The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
27 December 2024
Q: You mentioned that the difference between a self in Sotāpanna and in Arahant is that one is physical and the other one is mental. Does it mean that our delusion thinks that there are two self?
Than Ajahn: No. It’s because the mind thinks that the mind and the body are one, are the same things but when you practice, you know that the mind and the body are two separate things.
So you have the delusion of a self in the body as well as the delusion of a self in the mind. A Sotāpanna gets rid of the delusion of a self in the body. After that, he has to get rid of the delusion of the self in the mind, the conceit that he still has in the mind.
There are really two persons in our existence.
We don’t know that we are twins. We thought we are one but we actually are two persons, the mind and the body. Since the mind is invisible so we then presume that the body and the mind are one. But in fact, the body and the mind are two separate entities.
The mind is the master, the body is the servant. The mind is the one who tells the body what to do, ‘Go get me a glass of water, eat this, eat that, go here, go there,’ it’s the mind telling the body what to do. But we presumed that the body and the mind are the same person. You have to tell your body what to do right? If you don’t tell the body what to do, then the body will just sit there. If you don’t tell the body to get up, you won’t be getting up.
Our problem is we are only taking care of the body and not the mind. We leave the mind always in a state of turmoil, in state of agitation and discontent. We feed the body with plenty of food until we overeat, give the body everything that the body needs until we overdo looking after the body. But we hardly look after the mind.
We don’t give the mind what the mind needs.
The mind needs you to do charity because when you give, you feel good, you feel happy.
Like Christmas, you give presents, right? When you give presents, you feel good. But you only give once a year so you only give food [to the mind] once a year.
You give food to the body every day, three times a day, but with the mind, you do it maybe only on Christmas, New Year, birthday or some occasions. And for the rest of the year, you leave the mind hungry all the time.
And when the mind is hungry, you thought that body is hungry so you feed the body with more food. You don’t feed the mind. You give the body more food while the body said, ‘I don’t need more food, I’m overweight already.’ You keep feeding the body not the mind.
When you want something that your body doesn’t need, it means your mind is hungry, not the body. But you thought that the body is hungry so you eat more food, get more drinks. In doing so, instead of making the mind full, you make the mind more hungry because you're feeding the wrong person. Instead of feeding the mind, you feed the body.
Every time when the mind wants something, you feed the body but not the mind. The mind says, ‘I want food,’ and food for the mind is charity, doing good things for other people, making other people happy.
When you make other people happy, your mind feels good, your mind feels fulfilled, content. If you don’t give this kind of food to the mind, then the mind will keep telling you, ‘I’m hungry,’ and you thought that the mind is hunger for sensual pleasure then you take the mind to go for holiday, to Italy for instance, but your mind will still be hungry. Once you get to Italy, then you want to go somewhere else.
The mind then says, ‘I don’t want this, this doesn’t give me contentment.’
Q: So do we not listen to our mind?
Than Ajahn: We don’t know what the mind needs. The mind also needs the four requisites like the body. The food requisite for the mind is charity. The clothing for the mind is keeping the precepts or morality. The home for the mind is meditation (samādhi/calm). And the medicine for the mind is wisdom. These are what the mind needs in order for the mind to be happy, healthy and content. But we hardly give these things to the mind. So the mind is constantly in a state of hunger, in a state of dissatisfaction, discontent. Even if you give the mind $100 million dollars, the mind is still discontent, dissatisfied because you give it to the wrong person. All the things that you do, you do it for the body not for the mind. It’s because nobody teaches you what to give to the mind unless you come to Buddhism.
Buddhism teaches you to give the 4 requisites to the mind.
(i) If you want to give food to the mind, you do good things for other people like do charity;
(ii) If you want to give clothing for the mind, you keep the precepts. This is like putting on nice clothing. When you put on nice clothing, when people look at you, they will feel happy, and they want to be near you. If you are morally good, people want to be close to you because they know that you are not going to hurt them. This is clothing for the mind —morality;
(iii) Housing for the mind is meditation, jhāna. When you get to jhāna, you know that you are in a safe place, nothing can harm you. It’s like when you stay in the house, you feel protected;
(iv) When you are sick, you use the Dhamma medicine which is wisdom—the Three Characteristics of Existence or the Four Noble Truths—to tell you why your mind is sick, why you have stress. It’s because you have cravings. So stop your cravings. Once you stop cravings then your mind has no stress then your mind is well, your mind is not sick.
Q: Do we have to have the first 3 requisites before we get to the 4th one because without the first 3 requisites we are not able to use the medicine fully?
Than Ajahn: Well you might be able to use it partially by studying from the text or learning from the Buddha’s teachings. You can apply it to cure some sickness that is not deeply rooted. Like when you have a cut, you can use a plaster, you don’t need a surgery. But if you have cancer, then you have to go to hospital to get surgery.
So wisdom has many levels: lower level and higher level. The wisdom that you learn from here is on a lower level and you can apply it when you have lower-level stress. It’s like using a bandage or applying some tincture on to your wound. For wound that needs surgery [wisdom on higher level], you need to do meditation first. You need to calm the mind first before you can apply this higher type of medication. You need upekkhā.
“Dhamma in English, Dec 26, 2023.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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