The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
6 September 2024
In order for our mind to develop to a higher level, it needs fuel to get there, just like a car, which needs fuel to move around. It needs gasoline to drive the engine, oil for lubrication, water for cooling, distilled water for the battery, and many other kinds of oil. If any of these things is missing, it will not run smoothly or deliver us to our destination.
While driving, if there is not enough water to cool the engine, it will overheat and stop running.
Without gasoline, it will not run.
Without lubricating oil, the engine will stop running.
Likewise, for us to go from our present status to a higher and better one, namely, to be morally upright and wise, we need the fuel of Dhamma or the five spiritual powers to get us there. They are as follows:
1. Conviction or saddhā.
2. Exertion or viriya.
3. Mindfulness or sati.
4. Concentration or samādhi.
5. Wisdom or paññā
We need these five spiritual powers to lead our mind to a better place, to heaven, to nibbāna, just like the Buddha and his noble disciples did. They all used these spiritual powers to propel their mind to achieve their goals.
Conviction or faith is belief in the Buddha, the Dhamma or teaching, and the Sangha or noble disciples.
We believe that the Buddha was an enlightened being, an arahant or pure one, whose mind was free of defilement or kilesa, as opposed to a puthujjana or ordinary worldling like all of us, who have not yet realized any of the four stages of enlightenment. We still have greed, hatred and delusion, which subject us to dukkha or suffering. An arahant, on the other hand, no longer has any kilesa or spiritual defilement, namely greed, hatred, and delusion. He is therefore free from all forms of suffering, because the causes of suffering have all been eliminated. This is what the Buddha had achieved. He then taught it to others, to humans and devas or inhabitants of the heavenly realm.
Teaching to human beings is something we can comprehend since the noble disciples were all human beings. They took up his teaching and eventually attained enlightenment and became arahants like him.
There is no doubt about this.
But teaching to devas or inhabitants of the heavenly realm is something else. I don’t know if you believe in devas or not. They are transparent and cannot be seen with our naked eyes.
They can only be seen with spiritual eyes that can be developed by meditation. When the Buddha meditated, he used his spiritual powers to communicate with heavenly beings. That was the way he taught the devas.
Every day the Buddha performed five daily duties. In the afternoon he taught Dhamma to the laity, just as you are being taught today. In the evening he taught Dhamma to the monks. Late at night during meditation he taught Dhamma to the devas. In the morning before going out for alms, he would use his spiritual eyes to see whom he should bless first, someone who would quickly understand the Dhamma teaching and realize any one of the four stages of enlightenment, or someone who was about to pass away.
Then he would go on his alms round.
This was his daily activity during the remaining forty-five years of his life.
Teaching Dhamma to interested persons is therefore the primary goal of Buddhism.
Whoever follows the Dhamma teaching will benefit from it immensely. This is the task of the Dhamma and the Buddha, who had tirelessly and selflessly worked for the benefits of others. If we truly believe in his enlightenment, then we will not question his teaching. Faith in the Buddha will therefore lead to faith in the Dhamma teaching that taught us to cultivate good, avoid all evil, and cleanse our mind. This is the path to real happiness and liberation.
If we believe in the Buddha, we will believe that his Dhamma teaching is correct and precise.
Nothing can surpass it.
Even if we are very rich and have millions, we will never find true happiness because it is not about wealth, not about possessions or people. If you have a girl friend or a boy friend, do not think that will make you truly happy. At first you might feel delighted but after a while things begin to change. New becomes old. Sweet becomes bitter. Nothing remains the same. This is the law of nature.
People who are wealthy and have everything that money can buy are not truly happy because the things they have cannot give them true happiness. As we all well know, during the time of the Buddha, there were millionaires who gave up their money, kings and princes gave up their throne, for a life of a recluse because they believed in the Dhamma teaching that taught real happiness was in the mind that has no kilesa or defilement.
The reason we are unhappy and afflicted by all sorts of suffering is because of the kilesa.
Greed, hatred, and delusion are constantly agitating and disturbing our mind. They make us feel uneasy, discontent, insatiate, and lusting for more and more. This is the work of the kilesa.
If we can get rid of them, then there will be nothing to agitate and push us to crave for this and that, to go here and there, and to lust for lots and lots of money so we can buy lots and lots of things to make us feel happy. But this kind of happiness is very short-lived before boredom sets in.
Familiarity breeds boredom. After we own these things for a while, we get tired of them and want other things. This is the nature of unending lust. No matter how much we have, it is never enough.
Dhamma therefore teaches that true happiness does not depend on having money to buy things because everything in this world is transient, full of stress, and not under our control. We may think that having this or that will make us happy. But after having it for a while, we will get tired of it.
When it becomes old, damaged, breaks down, or leaves us, we will feel dejected.
Therefore, please remember that everything in this world that we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, is impermanent. They will surely leave us one day. When we lose something that we love dearly, it will make us very sad indeed.
Because of this, the Buddha left all his possessions to become a monk in search of the real kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on external things such as wealth, fame or praise, the happiness that derives from peace of mind, devoid of the kilesa.
When the kilesa are subdued, the mind becomes tranquil, content, at ease and happy. But when the kilesa is active, the mind is set on fire.
We look mean and ferocious when we are angry or greedy. Our facial expression reflects our state of mind. But when the kilesa is subjugated, the mind radiates love, compassion, peace, charity and forgiveness.
This is what happens when the mind is rid of all the kilesa. It experiences the supreme bliss.
We should therefore have faith in the Dhamma teaching and the noble disciples who help propagate it, like all the Ajahns whom we believe to be arahants or noble ones, who have all attained the highest goal of Buddhism, nibbāna. They have practiced correctly according to the Buddha’s instruction until all of the kilesa are entirely eliminated from their mind, becoming noble disciples, and imparting puñña or merits and benefits to their faithful followers, who will get to hear their teaching of the way to the extinction of suffering, and when they faithfully follow this teaching they will eventually achieve the highest goal of Buddhism, becoming arahants or pure ones.
“Sensual Pleasures Are Painful”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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