The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

16 March 2023

Question:  In order to obtain samādhi, is it a must to keep my mind being mindful of the breath at one point? 

Than Ajahn:  Yes, because if your mind keeps moving, then your mind cannot be still. So, your mind has to be fixed on one point. You can fix it at the tip of your nose or at your abdomen where you can watch your breath coming in and going out. At the abdomen, when the air goes in, the abdomen expands; when the air comes out, the abdomen collapses; so you can watch the expanding and collapsing of the abdomen as your point of focus if you don’t like to watch the breath at the tip of your nose. 

“Dhamma in English, Apr 24, 2019.”

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Question:  About the breath, do we have to focus at one point? 

Than Ajahn:  Yes. If you want to make your mind still, you have to focus at one point. If you keep moving, then the mind is moving and it will not become still. 

Question:  So, we don’t even observe the beginning of the breath until the end of the breath. The goal is to zoom in and focus at one point.

Than Ajahn:  That’s right. At one point only. 

Layperson:  That’s the hardest thing to do.

Than Ajahn:  What’s so hard about it? 

It’s nothing. Just watch. It’s like trying threading the needle, you have to be focused and your hands must be still. 

In order to get into jhāna, it’s like threading the needle, you need concentration. Your hands can’t be shaky. If your hands are shaky, you can’t do it. 

Layperson:  So, in the beginning, I can calm down my mind by following the breath, knowing the in-and-out breath, and eventually my goal is to focus at one point.

Than Ajahn:  Just focus at one point where the breath comes into contact with the body which is at the tip of the nose. 

Layperson:  I tried to focus but it moves around.

Than Ajahn:  That’s right, it’s because your mind likes to move around. And you don’t have strong enough mindfulness to stop it from moving. 

That’s why you have to keep forcing your mind to stay at one point long before you start your meditation session such as by keep reciting a mantra or forcing it to stick with what your body is doing. It takes patience and persistence to develop mindfulness. When you read about it, it seems easy, but when you start to practice, then you know how hard it is. 

Layperson:  Thank you.  

“Dhamma in English, Jul 6, 2021.”

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Question:  Is it realistic for the lay practitioner to achieve the first jhāna in the day to day meditation practice?

Than Ajahn:  It depends on the strength of your mindfulness. If you have strong mindfulness, you can have jhāna. If you don’t have strong mindfulness, you don’t have jhāna. 

Some people have strong mindfulness and they could have jhāna anytime, anywhere. They don’t have to become monks. Some monks have no strong mindfulness, so they could not have jhāna even though they have all the time to develop mindfulness, but if their mindfulness were strong enough, they could have jhāna. 

Jhāna is the ability to concentrate on one object, not to let your mind think about other things. It’s like when you try to put a thread through the needle hole. You need to have a still hands, and not a wobbly hands. If your hands are shaky, you can’t get the thread into the needle hole. It’s the same thing with your mind. In order to enter jhāna, your mind has to be steady. It has to be fixed on one object, like watching your breathing and not thinking about any other things. When you think, your mind starts to shake and it cannot enter jhāna. 

You need strong mindfulness to keep your mind still. Some people have that, maybe from previous lives. So, when they meditate, they can get the mind to become calm easily, quickly. 

Some people don’t have mindfulness, so they struggle when they sit, because when they sit, they start to think about this and that, and then come back to the object of the meditation for a few seconds. Then, they go and think about this and that again. So, this way they’ll never be able to get the mind to become still, become calm, to enter jhāna.

Thus, you need to develop mindfulness. You can do this all the time from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Just focus on whatever you do. Don’t go and think about other things while you’re doing something with your body. If you’re walking, just watch your walking. If you’re eating, just watch your eating. 

Just watch your bodily activities. 

Don’t think about other things at the same time. 

We tend to do two things at the same time. 

When we are eating, we plan about what we’re gonna do next, or where we’re going to go later. This is not mindfulness. If you have mindfulness, when you’re eating, then you only eat. The mind will only think about what you’re doing at the moment. Watch what the body is doing at the moment. Do not go thinking about some other things. 

So, if you want to succeed in meditation, you first have to develop mindfulness: strong and continuous mindfulness. From the time you get up to the time you go to sleep, focus on your body activities. If you have to think about what you do, then just focus on what you have to do. 

If you think about what you’re doing, it is Okay because you’re still watching your body. 

But if you think about some other things, then it’s not okay because your mind has gone away. 

You want to bring it back to the present, to what’s happening right now. 

When you work, you have to concentrate on your work. If you have to think about your work, then you have to be mindful of your thinking, not thinking about any other things. 

But it’s best not to think. So, it’s best not to work, because when you work, you still have to think. When you work, you have to think about what to do about your work. So, it’s better not to work if you can afford it. When you don’t work, you have all the time to stop your mind from thinking because there is no reason to think. Then, when your mind starts thinking, you can stop it by concentrating on what you are doing.

If you cannot stop it by concentrating on watching what you’re doing, then you use a mantra, like repeating the name of the Buddha, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ When you recite the mantra, then you cannot think about what you want to think. The goal of having mindfulness is to have the ability to be able to control your thoughts, to stop your thoughts. 

Right now, your thought is like a runaway car; you cannot stop it. You have to get on the car and apply the brake. Right now, your thought just keeps thinking. You are thinking all the time. So, you have to apply the brake to your thought by using mindfulness. If you have strong mindfulness, you don’t need a mantra. 

You don’t need to focus on your body activities. You can just have your mind stop thinking and it will stop. It’s a matter of how long you can stop it. 

You may stop it momentarily. Then, when you forget, it starts to think again. So, you have to keep stopping it because if you cannot stop your mind from thinking, your mind cannot be calm, cannot enter jhāna.

“Dhamma in English, Jan 20, 2017.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  What does Buddhism say about racism? 

Than Ajahn:  Buddhism says that everybody is the same regardless of your race. Whether you’re black, white, blue or green, it doesn’t matter because we are all the same as far as the mind is concerned. We all have the mind which are all the same. The mind is us, the mind is not the body. The body is just our instrument, like our automobiles. We can have different types of automobiles to drive but the drivers are all the same. The driver of the body which is the mind is all the same; it has no race, no colour, nothing. 

So, to be racist is to be ignorant, to be misguided. 

“Dhamma in English, May 28, 2019.”

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Question:  What is the consequences of hatred?

Than Ajahn:  You will have a lot of enemies. You’ll have no friends. When you hate people, you don’t build friendship. You create enemies. The Buddha said that you need to have mettā (loving-kindness) because mettā will make you have lots of friends. The Buddha said someone who has mettā is being loved by humans and non-humans; he’s always happy whether he is awake or sleeping; when he dreams, he has no bad dreams; he would not be hurt by weapons or by poison because no one would hurt him since he has no enemies; when he dies, he goes to the heavenly realm. This is the consequence of having loving-kindness.  The consequence of hatred is the opposite. You would be hated by humans and non-humans. 

You would be unhappy whether you’re awake or asleep. You’ll have bad dreams and could be killed by weapons or poison. You would go to hell after you die.

Question:   What about if you direct the hate toward your husband? 

Than Ajahn:  Get a divorce. (Laugh!). The other part is about getting rid of the hatred: she should look at the positive side of the person that she hates because people have good and bad qualities. Sometimes, a few bad things the person does can make you forget about all the good things that person had done. For example, sometimes you hate your father and mother simply because they wouldn’t let you marry the woman you love. But if you look at how much they have done for you from the time you were conceived in the womb, how they brought you out to this world and raised you, supported you, sent you to school, if you look at all the good things that they have done for you, then these small things you dislike about them will appear meaningless. So, you could overcome your hatred that way. Sometimes you just focus on the little bad thing of the persons, and you forget all the good things that they had done for you. 

Maybe this person hates her husband because he might do something she didn’t like and she hates him for that. That is only one minor thing. Tell her to look at the good things: the happiness they had together, the things that they did together, or did for each other. 

Sometimes you have to ignore minor things, the things that you cannot control, because people have their own little quirky ways of doing things. So, you just accept them for what they are. 

Like when you buy fruits in the market, some of the fruits might have something on the peel, so what? 

Just get rid of that part, then you still have the whole fruit that you can eat it. Don’t throw the whole fruit away, right?

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Question:  As a human being, how do you control your emotion or your first reaction toward things?

