The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
12th December, 2022
Mae Chee: If I keep money offered with the intention that I might need it in the future for medical purposes, is this the correct thinking?
Tan Ajahn: I think it is better just to give it away. Because this can be deception by your defilements, your greed. It will make you want more and more. Just give it away and let the Dhamma decide for you in the future when you get sick. If you give it away, what you give away will come back to you when you need it. So don’t worry. If you keep it then you are actually keeping dukkha because you have to look after that money. You have to worry with your money.
So it can be a hindrance to your practice. So it’s better just to give it away or keep it with someone you can trust and forget about it. Don’t keep it with yourself. I think the best thing is to give it away. That will solve all your problems. If you keep it then you will have attachment to it and this is against your practice of letting go. Don’t worry about if you get sick. You know you’re going to get sick, you know you’re going to die. So why worry about getting sick or dying. Your purpose is to accept death, accept sickness.
“Dhamma in English, Oct 2, 2022.”
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Mae Chee: About giving money away, does it mean that I shouldn’t keep any money at all and should not worry about the future because my expenses are now covered by the Monastery?
Than Ajahn: Ideally you should follow the Buddha’s example. The Buddha didn’t have any money. If you feel that you have to have money, you have to be very careful. You have to put a cap/limit on how much you should have. If you don’t put a limit on it, you’ll keep thinking, ‘Maybe I need more money, maybe I need more money,’ and it will start to make you look for more money than look for meditation. It makes you forget that you’re going to die, you are going to get sick.
Mae Chee: Yeah, I find that when my meditation was not good, I was tempted to use the money to buy things so I was thinking whether I should give all my money away so that I don’t have any option.
Than Ajahn: Yes. Cast your life to faith, to your kamma. If it’s the time for you to die, no matter how much money you have, you cannot stop yourself from death. If it isn’t yet the time for you to die, probably somebody will be there to look after you.
When I ordained, I didn’t have any money. I was penniless when I became a monk. And when I spent almost 9 years at Wat Pa Baan Taad, I didn’t have money at all. I never thought about money. I was only thinking about meditation, mindfulness, wisdom and asubha.
So you don’t really need to have money if you are a real meditator. Even when you get sick, you can use the ‘Dhamma medicine’ if you have no money to buy medicine. Just use mindfulness (samādhi) and wisdom as your medicine—to look after your mind. The body is not worth more important than the mind.
Now when your body gets sick, your mind gets sicker than the body.
So you feel terrible not because of the sickness of the body but of the sickness of your mind.
But if you have ‘Dhamma medicine’, you can cure the sickness of the mind. You might not be able to cure the sickness of the body, but that doesn’t matter. Once the mind has no sickness, the mind is happy, and the mind can live with the sickness of the body or the death of the body if it has to happen that way.
So concentrate on the ‘Dhamma medicine’ if you worry about sickness. That’s why you ordain.
You don’t want to have any dealing with money anymore. You are willing to give up your life for the Dhamma.
Mae Chee: So in the future, if people give me money, should I say that I don’t accept any money?
Than Ajahn: No. You can accept it and then you can give it away. Because people want to give it to you so you want to accept their kindness but you don’t have to tell them that you are not going to keep the money. They don’t care what you do with the money after they gave it to you, right? It’s up to you on what you want to do with it. When someone gives you money, you shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I am going to give the money to somebody else.’ Because it may make the person feels bad because the person wants to give it to you, not to somebody else. So you don’t have to tell people what you are going to do with that money. But if people give you money with a condition attached to it, then you can decline it. If they say, ‘We give you this money so you can do this or that,’ if you cannot accept the condition, then you can decline it.
But if they give you without any condition, then you just accept it. And then you can do whatever you want with it.
Mae Chee: Currently, the Monastery gives me some allowance, should I tell them that I don’t need it?
Than Ajahn: You don’t want to make an issue out of it. When they give you allowance, you just accept it, and then you can give it to anybody you want. Quietly. Because if you try to tell them that you don’t want it, it might cause an issue for them. People might think, ‘What’s wrong with you? Are you trying to show off?’ Whatever you do, try to be discreet as much as possible.
I think the word, ’discreet,’ has been forgotten in this new world here. It’s always showing off.
Whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram, it’s always showing off and showing off. There is no such thing as being discreet anymore. Why do people want to show it off for? What do they get when other people give the ‘Like’? Maybe they want to use it for advertisement purposes, to monetise it if they get a lot of ‘Like’ and a lot of followers.
“Dhamma in English, Oct 4, 2022.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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