The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
11 September 2024
This brings us to the second of spiritual powers, exertion or viriya. If we want to achieve the lofty goal of Dhamma practice, we must be diligent and hardworking. We must come to the temple regularly to give alms, maintain the precepts or sīla, listen to Dhamma talks, and make as much merit as we possibly can. Don’t be lazy. The more we sow, the more we will reap. If we don’t put in the effort, we will reap nothing.
No one can do it for us, not even the Buddha or his noble disciples. They can only point us the way, instruct us on how to realize the goal. This goal is not to be materially wealthy, but spiritually wealthy. We should be rich with morality, charity, spiritual happiness and contentment. This kind of wealth can never be stolen from us, unlike the worldly possessions. Our husbands and wives can be taken away from us.
Our children and our property can be seized. But the real wealth within ourselves can never be stolen from us by anyone.
Meritorious actions or kusala-kamma are truly our possessions. They will protect us; make us happy and content, now and in the future. When we die, we will go to sugati or a happy destination, not to apāya-bhūmi or state of deprivation, the four lower levels of existence into which we will be reborn as a result of our past unskilful actions namely rebirth in hell, as a hungry ghost, as an angry demon, or as a common animal.
If we could maintain all the meritorious actions such as keeping the five precepts and giving to charity, we would at the least be reborn as a human being endowed with beauty, brain and wealth, and suffered no hardship or injury because we were led by our skilful actions.
Without these meritorious actions, we would go to a lower level of existence, to be reborn as an animal such as a cat, a bird, or a buffalo. Such is the consequence of not doing meritorious actions. This is the law of Dhamma, the truth.
Therefore, if we want to improve ourselves, go to a happy destination or sugati, a good existence, a noble plane of existence or ariya-bhūmi, we must be diligent and persistent in doing meritorious or skilful actions.
We must strive in maintaining our ethical and moral purity, not allowing it to slip away, and push to have more of it. For example, if we now keep the five precepts, we must not slide back but should keep more precepts, going from the five precepts to the eight, ten and eventually to the 227 precepts practiced by the monks or bhikkhu, which is a good and right thing to do.
We must also work hard in preventing ourselves from doing more unwholesome and unskilful actions that we have already discarded. For example, in the past we used to be erratic and emotional. Now we are calm and rational. People may say bad things about us, but we don’t mind, we can forgive and forget. We can now manage our anger and keep it under control, not allowing it to reappear.
If we still possess any other unwholesome qualities like holding grudges or being stubborn, we should also strive to eradicate them. We should be rational, rather than being greedy, hateful and delusional. What we haven’t yet discarded we ought to do.
What we have already eliminated we must not allow to return. In other words, we must strive to cultivate good, avoid all evil, and cleanse our mind. This is what is meant by exertion or viriya, the second spiritual power.
Once we start coming to monastery and listening to the Dhamma talks, we start to see the benefits. We gain something that we never had before, namely Dhamma, which is unlike all other material things, such as automobiles. We can see these motor vehicles with our naked eyes, but not so with Dhamma because it is spiritual. It gradually seeps into our mind. We might not feel anything at all although we might have been coming to the temple for a long time. But Dhamma continues to slowly infiltrate. Then one day, suddenly there is calmness in our mind. We will then realize that this is what we have come to the temple for all along.
Maybe in the future we might encounter some crisis, go through unpleasant situations such as losing our loved ones, if we have the Buddha’s teaching to reflect on, we could remain calm and peaceful, rather than being afflicted with sorrow and lamentation to the point of not being able to eat or sleep, because the Buddha has told us that parting from our loved ones is a natural occurrence.
It happens to everyone. It is not unusual.
There is no need to be sad or tearful. We are still alive.
Life goes on. We should maintain our composure and not fall prey to depression. If we could do this, we would see the benefits of the Dhamma teaching. In the past we came to the temple without knowing why we came. But when we run into trouble the Dhamma teaching that we have heard before could help get us out of our predicament and ease us out of our suffering, we would then appreciate immensely the value of the Dhamma teaching, would be a lot more diligent in our practice, and would want to do more meritorious actions like giving to charity.
Why do people give to charity or keep the training precepts? We might ask ourselves.
It’s because it makes them feel good and help them in time of crisis. If we haven’t done it before we might not appreciate it. To find out we just have to do it. Just keep doing it until we reap the results.
It is like planting trees. We don’t expect trees to bear fruit right away. When we plant durian or mango trees, we have to wait five to ten years for them to bear fruit.
It’s the same with making merits, keeping the precepts or listening to Dhamma talks. It doesn’t come to fruition instantly. It takes time. What we have to do is to have faith in the Buddha’s teaching and apply it untiringly. The fruits of our labor will come in due course.
“Sensual Pleasures Are Painful”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