Than Ajahn:  You need to develop mindfulness. Mindfulness is the regulator of the mind. If you have mindfulness, you can control your mind, your emotion. So, you have to learn to develop mindfulness. 

Now you have mindfulness but not total mindfulness. You can control some part of your mind, but you still cannot control the other part of your mind. Thus, you need to develop mindfulness. The way to develop mindfulness is to focus your mind on one particular object, like reciting a mantra. Recite a mantra mentally, right from the moment you get up. 

When you’ve just gotten up, usually you don’t have to think about anything, all you have to do is get ready to go to work. So during that time, try to develop mindfulness by reciting the mantra as you go about doing whatever you’re doing.

Or you can focus your attention on your physical activity such as washing dishes, washing your face, brushing your teeth, getting dressed. Whatever you do, just watch the body. Don’t let your mind go and think about other things. This is controlling the mind. The mind likes to go and think about this and that all the time and you’re not controlling it, you let it go. So, by the time you want to bring it back, it won’t come back. Therefore, you should not let it go. Like a dog, you should have a leash and tie it to the leash, then it cannot go away. Mindfulness is like the leash of the mind. It will control your mind. It will tell your mind to stop. When the mind gets angry, you can stop it. When the mind gets jealous, you can stop it, just by reciting the mantra.

For instance, if somebody says something bad about you or critize you and then you get angry, all you have to do is recite the mantra ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’, and don’t think about the thing that you heard. 

Once you forget about what the person said, your anger disappears. It also works with other things, like fear. When you’re in a place where you feel scared, just recite the mantra. When you don’t think about the thing that makes you feel fearful, then the fear would disappear. This is the first step of controlling the mind but it is only a temporary measure, not a permanent fix. 

If you want a permanent fix, you will have to use wisdom or insight. You have to look at the problem and analyze it. You’ll find that all your problems arise from your desire. Like criticism. 

Because you have the desire not to have people criticize you, so when they criticize you, it becomes a problem. Thus, all you have to do is stop your desire for not wanting people to criticize you. The reason why you do so is because you cannot tell people not to criticize you. 

So, you have to accept what other people do or say because you cannot control them. 

But you can control your mind. You can tell your mind to accept the truth. When people critise you, this is the truth or the fact that happens. Once it happens, you have to accept it and do not try to get rid of it. If you try to get rid of it, you’ll become stressful. If you accept it, you’ll become comfortable. ‘OK, do you want to criticize me? Go ahead. I’m willing to listen to it.’ 

What’s so bad about criticism? It’s just sound that comes to your ears, just like the sound of lightning, the sound of birds, or the sound of wind. They are all sounds. So, what’s wrong with that? Since you cannot prevent it or stop it, you just have to let it be. Just listen to it and eventually it will stop because everything is impermanent.

Sometimes, what people have said has already disappeared, like they said something this morning but you are still thinking and angry about it in the afternoon! If you have mindfulness, you can just shove it out of your mind by using a mantra. Or if you have strong mindfulness, you don’t even need a mantra. Mantra is only used to strengthen your mindfulness. If you don’t have the strength to stop whatever your mind is attached to, then you will need a mantra to pull it away from the object that you’re being attached to. 

Question:  In order to have wisdom, do we always have to be in equanimous state? 

Than Ajahn:  To have wisdom is to bring your mind back to equanimity. When your mind starts to get out of equanimity, starts to have likes and dislikes, then you have to tell the mind, ‘This is dangerous, because what you like is impermanent. It’s going to disappear. When it disappears, it will make you sad and unhappy.’ And it’s the same way with things you dislike. They are not under your control. You cannot tell them to go away or to stop. So, it’s better to bring your mind back to equanimity by not having any desire towards these objects of your like or dislike. When you have no desire, then your mind will fall back to equanimity. When you have desire, your mind has already got out of equanimity. It has started to go to the prejudiced side of the mind: like or dislike, fear or delusion.

“Dhamma in English, Apr 3, 2017.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

From The Miracle of the Training. Translated from Thai by Luang Pu Baen's students from Wat Doi

From The Miracle of the Training. Translated from Thai by Luang Pu Baen's students from Wat Doi 

Why did we have to sweep until dark? 

If the sweeping doesn’t get finished, it’s not good. During walking meditation or sitting meditation, it will be the same - cluttered. Even while asleep, dreaming will have a characteristic of being messy and cluttered. 

....

The sweeping is a measuring tool which speaks about the monks and novices. It is an indicator for every monastery and every place. 

The sweeping is telling us things. 

Everything connected with our practice and training, even the foot wiping rags, is speaking to us. There is no need to closely scrutinize anything. Just look into things deeply and they speak as they are. 

A dead person can’t do anything, because there is no longer a consciousness to act as an animating force to do this or that. Such is the function of the heart. So I urge you all to give great importance to, and be very respectful of, the sweeping. 

Don’t cling to the idea, “I don’t know why we sweep. Having swept, it just gets dirty again.”

Yesterday there was a lot of wind, and I think there’ll be a lot of leaves. We will sweep for two hours, beginning at two p. m. and going until four p. m. 

Then it will be time to bathe.  

This gives rise to various reflections. 

I’ve been sweeping here for fifty years, so I sometimes ponder on that whole time. Since the age of twenty-five I’ve stayed here, sweeping and practicing. Half a century - that’s not a short period of time - and I am still doing this sweeping. 

The thought occurred to me, “Am I still doing this?” A sense of great spiritual sadness^1 arose within me. 

Indeed, I became overwhelmed with sadness. 

If I was one who cries easily, tears would be flowing right now. 

Why is that? The mind was weary of everything, seeing that there is no end within the world. There is no one who can escape birth and death. Even from the cycles of eating and excreting there is no escape. There’s no end to it. These things have no end point and repeat endlessly. They are very old.   

Think about the weariness that the Buddha experienced, then think about those monks  who renounced their very lives due to that same weariness. 

Seeing thus, there is nothing worth having. 

They were weary of things that happen again and again, weary of waste, weary of death. 

We are pleased only with things that die. It’s like this. Seeing thus, a dead person has no ability to do anything, just like a tree stump has no ability to do anything. Earth, water, air and fire have no ability to do anything in and of themselves. 

All action comes from the heart. The heart is just that way, so the time to act is now. As to sweeping, I’ve spoken clearly for you. Having completed the task, the fruits will appear. The heart will be the one who partakes of the fruit of its own actions.

