The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

17 September 2025

Q:  Whenever my mind started to concentrate on breathing in and out, there is always a white light appearing, how should I deal with this?

Phra Ajahn:  Just ignore it. Just pay attention to your breath then anything that appears will eventually disappears. Don’t give any attention to it because it will distract you from your meditation practice. Your practice is to watch your breath. Just keep watching your breath and ignore everything else. It’s all distractions. It’s something that you cannot prevent or get rid of by yourself. It will get rid of itself if you don’t pay any attention to it. It comes and it goes. The Buddha said ‘Treat it like aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā.’

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Q:  In this spiritual path, what is the importance of feedback in terms of receiving feedback or giving feedback to others? 

Personally, I find it quite useful because sometimes I get feedback from monks which helps me to improve, and at home, my family members also give me feedback. What is Ajahn’s opinion on this?

Phra Ajahn:  Well, giving feedback or advice to people depends on 2 things: First, your advice is a good advice or not a good advice; second, for the persons who receive your advice, whether they’re happy and willing to accept it or not. You have to know these because some people don’t like to be given any advice. If you tell them something, they get angry at you so you shouldn’t advise such people. And if you advise people the wrong thing, it is hurting them more than helping them. So you have to be sure that your advice is good, profitable and beneficial. 

You have to prove it yourself first, it is not something you think of. Because what you think of might not be what it should be. You have to prove it by practicing it yourself first then you are certain, you are 100% sure. 

So when you’re asked to give advice, then you could give the advice. But if you’re not asked, maybe it’s better just to leave people alone because it might create problems, sometimes people might despise you for it. 

So you have to know these 2 things.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

 

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

12 September 2025

Q:  I have some difficulty with my child. He is 15, a teenager. How to balance between mettā and not being too strong with him but also not being too nice with him.

Phra Ajahn:  Well, you have to draw a line somewhere - where you have to stop if you cannot help him. You have to first know what your duty is. Your duty is to teach him or to give him the right knowledge. If he is doing something wrong, then you have to tell him ‘This is not right, you shouldn’t do it’. If he insists on doing it, then you might have to find some form of prevention, like cut his allowance something like that to make him realize that if he continues to do it, then his life is gonna be a little more difficult for him. He might then see the reason and he should follow what you say. 

If he still does not follow your advice, then you just have to accept the reality that maybe this is the way it’s gonna be. So you have to cut loss, you know what I mean? Let him be. If he’s gonna go down the bad path and you try to stop him but he won’t stop, then the best thing you can do is to just give him the basic support, the 4 requisites of life: food, shelter, clothing and medicine, and education if he goes to school. 

But as far as his conduct, if he is doing bad conduct and you have already told him and he doesn’t listen to you, then there’s nothing you can do. This is where you have to draw the line. 

You can only teach and maybe find some form of prevention or obstacle to stop him or prevent him from doing what you think is not good. For example, you support him with money and when he has money, he can use that money to do things that he shouldn’t be doing so you might have to cut it down. But you cannot use force, you cannot slap him or chain him or anything like that. This is compassion or mettā. You can only help him so much. Once he doesn’t want to accept your help, then it’s useless for you to continue doing it.

Q:  So, does mettā mean that we shouldn’t always be too nice with other people?  

Phra Ajahn:  Oh, no. You have to have a standard to stick to. You want to help people but you have to make sure that they don’t hurt themselves by you helping them. If you help them and support their bad behaviours, then this is not helping them in the long run. You’re actually hurting them. So you have to look the end result of your action.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

11 September 2025

Question :  I recently heard the Thai phrase ‘Dhamma jàt săn’ (ธรรมะจัดสรร), could Ajahn please explain what this means?

Than Ajahn :  I use this word as Dhamma provider. Dhamma is the provider of everything. 

Whatever happens to you, whatever situations that lead you do things is considered to be ‘Dhamma jàt săn’. 

Dhamma provides you, lets you do things. It isn’t your own volition, not your own desire. But the Dhamma, the circumstances, is the one that initiates or brings things to you. You don’t have to go look for them. If it’s the time for you to have them, they will come to you. 

This is what I mean by ‘Dhamma jàt săn’. ‘Jàt săn’ means things being arranged for you. 

Dhamma is the arranger of things. Everything that happens to you, everything that you do, you do by ‘Dhamma jàt săn’, not by volition. 

Normally, without upekkhā, we tend to do things out of our volition, out of our desires or cravings. But if you have strong equanimity or strong upekkhā, you can let Dhamma arranges things for you, which is better because this is the natural way. You don’t have to go look for things. They come to you. You don’t have to look for things to do. There will be things for you to do. 

So this is what I mean by ‘Dhamma jàt săn’. 

Like what I’m doing [teaching] to you right now, it’s considered to be ‘Dhamma jàt săn’ because I have never planned to do this at all in my life time. Things just happen. When things just happen by themselves, this is what’s called ‘Dhamma jàt săn’. I hope this explains what I mean by ‘Dhamma jàt săn’. ‘Jàt săn’ means (the act of) arranging. Dhamma means nature. 

‘Dhamma jàt săn’: the natural way of things; things come to you without you having to go look for them. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 5, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #dhamma

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

10 September 2025

Layperson :  Than Ajahn, I heard you talked about 10 ways to make merits.

Than Ajahn :  10 ways of making yourself happy are:

1.  Give to charity (dāna). When you give dāna, you’ll feel happy especially when you give dāna for a good cause, like helping someone to have a better life, helping someone to alleviate one’s hardship. This will make you feel good. You will feel happy when you do it. 

  2.  Keep the precepts will also make you happy because when you keep the precepts, you know that you don’t hurt anybody. 

3.  Practise bhāvanā (meditation) will make you happy. 

4.  Sharing merits. After you’ve made merits from giving dāna, then you can dedicate part of the merits to the deceased, to spiritual beings e.g. sharing merits to the people you love like your parents who have passed away. 

Since you can’t give them money because they are gone, you can, at least, give them merits that you’ve made.

5.  Appreciate other people’s good actions (anumodanā). When people do good things, you are joyful for their good actions, then you will also feel good. Rather than say, ‘Oh! That person is just showing off to the world about what he/she has done’, you should say, ‘Ok, he/she is very generous, I appreciate his/her action.’ 

Then you’d feel happy with him/her. 

Or, when you see any organisation like the Red Cross helping people during the war, you’d say, ’Oh yes, I really appreciate what the organisation does.’ And you are also happy with its action, or you may want to contribute by donating some money to the organisation. 

This is also one of the ways to make yourself happy.

6.  Be humble. When you are humble, you don’t have to show how good or how rich you are. 

Just be humble. You don’t have to prove anything to anybody. This can also make you happy. If you want to prove that ‘I’m great, I’m smart’, when people don’t appreciate what you are trying to prove, instead of being happy, you can get angry. So it’s better to just be humble, to practise humility. Also, being humble will not hurt other people. 

People don’t like arrogant people. 

People like humble people because humble people don’t create any bad feelings for other people. 

7.  To serve others. You might not have money to give to other people, but you might be able to give your time to serve the community, do a public service, for instance. Or, just help someone next door. For example, you help an old lady who needs to go to the hospital, or help mowing the lawn for her.  Serving others is also a way to make yourself happy. 

8.  To have Right View (sammādiṭṭhi). 

Right View is having the right view of how to make yourself happy. Giving dāna, keeping the precepts are considered to be having Right View. 

Some people have the wrong view. 

They think in order to be happy, they have to buy a new car, new clothes, new house, or a yacht. If they do this, they would be happy for a few days, and then they would have problems because they have to look after the things they’ve bought. If anything goes wrong with the things they own, it would cause them a headache. 

So if you have Right View, you won’t go buy all those things. You will give your money to charity instead, in order to make yourself really happy, have no dukkha. 

Because once you give away your money, then that’s it. 

