The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
9 September 2024
“The Four Noble Truths is logic, the cause and the effect.”
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Question: Do people with good logical/analytical skills have an advantage in vipassanā meditation?
Tan Ajahn: I think they will, because in vipassanā, we use rationality and logic. We use cause and effect—this thing happened which makes this other thing happen.
The Four Noble Truths is logic, the cause and the effect.
Our bad feeling arise from our desires.
Our bad feelings disappear when we get rid of our desires. And the thing that will help us get rid of our desire is vipassanā, the knowledge of impermanence, stress and anattā. In some ways, people with good rational minds will advance quickly when they arrive at the vipassanā level.
In some cases, good rational mind can be a hindrance when they try to calm the mind, to stop the mind from thinking, because they want to keep on thinking. So, for people who don’t think much, it might be easier to develop calm, while for those who think, sometimes it can be difficult.
Overall, though, the logical thinking process helps calm the mind.
For instance, when you sit and try to calm the mind, when you start to worry about something or someone, then you have to think rationally about that something or someone. While you are here and that thing or someone is over there, can you do anything about it?
Can you stop that person from being impermanent?
Can you stop that person from doing whatever that person wants to do? If you can see this truth, then you can stop worrying about them, then your mind can start to become calm enough for you to focus on your meditation object.
So, this is something that you might want to use when you try to meditate and your mind starts to worry about this or that. And there is no other way to stop it, except using logic to reason with your mind, so that it can stop worrying about that thing or that person.
“Dhamma for the Asking, Nov 18, 2014”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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