just let it be. If it’s gonna leave you, let it leave you. If it’s gonna die, let it die.
Live without the body. You’re not the body so you can live without the body.
“Dhamma in English, Apr 24, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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