The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
6 October 2023
“All the things you own are subjected to impermanence. They can disappear any time without any warning.”
Question from Paris: “Do I observe anicca, dukkha, anattā in my meditation after my mind drops in samādhi or do I observe anicca, dukkha, anattā outside my meditation period, for example, during my daily activities?”
Than Ajahn: “You do it in your daily activities when you are not meditating. When you’re meditating, you want to rest your mind. It is the same way like sleeping, when you are sleeping, you don’t work. You do work after you’ve gotten up from your sleep. The mind is like the body. The mind needs to strengthen itself by going into meditation to rest. After the mind has rested, it will then come out of its resting state and starts doing activities. Then, you can start to contemplate.
You should contemplate on the things you love by telling yourself that all things you own are impermanent. They can leave you any time without any warning. All of a sudden something can happen to one of your family members, like somebody gets sick, somebody dies. Your money can suddenly disappear or got stolen. Your possessions like your cars, your I-phone, your rings, your watches, and all the things you own are subjected to impermanence. They can disappear any time without any warning.
If you know this impermanence of things ahead of time and if you’re prepared for the disappearance of the things you love, when it happens, you don’t feel bad.
You have to constantly reminding yourself about it. The problem is: once you don’t remind yourself of the impermanence of things, you forget about it and you expect that everything will be ok. But in fact, everything will not be ok.
I read in one of the articles or books which says, ‘Everything is not ok.’ Everything is always in disarray.
Everything always goes wrong. If you think like this, when things don’t go right, you will feel much happier.
When things go wrong, you can say, ‘Well, this is normal. This is the way things are’.”
Dhamma for the Asking, Jan 03, 2018.
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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