Right? But if you buy something, then you have to look after the things you’ve bought. 

So having Right View is one of the ways to make yourself happy. 

9.  If you don’t have Right View now, then you have to study the teachings of the Buddha, listen to Dhamma talks so that you can have Right View. 

Listen to Dhamma talks is also a way of making yourself happy because when you listen to Dhamma talks, you know what’s good and what’s bad, what’s right and wrong, and then you can stop doing the wrong things and start doing the right things. This is the ninth way of making yourself happy: to listen to Dhamma talks, to study the teachings of the Buddha.

10.  To share the Dhamma that you’ve learned. You’d say, ‘Oh! I feel happy because I am keeping the precepts’ then you’d tell other people, ‘If you want to be happy, keep the precepts!’ 

This is sharing of Dhamma. 

These are the 10 ways of making yourself happy according to the Buddha’s teachings. 

The way to make yourself happy is not by having a husband or wife, buying a new condo or going on a holiday. 

Having a husband or wife, buying condo, and going on a holiday are the examples of having the fake kinds of happiness, which will only last briefly, and after the happiness disappear, they are followed by all sort of problems. This type of ways of making yourself happy will also cause you to be addicted to them. When you don’t have them, you’ll feel miserable or depressed. 

But the 10 ways of making yourself happy according to the Buddha’s teachings will not cause any depression or sadness when you can’t do them. 

When you can’t give dāna, it’s ok. So, what? 

You can’t afford to give dāna now, no problem. You won’t be addicted to it when you can’t do it. 

You won’t feel that you are lacking something when you don’t do it.

Layperson :  That’s so good Ajahn. It’s really a good explanation. You can remember all of them well.

Than Ajahn :  You don’t memorise them. Once you understand how to make yourself happy, it stays in your mind. If you memorise it, you can forget. But once you understand it, it will always stay in your mind. So the study of the Dhamma is not by memorising them, but by understanding the teachings. 

Once you understand them, you will never forget them. 

If you memorise the Dhamma, you can forget the teachings if you stop thinking about them for a while. 

So you have to understand them. 

And the only way to understand them is to do the practice yourself. You have to do all 10 of them and then you can appreciate the result from doing the actions. You can feel the happiness arising in your mind, then you understand, ‘Oh ya! That’s why I have to do these things!’ 

Because it makes you happy. Right now, you are still listening to and memorising what I said. 

You have to do it. Once you’ve done it, then you’d say, ’I see, I see. I understand what you mean’.

Layperson :  Right now, I am experiencing no. 9.

Than Ajahn :  Okay. Good. 

Question :  When we experienced it, is this sandiṭṭhiko?

Than Ajahn :  Yes, sandiṭṭhiko, then you’ll never forget. 

That’s why you have to practice them all, not just to study them. Study doesn’t make impression in the mind. By only studying the teachings, they will stay in your mind briefly, and then they can disappear from your mind. But if you apply them in your life, if you do the actions, then they will stay with you because you can see both, the cause and the effect, i.e. the actions and the result arising from these actions.

Layperson :  Thank you, Than Ajahn.

“Dhamma in English, Mar 1, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #merits #dāna #precepts #bhāvanā #anumodanā #sammādiṭṭhi #humble #dhamma

“Disciples’ Carelessness”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

9 September 2025

“Disciples’ Carelessness”

In fact, having a teacher is to study their teachings. 

They teach us to practice, to create a refuge for ourselves because teachers will eventually grow old, fall ill, and die. Since the first one, the Lord Buddha, he also had to grow old, fall ill, and die. He taught us to practice, to create a refuge, to create the path, to create mindfulness, to create wisdom. If we have a refuge, mindfulness, and wisdom, our hearts will not have to depend on others. When we do not have to depend on others, when something happens to others, we will not suffer. But if we still cannot rely on ourselves, we keep relying on others who will one day leave us. 

When they leave us, we are shaken because we will have no refuge. We are shaken because we are afraid that when they leave us, we will have no refuge.

This is the carelessness of disciples who seek teachers, but do not seek to practice, seek to cling to them. 

Hearing and listening to their teachings at that time is like having the Dhamma. 

When listening to the Dhamma, the mind is happy, feeling that there is wisdom, but it is temporary wisdom. When listening, we understand. When we stop listening, it disappears and we forget. When something affects the mind, it shakes because the wisdom that comes from listening to the Dhamma can deteriorate. 

After listening, we forget.

Therefore, we must constantly consider the wisdom that we hear, constantly think. That impermanence is impermanent. Things in this world are impermanent. 

The teachers we rely on are also impermanent. They will soon leave us. Our bodies are also impermanent. 

We will soon leave this world. We must create a permanent Dhamma. If we have Dhamma, we will be able to rely on this Dhamma to protect and maintain our minds. The Dhamma we must have is concentration and wisdom, which we do not have. If we have concentration and wisdom, our minds will not be shaken by various events. Whatever happens and whatever ceases, our minds will not be troubled because our minds have a refuge and happiness within themselves. We do not need to seek happiness from others. 

We do not need to seek happiness from listening to sermons and Dhamma teachings from teachers. We do not need to seek happiness from making merit with teachers. 

We can be happy by ourselves, with our own Dhamma.

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

Wat Yan Sangwararam, Chonburi

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

7 September 2025

Namo Buddhaya 

—🌷🌷🌷—

Q:  My friend said that we can just do meditation, we do not have to do any chanting. what’s your comment on this, please?

 Phra Ajahn:  Well, chanting is the way for someone who cannot meditate yet. If you sit and you cannot stop your mind from thinking then chanting can help you stop a lot of your thinking and then it will be easier for you to meditate afterwards. So it depends on your mind. If your mind doesn’t think too much, you can meditate right away but if your mind keeps thinking about this person or that person, think about what happens and your mind cannot concentrate on your meditation then you have to use chanting to help you get rid of these thoughts first. If you are good in meditation, you don’t need to do chanting. When you begin [your meditation] but you cannot meditate, then you need chanting to help you eliminate your thoughts first or help you bring your thoughts down to a manageable level. 

Q:  If we are new to Buddhism, which morning and evening chanting that we should practice daily?

Phra Ajahn:  Well, in Thailand, they have a set of chanting verses to chant so you can use that as the chanting practice. You may have to get a chanting book with English translation so you can follow the chanting session. Or you can choose any sutta to chant. If you like the first discourse, you can chant that first discourse, you can choose any discourse you like. If you like the Mangala Sutta, you can chant the Mangala Sutta. Any suttas you like to chant, you can use them.

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Q:  I want to know a bit more on how to practice asubha meditation. 

Phra Ajahn:  Well, the goal of asubha contemplation is to embed in your mind the other aspect of the body that you don’t see which is the repulsive aspect of the body such as when the body dies. There are 10 stages of corpses you can reflect upon when the body dies. You can contemplate upon death to embed it into your memory so that you can use it when you want to get rid of your sexual desire. This is more for those who want to practice meditation, those who want to give up sexual conduct. 

When you have sexual desire arises, if you have these images of repulsive aspect of the body, this can stop your sexual desire. So you need to embed it in your mind which might take a while. You have to keep thinking of it. It’s like memorizing your multiplication table. You have to memorize 2 times 2 is 4. You have to keep thinking of the 10 stages of the corpses, from dying, becoming bloated and so on. This is one way of contemplating the unattractive aspect of the body. 

There is also another way which is to look inside, under the skin, of the body. Look at all the organs like a medical student who dissects a corpse, dissect a body. 

So you’ll see under the skin there will be flesh, there will be sinews, there will be bones, bone marrows, there will be all kinds of organs, like heart, lungs, intestines, brain and so forth. And you try to imagine the images of these various parts of the body in your mind. So whenever you feel that you have any sexual desire, when you think about these unattractive parts of the body, then the sexual desire will disappear. 

Visitor:  So when I see a good-looking girl on the street, I say to myself, ‘Ok, it is a skeleton.’ 

