The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
16th July, 2022
Question : When Ajahn mentioned that the noble disciples will guard their sīla more than their lives, does that mean that when they come across a situation when they have to break their sīla, they would rather die?
Than Ajahn : Yes, because the one who breaks the sīla is the mind; the one who pays the consequence of breaking the sīla is the mind, not the body. The body is just like an equipment, like a bicycle that the rider uses to take him to go anywhere for instance. In the situation where the rider has to pay to protect the bike, he would decide to dump the bicycle instead.
A sotāpanna sees the law of kamma. A sotāpanna sees that regardless of the reason for him to break the precepts, the mind will become stressful, the mind will have to pay for it. But if the mind lets go of the body and lets the body be, then the mind won’t be stressful. This is because a Sotāpanna sees the impermanent nature of the body all the time, sees the no-self nature of the body. A Sotāpanna sees that the body is not him or her, so if the body dies, in which the body is not him/her, then what should he or she be worried about? You only worry about something that will affect you, right?
Question : Alright, I see it now. So, the sotāpanna sees the body and the mind as separate entities.
Than Ajahn : The body is not the one who pays the consequence; it’s the mind who has to pay the consequence. So, why would you want to face the consequence just to protect your body, in which the body is something you cannot protect anyway? One day, you’re gonna have to lose it anyway.
Question : So, it comes naturally for a sotāpanna and it’s part of his second nature.
Than Ajahn : That’s right.
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Question : Ajahn said that kamma affects the mind. It also affects the body, doesn’t it?
Than Ajahn : No. The body may happen to be the collateral damage. The real damage is the mind. For instance, a person uses the mind to go and rob a bank, but the authority can’t catch the mind because they can’t see the mind, so they catch the body. They put the body in jail. By putting the body in jail, they also lock the mind up with the body. So, the mind is the one who suffers, not the body. The body still can eat and can sleep in jail, just like when it’s outside of jail. Do you see the difference?
Layperson : That’s a good one.
Than Ajahn : So, the body is just the collateral damage. The one who really pays the consequence of the bad kamma is the mind because the mind is locked up with the body. It cannot go anywhere, so it becomes frustrated, becomes unhappy.
It’s not the body that feels happy or not happy. The body can’t feel, it doesn’t have any emotion. You can put the body anywhere, it doesn’t matter to the body. Put it in jail, or put it in a box, it doesn’t complain. It just takes whatever that comes to it. Take the body to the hospital, it doesn’t complain. It’s the mind who complains. It’s the mind that is not happy. Take the body to the dentist, it doesn’t complain. It’s the mind who is not happy with the toothache, it’s the mind that complaints, because it doesn’t want to experience the pain from the body.
But if you have equanimity, then it doesn’t matter whatever happens to the body, the body and the mind will be in synchronize. The body doesn’t matter; the mind also says, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Once the mind has equanimity, when you put the body in a box, in the prison, or in the hospital, the mind also says, ‘It doesn’t matter.’
This is what the mind lacks: equanimity. That’s why you have to keep practicing mindfulness and meditation to get this equanimity established in the mind. Once you have equanimity, then the mind can accept anything that happens to the body. So for a sotāpanna, he or she will protect the mind rather than the body. So, the mind will say, ‘No. Let’s not do any bad kamma.’
But as far as the body is concerned, whether it’s doing good or bad kamma, it doesn’t matter because the body still gets to eat, to sleep, and to do anything as per usual. It’s the mind that is being punished and has to pay the consequence of doing bad kamma. Because as soon as you break the precepts, the mind already feels bad. Even when nobody knows that you have committed something illegal, you’d already feel bad about it. It’s the mind that feels bad, not the body.
“Dhamma in English, May 24, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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