The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
13 October 2024
Q: The Buddha’s teaching is akaliko (timeless), but how come Buddhism will disappear after 5000 years?
Than Ajahn: Because nobody takes it up, that’s all. It’s still there. The next Buddha will bring it up again. It’s still there but no one study and practice the Buddha’s teaching so it will disappear from people’s mind. Then we have to wait for the new Buddha to discover it again.
The Four Noble Truths are always there. Like the law of gravity, it is always there. It’s waiting for somebody to discover it. Can you say that the law of gravity changes? No, it doesn’t change, right? It’s always there but whether people know it or not, that can change.
There will be a new Buddha who will discover the Four Noble Truths and teach the people.
So there is a new person who will discover the Four Noble Truths after they disappear.
Like our Buddha, when he practiced, there were no Four Noble Truths taught by anybody so nobody knew anything about the Four Noble Truths. He also didn’t know about the Four Noble Truths but he wanted to get rid of his suffering so he investigated it and found them. The Four Noble Truths are in our heart, but we just don’t see them, that’s all.
When you have stress, is that the Noble Truth or not?
When you cry, that’s the first Noble Truth, right? But you don’t investigate it, ‘Why am I crying? Why should I cry?’
Because you want your money back, or you want your husband back. He went for somebody else so you cried.
If you don’t see the cause of your crying which is your craving, so you cry.
These are the Noble Truths happening all the time in people’s mind. But they don’t see them as such. When you are sad, that’s the first Noble Truth. When you hear bad news, you are sad. What’s the cause of your sadness? You don’t want to hear bad news, you want to hear good news. So the Four Noble Truths are always there but nobody sees them. Even the Buddha, before he became enlightened, he had them inside himself but he didn’t see them.
The delusion is so great so you don’t see them.
When you feel sad, you blame on somebody else. [For example] You blame on your husband. He is the one who makes you sad.
But it’s not him leaving you that makes you sad, it’s your desire for him not to leave you that makes you sad. So if you change your mindset, ‘Okay, he could leave me, I don’t care,’ then you won’t be sad, right?
See, the Noble Truths are always there.
People don’t see them. It takes one person, once in a long time, to see these Truths then he can teach other people to see them. As soon as the Buddha saw the Four Noble Truths, he then taught the 5 ascetics then they could also see them. After he taught the Four Noble Truths in the First Discourse, one of the ascetics became enlightened. ‘Yes, I can see the Four Noble Truths now. It’s in myself, in my mind, working all the time. But I just don’t see them. When I feel sad, instead of killing my craving, I go kill other people who make me sad.’ Then he had to keep killing other people because there would be more people that made him sad again. But if he killed the defilement once and for all, then he would never be sad anymore.
This is what we want to do: to stop the second Noble Truth from happening. If it happens – which is the craving – we want to eliminate it or stop it by using the practice of meditation and wisdom to see that everything is beyond our control. People die or people leave us, we can’t stop them when that happened. The only thing that we can do is just to accept it. If we can accept it then we won’t become sad.
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Q: How to solve sadness?
Than Ajahn: Sadness comes from your desire. You want something and you don’t get what you want then it makes you sad. So somehow you have to stop this desire for things to be the way you want them to be.
And you can do this by meditating, by stopping your thoughts. Once you stop thinking then you forget about what you want, then your sadness will temporarily disappear. But it doesn’t disappear permanently. As soon as you think about it again then you become sad again.
If you want to get rid of your sadness permanently then you have to accept that things just happen the way they are because they are not under your control. They don’t respond to your desire. They are anattā.
You have to use mindfulness to stop it first. Stop thinking. Stop thinking.
Q: Last night I was very sad.
Than Ajahn: Well, what you should do is to accept the sadness itself. Don’t try to get rid of it if you can’t get rid of it. Accept the sadness. Just be sad and be happy with the sadness instead. Your problem is you don’t want to be sad which cause you to have more sadness.
And you don’t know how to get rid of it then it makes you even more sad. So the best way if you don’t know how to get rid of your sadness is to accept it. ‘Okay, let’s be sad and be happy with it.’
If you can accept the sadness then you don’t have to watch your breath anymore. Once you accept it then you can become happy. If you could let go of it completely then there’d be no sadness left in the mind and you’ll feel light and easy and happy.
Q: Is this phenomenon due to my past kamma?
Than Ajahn: Don’t worry about past kamma.
Worry about how to deal with your problem now. The best way is to embrace it if you can’t get rid of it. Accept it.
If you can’t get rid of your sadness then try to live with it. If you can accept sadness, then you won’t be so sad.
The problem is when you are so sad, you can’t accept your sadness. If you can meditate, then you can temporarily stop your sadness. But if you can’t meditate and you can’t get rid of your sadness, then just try to accept your sadness. Or be grateful that you are still alive.
“Dhamma in English, April 30, 2024.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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