~ Luang Pu Baen Dhanākaro

16 November, 2002

~~~

^1. Spiritual sadness: The Thai word is “Salot-sang-wait” which means “Spiritual sadness” or a “Sense of spiritual urgency.” It comes from the Pali word samvega, which refers to an urgent need to practice.  

~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“It is not the physical pain that you are not able to withstand, it is the mental pain that arises from the desire to get rid of your physical pain.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

2 May 2024

“It is not the physical pain that you are not able to withstand, it is the mental pain that arises from the desire to get rid of your physical pain.”

Monk:  Last night we had a chanting, all of the monks participated in the chanting and there were parts of it when we sat in meditation. In such situation where we are all new to meditation and to sitting through the night, there will be intense pain. During such period of intense pain, how do we deal with it such that we can see that the pain is not me, not mine?

Than Ajahn:  The way to deal with physical pain depends on our ability. There are two ways to deal with physical pain. The first method is easier than the second one. 

The first method is to ignore the pain by concentrating your mind on one object, like repeating a mantra, ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’, in order to prevent your mind from thinking of the pain. If you think of the pain, then your kilesa will arise, and your desire will want to get rid of the pain or want the pain to go away. When you have this desire you are actually creating more pain. The pain that you created is in the mind itself and it is a lot stronger than the physical pain. You can prevent this or avoid this if you use the mantra, by constantly reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ and never let the mind ever think of the physical pain. 

If you can concentrate on reciting the mantra, maybe after a few minutes, the pain will subside or maybe it will disappear. This is the easy method, but a temporary method, because as soon as you stop reciting, or as soon as you start thinking of the pain, then you can also create more pain again. 

The second method which is the way of wisdom, is to look at the pain. First, you have to separate the mind from the body and then you can separate the pain from your mind, because the pain arises from the body. It is the body that is painful, it is not the mind. 

The mind is just someone watching the pain of the body, but due to the mind's delusion, it thinks that it is the body itself, so when it thinks that it is the body, when the body becomes painful, it thinks that it is in pain itself. In fact the mind is not the one who is experiencing the pain. The mind is someone who is just watching the pain of the body, so if you can separate the mind from the body, then you can separate the pain from the mind also, then you can just leave the pain alone. 

If you have any desire for the pain to disappear, you are creating more pain to the point that you will not able to withstand that pain. If you can keep the mind calm and peaceful and not create any desire for the pain to disappear then the mind will be able to withstand the pain of the body. So this is the second method, to look at the body as anattā. It is not the mind who is in pain, it is the body that is in pain, so the mind doesn’t have to be afraid of the pain of the body, because the mind has no pain. But due to delusion, the mind thinks that the body is itself.

When the mind thinks that the body is the mind itself, when the body is in pain the mind thinks that it itself is in pain. When it thinks that it is in pain, it wants to get rid of that pain, then it has this desire. 

When this desire arises, it is creating more pain, and this time the pain is in the mind, which is more intense than the physical pain and as a result you will not be able to withstand the physical pain. 

It is not the physical pain that you are not able to withstand, it is the mental pain that arises from the desire to get rid of your physical pain. You must somehow stop creating this desire to get rid of the physical pain, by accepting it, by living with it. 

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

Universal Loving Kindness by Luang Phor Sumedho

Universal Loving Kindness
by Luang Phor Sumedho

..Metta, loving kindness, is an all-inclusive practice. Although liberation comes through letting go of our attachment to the conditioned world, if we concentrate on this alone we may develop an attitude which is excluding, almost annihilistic. The tendency will be to see conditions solely in terms of not being attached to them, or even trying to get rid of them. But with metta, we are relating to all conditioned experience with an attitude of kindness, accepting things as they are. 

Consider what this does to the mind as a practice. We contemplate all phenomena, all sentient beings, in terms of loving-kindness rather than in terms of which is best, which is worst, what we like, what we don’t like.

... Metta is non-discriminatory. It doesn't mean liking one thing rather than another, it isn't a question of singling out: "I love this person, I don't love that one." Ours is a highly critical society. We are brought up to emphasise what's wrong with ourselves, our family and friends, the government, the country, the world at large - and so we become very conscious of the negative. We see the fault in people or things and become obsessed with that, and are no longer able to see what's right about them. In practising metta, however, we deliberately avoid clinging to faults and weaknesses. We're not blind to them, we're not promoting them, rather we maintain an attitude of kindness and patience towards defects in ourselves and others.

... In contemplating the law of kamma, we realise that it is not a matter of seeking revenge but of practising metta and forgiveness, for the victimiser is, truly, the most unfortunate of all. 

There is a justice in the world. If we do wrong we may not be discovered and punished by society, but we don't get away with things. We must be reborn again and again until we do resolve our kamma. We don't know how many lifetimes we have had so far, but here we are in this incarnation, with our own particular character and kammic tendencies. We have had the good fortune to come across the Dhamma, and so we have been given great gifts with which to resolve things. But how many people have such opportunities? Considering the billions who now live on this planet, there really are very few who have that chance.

... The urge to seek revenge is a common human reaction, but in terms of the law of kamma we can contemplate it and ask, "Is that really how I want to conduct my life? Isn't it better to forgive and to develop compassion towards all sentient beings, demonic, angelic, whatever they may be?"

Generosity is, of itself, better than mean-heartedness. There is a joyfulness to it, for sharing brings gladness into our lives.

... Where we can get confused is that we have idealistic concepts of what we should be: "I shouldn't want to get my own back, I shouldn't have vengeful feelings for victimisers. Ajahn Sumedho says I should have metta for them!" Then we might feel, "No, I can't, it's too hard. I can have metta for everyone else, but not that person. He's totally hateful." But we can have metta for that very feeling - an attitude of kindness rather than criticism. We know it for what it is, we don't indulge it or repress it, we are simply patient with that particular state as it is in the present moment.

o o o 0 o o o

... The basic pattern of Theravadan Buddhist practice is dana, sila, bhavana - generosity, morality and meditation. Dana means simply to be a generous person, not selfish, able to share what one has with others; that is the basis for being a good human being. Generosity is highly developed in countries such as Thailand, and in general Thai people like themselves rather than hating themselves, as many of us do in the West. Generosity is, of itself, better than mean-heartedness. There is a joyfulness to it, for sharing brings gladness into our lives. With sila, morality, there are precepts to be kept, actions to refrain from; as we practise this we learn to take responsibility for our actions and speech. The two together, dana and sila, bring us a sense of self-respect. Then there is meditation, bhavana, through which we begin to relinquish all the delusions we have about 'self'. The whole process is one of purification.

... So as we meditate, we can even be glad when unpleasant states keep coming up! By having metta for these wretched creatures we lock away inside us, we're opening the door of the prison. We're letting them go, but it's out of compassion rather than the desire to be rid of them. If we contemplate it in this way, these things can be borne, because we are looking at them with wisdom, rather than seeing them as 'me' and 'my problems'. As long as they are 'mine', I can only hate myself for thinking or feeling that way.

... We are not trying to say it's something it is not, but with metta we allow it to be. We're willing to be with it and, as its nature is impermanent, it does not stay. In that willingness to let things be what they are we liberate ourselves from them. What is more, as we become increasingly skilful at releasing these habits, there is a sense of lightness, because the heart isn't burdened by guilt, dislike, blame and all the rest.

... In the Western world, especially, it is very important to develop this attitude of patience and non-aversion to everything about ourselves: our fears and desires, our emotional habits, our sicknesses, our physical aches and pains; to all the mental and physical phenomena we experience; to arthritis, cancer, crumbling bones, old age, all the rest of it. This doesn't mean we don't try to heal the body. To do so comes quite naturally, and we do the best we can. 

Trying to make the body feel well can be a loving-kindness towards it. But to hate the body because it's sick or painful or old leads to misery, and is an obstruction to spiritual development.

.. Practice is always in the present. Noting our experience, seeing it clearly, is in the present; we begin where we are now. We need to trust more in liberation in the present.

... By reminding ourselves to have metta for the feelings we experience – not thinking about them or analysing them but going to the place in the body itself, to the mental quality, really embracing that - really being willing to feel those particular emotions, they become bearable. 

By changing our attitude to one of acceptance rather than of rejection, to interest, rather than just wanting to get rid of them, we find that they are things we can tolerate. Then they cease on their own, for all conditions are impermanent.

... It is question of changing our attitude from, "I don't like this in myself, I want to get rid of it", to, "Oh, so this is what I'm feeling..." and having patience and a willingness to experience what is, in the present moment. This willingness to feel jealousy or anxiety enables us to take an interest in it as experience - because that which is aware is not worried, is not angry, is not the condition that is present. We start to develop confidence in this state of pure awareness. 

Through that patient attitude the conditioned realm stops being an endless struggle to control or get rid of things. More and more there is a sense of resting in the silence of the mind in that pure state of being in the present.

... In terms of Dhamma, it isn't a question of justifying our own weaknesses, it isn't some kind of cop-out. 

It is understanding that this is the nature of humanity, it is how things are. We are not ideals. Ideals are static, pure, unchanging, and yet we hold to them as how things should be, and despise ourselves because we can't be an ideal! But when we contemplate ourselves in terms of Dhamma we see that the body, the feelings, the consciousness, are constantly changing. We have so many things to deal with: first there are the instinctual drives of our basic animal nature - the need for food, for survival, and so forth - then our whole emotional range, and all the different things that have happened to us or that we've done. We tend to be so involved with life and to interpret it all in a very personal way. Sexual desire, for instance, becomes a personal problem rather than a natural energy which comes simply from having a body.

... But the natural state of the body is not that of some cold, sculpted piece of marble that holds its beauty under all conditions. It's soft, with blood coursing through it, it has nerves and various bodily functions, and we have to live with it. We have to bear the changing and ageing of this body and of the world around us. That is why meditating on impermanence helps us to break out of the assumption that somehow things should be fixed in an ideal state.

... Through seeing the impermanence in things, understanding that in this realm there can be no such thing as perfection, we begin to realise we don't have to waste our time on trying to control life, to force it to fit our fixed ideas. To attempt to do that is exhausting and debilitating. 

When we realise there is no need to do it, and begin to have this sense of flowing with life, then we feel, 

"This is my path, these conditions I experience are my kamma, and I'll work with them", rather than thinking, "Oh these conditions shouldn't be happening, I shouldn't have them. They're an obstruction to my path."

From Forest Sangha Newsletter, 

October 1997, Number 42

December 24, 2004

🙏 Anumodana: Kalyanamitta's photos

A story of Love...

 A story of Love...

