The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

23 July 2024

Q:  I feel like I have so much love for the world and I really want to try to, in some way, help the world and help my friends and my family. By awakening myself, is this the best chance that I have for helping others?

Than Ajahn:  Yes. Before you can help others, you have to have the tools or the ability to help others. If you don’t have the ability to do it then your intention is useless because you can’t put it into practice. Like if you want to be a lifeguard but you don’t know how to swim then how are you going to help other people when they drown? You first have to learn how to swim then you can become a life guard and you can protect people's life on the beaches.

So it’s the same way if you want to help other people overcome their suffering, you first have to know how to do it. Overcoming your own suffering first is like learning how to swim [in the simile mentioned above]. 

You learn how to get rid of your mental suffering, your stress, your depression, your anxiety, your worry and all these negative feelings inside of you. You have to learn how to get rid of them first. Unless you know how to do it then you can help other people to do it. 

Like the Buddha, before he started teaching to the world, he first had to find the way for himself to deal with his own suffering. Once he had found a path and got rid of all his suffering then he was ready to help the world. He did it for 45 years after his 6 years on solitude and meditation. 

So you first have to develop your ability to help other people before you can help other people. Intention alone is not good enough.

Q :  So I don't have to worry about forgetting about them once I become enlightened. I’m not going to lose my love for the world by becoming enlightened.

Than Ajahn:  They’ll come to you once you’re enlightened. You don’t have to go after them. 

You'll be the super lover of the world, super Santa Clause like the Buddha. 

Look at the Buddha, he worked tirelessly teaching people every day. He taught people four times a day. In the afternoon, he taught the lay people; in the evening, he thought the monks and the bhikkhunis; late at night, he taught the devas, the spiritual beings; and early in the morning before he went on almsround, he’d send his mental mind searching for people that he could help on that particular day. So that was what the Buddha had done every day of his life for 45 years. Who else could do this without getting paid? He got only the food on almsround, that’s all he got, that’s all he needed. 

And the Buddha’s love and compassion still linger to this day. We still respect him for what he had done. We couldn't thank him enough for what he had done for the world. 

Without him, we won't be here, we would probably be in in the mental institution somewhere. Really! I'm not kidding! You could end up in a mental institution or end up killing yourself if you don’t have Buddhism to help you. That's what a lot of people do nowadays because they don't know how to overcome their suffering or their depression. 

Okay? Understood?

Don't worry about other people for now. 

Worry about your practice. Finish your work first. Once you’ve finished your work then you can help others. 

Student:  Okay, thank you so much.

“Dhamma in English, Sept 19, 2023.”

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Monk:  Is there a role for doing generosity, as a service, in the community, maybe to create the feeling of happiness? For example, Than Ajahn Paññā liked to fix watches for his friends, which is a kind of being generous. How is this connected to development of samādhi?

Than Ajahn:  It is an alternative way, but it is not the right way because the right way is samādhi that you eventually have to achieve. 

Other things are just a means to bring your mind towards that goal eventually. 

When you do things for other people, you are in a way stopping your defilement from doing things for yourself. It is this defilement that is one of the problems which we call hindrances that prevent you from having samādhi. 

You have to be very careful because sometimes you may overdo it and you become attached to the path and forget that it is just a path, it is not the goal. The problem is sometimes you take the path to be the goal, so you are not getting anywhere. 

The path is to stop your mind from doing anything for yourself. So instead of watching TV or doing something that is harmful or not useful, you go do some work for other people. But for monks, I will discourage this. I think monks should solely concentrate on developing mindfulness. Because the Buddha said, in order to achieve the results of your practice, you need the constant development of mindfulness. You have to live alone in a secluded place, don’t socialize and don’t mingle with other people. You have to know how to be moderate in your eating. You have to constantly guard your senses. 

When you go help other people you are generally not guarding your senses. You are actually opening the gate to let your mind go out towards all the senses. So I don’t think that that is the proper way, except that if you cannot do these four things that the Buddha requires you to do, then maybe you have to go back and do this pre-requisite work first, do things for other people first. But eventually this is to lessen your desire to do things for yourself, then you can come back, be with yourself, be alone and develop mindfulness.

“Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, Jun 9, 2015”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

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