The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
20 January 2023
Question: Earlier you mentioned that there wasn’t a self in each of us, but another teacher talked about how we need to take our self as our own mainstay. How can we take our self as our mainstay when there is no self?
Than Ajahn: Well, treat yourself like a smart phone. There is no self in a smart phone, right? But a smart phone can take pictures and can record sounds. It is the same thing with your body.
Your body can take pictures and record sounds. So just be the receiver. Don’t try to be the reactor. Don’t be an actor. Just be a receiver. If you have to react, then react with rationality rather than with emotion.
Like somebody says hello to you, you can say hello back to that person because you have to, but you shouldn’t get angry or sad if that person doesn’t say nice thing to you. Something like that.
You merely accept what someone says to you. Like a phone, you can scold the phone, you can say bad things to the phone, it won’t react, right? That’s how you should behave, like a phone, like a smart phone.
Only react smartly. You react with reasons or rationality. You don’t react emotionally. You be like Siri in iPhone. Does Siri get angry with you when you ask her something?
Student: No.
Than Ajahn: Siri just replies what you ask, right? This is the way of having no self. Be like Siri (in iPhone). Get it?
Student: Yeah, I think I understand.
Than Ajahn: But we usually have the self in our point of view. When somebody says something that is opposing to our point of view, we react right away. We’d argue. For example, ‘Is abortion good or bad, right or wrong?’ then you’ll get a lot of discussion right away, right? Ask Siri, ‘Is abortion right or wrong?’ Let’s see what Siri says. Siri won’t say whether it’s right or wrong, right? Siri just says what abortion is. So this is something for you to follow. Think of yourself as a smart phone, as Siri.
If you have to reply, then reply with just the answer. There is no need to say what’s your view in the answer. Just say the truth. Or, if it’s possible, you don’t even need to reply it. Merely know.
If you don’t really have to reply it, then just remain quiet. Keep quiet. This is better. This will save you from getting a lot of suffering in your mind. The problem is we cannot keep still, right?
When we hear or see something, we suddenly react to it right away. That’s why we need to practice a lot of mindfulness and samādhi to get to equanimity. Then we can remain merely knowing, and not reacting to what we see or hear.
We have to go back to become a machine, unfortunately. Or maybe the machine is catching up with us, sooner or later, the machine will have emotion, and it will scold you when you ask stupid questions.
[Ajahn laughs] We have to reverse the process. We have to go back to become a machine. Merely seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, so forth, without any emotion.
This is what we are supposed to train the mind to do. Because by having no emotion, there will be no dukkha, no mental suffering.
“Dhamma in English, Jun 28, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
No comments:
Post a Comment