Ánanda was the cousin of the Buddha. One day he was going on the alms round. He stopped at a well because he was thirsty in order to ask for some water. Sitting by the well was a young woman called Matanga. She belonged to the Dalit class, the untouchable caste. The higher castes would not touch her or come near to her on the path because they thought she would pollute them. When the higher castes are going on the road and they see an untouchable, the Dalit keeps away so not to be beaten because the higher castes don't want to be polluted. And when Ánanda asked for water, she said, "No, I can't give it to you because I am an untouchable and it will pollute you." And Ánanda said, "In our teaching, there is not a caste division and the Buddha has told us that we are all equal, and therefore you can give me water, I won't be polluted, so don't be afraid." Matanga was very happy. She lifted the water with a ladle and gave it to him to drink. He joined his palms and thanked her and went home. But after that Matanga started to fall in love with him. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat, because she kept seeing Ánanda, how beautiful, how good, how kind he was. Matanga was very beautiful. Her father had passed away she lived with her mother. And when her mother saw she couldn't sleep or eat for many weeks, she asked why. The girl wept and said because she is always thinking about Ánanda. And because the mother loved her daughter very much, she did her best to help her daughter. So they decided together to invite Ánanda to come and to make offerings to him. And one day they met Ánanda as he was going on the alms round, and they invited him to come to them so they could make offerings. And when he came into the house, they gave him a bowl of tea. But that tea was made of a kind of herb, which would take away our clarity when we drank it. 

And if we lack our clarity, we can do things we don't want to do. 

When Ánanda had drunk this tea, he felt he had made a mistake and he didn't know how he was going to put it right. When he saw what had happened, he knew that he had to practice. So he didn't say anything, he didn't do anything. He sat in the cross-legged position, and he began to follow the practice of following his breathing because he knew he was in a very dangerous position. And the Buddha was in the Jeta Grove and wondered why Ánanda had not returned. So he ordered two other monks to go and look for Ánanda. 

And the other two monks were able to find Ánanda sitting in meditation in the house of Matanga. They led him back to the Jeta Grove Monastery. And they saw Matanga weeping so they also brought her back to the monastery. When Ánanda came back to the monastery the effect of the tea was already wearing off, and he prostrated to the Buddha, and he thanked the Buddha for sending the two monks to send him back because it could have been very dangerous if they hadn't. And then Matanga came in, and the Buddha asked Matanga to sit down. And he said, "Do you love Ánanda so much?" And Matanga said, "Yes, I love him very much." And Buddha said, "What do you love in Ánanda? Do you love his eyes or his nose?" "I love his eyes, I love his nose, I love his ears, I love his mouth, I love everything. Everything to do with Ánanda, I love. I think I cannot live if I don't have Ánanda." She was a very beautiful girl although she belonged to the untouchable caste. She was quite naive too; she was about 18 or 19 years old. The Buddha said, "There are many things in Ánanda which you have not seen and which you would love even more if you could see them." And she said, "What?" And Buddha smiled and said, "Like Ánanda's love, like Ánanda's bodhicitta. All you've seen is eyes, nose, ears, mouth. As a young man, he has given up his life in a wealthy family in order to become a monk, with the aim of helping many people. 

Ánanda could never be happy with one or two people because that happiness is so small. That is why he became a monk. He wants to be able to help many, many people. He has a mind of great equality. He wants to love, but not love one person. He wants to love thousands and thousands of people. And that bodhicitta of Ánanda is very beautiful; if only you could see it you would love Ánanda even more. And once you had seen that you wouldn't want to make Ánanda your own anymore. You would respect Ánanda, and you would do everything you could to help Ánanda realize his deep aspiration as a monk, to help him realize the bodhicitta. Ánanda is like a cool breeze in the air, and if you love that cool breeze in the air and you want to put it into a small box and put the lid on and turn the key, then you will not have that cool breeze in the air anymore. Ánanda is like a cloud floating in the sky, the blue sky, very beautiful. 

If you want to catch that cloud and put it in a box and turn the key, then you will kill Ánanda, because you have only seen the things about Ánanda, which are not the most beautiful things. You have not seen the most beautiful things about Ánanda. If you were to see them you would love him more, and you would love him in a way, which would help him be Ánanda, just as you can help a cloud be a cloud floating in the beautiful blue sky. Don't think that Ánanda is the only one who has that beautiful aspiration. You are the same. You have that beauty too. You can also live like Ánanda if you really love Ánanda and you are able to see the bodhicitta of Ánanda. You will be able to return to yourself and see you have the bodhicitta in yourself, and you can vow to Ánanda that you will live in such a way not just to make one person happy but to make many people happy."

When Matanga heard that, she was very surprised. She said, "I don't have any worth. I belong to the lowest caste. I cannot make anybody happy." He said, "Yes, you have already done it. 

You already have that beautiful, good and true in yourself. Everyone has that. And if we return, and we are able to be in touch with that basic goodness, truth and beauty in ourselves we will have faith in it, and we will know that we can make happiness for many people." And when she heard that, she said, "Is that really so? Can I really do the same as Ánanda? Can I really leave the family life, become a nun and help thousands of people like Ánanda?" And the Buddha said, "Yes, why not? If you can be in touch with the true, good and beautiful in you, and you give rise to the bodhicitta you will be like Ánanda, you will be able to do like Ánanda and bring happiness to many people. " Her insight was opened by the Buddha, and she touched the earth before the Buddha, and she asked to become a nun under a Bhiksunis so that she could do like Ánanda, so that her love could open up and become wide, become measureless. From then on Matanga was accepted into the Bhiksunis Sangha which was led by Maha Gautami

SlMPLY THIS MOMENT! By AJAHN BRAHMA

SlMPLY THIS MOMENT! By AJAHN BRAHMA 

“If you know the mind is conditioned, why not condition it in a wise way to create happiness? If it’s a mobile phone you have two choices. You can say, “That’s a very beautiful sound, it’s very musical, not like the old phones, ‘ring, ring, ring, ring’. At least it’s got a bit of style these days”. 

Or you can say, “We shouldn’t have mobile phones in here. Who did that? 

I’m going to talk to them afterwards. 

We should excommunicate them from the Buddhist Society. We are never going to let them come in again”. Now, which response do you want to take? 

Can you see how we condition ourselves? Once we know how conditioning works we can condition ourselves into forgiveness and happiness. One of the first things we can do is say, “Well, I’ve got a choice. 

I can develop the positive conditioning or the negative conditioning. I can look at a person and see their good qualities or I can look into them and see their bad qualities. Both are there”. I have conditioned myself over the many years that I have been monk, to see the good qualities in people, so much so that some people tell me off saying that I should be a bit more critical. But I cannot do that now. The conditioning is too strong. People in the Monastery, or the monks I live with, sometimes do wrong things. 

The other day, while I was away, there was a bit of discussion and bad feeling about a decision to do with the books in our monastery. I 158 talked with one of the people – who felt quite hurt afterwards – and I said, “Look, I can’t get hurt by any of the monks in this monastery. They are all such kind, good people. 

We know that everyone is not Enlightened and that we’ve all got bad qualities as well”. I was being absolutely honest. I can't get angry at any of the monks in the monastery, no matter what they do, because 

I see too many good things about them. Even people who come here to the Buddhist Centre, no matter what you do, you have so many good qualities in each one of you. 

That’s the way my conditioning works now. When you perceive the good in a person it’s impossible to get angry or upset with them. You are all my friends and if I look at you that way it’s very hard to see anything else. If you do something to try and hurt me, I’d say, “No, no, I remember all the good things you’ve done.” Why is it that if a person says something to upset you, that’s all you remember? You never remember all the kind things they’ve done for you, all the kind words they’ve said to you. I’m the other way. 

I forget all the rotten things people have said about me and only remember the kind things. 

Which one is truer? They are both equally wrong. 

But I choose the one that is wrong and happy. It’s interesting that this type of conditioning – seeing the positive, seeing the happiness, the positive in yourself, the happiness in life, the happiness in other people – is also the path that leads to de conditioning and the unconditioned, to seeing things clearly. When you develop happiness in your life – getting rid of negativity and ill will towards oneself and others – it gives you enough time to be at peace. To be at peace means to let go of desires. Once you’re satisfied for the time being, then you have a chance to let go of desires and be at peace. This is the path that the Buddha taught. By having a positive attitude to life, by developing the happiness of the mind, the mind becomes peaceful and tranquil. From that tranquillity, when cravings and desires are temporarily subdued, you start to get clarity of the mind – not seeing things as you want to see them but as they truly are. You can only do this when you start from a position of ease and happiness.”

Source: CONDITIONED REALITY

Extract from SlMPLY THIS MOMENT! By AJAHN BRAHM

https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Simply-This-Moment.pdf

"Your mind is all stories.”

 "Your mind is all stories.” 

Dipa Ma did not say that the mind is mostly stories; she said that there is nothing in the mind but stories. 

These are the personal dramas that create and maintain the sense of individual identity: who we are, what we do, what we are and are not capable of. Without our being aware of it, the endless series of such thoughts drives and limits our lives. And yet those stories are without substance capable of. Without our being aware of it, the endless series of such thoughts drives and limits our lives. And yet those stories are without substance.

Dipa Ma challenged students' beliefs in their stories, their attachment to the stories. When someone said, "I can’t do that,'' she would ask, "Are you sure?" or "Who says?" or "Why not?

She encouraged students to observe the stories, to see their emptiness, and to go beyond the limitations they impose.

“Let go of thinking," she urged. "Meditation is not about thinking.”

At the same time, Dipa Ma taught that the mind is not an enemy to be gotten rid of. Rather, in the process of befriending the mind, in getting to know and accept it, it ceases to be a problem. Dipa Ma knew the freedom that follows that process; she lived in a state of thought-free awareness. 

In a group interview, Jack Kornfield innocently asked, "What is it like in your mind?"

Dipa Ma smiled, closed her eyes, and quietly answered, 

"In my mind, there are three things: concentration, loving-kindness, and peace."

Jack, not sure if he had heard correctly, asked, "Is that all?"

“Yes, that is all,” Dipa Ma replied.

~ Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master

“This is my advice to you: Be happy with what you have. Live as simply as you can.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

11 December 2023

“This is my advice to you: Be happy with what you have. Live as simply as you can.”

My word of advice to you is to be thankful to have come across the teachings of the Buddha, because what the Buddha knew and what he told us is a hard-to-come-by transcendental truth that will make us happy all the time and free us from all forms of stress and grief. If you study his teaching and apply it in your daily life, I’m sure you’ll always be happy.

First of all, the Buddha said you have to do good by giving to charity, helping those who are less fortunate than you are. Secondly, don’t hurt other people, no matter what you do. Thirdly, find some peace of mind by doing meditation. You can start by mentally chanting some verses you know. Just keep chanting and not thinking about anything, in order to rid your mind of restlessness. 

When you think, you agitate your mind. When you stop thinking, the agitation will disappear. 

You will then have peace of mind and happiness. The Buddha said that the happiness that arises from peace of mind surpasses all other happiness.

But it’s not easy to do, because the mind by its nature keeps thinking all the time, like a monkey that keeps moving from one tree branch to the next. The mind thinks about one story, then moves on to the next story, on and on. At the same time, it creates all kinds of emotions along with it. If you think good thoughts, you’ll feel good. If you think bad ones, you’ll feel bad. 

If you helped someone today, making him happier and improving his life, when you think about it, you’ll feel good. If you did something bad to someone, hurting someone, when you think about it, you’ll feel bad.

Learn how to control your mind. Steer your mind to think good thoughts, and prevent it from thinking bad ones. In order to do this, you have to live simply. If you don’t, your greed will push you to do things that you’ll regret later on. If you live simply, you won’t do things that will cause problems or hurt other people.

So this is my advice to you: Be happy with what you have. Live as simply as you can. Just have the four requisites of life: food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. 

Once you have these, there’s no need to have anything else because what you have will give you problems and stress. When you possess something, you want to keep it as long as possible, but things don’t last forever or remain the same. They always change. They come and they go. If you cling to them, you will feel terrible when they leave you. Take it as it comes. Don’t cling. 

Then you will always be happy. 

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

Ajahn Lee Teachings

 Ajahn Lee Teachings

Why and how to cleanse the mind?

