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.
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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.
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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.
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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
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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