Phra Ajahn:  Yeah. It sounds easy but when you really do it, you might forget.

Visitor:  I try not to forget. 

Phra Ajahn:  See, when you don’t have sexual desire, it’s easy to do it but when you have sexual desire, these images that you have been trying to implant in your mind, they somehow disappear. So you have to do a lot of it. And your goal is to bring it out at the time when you need it. If you cannot bring it out when you need it, then it’s useless even though you might have contemplated it for many, many times before. When you see a beautiful boy or girl, suddenly you forget everything, you only see that beautiful images then you know that you have failed. 

Visitor:  So, the way to do it is to meditate on Budho or on the breath first and after that, I look into myself.  

Phra Ajahn:  Well, it’s not in the same instance. These are 2 stages. The first stage is to be able to make your mind calm on a long term basis, not just briefly when you meditate. You have to be calm because when you contemplate on asubha you want to contemplate on a long term basis, not just a few minutes and then you say, ‘Oh, I know, I know.’ Yes, you know but can you remember it when you need it? That’s the point. You’ll find out in real practice. When you have sexual desire, you’ll see if you can bring the asubha images out to stop it or not. If they don’t come out, that means you  have to do more contemplation. Doing contemplation is like doing your homework, preparing your mind for a test when it comes.  

Visitor:  Thank you very much.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

“Dhamma in English, Sep 18, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

4 September 2025

Q:  How can I attain to Anāgāmī level? 

Than Ajahn:  You have to move up to the next level of investigation. You have to get rid of your sexual desire. 

Your sexual desire arises from you thinking about beautiful women or men. When you think of good looking men or women, you have sexual desire for them. So you have to look the other side of the body: look at the body when it’s old, is sick, when it dies, when the body becomes a corpse, or look inside the body under the skin. There are many things that you don’t see about the body. So you have to look at the other side of the body which is the unattractive side. If you can see the unattractive side of the body then you can get rid of your sexual desire, then you become an Anāgāmi. 

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Q:  After chanting, my breath becomes subtle. When the breath disappears, sometimes it is difficult to fix my attention at one point and sometimes I just see the emptiness of the breath. 

How to deepen my samādhi? Should I fix my attention at one point or should I just be aware of the emptiness? 

Than Ajahn:  Just be aware of the emptiness and be aware whether you are thinking or not. If any thought arises, you should stop it. 

Don’t continue your thoughts. 

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Q:  While meditating using ānāpānasati, I am confused whether my breathing is the natural breathing or the controlled breathing. How to distinguish them?

Than Ajahn:  It doesn’t matter. Just keep watching the breath comes in and goes out, whether it’s natural or not natural is not the point. The point is to use it as the point of focus of your mind in order to prevent your mind from thinking. If you start to wonder whether it’s controlled or not controlled breath, you are already thinking. So don’t worry whether it’s controlled or not controlled. Just watch. Just observe and don’t think. 

- - - - -

Q:  After 15 min of meditation with my eyes closed, I felt burning sensation on my eyes so I opened my eyes which gave me much relief. 

But after opening my eyes for a while, the eyes felt heavy, this cycle keeps repeating throughout my meditation. Can Ajahn please advise?

Than Ajahn:  Well, if there is nothing physically cause your eyes to have irritation then you should just ignore it. If it only happens when you meditate then you should ignore it. When you feel any irritation while you’re meditating, just ignore it. Just keep focusing on your meditation object then eventually, this feeling can disappear. For meditators, there are many distractions. 

Sometimes you feel itchy here and there, sometimes you feel painful here and there. If you let these things distract your mind from your meditation then your meditation will not succeed. In order to succeed you have to ignore them and keep focusing on your meditation object. 

- - - - -

Q:  As listening to music is not allowed when we practice the 8 precepts, does Buddhist songs such as the Heart Sutra or the mantra with music acceptable and it will not break the 8 precepts?

Than Ajahn:  It’s still not good. It’s better to not listen to music whether it’s chanting music or not. It can still be a distraction. It’s better to listen to the chant alone or do the chanting yourself.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

1 September 2025

Q: In Ajahn’s book ‘Inspiring Dhamma,’ it mentioned that The Buddha taught us that we should try to always keep an open mind and not be narrow-minded. Can Ajahn advise why is this important?

Than Ajahn:  There is an opportunity to learn when you open up your mind because there are many things that you don’t know yet. If you’re close-minded, then you won’t learn anything more. So this is what the Buddha meant by keeping an open-mind attitude. Just listen, you don’t have to believe or disbelieve. If you want to know whether it is good or not, then you have to prove it by practicing it. There are many things that you need to know in order to get yourself free from all forms of suffering. In order to stop you from keep coming back to be reborn again and again, you need to know the path that will lead you to be the unborn. So you have to have an open mind to listen to the teaching and then try to prove it yourself whether what you’ve heard is good or not good. If you don’t know, maybe you can ask somebody else to compare or to verify it.

- - - - -

Q:  When a person killed another person in his past live, does that person have to pay back all his kamma?

Phra Ajahn:  Not necessarily. It depends on how much Dhamma practice you have. If you can reach nibbāna, then you don’t have to pay all your old debts. But if you haven’t reached nibbāna yet, then you still have to pay your debts depending on what kind of bad kamma you did. If you achieve the level of the noble disciples, then you don’t have to pay your bad kamma by being born in the lower realms of existence. But you can still be haunted by the people whom you did something wrong to. They could come and try to get even with you in your life time. 

Q:  For example, I see some people, before they parinibbāna, they still* *have to suffer with their body conditions.

Phra Ajahn:  That’s right, but the mind is not affected by the conditions of the body. Like the Buddha, he still had to experience some bad kamma from his past life. 

He used to cause cows that wanted to drink water not being able to drink water so in his final day, when he started to get thirsty, he could not find any clean water to drink. 

- - - - -

Q:  Is ‘the mind detaching from the body’ one of the signs of a sotāpanna? What does a sotāpanna have to overcome to pass the test?

Phra Ajahn:  A sotāpanna has to give up the body, he is not being hurt by whatever happens to the body. The body can get old, get sick and die, and the mind will not be affected by it.

- - - - -

Q:  Sometimes can we just do 4-precepts instead of the 5-precept?

Phra Ajahn:  Well, it’s like taking an examination, you can only do 4 questions, you cannot do all the questions so you cannot get a perfect score. You still have to pay for the one that you do not keep.

- - - - -

Q:  I still live together with my ex-boyfriend. So, to deal with grief of ending the relationship, I still must see him daily. What is the best approach to deal with grief after a relationship ends? Is it necessary to give time to grief?

Than Ajahn:  The best thing is to forget it. If you can forget it then the grief will disappear. When you start to think about your past relationship then try to stop it by reciting a mantra, chanting or sitting in meditation. 

Once you meditate or when your mind becomes calm then you forget what you think. When you don’t think then the past will not come and haunt you. You bring the past back by thoughts. If you stop thinking, then your past won’t come back. The past has already gone but you keep bringing it back by thinking about it. So you have to stop thinking about it then it will not come and bother you.  

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

Collected and shared by Andrew Sum

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

26 August 2025

Question: Is it jhāna when breathing seems to be stopped?

Than Ajahn: No, it just means that your mind is paying attention to breathing. It becomes jhāna when the mind enters a stillness where you no longer notice the breath. 

You go deeper and become calmer. You reach the fourth jhāna when the mind stops paying attention to the body. 

Mind becomes calm and happy by itself. 

Sometimes it can still hear a voice or feel a body, but the mind is not disturbed by what it hears or what it feels. This is the fourth jhāna.

If you want to go deeper, you have to focus your mind further. Then, you will enter arūpa-jhāna. 