~~~~~~~

Brightness Within

May 18, 1958

For people to be happy or sad, good or bad, all depends on the heart. The heart is what’s in charge, the most important thing to be found in our body. That’s because it’s lasting and responsible for all the good and evil we do. As for the body, it knows nothing of pleasure or pain, happiness or sadness, and it’s not at all responsible for anyone’s good or evil actions. Why is that? Because the body isn’t lasting. It’s empty.

To say that it’s empty means that as soon as it’s deprived of breath, its four properties of earth, water, wind, and fire separate from one another and return to their original nature. The parts coming from the earth property return to be earth as they originally were. The parts coming from the water property return to be water as they originally were. The parts coming from the wind and fire properties return to be wind and fire as they originally were. There’s nothing about them that’s “woman” or “man,” “good” or “bad.” 

This is why we’re taught, 

Rūpaṁ aniccaṁ, 

physical form is inconstant. 

Rūpaṁ dukkhaṁ, 

it’s hard to bear. 

Rūpaṁ anattā, 

it’s not-self, empty, and doesn’t stay under anyone’s control. 

Even if we try to forbid it from growing old, growing sick, and dying, it won’t behave in line with our wishes. It has to fall in line with the processes of arising and wasting away in accordance with the nature of natural fabrications. This applies to everyone.

But you can’t say that the body is entirely anattā, for some parts of it are attā. In other words, they lie somewhat under our control. For instance, if you want the body to walk, it’ll walk. If you want it to lie down, it’ll lie down. If you want it to eat, it’ll eat. If you want it to take a bath, it’ll take a bath. This shows that it lies somewhat under your control. So the body is both anattā and attā. 

But even so, both aspects are equal in the sense that they’re empty and not responsible for the good or evil things we do. No matter how much good or evil you do, the body doesn’t have any part in the rewards. 

When it dies, it gets cremated and turns into ashes either way. It’s not responsible for anyone’s happiness or sadness at all. When people do good or evil, the results of their good and evil all fall to their own minds. The mind is what’s responsible for all our actions, and it’s the one that experiences the results of its actions as well. This is why the Buddha taught us to cleanse our hearts and minds, to make them pure as a way of leading us to future happiness.

What do we use to cleanse the heart and mind? We cleanse the heart and mind with skillfulness—in other words by developing skillful qualities within it through practicing concentration. We cut away all the thoughts of greed, anger, and delusion within the mind, such as the Hindrances of sensual desire, ill will, torpor & lethargy, restlessness & anxiety, and doubt. All of these qualities are things that soil the mind. 

When the mind is soiled in this way, it’s bound to suffer. It’s headed for darkness because of its own actions.

Our unskillful actions can be divided into the different ways they’re dark. Some are dark like the darkness of night, i.e., totally devoid of any brightness. Some are dark like clouds, i.e., they alternate between being dark and bright, just as when the moon is bright at some times and covered by clouds at others. Some of our unskillfulness is dark like haze, obscuring all our vision whether by day or by night. 

This third kind of unskillfulness is ignorance, or avijjā. It obscures the mind at all times so that we can’t recognize which of the mind’s objects are past, which are future, and which are present. This is why the mind concerns itself with past, present, and future so that it can’t stay firmly in any one place. It has no certainty about anything. This is ignorance. From ignorance comes craving, the cause of all stress and suffering.

To get rid of this haze we have to meditate, getting rid of thoughts and concepts of past and future by seeing them as inconstant, stressful, and not-self; seeing all the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, thought-fabrication, and consciousness as inconstant, stressful, and not-self, to the point where there is no past, no future, no present. That’s when the mind is released from the clouds and haze of its Hindrances and enters into brightness.

