The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
23 October 2023
Question: Why is it so much easier for me to point out other people’s defilements, other people’s cravings, but I couldn’t see my own defilements readily? I also perceive that my own defilements are at a finer level, whilst other people’s defilements, I braggingly think that they are at a coarser level, so I am at a better place. This kind of arrogance does surface in me. If I practise well, would this kind of judgmental thought no longer come up?
Phra Ajahn: The problem with people is that people like to look outside, they don’t look inside. They are directed their thoughts toward the sensual organs by their delusion.
Avijjā paccayā sankhāra. Sankhāra paccayā viññāṇa. Viññāṇa connects to sensual organs then to sensual objects. So this is how people see things. They look at the sensual objects.
They see things as people and things, and they become critical of the things they saw. They never look at themselves because they don’t know how to look at themselves.
In order to look at ourselves, we need mindfulness. We have to develop mindfulness to bring our mind inside.
When we’ve developed mindfulness, we would stop the flow of our thought, our consciousness, going outside.
We stop it by reciting a mantra or by focusing on an object to stop the mind from sending the stream of consciousness toward the sensual objects, so we can come back inside, into jhāna.
When you are in jhāna, you go back inside the mind, then you can see what’s going on inside your mind.
Once your mind is calm, you can look inside your mind to see how the nāma-khandhas are working. You can see how your sankhāra (thought) is working, you can see how your saññā (perception) is working. You can see how the feeling is working. Inside the mind is where you can see your defilements, you can see the working of your greed, hatred and delusion. So you need to go inside the mind first.
Like if you are outside the house, you can see everything outside the house, but you can’t see what’s going on inside the house. You have to come inside the house to see how dirty the house is, ‘Oh! I haven’t cleaned my own house for weeks! I’ve been busy cleaning other people’s house and I forget to clean my own house.’
That’s why you need to practise meditation first in order to be able to clean up your own house, your own mind, i.e. your greed, your hatred, your delusion. That’s why the practise of samādhi is very important. You need to have samādhi first before you go to vipassanā to purify your own mind. You need to get inside the mind first. You cannot clean it from the outside.
Practise mindfulness and get into jhāna. When you get into jhāna, you will begin to see the defilements very clearly when they come up.
We need jhāna or samādhi first before we can get rid of our defilements, otherwise our defilements will be the one directing us to go after other people’s defilements.
And this is the reason why we get into problems because we like to point our fingers toward other people.
We should point our fingers toward ourselves because our defilements are inside us, they are not in other people’s mind. But we don’t see our own defilements, we see other people’s defilements, and we want to get rid of other people’s defilements instead of getting rid of our own defilements. And we also don’t like it when other people tell us to get rid of our defilements. We get angry at them. This is not the way to solve the problem about defilements.
The way to solve this problem is to come inside the mind first, then you can clean up the defilements. Once you are inside the mind, you can see the defilements very clearly.
So practise mindfulness and meditation. Don’t worry so much about vipassanā, don’t worry about other people’s defilements. Besides, people don’t like to be purified by other people. They don’t like to be told of what to do.
So you should purify your own mind.
Everyone should purify his/her own mind, and should not worry about other people’s mind unless they come to you seeking for guidance.
Like all of you come to me to seek for guidance today, then I can tell you what to do.
Otherwise, I won’t go to your house and bang on your door and say, ’Come on! Get rid of your defilements.
They are bad for you.’ Then you’d probably say, ’So what? I enjoy them. I like drinking. I like gambling. I like watching TV, movies. What’s wrong with that?’
So the Buddha told monks that we are not supposed to teach people unless they ask for guidance first.
According to Buddhist tradition, before a monk gives a sermon, people have to invite the monk first to give the sermon on the Dhamma. This means that people are willing to listen to the sermon. If they are not willing to listen, if they don’t invite the monk to give the sermon, and yet the monk gives it to them, then they might get mad at the monk. So, mind your own business.
Layperson: Thank you, Than Ajahn. Beautiful teaching.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 8, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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