But, no need to reach that deeper level. If you want to develop the mind to attain enlightenment, you only need the fourth jhāna. Once you get out of the fourth jhāna, when you return to a normal state of mind, you teach your mind that everything the mind wants is not permanent. Everything will cause you to suffer because everything will change or one day it will disappear.

So when your mind wants something, it knows it will end in misery. Thus you will not want for anything. 

You can stop your want or passion for something and someone else. 

Once you have no passion and desire, there will be no more anxiety, anxiety, sadness, or mental torment left in the mind.

“Dhamma in English, February 27, 2018. ”

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

#ajahnsucharttabhijato #meditasi #perhatian #jhana

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

2 September 2025

Q:  What is the difference between boredom and restlessness and how to overcome those states of mind?

Than Ajahn:  They are different forms of unhappiness. Boredom is a form of unhappiness. 

Restlessness is another form of unhappiness or suffering. In Buddhism, we use the term ‘suffering’ to cover every form of unhappiness or sadness. To overcome them you have to stop your mind from thinking, make your mind calm. When your mind becomes calm, all boredom and restlessness will disappear. So you have to learn how to meditate. Before you can meditate, you have to have mindfulness first. 

You have to try to develop mindfulness all the time. 

Stop your mind from thinking aimlessly or uselessly. 

Only think about what you have to do or what is necessary to think, otherwise, use a mantra to stop it or focus on your body actions. 

- - - - -

Q:  I’ve heard that teachers who have not attained nibbāna but teach others meditation will not get bad kamma because they are doing it with good intention. 

What is the repercussion of such teachers who teach others even though they themselves are not Ariyas? 

And what would be our approach to those teachers who are teaching meditation but clearly they themselves are not Arahants?  

Than Ajahn:  Well, if they teach what they know and what they know is not wrong, then there is nothing wrong with that because there are many different levels of knowledge that you can teach. You can teach about keeping the precepts, you can teach about how to develop mindfulness. But if you are trying something that you don’t know then you can mislead other people. 

So don’t try to teach something that you don’t know. 

Only teach people what you know then there will be no problem. You will not mislead other people into the wrong direction.

- - - - -

Q:  What is the best method to stay calm and avoid becoming quick-tempered in daily life situation?

Than Ajahn:  If you can recite a mantra, this is the easiest way. Just keep reciting the mantra when you feel uneasy. When you feel restless, keep reciting ‘Budho Budho Budho’ for a few minutes. It can calm your mind very quickly. 

- - - - -

Q:  When a person wants to develop meditative path but he/she keeps on getting disturbed by many obstacles, what cause him or her to keep getting those obstacles? Does it happen due to his bad karmic effect from previous birth?

Than Ajahn:  Sometimes your past kamma can also become a hindrance or obstacle but there are also other things that can become obstacles. It’s not the point to figure out what causes the obstacles, the point is to figure out how to overcome the obstacles. 

Whatever obstacles you have, try to overcome them. If you don’t know how to overcome them then you should seek advice from those who know how to overcome the obstacles. This is better than to think what causes these obstacles to appear in the first place.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

"The hard part is the practice."

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

3 August 2025

"The hard part is the practice."

So we have to go to the temple to listen to sermons and Dhamma to gain wisdom and then we have to put it into practice. The hard part is the practice. It's easy to listen to, like a drug addict who knows that drugs are more harmful than beneficial, but he can't quit. 

When it's time to take them, his heart will shake. He has to be brave, he has to dare to leave them, to escape them. If he's close to them, he can't quit. If he knows what he's addicted to, he has to make up his mind to quit. For example, the Lord Buddha knew that he was still addicted to the palace. 

He stayed there until the age of 29, even though he knew that it wasn't true happiness. 

Finally, he had the chance when another trap arose. At that time, he had to make a decision. Before, the suffering was only 1 time, now it's 2 times. At that time, he had a resolute mind, so he escaped from the palace.

Because it's difficult to go. It's not easy to give up being a layman. I've been through it, so I know. The monk said that when he was going to ordain, it was like he was going to die. But he said that if he was going to die because of ordination, he would accept it. I happened to read his brief biography. He also told about the time he was going to ordain. If he was going to die because of ordination, he would die, willing to sacrifice to repay the kindness of his parents. 

Therefore, giving up and cutting off things is not easy, not a toy, but it is very beneficial. 

Therefore, we should not see it as a small matter. We should see it as an important matter, something that we should try to do, not beyond our ability. It just depends on whether we dare to do it or not. If we do not have enough strength, we should try to cultivate it first, try to accumulate strength, accumulate enough merit. Right now, it is not ripe enough, like a fruit that is not fully ripe, it has not yet come out of the tree. Until it is fully ripe, it will come out on its own. We are like the fruit. 

In order to be fully ripe, we must diligently accumulate various merits, such as generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, loving-kindness, diligence, patience, and determination, like we intend to make merit once a month. It is called determination. We should increase it to twice a month, three times a month is even better. We should do more, but it does not have to be like this. One month it will be like this, but another period we will go alone sometimes. We do not have to come in groups like this. Whenever I have free time, I go to the temple, stay at the temple, and practice. If I keep doing this, sooner or later, I will definitely ordain. The male and female lay devotees who have ordained do this, gradually moving step by step, not doing it all at once, except for some who have already accumulated enough merit.

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

Wat Yan Sangwararam, Chonburi

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

19 August 2025

Question :  I’ve heard that wisdom or paññā will be something that will grow inside me without me trying to get anything or trying to achieve anything.

Than Ajahn :  That’s a misperception because the Buddha said that wisdom comes in 3 stages. 

1) The first stage is called ‘wisdom arising from learning: Sutamaya-paññā.’ Suta means listening to Dhamma talks, listening to the teachings of the Buddha. So you have to learn them. 

You cannot have your own wisdom arising from a foolish mind. A foolish mind will never have any wisdom arising by itself. 

You need to get wisdom from a wise mind, like that of the Buddha. That’s why we have to study the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha. Study the Four Noble Truths and the Three Characteristics of Existence, for instance. 

This is the first level or first stage of having wisdom: learning from others. 

2) Once you have learned from others, then you go to the next stage. The next stage is to maintain this knowledge that you have learned by constantly thinking about it, contemplating on it. Because if you don’t contemplate on it, you will forget. Right? It’s like when you go to school, when you first learned the lessons from the teachers in the class, the teachers will give you homework to do so that you won’t forget the lessons. 

So, this is the next level of having wisdom or knowledge: to contemplate the knowledge that you have learned. Once you have learned the Four Noble Truths, the Three Characteristics of Existence, the asubha, for instance, then you have to contemplate on them, so that you won’t forget the knowledge that you’ve learned.

3) Then, you go to the third level. This is the level in which you apply this knowledge to get rid of your defilements. In order to apply the knowledge that you have learned from the Buddha, the knowledge that you have contemplated on, you need to have upekkhā. 

You have to have a strong mind, a mind that is content, not hungry. And in order to have upekkhā, you need to bhāvanā, you have to meditate to get into the fourth jhāna. 

Once you have the fourth jhāna, and have upekkhā, when you apply the knowledge that you have been contemplating on, you can get rid of your dukkha or suffering. This is the third level of wisdom (bhāvanāmaya-paññā). 

Sometimes people interpret this bhāvanāmaya-paññā to be the knowledge that is arising from their meditation, but no—it is not. Because when you meditate, you don’t get any knowledge, you get equanimity. 

Then, with this equanimity, you use the knowledge that you have learned from the Buddha to apply it to get rid of your desires, your cravings. 

“Dhamma in English, Nov 16, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #paññā #Sutamayapaññā #upekkhā #bhāvanāmayapaññā #meditation

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

13 August 2025

Question—

According to the Dhamma, it is difficult to be reborn as human beings but why is human population increasing? 

Than Ajahn—

Well, if you compare to the animal kingdom, I think human numbers are still very small. The population is increasing because people want more babies. If you make more babies, there will be more human beings because there are many spirits that are waiting to be reborn as humans. They are waiting in a long queue. 