There are two kinds of people in the world. Some are like those with good eyes. They’re the ones who develop skillful qualities within themselves, and so they see the brightness of the world both by day and by night. Then there are those who don’t develop skillful mental qualities. They’re like people born blind: even though the light of the sun and moon may be shining, these people are in the darkness—in this case, the darkness of their own minds. This is why the Buddha taught us to remove the darkness from our minds, to remove our minds from darkness, as in the Pali verse,

Kaṇhaṁ dhammaṁ vippahāya     sukkaṁ bhāvetha paṇḍito,

which means, “Having abandoned dark qualities, the wise person develops the bright.” When people develop brightness within themselves, they can use that brightness to illuminate all their activities. This will bring them success in all they do. But if they’re in the dark, it’s as if they were blind, so that the things they do won’t succeed in full measure. For example, they may listen to the Dhamma, but if their minds are still wandering out all over the place, it’s as if they were obscured by the clouds and haze of their Hindrances.

This is why we’re taught to practice tranquility meditation, fixing the mind on a single preoccupation. Tell yourself that the qualities of the Buddha aren’t separate from the qualities of the Dhamma, which aren’t separate from the qualities of the Saṅgha. They’re actually one and the same, as the Pali verse tells us:

Buddho dhammo saṅgho cāti     nānāhontampi vatthuto

Aññamaññāviyogā va     ekībhūtampanatthato

“Although the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha may be different as objects, seemingly separate from one another, they are actually one in meaning.”

Thus when we make the mind firm in its awakened awareness, it contains the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha all in one. That’s when our concentration will develop in the proper way.

So I ask that you abandon unskillful mental qualities and cleanse the mind so that it’s clean and pure. Brightness will then arise within your heart. This way you’ll experience ease and happiness without a doubt, as the Pali passage guarantees: 

Citte saṅkiliṭthe duggati pāṭikaṅkhā. 

Citte asaṅkiliṭthe sugati pāṭikaṅkhā. 

“When the mind is defiled, a bad destination can be expected. 

When the mind is undefiled, a happy destination can be expected.”

From Brightness Within in Starting Out Small: 

A Collection of Talks for Beginning Meditators, by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo. Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu:

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

 The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  How to deal with dukkha when it arises in real time? I know I can use mindfulness temporarily but I hope that I could apply wisdom to the situation. Do I recognize the cravings that cause the dukkha? Do I deal with it in that way?

Than Ajahn:  That’s right, you have to investigate it. You look at ‘what is your expectation? What is it that you want?’  Because when you don’t get what you want, you get dukkha.  For example, if you want to have no covid-19 because you find it stressful, but you cannot get rid of covid-19, then you have to study the nature of the object of your craving to see that it is not under your control. When you see it, then your mind accept the reality that you have to live with covid-19 for a while. When your mind accept it, your craving for covid-19 to disappear will disappear, then your dukkha will also disappear and you can live with covid-19 without any stress. 

Question:  So, is the focus on aniccaṁ?

Than Ajahn:  Aniccaṁ or anattā. Sometimes you have to look at anicca. When you lose something then you’d say ‘Oh! This is aniccā,’ but if you deal with something that you can’t control, then it’s anattā. 

Sometimes you have use one or the other. If you lose something and you want it back, when you can’t get it back, then you’ll have stress (dukkha). If you look at the thing that you’ve lost and say, ‘It’s gone, it can’t come back, it’s aniccā,’ or ‘It’s anattā, I can’t force the thing that I’ve lost to come back, it’s not under my control,’ when you accept this, you stop your desire to get that object back. When you have no desire to get that object back then you’ll have no dukkha. So, every time when you are stressful, try to find the cause of your stress, ‘What are you craving for? What are you desiring for? What do you want?’ If you find out that the object of your desire is anicca or anatta, then you have to accept it. Then, the dukkha will disappear. 

Question:  A lot of the time when I feel some dukkha, I know there’s craving, but I can’t figure out what is the object that I’m craving for.  Should I just go back to Buddho?

Than Ajahn:  Yes. If you cannot yet investigate the object of your craving, then you just have to calm your mind first, stop your mind from getting stress. When you have no stress, then you might be able to look back and see the object of your dukkha. 

“Dhamma in English, Jun 22, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

A Discourse on Dependent Origination: By Venerable Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma Translated by U Aye Maung Edited by Bhikkhu Pesala

A Discourse on Dependent Origination: 
By Venerable Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma
Translated by U Aye Maung
Edited by Bhikkhu Pesala

(Sharing to lay followers and beginners)

Importance of the Doctrine

THE doctrine of Paṭiccasamuppāda or Dependent Origination is central to Buddhism. While the Bodhisatta was reflecting deeply on the nature of existence, he realised the truth about Dependent Origination, and attained enlightenment. Before he became the Buddha in his final existence, he pondered aging and death — as did every other Bodhisatta. For it was only after he had seen the misery of aging, disease, and death that he renounced the world in search of the deathless. 

All living beings want to avoid these misfortunes but they cannot escape. 

These misfortunes pursue them relentlessly from one existence to the next in a perpetual process of birth, aging, and death. For example, the fate of chickens and ducks is terrible. 

Some are eaten while still in the eggs. 

Even if they hatch, they live for just a few weeks, and are killed as soon as they put on sufficient weight. They are born only to be killed for human consumption. If it is the fate of living beings to be repeatedly killed like this, then it is a very gloomy and frightful prospect. Nevertheless, chickens and ducks seem content with their lot in life. They apparently enjoy life — quacking, crowing, eating, and fighting with one another. They may think that they have plenty of time to enjoy life, though in fact they may live for just a few days or months. 

The span of human life is not very long either. For someone in their fifties or sixties their youth may seem as recent as yesterday. Sixty or seventy years on earth is a day in the life of a deva. The life of a deva is also very brief in the eyes of a Brahmā, who may live for the duration of the world system. However, even the lifespan of a Brahmā, who outlives hundreds of worlds, is insignificant compared to eternity. Celestial beings, too, eventually have to die. 

Although they are not subject to disease and marked senility, age tells on them imperceptibly in due course. 

A Discourse on Dependent Origination 

~ By Venerable Mahāsī Sayādaw, Of Burma, 

Translated by U Aye Maung, 

Edited by Bhikkhu Pesala, published in March 1982.

A Discourse on Dependent Origination: 1

By Venerable Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma

Translated by 

U Aye Maung

Edited by 

Bhikkhu Pesala

(Sharing to lay followers and beginners)

Importance of the Doctrine

THE doctrine of Paṭiccasamuppāda or Dependent Origination is central to Buddhism. While the Bodhisatta was reflecting deeply on the nature of existence, he realised the truth about Dependent Origination, and attained enlightenment. Before he became the Buddha in his final existence, he pondered aging and death — as did every other Bodhisatta. For it was only after he had seen the misery of aging, disease, and death that he renounced the world in search of the deathless. 

All living beings want to avoid these misfortunes but they cannot escape. 

These misfortunes pursue them relentlessly from one existence to the next in a perpetual process of birth, aging, and death. For example, the fate of chickens and ducks is terrible. 

Some are eaten while still in the eggs. 

Even if they hatch, they live for just a few weeks, and are killed as soon as they put on sufficient weight. They are born only to be killed for human consumption. If it is the fate of living beings to be repeatedly killed like this, then it is a very gloomy and frightful prospect. Nevertheless, chickens and ducks seem content with their lot in life. They apparently enjoy life — quacking, crowing, eating, and fighting with one another. They may think that they have plenty of time to enjoy life, though in fact they may live for just a few days or months. 

The span of human life is not very long either. For someone in their fifties or sixties their youth may seem as recent as yesterday. Sixty or seventy years on earth is a day in the life of a deva. The life of a deva is also very brief in the eyes of a Brahmā, who may live for the duration of the world system. However, even the lifespan of a Brahmā, who outlives hundreds of worlds, is insignificant compared to eternity. Celestial beings, too, eventually have to die. 

Although they are not subject to disease and marked senility, age tells on them imperceptibly in due course. 

A Discourse on Dependent Origination By Venerable Mahāsī Sayādaw, Of Burma, Translated by U Aye Maung, Edited by Bhikkhu Pesala, published in March 1982.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  Can Luangphor give advice about Asalha Puja on how it can inspire us to practice and what is the significance of Asalha Puja?

Than Ajahn:  Asalha Puja is the day when the Buddha gave his first sermon, so it was the day when the Dhamma became known to the world. 

This is similar to the rising of the sun. 

Before that, there was no sunlight. We were all living in the dark and we could not see anything clearly but once there is a sun, we can see everything.

It is the same way with the Dhamma teaching. Once the Lord Buddha gave his teaching, which is the Four Noble Truths, he gave the light to the world. 

