Layperson: I’ve been practising for the past 7 or 8 years, but I think I’m struggling with my practice. My ego keeps coming into my practice.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

20 November 2024

Layperson:  I’ve been practising for the past 7 or 8 years, but I think I’m struggling with my practice. My ego keeps coming into my practice.

Than Ajahn:  Part of it is because you lack concentration. You lack jhāna or calm because when the mind is calm, your ego is suppressed temporarily, then it will not distract your mind from doing the investigation of the study that you need to do. So, I think you should first try to concentrate on samatha bhāvanā before you go to the next level which is vipassanā bhāvanā. 

Right now, forget about vipassanā. You’ve got plenty of vipassanā by listening to Dhamma talks or reading books. What you lack is jhāna, a concentrated mind, a contented mind. Right now your mind is still hungry for things. So, try to suppress this hunger by entering into jhāna. Once your mind is calm, it becomes content. 

After you’ve withdrawn from jhāna, then you can direct your mind to study the truth that you have to study, such as the nature of the body, and then you will be able to see the body clearly. 

Eventually, you can let go of your attachment to it because you would’ve studied that the body is actually not you. The body is just a composition of the 4 elements forming into the 32 parts. 

The body is impermanent, and eventually, it will break down, dissolve, and return to the elements. There is no self in this body. It’s just your delusion that keeps you thinking that it’s ‘you’ in the body. Once you have studied this, when you have to separate from the body, you will let it go easily. You will not feel any pain when you have to separate yourself from the body, when you have to lose your body.

“Dhamma in English, Jun 7, 2019.”

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Question:  I’d like to learn something from you. Ego cannot kill ego. So, how do I transcend my ego, my false sense of separate self?

Than Ajahn:  You use knowledge. Your ego is produced by your delusion, your ignorance. In reality there is no ego. An ego is just an invention created by your mind due to the ignorance to the true nature of the mind. The mind is the one who knows, who thinks. It isn’t an ego. It isn’t a self. It isn’t a person. It is just a function, like knowing and thinking. However, the mind thinks that the thinking is itself, is an ego. 

So, you have to use wisdom or knowledge of the truth to get rid of your ego. How do you get to this knowledge of the truth? You have to meditate. When you meditate, when your mind becomes calm, your ego will disappear because your thought stops thinking. Then, you’ll realize that your ego is the product of your thinking.

“Dhamma in English, May 24, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g