Besides human beings who are coming back as human beings, there are also other spiritual beings waiting in line to become human beings too. 

 Question—

If the mind is permanent and going from one life to the next one, why does the mind have to learn everything all over again such as learning the language, learning how to eat, how to write?

Than Ajahn—

That’s because the mind can forget. After a few years, you will forget things so you have to relearn them. 

There are things that you don’t have to relearn - things that you do, usually you don’t have to relearn. If you used to play the violin, you can come back and play the violin. If you used to be an athlete or a runner, then you can run. These are things that you don’t have to relearn. 

But things that you need to memorize, things that you can forget then you have to relearn them after you are reborn. For example, there are many thousands of languages and you only know one, how can you be sure that it’s the same language that you are reborn into? So it’s a new language, you just have to relearn it. You have to learn the new language. 

Question—

I practice regularly but sometimes my kilesas gain so much strength and it leads me to break the precept. 

How to keep the kilesa under control all the time so that I won’t break any precept? 

Than Ajahn—

Well, you have to find some counter-measures. One of them is to punish yourself when you break the precept. 

You have to punish yourself to make yourself be aware that if you break the precept, there will be consequences for breaking the precept. If you don’t punish yourself, then you will just keep doing it because you feel that there is no punishment. There is a reward but there is no punishment. Although the punishment will come later on, it will be too late to correct it, but if you can do it now in your life time, you can still correct your wrong doing. 

Question—

I increase my practice from 30 minutes to 3 hours a day. When I analyse myself, it seems that my ego is getting bigger and bigger. It seems that I know everything. I know this is wrong, but I am unable to catch what’s wrong with it. Can Ajahn please advise?

Than Ajahn—

Well, as long as you don’t impose your ego on other people then there is nothing wrong with that. If you think you know a lot and if you happen to know a lot, that’s fine. Just don’t impose it on other people. When you’re dealing with people, you should force your ego down to the bottom. Suppress it. Try to suppress it. Make yourself feel like you are just nobody. 

Question—

How to get rid of ego?

Than Ajahn-

By not doing what your ego asks you to do. If your ego says, ‘Have a drink’ then you say, ‘No.’ Eventually, your ego will disappear. 

Question—

Is getting rid of ego equivalent to realising anattā?

Than Ajahn:

Just part of it because there is no ego.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

AVIJJA

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

7 August 2025

AVIJJA

---

Question  :  Is genuine avijjā the bright radiant light that we see without eyes?

Phra Ajahn. :  No, this is the level of practice when you have passed beyond the anāgāmī level. Then, you will experience the luminosity of avijjā. At that stage, the mind becomes very luminous. This luminosity is caused by avijjā. 

When you first get there, you might think that it was nibbāna. You might be deceived to think that you have reached nibbāna because of this luminosity. But if you are careful, if you keep watching it, you’ll find that this luminosity is still impermanent. It can vary. It can change. It can become brighter or become less bright. 

And if you are attached to this brightness, you’ll still have dukkha. 

So, you have to know that you shouldn’t fall into the trap of being attached to this brightness. You have to treat it like any other phenomena. They are impermanent. They can harm you. You can’t control them. All you have to do is to leave them alone. Once you leave them alone, eventually they’ll disappear.

- - -

Question. :  Is genuine avijjā a manifestation of our breath? 

Phra Ajahn. :  No. Avijjā is (currently) the one that controls your actions, your thoughts. 

You think money is good for you. You think marriage is good for you. This is avijjā working. That’s why you need Dhamma or wisdom to re-educate your mind, to get rid of your ignorance.

“Dhamma in English, May 16, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

”To attach, cling, and attach to it as ours.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

6 August 2025

 ”To attach, cling, and attach to it as ours.”

The mind of an Arahant has meditated to eliminate the three desires: sensual desire, existence craving, and non-existence craving, until his mind is still all the time, not swinging back and forth. If it were a pendulum, it would be still in the middle, not swinging back and forth, no matter how severely it is affected, positively or negatively. It will not be lost in the things that affect it.

No matter how much money or gold someone gives, he is not happy. Instead, it becomes a duty to use the money he gets to benefit others. However, he does not gain anything because he has no need for money or gold. 

When he loses all of it, he is not troubled because he does not think of losing anything. 

He does not cling to it, does not hold onto it, and does not consider it his own. Only the Dhamma is his property, and nothing can take the Dhamma away from his heart.

If it were anything else, if he clings to it as his property, one day when he loses it, he will cry, grieve, and be sad because of his delusion. He is lost in clinging and attaching to it, clinging to it from the moment he is born. He gets this body as his property, and he clings to it as his own. When he grows up and has strength and wisdom, Find more properties, find rice, find things, find people to be your property, find a husband, find a wife, and then get children as a bonus. 

Consider them your property. Then one day, these properties will wither away, just like leaves on a tree. 

At first, there was nothing, but they gradually grew and flourished, with branches and leaves. At first, they were green, then they turned yellow, and then they fell away. 

Everything in this world is like this.

When the mind is born, it comes with only itself and the merit and karma that it has done in the past. It still has to be born because it has not yet purified the three desires from the mind and heart, so it has to be born again. When it is born, delusion causes it to possess things as its property. 

Houses, land, cars, these things are not ours. 

But delusion will cling to them as ours.

When it clings to them, problems arise because when something happens, it causes sadness and suffering. We do not suffer from other people's property, right? No matter how our houses are burned down, we do not suffer. No matter how badly someone else's car is destroyed, we do not suffer. But if someone draws a line on our car with a nail, we will complain and feel hurt because we attach and cling to it as ours due to ignorance and delusion. We lack the wisdom to teach them that These things are not ours. They are borrowed to use to survive day to day. But it is pitiful because if we do not study or practice, we will cling to them all. It is the nature of defilements that are embedded in the heart. When we get something, we immediately become possessive. When we lose it, we feel sad, cry, cannot eat or sleep. 

Therefore, we must rely on religion to help solve this problem, to create wisdom to see that nothing is ours, not even a single thing. 

Even this physical body is not ours. One day, it will return to its original owner: earth, water, wind, and fire. 

In the end, the body must separate and return to earth, water, wind, and fire. But now, we can use it in two ways: worldly benefits and spiritual benefits. 

If we are lucky enough to find a religion, we can use it in spiritual ways. It will free our mind and prevent us from being reborn again. 

If we do not find a religion, at most, we will only use it in worldly ways, such as finding worldly happiness. 

The happiness we get from having wealth, possessions, and money will follow. Then, suffering will follow. 

When we lose time, we will die and be reborn again. 

This continues endlessly until we gain wisdom, whether we hear it from others or from our own reflection. 

Most of them have to rely on hearing from people who are wiser than them. We are lucky to have come across Buddhism. 

Hearing and listening to these stories helps us think and consider. Some people may get bored with the world and think and consider until they gain wisdom by themselves, which eventually leads to becoming a Buddha. This is because thinking and considering solves problems by themselves without anyone teaching them, because no one can teach them. For example, the Buddha who wanted to escape from suffering, no one could teach him. At most, he could only teach him at the level of meditation. He calmed his mind and he would be happy and free from suffering while in meditation. However, when he came out of meditation, his mind began to think and fabricate about this and that, which eventually turned into suffering. 

The Buddha therefore had to study and find ways to overcome suffering. At first, he thought that his body was the problem, so he let go of his body by not eating, which was not the right way because suffering did not lie in his body, but in his mind, which was attached to the body as his own. Therefore, he had to pry his mind away from his body by letting his body follow its own nature and take care of it. When the time came for something to happen to him, he let it be. That is, he prepared his mind in advance that he would grow old, get sick, and die. But while he was not sick, old, or dead, he did not have to do anything. He could use it to make merit. 

If he was not free from suffering, he could use this body to practice Dhamma. 

