The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
13 November 2023
“If you meditate and you still don’t feel any joy or happiness, it means you haven’t yet reached the goal.”
Question: I have been meditating for a long time now. However, joy and peace never arise. Where have I gone wrong?
Than Ajahn: I think you haven’t gone deeply enough yet. You have only gone half way to jhāna.
You haven’t reached the fourth jhāna. If you have reached that, you will experience something that you have never experienced before—a life changing experience. You will find that there is no other kind of happiness in this world comparable to this happiness.
If you meditate and you still don’t feel any joy or happiness, it means you haven’t yet reached the goal.
You should concentrate on your meditation object and continue meditating. Don’t stop. If you don’t succeed this time, try the next time. Keep doing it. The reason why you haven’t reached that point yet is because your mindfulness is not strong enough to overcome the resistance.
The mind is constantly being pushed by your desire to go out, to go do the things that you want to do, to see, to hear. So you have to use this mindfulness to push it back in. If your mindfulness is not strong enough, you cannot push it into the deepest level yet. So you have to develop more mindfulness. Keep on practicing more and more.
…………….
Question: Occasionally when I make a decision about something, after some time, the thoughts will arise questioning the decision that I have made, trying to convince myself that I have made the wrong decision.
Why is this so?
Than Ajahn: Because when you do something, you are not sure what you are doing. You don’t know the reason behind it.
So before you do anything, you should think carefully and make sure you know exactly what to expect from your actions. Once you know, you won’t have any doubt. But if you are not sure what you are doing, then all sorts of doubts will come up. So think before you do anything.
By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
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