Before the sermon, we didn’t know that our suffering is caused by our desire and we didn’t know how to get rid of our suffering, but now he told us the way to get rid of our suffering, that is by practising dāna, sīla and bhāvanā.

Once we have developed dāna, sīla and bhāvanā, we will have the strength to get rid of our cravings and once there are no cravings then there will be no suffering in the mind. So, this is basically the significance of Asadha Puja day: to commemorate the day the Buddha gave his first sermon to the world. Once he finished this sermon, one of the five ascetics who listened to the sermon became enlightened. 

He became a Sotāpanna because he could understand that his suffering was due to his attachment to living things. 

He didn’t want them to die and he would become sad when they died. So, if he wants to be free from sadness, he has to accept that everything will die and nobody can stop it from death. Once he accepts the truth about death, the truth of dissolution and impermanence, then he can get rid of his desire for things to be permanent, and when there is no desire for permanence, there is no suffering.

Khao phansa is the day the Lord Buddha told monks to stay in one place for three months because it is a planting season. In the old days, monks would travel on foot and tend to cross the field and this hurt the farmer’s plants in the field, so the farmers came and complained to the Lord Buddha and asked why the monks didn’t stay in one place during the rainy season. How come they kept travelling back and forth and walking across the field and destroyed the crop that they planted? So, the Lord Buddha said that from now on during the rainy season, the planting season, monks should stay in one place for three months. This is the reason why monks have to stay in one place for three months; monks don’t hurt the farmers. This is also to give monks the opportunity to stay with a teacher to study and practice.

“Dhamma in English, Jul 14, 2016.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

“THE FIVE PRECEPTS FOR THE YOUNG” ~ By Venerable Kumara

 

“THE FIVE PRECEPTS FOR THE YOUNG”

~ By Venerable Kumara

Most of you from Simpang Buddhist Society Dhamma Sunday School are probably not familiar with the Pali version of the Buddha Vandana, Tisarana and Pañca Sila that we have just chanted. I believe, however, that all of you have learnt them in Mandarin. Let me then pose you this question: do you understand what they mean? 

The Vandana is paying homage to the Buddha, our teacher. When we recite the Tisarana, it means that we accept the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha as our refuge, our protection. I am sure most of you will know the Five Precepts by heart. Now my next question is do you practise and observe them? Let's go through them. 

1.  Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami.

     I take the precept to abstain from killing. 

     I will act for the welfare and happiness of all beings.    

[Someone from the audience said something and Ven Kumara repeated it to the crowd.] One of you said that you cannot avoid killing mosquitoes. Let us put it this way. What would you think if you were to bite someone and that person killed you for that? All beings, including you and mosquitoes, are afraid to die. 

Mosquitoes bite only because they are hungry and need food. We kill them mostly because we hate them. Furthermore, it is dana if you donate just that tiny amount of blood. If you don't wish to do that, you can easily blow them away. There is absolutely no need to kill. 

2.  Adinnadana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 

     I take the precept to abstain from stealing. 

     I will be generous, open-handed and take delight in sharing.

I suppose this precept should be quite easy to keep. Some really hard-core poor resort to stealing, not that this is justified. On the other hand, some well-to-do people also steal, but for fun. I think none of you here have any reason to steal and should be able to keep this precept well. 

3.  Kamesu micchacara veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 

     I take the precept to abstain from sexual misconduct. 

     I will care for the body, keeping it pure in all ways.

This precept is more suitable for the older ones. (Ven Kumara shifts his attention to the teenagers, particularly the boys.) It means that you should not do it with those who are married, or still protected by their parents. Sexual activity should best be avoided until one is mentally mature enough. Furthermore, having sex at a young age leads to a host of problems. It is unhealthy for both your body and mind. 

4.  Musavada veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 

     I take the precept to abstain from lying. 

     I will speak the truth, words mild, pleasant and noble.

Have you told lies before? If you have, raise your hand. [Many (probably all) raised their hands.] I am glad to see that most of you here are honest enough to admit to having told lies before. I raised my hand too. Having known that what we did was wrong, should we feel sorry and miserable for it? No. Instead, we just have to try to do better and not repeat the same mistakes. 

Some people say that it does not pay to be too honest and that an honest person gets cheated. 

Do you agree? [Many nodded in agreement.] However, if you think about it carefully, you will see that he gets cheated not because he is honest, but because he is stupid. [Laughter.] 

Everyone will always seek those who are honest and trustworthy. Isn't that true? For example, if you buy from a certain grocer and find out later that he fixes the scale and gives you less, would you like to buy from him again? ["No."] Would you prefer to buy from someone who does not short-change you? ["Yes."] So, it DOES pay to be honest, doesn't it? 

5.  Surameraya-majja-pamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 

     I take the precept to abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs.  

     I will care for the mind, keeping it pure, alert and unconfused.

I don't know why people choose to take liquor. Personally, I don't find it tasty at all. When intoxicated, a person acts stupidly. Taking other types of intoxicants like drugs is even worse. It causes the mind of that person go haywire. In that frame of mind, a person can do all kinds of stupid things including jumping off a tall building thinking that he can fly! [While Ven Kumara spoke, a teenage boy kept interjecting on various things that happens to an intoxicated person, seemingly to hint that he takes intoxicants.] 

Some people drink because they are pressured by their friends, saying that they are not man enough if they don't drink. I think if a man is man enough, he wouldn't need alcohol to prove that he is a man. 

[Some laughed apparently at that teenage boy. The boy quickly said, "I don't believe that there is any guy who doesn't drink alcohol." Ven Kumara raised his hand and said, "We over here (i.e., the monks) don't." There was a big clap of hands. The boy retorted that monks don't count. 

After a pause, Ven Kumara turned his attention to where a group of teenage girls sat and said, "Let me ask you girls. When you grow older, old enough to get married, would you choose a man who drinks alcohol or one who does not." There was a clear unanimous answer, "One who doesn't!" He then turned to the boy and said, "You're in trouble." There was a loud laughter.] 

[Ven Kumara then led the audience, kids and overgrown kids alike, in a game which can only work and be fun if the participants are willing to play fair and honestly. Those who honestly leave the game are awarded with praise and applause.] 

Conclusion 

As you can see, even when it is just a game, honesty is necessary to make it work and make it fun. The same applies with life, which is like a game. If we live our lives honestly, it can be fun too. 

All of you here go to Dhamma Sunday School to learn good values. The 5 precepts, if followed, will lead you on the path to a righteous life. It will help you to have good relationship with your family, friends, teachers and other beings, and lead a happy life.

Sadhu ...... Sadhu ....... Sadhu ........ 

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

 The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  There are certain kinds of dukkha that come up very strongly for many years. For quite a long time, I spent quite a lot of time trying to find where it came from. I see dukkha as valuable because it forces me to maintain consistency in my practice so I come to welcome dukkha. Is that a correct way of contemplating the nature of dukkha?

Than Ajahn:  There are two types of dukkha: dukkha in real time and dukkha that you imagine. 

What’s important is the dukkha in real time.  When you are stressful, then you want to find out the cause of your stress and normally the cause of your stress is one of your cravings or desires, so you want to get rid of that desire so that you can eliminate the stress. But if you cannot use wisdom yet, then you have to use mindfulness. Just calm your mind down and stop it from thinking. When your mind is calm, the stress that arise from your thinking will disappear temporarily. This is what dukkha is as far as I’m concerned. I want to deal with it in real time. 

Question:  Is contemplation of the source of dukkha in terms of the cravings as the cause of dukkha okay?

Than Ajahn:  That’s doing the homework because the stress hasn’t yet happened when you’re contemplating on the cause of your dukkha or contemplating on the cause that will get rid of your dukkha, which is the magga. Contemplating on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā is not considered to be dukkha in real time, it’s preparing yourself to face the real situation. You have to rehearse yourself first. When you get angry, how are you going to deal with it? If you want to use wisdom, then you have to look at the object of your anger as being aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anatta. As being anattā, really! It isn’t under your control. 