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

“The mind is the more important part than your body.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

4 August 2025

“The mind is the more important part than your body.”

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Layperson: Everyone wants to have a stronger body, to provide better food for their children, to get richer, to become sexier or better looking so he can find a better partner and can have a better descendant genetically. But you are the example of how one should be in the natural wilderness.

Than Ajahn: Because we are using different measurements. Lay people use the body as their measurement. They have to have all these (material) things to make them happy. 

Monks use the mind as the measurement, not the body. 

And the happiness of the mind doesn’t rely on all these (material) things.

- - - - -

Layperson: When I saw you, I saw my future, but a very far future.

Than Ajahn: It takes time. You just read the books and you will get to see the world in a different light. Right now you only see things in a very close perspective. 

You base your understanding about yourself on your body, not on your mind.

In our lives, we are not only made up of our bodies, but we are also made up of our minds. But unfortunately, the mind is invisible, so we cannot see the mind. We can only see the bodies and we think that the bodies are all we have. So, we concentrate all our efforts to look after the bodies, to give all kinds of happiness to the bodies, and in so doing we are neglecting our minds and making the minds miserable.

No matter how much money you have, your mind will still be miserable. This is the part that you’ve neglected. 

The mind is the more important part than your body. 

Because your body is temporary. At most it only lasts for 100 years, but the mind lasts forever. So, if you take care of your mind and make it happy then you will be happy forever.

The mind doesn’t need the body to be happy but due to the delusion, you think that you must have a good body, a strong body, and a healthy body to make you happy. 

You must have all the support the body needs to make you happy. But no matter how much you have; for example, if you have one hundred Ferraris, you will still feel bad. You will still not be able to get rid of the bad feelings you get from time to time because these bad feelings need a different kind of attention. It needs meditation. It needs peace of mind. 

And in order to become peaceful you have to give up everything. 

When you meditate you close your eyes, you forget about everything. You concentrate on stopping your mind from thinking. If you can persist and control the mind, eventually the mind gives up resisting, becomes peaceful and you then find another kind of happiness. 

It is much better than the happiness you get from your body. That’s what the Buddha did. 

He was a prince and he had something equivalent to Ferraris and palaces, but he felt something was lacking. 

He was still worried. 

Every time he thought about the future of his body, he was worried. Because he had seen an old man, a sick man and a dead body. He knew that eventually his body would also be like that, so what was he going to do then? 

So, he wanted to get away from this body.

That's why he decided to give up his princely life and became a monk because he saw a monk and he asked his attendant: what was the monk doing? He was told that the monk was looking for peace of mind, looking for a way out of getting old, being sick and death. 

So, the Buddha also wanted to find the solution, and therefore he gave up his princely life and became a monk. 

He meditated and eventually he found peace of mind.

He realised the mind is the most important thing, and the mind can be happy by itself without having to have a body. However, due to the delusion, the mind thinks that in order to be happy it needs to have a body, so it keeps going after one body after another. 

When it loses this body, it goes to look for a new body. 

This is called rebirth. It is the same mind that goes through different bodies like a driver driving different cars. You drive a car and when the car becomes old and when you cannot fix it anymore, you either sell it or you throw it away, and you buy a new one. The driver is still the same driver. Similarly, the mind is the same mind. It just keeps changing the body.

“Dhamma in English, Jun 30, 2015.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #meditation #mind #delusion

“We must train our minds to be centered.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

31 July 2025

“We must train our minds to be centered.”

The happiness that comes from calming the mind with meditation is good, but it is not as good as the peace that comes from eliminating defilements with wisdom, because the peace of meditation is temporary, like a stone pressed on grass. 

When the stone presses the grass, the grass will not grow. When the stone is removed, the grass will receive water, air, and sunlight, and will grow again. 

Defilements are the same when we meditate until the mind is calm and still. At that moment, we feel that there are no defilements at all. There is no greed, anger, or delusion. There is only happiness and comfort, but it does not last long. When we leave meditation, we start thinking, fabricating, seeing, and hearing. Defilements will come out and wander. We start liking this, hating that, wanting that, wanting to escape from this, because meditation only stops defilements. It temporarily stops defilements. 

Defilements rely on the mental fabrication of thoughts, using memory and perception as tools. When we see something, we remember what it is. Whether it is male or female, good or bad, like or dislike, it will follow. 

When we like something, the mental fabrication will order us to go and get it. If we do not like it, we tell us to walk away. The mental fabrication of desire arises. 

Whatever we like, we want to get close to it. Whatever we dislike, we want to get away from it. If we cannot escape, we suffer and are troubled. If you have to live with things you don’t like, such as when you meet someone, you just scold them, criticize them, and criticize them, your mind will not like them. If you can’t get away from them, you will suffer. If you meet someone who compliments you all the time, you want them to stay with you forever and not disappear. When they disappear, you will feel sorry and sad, which will cause suffering. 

If you like them, you will suffer. If you don’t like them, you will suffer. 

Therefore, you have to train your mind to be in the middle between liking and disliking. Be equanimity. 

Just know and be aware of everything your mind senses, whether it be form, sound, smell, taste, or touch. 

To do this, you have to consider that what you like is not really good. What you don’t like is not really bad. 

Both what you like and dislike are the same. They are the three characteristics. 

They are both impermanent. They cause you suffering. 

They cannot be controlled. This is the way to practice with these things. This is to prevent your mind from being disturbed and clouded. This is to make your mind equanimity. 

To make your mind equanimity, you have to have concentration. If you don’t have concentration, you won’t know where equanimity is. You will only like or dislike things. However, if you have concentration, you will know what equanimity is. When you move to like or dislike something, you will know immediately that you have left the point of equanimity. You will know that your mind is starting to waver. I am entering into suffering because if I like something, I will be sad. 

When something I like goes away, if I encounter something I dislike, I will immediately feel anxious. I have to pull my mind back to equanimity. If I pull it with mindfulness, it will last temporarily. If I pull it with wisdom, it will last permanently. I have to accept the truth that things I dislike are a part of life. When we have to be together, we should stay together. We don’t have to reject it, move away, or drive it away. The form we like or dislike is the same form. The person we like or dislike also comes from the earth, water, wind, and fire. If we see it as just a form, there will be no emotion of like or dislike. If we consider everything down to the three characteristics, the mind will be equanimous. The mind will let go. This is a matter of wisdom that requires concentration to support it. If we don’t have concentration, we won’t be able to stop the mind and make the mind equanimous. The wisdom will not yet be true wisdom. It is wisdom that comes from hearing, listening, and studying, which is called Pariyatti Dhamma or Suttamaya wisdom. If it is wisdom that comes from contemplation, it will be imaginary wisdom. It doesn’t have enough power to stop defilements or cut off defilements because it is incoherent wisdom. It can be remembered and forgotten. It is still far from the mind. 

When a real event occurs, we won’t be able to extinguish defilements in time because we have accidentally forgotten. We know that it is not good. But when I actually met him, I saw that everything was good. I liked him immediately. I forgot all about the pain and suffering I had experienced with that person. 

When I met him, my heart softened because I still liked him. But if I had concentration, I would be able to continuously develop my wisdom. I would consider that this person was not good with every breath I took. 

If I considered in this way, then it would be the wisdom of meditation, the wisdom that cuts off defilements.

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

30 July 2025

Q:  When I stay at a monastery, I have to cook and do chores. The advantage is if I have any questions, I can ask the abbot. If I stay at my cottage, I can listen to Ajahn Mahā Boowa’s talks and your talks and message you my questions. Is it better to practise meditation in a monastery or at my cottage when I am alone?

Than Ajahn:  Well, it depends on the result, which one is better? You have to look at the result of your practice. If one is better than the other one then you choose the one that is better. Look at the result of your practice, the calm and the progress that you make on your practice. Sometimes you might have to switch and go back to your teacher. 

