The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
30 October 2023
“Wisdom”
Question: “After we have jhāna, do we directly have the wisdom? How do we develop the wisdom?”
Than Ajahn: “When you enter into jhāna, you’ll discover a new form of happiness.
That’s also wisdom: to know that there are other kinds of happiness besides the kind of happiness that people are normally looking for such as getting happiness from wealth, happiness from having contact with sensual gratification.
There are other kinds of happiness, that is the happiness from jhāna.
Having developed this a new kind of knowledge is considered to have the wisdom, knowing that you can be happy without having to have money, without having to have a husband or a wife. You don’t have to be anything to make you happy. You don’t have to be anybody to be happy. You don’t have to go anywhere to make you happy.
This is wisdom.
You have discovered the real happiness, the easier kind of happiness because you don’t have to rely on anything or anybody to make you happy. All you have to have is a strong mindfulness, a continuous mindfulness. Then, you can have this kind of happiness. This is one part of the wisdom that you gain from entering into jhāna.
After you come out of jhāna, your desire hasn’t been destroyed yet.
Then, you need another kind of wisdom. This kind of wisdom is developed by telling yourself that doing what your desire asks you to do is bad. It can only hurt you because what you desire for can only satisfy you temporarily, it can only make you happy briefly. And when that happiness disappears, you will be sad again. So, everything that you go after in this world is a temporary happiness. When it disappears, you will be sad again.
You have to keep teaching your mind so that you can resist your desire to go after things in this world. It’s better for you to go back into jhāna where you can have the permanent kind of happiness. Once you know how to have jhāna, you can always have it all the time. This is the way to get rid of all your desires which cause you to have rebirth.
Once you can get rid of all your desires, then there will be no more rebirth, no more ageing, sickness and death. This is the wisdom that you have to develop when you come out of jhāna. You have to tell your mind that nothing in this world is permanent.
Nothing can give you long term happiness.
Everything is short term.
Once it disappears, it will only cause you sadness and misery. Keep teaching your mind whenever your desire for something arises.
You can say, ‘It’s better not to have it. It’s better to have jhāna.’
You have a choice between having jhāna or having a wife/a husband for happiness. If you have a wife, sometimes she can get mad at you, then that happiness will disappear. If she departs or she separates from you, you become sad again. If you have wisdom, you’d say, ‘I’d better have jhāna.’ Because you can always have jhāna.
Stop having anything else because everything in this world is only temporary. It doesn’t last.
Everything is aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā.
Aniccaṁ means temporary, dukkhaṁ is sadness, unhappiness. Anattā means you cannot keep it, you cannot force it to be with you all the time. It comes and goes as it likes.
So, this is wisdom that you have to develop: all the things in this world whether they are money, people, or even our bodies are aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. If you see all things in this way, you can let go of your desire to possess them.
Once you don’t have any desire, your mind will be peaceful and happy.
Then, you don’t have to enter into jhāna because your mind can be happy without jhāna.
The thing that makes your mind unhappy is your desire. Once you get rid of all your desires, there will be no agitator that will cause any sadness or dissatisfaction. Your mind will be always happy and peaceful.
Then, you don’t have to practice any more Dhamma. You don’t have to develop mindfulness. You don’t have to enter into jhāna. You don’t have to use wisdom. It’s because you have solved the problem. You have got rid of all your desires.
You need samādhi. You need mindfulness. You need wisdom to get rid of your desires. Once you’ve got rid of them, then you no longer need samādhi, wisdom or mindfulness.
They are like medicines. When you’re sick, you need to take medicines. After your sickness disappears, you don’t need to take the medicines anymore.
After the Buddha and his noble disciples became enlightened, they have completely got rid of their desires, they don’t have to practice Dhamma anymore. They don’t have to be mindful. They don’t have to enter into jhāna.
They don’t have to use wisdom. Although they will use them occasionally as the need arises, but the jhāna and wisdom are not used for getting rid of their desires because all of their desires have been got rid off permanently.
So, keep the precepts, practice dāna, develop mindfulness, sit in meditation, contemplate on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā to develop wisdom.
Then, one day you will achieve the goal. You will become enlightened like the Buddha.”
From: “Dhamma in English to laypeople from Indonesia, Feb 11, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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