“Teaching meditation to Westerners”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

14 April 2024

“Teaching meditation to Westerners”

Monk1   :  Do you think when teaching meditation to Westerners, it is proper to use (the verbal or mental recitation of) Buddho or to teach something different?

Phra Ajahn :  I think you should let them decide what is suitable for them. I think most Westerners prefer ānāpānasati because it has been taught in the Mahā Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness teaches mindfulness of breathing as a way to calm the mind, so I think it is generally used to teach Westerners. But there are many different meditation objects that can be used. It is up to the teacher depending on what he found to be effective or useful for him. He will then use that technique to teach other people.

But the students who take up the teaching might have to improvise or adapt to a different technique if the technique that was taught is not suitable to them because there are 40 meditation objects that could be used for calming the mind. I think if you read in the texts, they are divided into three or four different categories. However, people in Thailand are generally very devoted and close to the Buddha. The Buddha is almost like God. For them, thinking of the Buddha will help them to calm down the mind very quickly because they rely on the Buddha to help them in times of stress or suffering. 

But many people in Thailand will usually start with chanting because sometimes they find that repeating the word Buddho is still not easy for them. The mind still drifts and goes thinking about different things. 

For them to chant suttas or verses first helps to slow the mind down, and after the mind slows down, they can just use the word Buddho. So how has your meditation been going?

Monk1.  : It’s usually not… (The conversation was diverted to some other topics.)

Laywoman (F1).  : Ajahn, do you know Mr. Pompan who went to the same school as you?

Phra Ajahn.  : Yes, we were in Seventh-day Adventist School, a Christian school.

Laywoman (F1).  : So, you were Christian?

Phra Ajahn.  : No, no. We went there because they taught English, and my father wanted me to learn English. The school was run by the Seventh-day Adventist missionary and one of the requirements to be accepted into the school was to go to church every Sunday. 

So I learnt a lot about Christianity in the school, but they could never convert me. 

They asked me why, and I told them that I respected Jesus and loved his teachings, but somehow, for me to be convinced that he saved my life was something I could not see. I thought that I had to save myself rather than anybody else. 

When I read about Buddhism, I realised that this was the right religion for me because Buddhism teaches us to save ourselves. We have to save ourselves. We have to be our own refuge. Attãhi attano nãtho. So, I started to study (Buddhist) books and meditate by myself, and I realised that this was a good way to go because it helped make my mind peaceful and more secure. Before, when I was about to go to university, I thought that after I graduated, I would be very secure and happy. But it didn’t make any difference — before or after graduation — my mind was still the same, still very insecure like a roller coaster.

So, I realised that the education I had gone through was not good enough. So, I started looking for something else, like reading books, and I eventually came across books on Buddhism. I was in Thailand, living in a Buddhist country, but I had never read a Buddhist Dhamma book before or listened to a Dhamma talk because, to me, the religion in Thailand appeared to be very ritualistic. You pray, light incense and candles, and then pray for wealth or whatever you want. 

But those are only the superficial parts of Buddhism that most Thai people are exposed to. They never have the chance to get the teachings, so I never knew that Buddhism was the religion I should follow. It was only after I was given a book on Buddhism written in English, I think, by a monk in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka there were many English monks who translated some of the texts and distributed them for free. I was given a small one. After reading it, I felt that I had found the answer to my question. So, I wrote back and asked for more books to read, and eventually I got one on the

Four Foundation of Mindfulness. So, I started practicing following those instructions, sitting using ānāpānasati, being mindful of my movement, and investigating my body, the 32 parts or the ten stages of decomposition. And I found that the more I did it, the more my mind became calm and secure. I became less and less afraid of things because I realised that this is the truth, this is what will happen. The mind isn’t afraid of the truth. In fact, the mind is helped by the truth which makes it strong and ready to face the eventuality. 

So, after practising like this for about a year, I decided to do more. The way to be able to do more and to do it all the time is to become a monk, so I became a monk.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.facebook.com/AjahnSuchartAbhijato

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

29 October 2024

You have to look at the big picture. And the big picture is: we are all going to get old, get sick and die. So no matter how successful our life might be we are all going to end with ageing, sickness and death. 

Once you can see the big picture then you will not worry about the small picture anymore. The small pictures are not significant as compared to the big picture. 

That's why the Buddha teaches us to contemplate on ageing, sickness and death all the time. So don’t forget the big picture. 

Sometimes you forget about the big picture and worry about the small picture which is not significant at all. You worry too much about the small picture and forget about the big picture.

You have to always have the big picture in the back of your mind so when you deal with the small picture you can say, ‘Oh, it’s not a big problem, it’s not that important.’ If you can deal with it, do it but if you can’t deal with it then leave it alone, let it be. You can’t change the big picture anyway. So do what you can do and accept what you can’t do. 

Your goal should be more concerned about dealing with the big picture. Once you can deal with ageing, sickness and death, all other problems are insignificant. If you can accept ageing, sickness and death, you can accept anything. 

You like to forget about the big picture because it doesn't make you feel good when you think about the big picture. Small picture can delude you to make you feel secure, make you feel happy so you don't like to look at the big picture. You like to look at the small picture like planning for your wedding, planning for your holiday, planning for your birthday party – these are the little pictures that you indulge in in order to forget about the big picture. 