Sometimes the teacher can help you solve your obstacles, but sometimes, if you’re alone, you can have more time to do your practice. So it depends on what you need and then you can decide, for that particular time, whether you should be with your teacher or be alone. 

Q:  I am an artist (an actor and musician) living in Vancouver, Canada. I have some minor success over the years but I rarely have experienced a satisfied life energy. I have a few wonderful opportunities coming up soon which I am grateful for but ultimately, for many days I feel myself disconnected, alone and sad. Can you please help me find my way again?

Than Ajahn:  Well, according to the Buddha, there is nothing in this world that can give you contentment and satisfaction. No matter how successful you might be, you’ll still find loneliness and emptiness when you’re alone. 

The only thing in this world that will make you content and happy is the practice of meditation. You should learn to practice meditation, mindfulness meditation so that you can stop your thoughts, your emotions, your desires and your cravings that make you feel lonely, that makes you feel hungry for things, makes you feel empty.

Q: Are vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā and viññāṇa made up by the 4 elements?

Than Ajahn:  No, those are parts of the knowing element. The 5 elements make up the body. The earth element, the water, the fire and the wind element are combined to form the body; while the nāma-khandha (which is vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā and viññāṇa) comes from the mind. The nāma-khandha is part of the mind (which is the knowing element). 

Q:  If my parents and my sister create emotional distress for me, is it bad kamma if I distance myself from them?  

Than Ajahn:  No, this is the way to stop creating kamma because if you remain close to them, you couldn’t resist reacting to what they do and say and then you’re creating more kamma. The way to stop creating new kamma is to distance yourself from them. 

Q:  My heart knows that I have to let go of things, but my mind will cling to them and worry about many things. What is the difference between the heart and the mind? 

Than Ajahn:  It’s the same thing. We just refer to the mind as the intellect part, the thinking part, while the heart is the emotional part so there is no difference. It comes from the same thing which we call ‘mind’ or ‘heart.’ It’s the non-physical part of us, the thinking and the knowing part of us. 

The way for you to go forward from here is to develop the tools that will enable you to let go of everything. 

You know that clinging is bad for you because when you cling to things, it can make you sad, it can hurt you. 

You cannot let go of them because you don’t have the tools of the strength.

So you need to develop the tools of the strength which is composed of the three training called ‘the Triple Training,’ i.e. dāna (charity), sīla (morality) and bhāvanā (mental development or meditation). You need these 3 tools to let go of your attachment to different things. You do charity to let go of your attachment to money. You maintain morality to let go of your bad actions. And you do meditation or mind development to get rid of your cravings, your attachments to other things. Once you can practice these 3 steps then you will be able to let go of everything and then you will be peaceful and happy.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

25 July 2025

Phra Ajahn  :  Where are you from?

Layperson.  :  I’m from Aruba, about 24hours away from here, somewhere in the Caribbean. My questions are: What is it that can see the citta? Is it the Buddho itself?  Is it the knowing that sees the citta? And do the citta and the Buddho itself separate from each other?

Phra Ajahn.  :  Well, let’s answer them one by one. The Buddho is the creation of the citta. 

The citta uses the thought to create ‘Buddho, Buddho’—when you think, you think of Buddho, Buddho. The thinking is called the saṅkhārā, which is part of the citta. The citta is the one who knows. Most of the time the citta only knows the saṅkhārā because the saṅkhārā keeps blocking the citta from knowing itself. So, when you use Buddho, Buddho, eventually your thought (saṅkhārā) will stop thinking. When the thought stops, then the mind (citta) will be left alone. 

Then, the citta will see itself. That’s it.   

Question.  :  How can the citta see itself?

Phra Ajahn.  :  By stopping from thinking is the way the citta sees itself. Right now, the citta does not see itself, it sees the thought, sees the thinking. When you stop the thinking (that blocks the citta from seeing itself), then you see the citta. 

Question.  :  Is the citta itself deathless?

Phra Ajahn.  :  Yes, the citta never dies. The citta is a spiritual being that comes and possesses the physical body. When the body dies, the citta doesn’t die with the body. If the citta still has any desires, it goes and looks for a new body. That’s when we have rebirth; we keep being reborn. We keep getting a new body because we still have the cravings, desires to use the body to provide us with happiness. But once you can practice meditation and make the mind (citta) happy in itself, the citta no longer needs to have a body. Then, there will be no rebirth. 

Layperson.  :  So, the citta will be floating by itself. 

Phra Ajahn.  :  Yes, in the spiritual space. It doesn’t need to have a body to make it happy. Right now, the citta connects itself to the body and use the body to bring it some kinds of happiness.

Question.  :  At the moment of nirvana, is the citta still there or is the citta also gone?

Phra Ajahn.  :  The citta is always there. What disappears when someone attains nibbana is the craving or the desire. Understand?

Layperson.  : Yes.

Phra Ajahn.  :  Have you been following my YouTube talks?

Layperson.  :  I’ve been following the teachings of LuangPu Sao, LuangPu Mun, LuangPu Chob. I’ve been practicing for the last seven years and I want to become a monk to end all suffering completely. This was one big question I have because I thought there was something that could see the citta but it’s the citta that sees itself. 

When I see it, there is nothing and this is strange and I don’t trust the mind.

Phra Ajahn.  :  You don’t trust the thought created by the mind. But you can trust the mind itself because the mind is real. 

However, you never get to see it because you’re being blocked by your thoughts so you only see your thoughts. From the time you get up, you start thinking therefore you only see your thoughts; you never see the one who knows, the mind itself—who creates the thoughts. So, you have to stop the thoughts. 

Once the thought disappears, then you see the mind.

Let me give you an example: it’s like looking at the TV screen—when you turn on the TV, you see the images on the TV but you don’t see the screen because the screen is being blocked by the images that appear on the screen but once you turn off the TV, what happens? 

There’s no images appear and what you see is the TV screen. 

Layperson.  :  How can I always stay in that state?

Phra Ajahn.  :  Frist, you need to have mindfulness by reciting, ‘Buddho, Buddho,’ to stop your thoughts and you need to sit down and watch your breath until your mind stops thinking then you’ll see the one who knows, the mind. The next step is to teach yourself that the thoughts and the mind are two separate things.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

《How do you know you are a sotapanna?》

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

19 July 2025

《How do you know you are a sotapanna?》

Question:  What conditions must be met for someone to reach the first stage of liberation (sotāpanna)? And how someone knows for sure that he/she is a sotāpanna and not imagining it, what are the signs? 

Than Ajahn:  You have to understand the nature of the body and the feelings. They come and go. They rise and cease. You can’t control them all the time. When your body is going to die, you’ll have to let it die. If your body is sick, if you can fix it, fix it. But if you cannot fix it, just let it be. 

Like when the body is in pain and there is nothing you can do about it, then just live with the pain. Don’t try to get rid of the pain by taking pain killers because you may end up getting addicted to pain killers and they become more hurtful than helpful. So, just leave the body alone. Leave the feelings alone. Then, you become a sotāpanna. 

A sotāpanna is not afraid of ageing, sickness or death. 

How to prove that you are not afraid of ageing, sickness or death? You’ll have to look for the situation and test yourself. For example, to prove that you are not affected by the pain of the body, just sit and let the pain in the body arises and ceases by itself. If you want to prove whether you are afraid of death, you’ll have to go and look for a place where you feel that your life is threatened, and see how you feel. If you feel peaceful and are not disturbed, it means you are not afraid of death. If you are afraid of death, then you’ll be afraid of the situation.

Question:  So, does it mean that a sotāpanna completely has no fear of death?

Than Ajahn:  Right. No fear of death. No fear of pain. No fear of ageing. 

Question:  Is separation of the body and mind an indicator of a sotāpanna.’?

Than Ajahn:  No, but the detachment of the mind from the body.

Question:  You mentioned that by using mindfulness, one attains jhāna, but using wisdom, it’s a different one. 

