The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
7 December 2023
“Once your mind becomes peaceful and happy, then you’ll look at everything as perfect.”
Male: “You said, ‘We have to control our mind,’ but the Buddha said, ‘Everything is anattā’, we cannot control anything. So, we’re trying to control our mind, but at the same time we know we cannot control anything.”
Than Ajahn: “We can control the mind because if we don’t control the mind, the mind will control us. When the Buddha said, ‘Everything cannot be controlled,’ he doesn’t mean the mind cannot be controlled.”
Male: “It means except for the mind?”
Than Ajahn: “Yes, you can control the mind.
Everything else outside of your mind, you cannot control. Like your body, your body is not the mind, so you cannot control it. The weather, you cannot control it. Your money, you cannot control it. Your wife, your kids, you cannot control them. But you can control your mind to make it calm and happy, regardless of whatever happens.
We’re doing the wrong things. We do not control something we can control, but we go control something we cannot control. So, we are always in trouble. We always feel bad because we can never be able to control what we want to control. It’s because we don’t know what we can control and what we cannot control. It’s the Buddha who has discovered that if you want to control something, you control your mind.
Once you can control your mind, everything is perfect.
If you try to control everything else, nothing is ever perfect. So, if you want to have everything perfect, just control your mind.
Once your mind becomes peaceful and happy, then you’ll look at everything as perfect. Really! Everything is perfect. People crying, people laughing, all are perfect. This is the way things are. Once you can control your mind, you’re not hurt or affected by what you see or what you hear.”
From “Dhamma in English to layperson from France, Mar 5-8, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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