This is a delusion – not seeing anicca, dukkha, anattā nature of life. This keeps you looking for pleasure in life while the truth is life will only give you dukkha because life is anicca, life is anattā.

If you keep looking at the big picture, you gradually will become enlightened to the truth. But if you turn your back on it and don’t look at the big picture then you will be deluded or deceived by the little picture or little happiness that you can get from little things like from your marriage, graduation, anniversaries.

All these little pictures will deceive you or will not let you see the big picture. So you always hope for something good, something better because you don’t see the big picture. If you can see the big picture then you know that there is no hope; but you don’t want to be hopeless so you don’t want to look at the big picture so you can be hopeful.

You can only do this [look at the big picture] if you have something to replace life like meditation, getting happiness from peace of mind. Then you can look at the big picture and are not worried about life because you don't really rely on it anymore, you have something better that you don’t get from life that is the spiritual things that you get from meditation, from peace of mind, from contentment. 

Once you have this [peace of mind from meditation] then you are not worried about life because you don’t rely your wellbeing on life. You don’t rely your happiness on life because you know it's not dependable, it's not reliable. You cannot rely on life for happiness and for security. 

But you can rely on your meditation to give you happiness and security.

So you should practice more mindfulness and meditation then you won't have to rely on life to give you happiness. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 5, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

21 October 2024

Q:  How should I practice for a good death?

Than Ajahn:  For a good death you need to practice to keep your mind calm. You can do it by the method of mindfulness or the method of wisdom. The method of mindfulness is by focusing your mind on something to keep your mind away from thinking. If your mind does not think then there will be no fear, no nothing; the mind will be calm and quiet. But this is only a temporary measure. 

To get to a permanent fix, you need to use the method of wisdom – to understand the nature of the body. The body is impermanent, it’s a natural phenomenon, it doesn’t belong to you. The body is just the combination of the four elements that join together to form a body and one day it will have to separate and there is nothing anybody can do to stop it from happening.

The cause of our suffering or mental stress is our clinging to the body. We want the body to last forever. 

Due to our delusion, we don’t want it to disappear. We think that the body is us while in fact we are just the one who knows, the one who thinks which is called the mind that is connected to this body temporarily. 

So we have to understand the nature of the mind and the nature of the body. The body is not the mind and the mind is not the body. 

One day they have to separate. In order for them to be separated in a peaceful and happy way, we have to let it go, we have to let it happen. 

You need the strength of mindfulness to stop your mind from resisting this truth. Your mind still wants to cling to it. You want to keep this body for as long as possible even though it causes the mind tremendous suffering. 

So if you want to reduce the suffering, you just have to accept the eventuality of the body that the body, one day, has to return to the four elements. 

If we can see this with wisdom, see that we are not the body, and there is nothing we can do to keep the body forever then we just have to let it go. We just remain calm. Merely knowing – know that this is happening. 

Just focus on our breath until we no longer breathe then we know that the mind and the body are separated. 

That’s why we need to practice a lot of mindfulness and meditation in order to still the mind or to calm the mind, to stop the defilement from resisting the truth. 

Once we can control the defilement then we use wisdom to teach the mind to let go. We know that we have to let go because if we don’t let go, we will suffer. 

If we don’t want to suffer then we have to let go. 

So there are two levels. The first level is mindfulness. If you go to a fearful place that might cause you to be concerned about your life, you can recite a mantra, ‘Budho, Budho,’ to calm your mind down. Once your mind becomes calm then your fear disappears temporarily. You just remain calm, you are not affected by the situation.  [The next level] If you want to permanently get rid of your fear then you have to accept the truth of the body that one day the body will have to die and no one can stop it from dying. 

If you want to live in peace and die in peace then you just have to accept the dissolution of the body. 

- - - - - - 

Q:  I would like to ask for instruction to realise anicca (impermanence).

Than Ajahn:  Look at all the changes that is happening all around you. The leaves are anicca, people dying are anicca, people get sick are anicca. The Buddha saw the ageing person, the sick person and the death person and that’s why the Buddha taught us to constantly reflect on them. Once being born, we are subjected to ageing, sickness and death and to separation from the one we loved. This is something we have to constantly reflect on, not just once or twice a day but as much as possible. 

The Buddha asked his assistant (Ven. Ananda), ‘How many times you reflect on death in a day?’ and he replied, ‘Four or five times.’ The Buddha said that it’s not enough, ‘You have to reflect on death in every in and out breath.’ When you breathe in and you don’t breathe out, you die; when you breathe out and you don’t breathe in, you die. This is the way to reflect on anicca (impermanence). 

Everything is the same. Everything rises and eventually it has to cease. Nothing exists forever except the six elements (the earth, water, wind, fire, the knowing and the space element). These six elements will remain forever but they will form into something all the time. 

They will combine and form a human body or an animal body. Once having a form, it eventually has to disintegrate, it will go separate ways again - this is the work of nature. We have to understand it and we shouldn’t cling to anything because if we cling onto it, we will have stress or suffering when we lose what we cling to.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 18, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g