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
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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