“When you’re involved with someone, you’ll readily see that there are only two outcomes: to stay or to part. You have to understand and be able to accept this universal truth.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

17 January 2023

“When you’re involved with someone, you’ll readily see that there are only two outcomes: to stay or to part. You have to understand and be able to accept this universal truth.”

If you carry on doing your meditation practice, there will be a seed of wisdom (paññā) in your mind to fight against defilements (kilesas). Listening to those who have direct experience with the mind from their practice will save you time and effort from fumbling around. When you get to certain points, you’ll know immediately what to do next in order to keep moving forward and carry on practising.

If you don’t have anyone to guide you, you’ll have to figure it out on your own and sometimes there will be mistakes. Those who have never been through it before will get lost because they’ll become attached to things. They may become attached to giving, and they’ll keep wanting to give more. They don’t understand that giving is for leading them to keeping their precepts. 

Then again they aren’t aware that keeping the precepts is to lead them to practising meditation. So they get caught up in keeping their precepts by being too scrupulous in order to be pure. Anything they do becomes a cause for concern about whether they’ve broken their precepts. They end up with anxiety instead of peace of mind. 

If they manage to practise to the level of concentration (samādhi), they’ll then be caught up in absorption. 

They don’t want to withdraw from samādhi to contemplate things; thinking can be very distracting and disturbing. But wisdom will not arise if they don’t contemplate.

In fact, giving (dāna), precepts (sıla), and cultivation through meditation practice (bhāvanā) support one another. They are like stepping stones. Once you’ve given dāna, you should then move on to the next level, sıla. When you’re at the level of sıla, you should next focus on cultivation through practice, bhāvanā.

You can also do them all at once. If you have established giving and are ready to undertake the precepts, then go ahead. You can maintain the five or the eight precepts. Keeping the eight precepts will make your practice easier. There is a difference between the five and the eight precepts.

Keeping the eight precepts is better because it is more conducive to attaining calm. Once you’re calm, then you have to develop wisdom. Contemplate the three marks of existence (tilakkhaṇa) and the five aggregates (khandhas)— forms (rūpa), feelings (vedanā), perceptions (saññā), mental fabrications or thoughts (saṅkhāra), and consciousness (viññaṇa)—in order to realise that they are just natural states of being and that there is no self.

You think that the body, thoughts, and emotions are yours, but in reality they are just part of nature. Your body, for instance, is a composition of earth, water, wind, and fire. Feelings and bodily sensations are just a result of physical contact, which is called kāya-vedanā. Emotion (citta-vedanā) is a result of your mental proliferation. If your thoughts lean towards defilements, then a sense of suffering (dukkha-vedanā) will arise. If your thoughts are inclined towards virtue (dhamma), there will then be a sense of ease and calm.

Continuing to contemplate these things will make you understand and know how to practise, allowing you to let go. Once you’ve understood, you’ll let go. There won’t be any problems or trouble with anyone. 

However other people behave, you’ll see through them. You won’t expect anything from them.

When you’re involved with someone, you’ll readily see that there are only two outcomes: to stay or to part. Once you’re aware of that, you’re prepared to accept both outcomes. If they leave, then so be it. And if they stay, then so be it. Your mind won’t be disturbed. Your mind will so be calm. But if you don’t accept this fact—only holding onto the idea that they have to be with you forever and not leave you—you’ll then become agitated and upset when you sense that they might be leaving you. You have to understand and be able to accept this universal truth.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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