The Teaching of Ajaan Suchart.
3 April 2023
Question: Certain laymen claim to have reached higher mental levels such as sotāpanna, sakadāgāmī, anāgāmī, arahant. Will a person who has truly achieved such advanced mental levels make public announcements?
Than Ajahn: Usually not. Because he/she is smart enough to know that it is safer for him/her just to keep quiet. If he/she has to say anything, he/she will just say how to practise and how to achieve it. There is no need to claim oneself as making such and such achievement because someone who has achieved high attainment is not hungry for fame anymore. If you are still hungry for fame, then this is your defilement.
So usually an ariya (one who has gain the ariya attainment) tends to keep quiet.
If he speaks, he only speaks about the path, the practice, and the achievement without mentioning oneself because he knows that whatever he says will be subjected to scrutiny and it is hard to prove to people who have no way of knowing. So it is useless to tell people that you have achieved a certain level.
It is not productive. It can be more harmful than good. It is probably better just to keep quiet because if you have truly attained, you have contentment, you are not hungry for fame, praise, or for anything from other people. You are happy as you are, so you don’t need to do or say anything to gain more benefits.
Question: Is it possible to ascertain whether a person has attained any four stages of awakening (sotāpanna, sakadāgāmī, anāgāmī, arahant) by outward appearance and behaviour?
Than Ajahn: Partially, not completely. To be certain, you have to ask the person what kind of achievement the person has achieved. And this is not stated in the scriptures. It is something that you find out through your practice, and only those who practise will understand, will know.
If someone just tells others that ‘I have let go of my attachment, my fetters’, this is merely scripture-reading statement. But if you can explain what it means, then you can be certain of it.
If you yourself want to ascertain or find out whether someone has attained any enlightenment, you yourself have to already achieve enlightenment. If you have not achieved enlightenment, you will not be able to tell whether the person is speaking the truth or not. So yes, it is like this.
If you have passed a certain type of examination, you can talk to another person about the same type of examination whether he has passed that examination. If he says ‘Yes,’ then you can ask him [about the exam] to make sure that he really has passed the examination. Because you have already passed the examination, so you know what the questions are like. So in order to ascertain someone’s attainments, you first have to attain to that level yourself before you can question or interview that person.
Question: What does it mean to be a true Buddhist? How would you define a true Buddhist?
What should be his key virtues?
Than Ajahn: First, he has to have absolute faith in the Buddha and the Dhamma. He believes in the teachings of the Buddha, Dhamma, and the Sangha only, not other teachings. If other teachings do not contradict the Buddha’s teachings, if he would like to study them like studying physics or mathematics, that’s okay. But these (other teachings) should not contradict the teachings of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
As a Buddhist, you have to take the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as your real teachers and then follow their teachings, and practise until you achieve the result. So his key virtue is to be faithful, to have saddhā.
Then he needs to have viriya (being diligent, to exert) to develop mindfulness, samādhi and wisdom. This is the key virtue of a true Buddhist.
Question: Could you tell us why you decided to become a Buddhist Bhikkhu?
Than Ajahn: Well, after studying, practising, and following the teachings of the Buddha for one year, I found that it was the best choice for me at that time. I had two choices: to become a monk or go back to work.
If I go back to work I would not have any time to meditate and to practice. Even if I practice, I would have very little time to meditate. But if I become a monk, I could practise and meditate all day long. So I decided to become a monk because the result from meditation is far greater/better than the result from working.
Question: Can a true Buddhist hold grudges?
Than Ajahn: Yes, even if you are a true Buddhist, you can still have defilements. You will have no grudges against anybody, only when you have achieved the highest level of attainment, as an arahant.
Question: What if a person who holds grudges for ages tells you that he/she is so keen to end the cycle of samsara soon? Isn’t it contradictory?
Than Ajahn: It is not. If you have not yet achieved the highest level of attainment, you can still have grudges, you can still have anger. But once you have achieved the highest level of attainment, you no longer have any anger or hatred.
Question: For a person who is keen to learn the key teachings of the Buddha, what books would you recommend? Preferably those translated into English).
Than Ajahn: I would recommend that you read the suttas of the Buddha first:
1) Dhamma-cakkappavattana-sutta—the first sermon.
2) Anatta-Lakkhaṇa Sutta (Not-Self Discourse).
3) Āditta-pariyāya Sutta (The Fire Discourse)
4) Satipatthäna Sutta (The Foundations of Mindfulness)
5) Maṅgala Sutta (The Discourse on Blessings)
These are the principle teachings of the Buddha. You can search these suttas in the internet.
They are all translated into English.
The Buddha is the best teacher to study from when you first start, so you should study from the Buddha first. Afterward, when you study from other teachers, then you would know whether their teachings are following the teachings of the Buddha or not.
Question: As the Buddha had stated in Majjhima Nikaya, “Every living being has karma as its own, its inheritance, its cause, its kinsman, its refuge. Kamma is that which differentiates all living beings into low and high states.” Could you enlighten us more on kamma? What is kamma and how does it come into play in an individual’s life?
Than Ajahn: Kamma is the actions performed by the mind through the body’s action and speech. It is the mind that directs speech and the body’s actions. And these actions can be good or bad, harmful or beneficial to other people. If it is harmful, it is considered to be bad karma. If it is beneficial, it is considered to be good karma. And when you do good karma, your mind becomes happy. When you do bad karma your mind becomes unhappy.
So this is what happens when you do kamma. And this happiness and unhappiness is the one that differentiates people from one another. Some people are happy and some people are not happy. Basically, this will make them to be different types of people. People who are not happy tend to do bad things more than those who are happy. People who are happy tend to do good kamma. This is all I can tell you about karma.
Question: At times we are being compelled to associate with people who would make our life unpleasant on purpose by harassing us unnecessarily or by inflicting pain on us in some way or the other. According to Buddhism, we get subjected to such harassment due to a bad karma we had committed either in this life or previous life. Let’s call A the victim and B, the culprit. For example, to make A pay for his/her karma, B is made to commit fresh karma (by inflicting pain or harassing A). In other words, B accumulates bad new karma by making A pay for his past bad karma. Later, either in this birth or in the next birth B will have to pay for his bad karma which he had to commit (unknowingly) to make A pay for his previous bad karma. How would you justify B being made use of in order to make A suffer for his past kamma?
Than Ajahn: There is no justification. The only way to overcome this retaliating action is to stop retaliating. If someone does something bad to you, then do not react or retaliate. Consider it as you want to stop this vicious circle of retaliating against one another. If you can do that, eventually there won’t be retaliation from your enemy. If you keep on retaliating, then you would get the retaliation back from the opponent. Action produces more action. No action produces no action. That is the law of kamma. If you do not wish to have any reaction from your opponent, stop your actions. When you stop your action, your opponent too will stop his reaction/s eventually.
Question: How can we make use of the teachings of the Buddha in order to deal with hopelessness?
Than Ajahn: Your hopelessness comes from your misunderstanding of the truth. So you should stop hopelessness by stop thinking temporarily. Keep reciting the ‘Buddho, Buddho’ mantra when you feel hopeless. After you have recited ‘Buddho’ and you can stop thinking, then your hopelessness will disappear, and you will be able to look at the situation properly again, with wisdom.
So when you feel hopeless, try to use mindfulness to stop your feeling of hopelessness. Once you have stopped the hopelessness and start looking at things differently, then you will see things in a different light!
“Dhamma in English, Sep 18, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
Questions were submitted by a journalist from Sri Lanka and she also transcribed and published them on Sunday Observer website:
https://www.sundayobserver.lk/.../impact/break-cycle-revenge
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