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
YouTube: Dhamma in English
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