We like to control things, and when we can’t control them, we become stressful and we express it by anger or by disappointment. But the dukkha is the result of your expectation, so you want to teach your mind not to expect anything because you don’t always get it. Expect that you might not get what you want; it’s impermanent, uncertainty is impermanent; it’s anatta, uncontrollable. So, try to see things as uncertain and uncontrollable; some of the time you can control them, some of the time, you can’t control them. When you contemplate on this, it’s still considered as dukkha not in real time. It’s only when you experience stress with a certain object, then you want to do the real contemplation to stop your mind from expecting something from that object. 

“Dhamma in English, Mar 16, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teaching Of Ajahn Chah.

The Teaching Of Ajahn Chah.

So  the  Buddha  exhorted  his  disciples  to  practise  with  the  mind,  because  the  world  is  born  in  this  mind,  the  eight  worldly  dhammas  are there.  The  eightfold  path,  that  is,  investigation  through  calm  and  insight  meditation,  our  diligent  effort  and  the  wisdom  we  develop,  all these  things  loosen  the  grip  of  the  world.  Attachment,  aversion  and delusion  become  lighter,  and  being  lighter,  we  know  them  as  such.  If we experience fame,  material gain,  praise,  happiness or suffering we’re aware  of  it.  

We  must  know  these  things  before  we  can  transcend  the world,  because  the  world  is  within  us. 

When we’re  free of  these  things it’s just like leaving a  house.  When we  enter  a  house  what  sort  of  feeling  do  we  have?  We  feel  that  we’ve come  through  the  door  and  entered  the  house.  When  we  leave the  house we  feel  that  we’ve  left  it,  we  come  into  the  bright  sunlight,  it’s  not  dark like it was  inside. The  action of the mind  entering the worldly  dhammas is  like  entering  the  house.  

The  mind  which  has  destroyed  the  worldly dhammas  is  like  one  who  has  left  the  house. 

So  the  Dhamma  practitioner  must  become  one  who  witnesses  the Dhamma  for  himself.  He  knows  for  himself  whether  the worldly  dhammas  have  left  or  not,  whether  or  not  the  path  has  been developed.  

When the  path  has  been  well  developed  it  purges  the  worldly  dhammas.  It becomes  stronger  and  stronger.  Right  view  grows  as  wrong  view  de creases,  until  finally  the  path  destroys  defilements  –  either  that  or  def ilements  will  destroy the  path! Right  view  and  wrong  view,  there  are  only  these  two  ways.  Wrong view  has  its  tricks  as  well,  you  know,  it  has  its  wisdom  –but  it’s  wisdom  that’s  misguided.  The  meditator  who  begins  to  develop  the  path experiences  a  separation.  

Eventually  it’s  as  if  he  is  two  people:  one in  the  world  and  the  other  on  the  path.  They  divide,  they  pull  apart. 

Whenever  he’s  investigating  there’s  this separation,  and  it  continues  on and  on  until  the  mind  reaches  insight,  vipassan¯a. Or  maybe  it’s  vipassanu¯1!  Having  tried  to  establish  wholesome results  in  our  practice,  seeing  them,  we  attach  to  them.  This  type  of clinging  comes  from  our  wanting  to  get  something  from  the  practice. This  is  vipassanu¯,  the  wisdom  of  defilements  (i.e.  “defiled  wisdom”). Some  people  develop  goodness  and  cling  to  it,  they develop  purity  and cling  to  that,  or  they develop  knowledge  and  cling  to  that.  

The  action of  clinging  to  that  goodness  or  knowledge  is  vipassanu¯,  infiltrating  our practice. So  when  you  develop  vipassana¯,  be  careful!  Watch  out  for vipassan¯u,  because  they’re  so  close  that  sometimes  you  can’t tell  them  apart. But  with  right  view  we  can  see  them  both  clearly.  If  it’s  vipassan¯u  there will  be  suffering  arising  at  times  as  a  result.  If  it’s  really  vipassana¯ there’s  no  suffering.  There  is  peace.  Both  happiness  and  unhappiness are  silenced.  This  you  can  see  for  yourself.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

 The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  During meditation, when my breath becomes subtle and when the breath disappears, is this stage considered as samādhi?

Than Ajahn:  It is approaching, but not yet. When you reached samādhi, it’s like a flip over. Your mind will be completely different from while you’re still watching the breath. So, you just have to keep on watching, continue on watching the breath. Even when there is no breath to watch, just watch the empty breath. If you keep on watching it, eventually the mind will enter into samādhi, then you’ll know the difference. It’s like being above the water and being under the water. It’s totally different experience. Your mind will know it when you get to that point. 

- - - - - - - - - -

Question:  Is it important to go into samādhi every time when I meditate? 

Than Ajahn:  Well, you need samādhi to make you happy. The only drawback of samādhi is it is not permanent happiness. You have to keep on entering into samādhi to make you happy. When you are not in samādhi, you have to maintain mindfulness to prevent your mind from creating restlessness and agitation. 

So, this is the first level of mental happiness. 

If you want permanent happiness, once you have the passed the first level, you have to move up to the next level by studying the nature of things that you come involved with are impermanent, they can hurt you if you cling to them or if you have any craving for them. So, what you want to do is to stop your craving for everything, then you will not be hurt by it and your mind will always be happy without having to go into samādhi. 

 - - - - - - - - - -

Question:  What’s the reason that I can’t go into samādhi although I feel that my mind is calm?

Than Ajahn:  Because your mindfulness is not strong enough. Your craving or your desire still keeps pushing your mind to be active, so you need a stronger mindfulness. You have to focus on your breath and keep focusing on it. Don’t let your mind go somewhere else. If you can force your mind to be mindful and not going somewhere else, eventually, your mind will become completely still, calm, and happy. 

- - - - - - - - - -

Question:  A few months ago, I went for a-20 day Vipassanā retreat.  From the 4th days of the retreat, I started to have panic attack for no apparent reasons, so I decided to stop meditating for a few months. 

Now I am going to start my ānāpānasati meditation and am able to calm my mind. Why do I have that panic attack? 

 Than Ajahn:  It’s because you’ve lost your mindfulness. You didn’t maintain your mindfulness. 

You let your mind free to do whatever it wants to do, so it starts to panic. If you could bring back mindfulness, you can prevent this panic attack to happen, or if it happens, you can stop it because mindfulness is the controller of your mind. It’s like the rein you use on a horse. If you don’t use a rein, then the horse can just go whichever way it wants to. If you have a rein attached to it, then you can control the horse. Mindfulness is like the rein for the mind. You need to have the rein to prevent the mind from going berserk, going crazy. 

Question:  Should I go back to vipassanā retreats?

Than Ajahn:  You should if you could, because this is the best path for your true happiness. It’s just a matter of whether you could do it or could not do it, and it depends on your ability to develop mindfulness and maintain mindfulness. If you can develop and maintain mindfulness, then you can proceed on this path without any problem. But if you could not do it, then you would probably run into the same problem again, like last time.

“Dhamma in English, Apr 24, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teaching of Luangta Maha Boowa

The Teaching of Luangta Maha Boowa

Buddhism is derived from practice, because the Buddha himself practiced until he himself knew and saw and was able to do it for himself, and only then did he begin to teach others. 

Buddhists therefore understand the importance of practicing and training themselves according to the teachings. Learning for the purpose of gaining knowledge and understanding, but without putting it into regular practice, will not bring results as it ought to. One should therefore study and practice moral precepts until it becomes higher morality, study all the different levels of wisdom until one reaches the level of higher wisdom), and study freedom. 

One must then practice until one truly reaches freedom, until one has truly escaped (from Saṁsāra). Practice is therefore the most important part of Buddhism.

When someone who practices has reached any particular state of development, he will know this for himself. For example, if he practices the development of mindfulness of breathing, he will know what the state of his breath is, and he will know to what extent the mind is quiet, still and peaceful. But he must have mindfulness and he must not let the mind wander outside. For someone who is beginning to practice, the most important thing is the mind and mindfulness. 

The mind will improve if mindfulness is there to control it, and it will then be peaceful, cheerful, bright, and happiness will come by itself. But if the mind is not controlled by mindfulness, and if it is allowed free rein so that any and all thoughts can insert themselves, the mind will not be peaceful and happiness will not arise. Therefore, the most important rule is to not let the imagination give rise to emotionally charged thoughts. Train the mind to be truly peaceful, then happiness will follow in the wake of the calm which gradually develops. A high degree of calm means a high degree of happiness—until it reaches an extraordinary happiness which comes from the more subtle levels of concentration.

~ Luangta Maha Boowa