The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
2 February 2023
Question: When we can’t remember the truth [that everything is impermanent] all the time, is it because we lack mindfulness or is it because we haven’t achieved the equanimous stage?
Than Ajahn: You have the habit to think in the opposite way. You keep thinking that everything is permanent, everything is under your control. So you have to switch your thinking habits. You should start to think that everything is not certain. Impermanent means uncertainty. Anattā means everything is not under your control, not controllable.
You keep thinking that you can control this and that person. You think you can control somebody but one day, maybe that person doesn’t want you to control him anymore, then you become disappointed or sad.
So you always have to think that nothing is under your control, nothing is always the same. Things keep changing. Things keep coming and going. This is the way to develop wisdom.
Look at everything like the water that flows out of the tap. It comes and goes. When you turn it on, you let the water goes into the sink, and then the water disappears, then you get new water flowing out from the tap again. So everything is like the stream of water. Happiness, sadness, good things, bad things, they keep coming and going like this. You should just be the observer.
You shouldn’t be the reactor, you shouldn’t react to what you come across. Just be an observer rather than the reactor because you know, when good thing comes, long before you know it, it’s already gone and it is replaced by something else.
So everything is flowing, moving. Your body is moving, but slowly like a snail, so you don’t notice that it’s moving. Before you know it, you turn to become an old lady and an old man.
Have you ever thought that one day you’ll become an old lady and an old man? Or worse than that, you will be lying in the coffin. So you don’t want to think about it. Your defilement doesn’t want you to think about it because when you think about it, the defilement will make you feel bad, so you don’t want to think about this thing. That’s why you need equanimity first before you can think about this thing. When you have equanimity, you won’t feel bad when you reflect on the future.
Student: Than Ajahn said that our defilements make us feel bad?
Than Ajahn: Yes. Your desire creates dukkha. Dukkha means feeling bad. Your desire for not wanting to get old, to get sick, or to die, your desire to live forever, to be healthy and strong forever will cause you to have dukkha.
Student: So Dhamma is the one that can counter it.
Than Ajahn: Yes. Dhamma can counter your delusion. Dhamma is the truth. Delusion is the falsehood.
We live on falsehood. We look at everything as permanent, as long lasting; everything will last forever.
Like in the movie. In the end, everybody lives happily ever after, but the movie doesn’t have the sequel. If there is a sequel, everything becomes bad.
Student: So whatever we do, we just have to remind ourselves that we can only do it up to a certain level.
Than Ajahn: Yeah, we are all here temporarily. Look at it this way. Everybody is here temporarily. This world is like an airport where we come to switch plane. We’ve got off the plane and are waiting for the next plane. When the next plane comes, we’ll take this new plane and this new plane will take off from this airport.
This place is like an airport for our mind. We come here and the airport gives us a body, and then we get to know everybody in the airport. Then one by one, the people whom we know might go off before us or after us. Eventually when the plane comes, everybody has to catch his own plane. So we are like the travellers in the airport. In the airport, they give you everything. You can find a restaurant to eat, or a hotel to sleep in, but when your plane comes, you have to board the plane and leave the airport.
Question: What if you are enlightened?
Than Ajahn: If you are enlightened, you just get ready for the flight. That’s all. You know you’re going to take the flight sooner or later, right? When you are at the airport, you’d keep watching at the announcement board to see what time your flight is.
But when you are here, you forget that you are just a traveller who is waiting for the next plane.
You think that you are going to stay at the airport forever, so you make commitment, long term commitment. You invest, spend money, look for money, buy a house, and buy things, thinking that you are going to live in this earth forever.
This is what is called ‘wisdom contemplation.’ Contemplate on anicca, contemplate on anattā.
You don’t know what time your flight is because it’s not pre-announced. You just come to the airport and when the time comes, it just tells you, ‘Now it’s the time for you to board the plane.’
For the enlightened persons, they are always ready for the announcement. So they are not bringing any bags. They are not surprised when the time comes.
That’s why the Buddha asked his attendant, Venerable Ānanda, ‘Ānanda, how many times in a day that you reflect on death?’ Venerable Ānanda said, ‘4 or 5 times a day.’ Then the Buddha said, ‘You are complacent. You have to think of death every time you breathe. When you breathe out and you don’t breathe in, death comes. When you breathe in and you don’t breathe out, you die.’ So you have to think like this, then you are always ready. You should reflect on death as much as possible.
But if you don’t have upekkhā, you won’t be able to do it because every time when you think of death, you feel bad. Your defilement will make you feel bad. If you have strong upekkhā, your defilement cannot make you feel bad because your upekkhā will suppress your defilement although it will not suppress it all the time, but it's enough to make you be able to contemplate on anicca.
“Dhamma in English, Aug 16, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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