The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
13 April 2024
LISTENING TO A DHAMMA TALK
“When you are listening to a Dhamma talk, what you want to gain is understanding. If you can understand what I say, then you will remember it. If you don’t, don’t worry, because you don’t listen to Dhamma talks just once.
You have to keep listening to Dhamma talks at least once a week, or more because when you listen to Dhamma talks, you will learn something that you have not learned before, especially the practice of meditation. You want to meditate.
But do you know why? Do you know what we get from meditation? Meditation in Buddhism consists of two parts.
The first stage is called samatha-bhāvanā, meaning meditation for calmness, for stillness of mind, for peace of mind.
The second stage of Buddhist meditation, we call vipassanā-bhāvanā. This is for the development of insight.
These two stages have to be achieved in order to attain to the various levels of Dhamma.
The goal is to let go of everything that you have right now, because all things that you have are temporary.
They only stay with you for a certain period of time and eventually will have to leave you, or you will have to leave them. If you know ahead of time that you have to lose everything, and if you prepare your mind for the eventuality, when these things happen, your mind will not be affected. Your mind will remain peaceful and happy because you have already relinquished and are detached from everything.
What are you? You are the mind. The mind is not the body. The mind comes into possession of the body at the time of conception in the womb of the mother. After nine months, the body and the mind come to this world. So you have to understand that the body is your temporary possession. One day it will have to get sick. One day it will have to get old. One day the body will have to die. But the mind is not the body, and the mind doesn’t get old, doesn’t get sick or die with the body. So what you have to do is to teach the mind this truth because right now your mind is under the influence of delusion.
Delusion is the mind mistakenly thinking that the body is itself, so it clings strongly to the body. And the more strongly it clings to the body, the more stress, the more misery the mind will have. Once you know the truth that you are not the body, that you are just the mind, you can exist and be happy without the body.
So you want to train the mind to detach from the body, not to cling to the body. And this is what Buddhist meditation practice is about. It is to train the mind to let go of the body and everything else. And not just your own body, but other people’s bodies as well, like the bodies of your loved ones, your parents, your sisters and brothers, your husband, your wife, your children. They are all temporary. Sooner or later they will leave you, or you will leave them. But this is okay, there is nothing wrong with the body. This is just how the body works.
But the mind of each individual, like your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, your husband, your wife, your children, their minds don’t die with their bodies.
So if I should find an analogy, the body is like a puppet, the mind is like the puppeteer (puppet master). The mind is the one who directs the body to do all kinds of activities.
Like tonight, before you could go to Wat Palelai, the mind had to instruct the body first, that tonight you were going to Wat Palelai, and then you directed the body to take the mind to Wat Palelai. If the mind hadn’t instructed the body to go to Wat Palelai, then you wouldn’t have been there tonight. So this is the relationship between the body and the mind.
The body is temporary.
The mind is permanent. So what you want to do is take care of your mind, teach your mind the truth, and train your mind to let go of everything. Because once you are capable of letting them go, you will not be sad when you lose them.”
Dhamma in English, Nov 4, 2014.
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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