Than Ajahn:  If it’s jhāna, you’ll only have the detachment temporarily. If it’s wisdom, you’ll have it permanently.

“Dhamma in English, May 11, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

more about Ajahn Suchart 

https://www.knownsee.com/%E5%A4%A7%E5%B8%AB%E7%88%B6-masters/%E6%B3%B0%E5%9C%8B-thailand/ajahn-suchart

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

8 July 2025

Attãhi attano nãtho, we are our own refuge is the central theme of Buddhist teaching. The Buddha teaches us to rely only on ourselves because we are the creator of good and evil, and the one who will reap their corresponding results of happiness and pain. 

The creating mechanism of good and evil, joy and sorrow, heaven and hell are inside our mind. Mind is the principal architect. 

The Buddha therefore concludes that the mind is the chief, the forerunner of all things. 

It is both a doer and a receiver of its own actions. The mind is the master who gives order to his servant, the body, to do and say things. 

There are three kinds of actions or kamma namely physical, verbal and mental. When we do good kamma, happiness, progress and heaven will be the results that follow. On the other hand when we do evil kamma, then pain, worry, anxiety and degradation will follow.

After death, the mind will go to one of the four states of deprivation (apāya-bhūmi) such as hell for example. 

Therefore, the Buddha insists that we must rely only on ourselves. 

We shouldn’t wait for someone else to create happiness and prosperity, heaven and nibbāna for us. We must do it ourselves. To pray to Buddha images or to ask monks for blessings of success and prosperity is not the Dhamma teaching of the Buddha because he can only point the way to peace, happiness, and prosperity, and the way to suffering and deterioration. 

His teaching can be summarized as follows: avoid doing evil, do good and cleanse the mind of all impurities.

Doing good kamma or making merits such as giving to charity is like depositing money in a bank. The more we deposit the more money we will have accumulated. 

The interest will also increase and soon we will be rich. 

On the other hand, doing evil kamma is like borrowing money from the bank in which we would have to pay back the loan plus the interest as well. It can become a heavy burden to bear. People in debt are always anxious and worried, unlike those who have money in the bank, who are always smiling because their money keeps growing all the time. 

It is the same with making merits. It gives us peace of mind; makes us feel happy and content. But when we do bad kamma, our mind would be set on fire. We become worried and restless. This we can see because it’s happening in our mind instantaneously, here and now, not in the next life.

Therefore, if we want to be happy and prosperous, to sleep well and suffer no pain, then we must do only good kamma and avoid doing bad kamma.

“Sensual Pleasures are Painful.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

7 July 2025

Q:  Sometimes I feel like I have an attachment to thinking, and I don’t feel like meditating or applying mindfulness to the breath. So at those times I let the mind to have a natural peacefulness by either doing asubha or mettā, and once there is a little bit of peace then watching the breath almost feels natural, is that possible? 

Phra Ajahn:  Yes, that’s possible if you can recite a sutta. Try to memorize a sutta and keep reciting the sutta (the discourse of the Buddha) or you can use the asubha or the 32 parts to the body. Just keep reciting the names of the 32 parts of the body such as hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, bones, bone marrows - all these parts, in order to keep your mind busy and prevent it from thinking aimlessly then your mind can become calmer and then you might feel that you want to stop, then you can watch the breath. So you can do this. When you start, if you feel that you want to think, let it think with the Dhamma. Think with the 32 parts, the asubha, or think of the discourse of the Buddha. You can memorize it and then use it as your meditation object. 

Q:  Is it okay to think about Dhamma in a less rote way like thinking about the drawback of sensual pleasure, the anicca, dukkha, anattā? 

Phra Ajahn:  You can do this later when you’re not meditating. When you meditate, you don’t want to think intellectually. You want to use the recitation or the memorizing as a way of calming your mind so you don’t want to intellectualize it. You just want to recite, to keep your mind busy from thinking about something else. 

Q:  So I do it outside of sitting.

Phra Ajahn:  Yes, like right now. Right now you’re not meditating so you can think intellectually. You can think in terms of reality. 

Q:  So thinking intellectually can be a distraction when we sit down.

Phra Ajahn:  Right. If you want to calm your mind, stop your mind, you don’t want to think intellectually because if you do, you’ll keep thinking, you won’t stop thinking so you have to use rote thinking instead. 

Q:  When we have a degree of stillness, can we still do that?

Phra Ajahn:  You can stop and then switch to watching your breath. If you don’t want to think anymore then you just watch your breath instead. 

Q:  Once there is the concentration on the breath, is it ok to switch back to contemplation?

Phra Ajahn:  No, the goal is to be completely still by focusing on your breath. Once you become fully concentrated then your mind becomes peaceful and calm, and it will be inactive temporarily. You’ll just be aware with nothing to be aware of - that’s where you want to get to in your meditation because that’s where peace and happiness is. 

Once you get there, you want to try to sustain it for as long as possible by preventing your mind from starting to think. When your mind starts to think, stop it. If you have strong mindfulness, you don’t need to use anything to stop it. Just use your mindfulness. Just tell yourself to stop thinking and it will stop. If it doesn’t stop then you have to use something like a mantra or a chant to prevent it from thinking. Then, you can continue with your concentration. 

In the beginning, you want to develop this stage of calm for as much as possible first because it will then serve you as the support for your contemplation later on. Because contemplation without calm cannot bring any result. You contemplate to see the harm in your defilement and you need a calm mind to resist your defilement. You need contemplation to tell you why you have to resist your defilement because your defilement can only bring you sorrow and pain. You don’t want that so you have to stop your defilement i.e. your greed, your hate, your delusion. But if you don’t have a calm mind, you won’t be able to stop your defilement. So, you first need to develop samādhi before you can go to the next level which we call ‘wisdom’ or ‘paññā.’  

Q:  And what is the support that we can have in daily life especially as lay practitioners that can help us be better at developing samādhi?

Phra Ajahn:  You need a quiet environment to be alone and have no distraction from the outside that can distract your concentration so try to find a quiet place and be alone. 

Don’t mingle with anybody and try to develop mindfulness all the time, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Keep controlling your thought, stopping your thought. Only use it sparingly, only use it when you have to; when you don’t have the need to use your thought, then don’t use it. 

And when you don’t have to do anything, try to sit for as long as possible, as many time as possible. The more you do it, the more proficient you’ll become. It’s a training. The more you train, the more you will become acquainted with your practice. 

And if you have any questions, you can read books or talk to someone who have the experience and ask them for advice. You need people who know to advise you. 

You cannot practice alone without knowing exactly what you’re doing. 

Q:  And should these people who advise us be people we have confidence in to have at least some right understanding? 

Phra Ajahn:  Definitely, you have to trust the person you consult with. If you don’t trust them, then you don’t consult with them. You have to at least believe that they know something that you don’t know and they can help you. If they cannot help you, then you go look for someone else. 

Q:  Is it important that they are established on the path in order to help me?

Phra Ajahn:  Well, the more established they are, the more helpful they become. Different people have different levels of development. 

There are 4 levels of noble disciples: sotāpanna, sakadāgāmi, anāgāmī, arahant. 

These are people who are established on various levels of the path. Sometimes it depends on your luck, who you’re gonna run into. If you can run into the Buddha, then you’re the luckiest because the Buddha will be the one who knows almost everything that you want to know. With other noble disciples, they might not know as much as the Buddha knows, or they cannot do as much as the Buddha can do. You can always go to the Buddha by reading his discourses. 

If you don’t trust anybody, then just trust the discourses but you have to be intelligent enough to be able to understand what you’re reading. If you don’t understand, then it’s not useful. So you can try reading the discourses or you can look for different teachers. 

There are many teachers now which you can search for on the Internet and then you just go and meet them and try them out, like trying a new automobile. Before you buy a new car, you might want to visit different dealers to try different cars to see which car suits you best. 

Teachers are like that. Sometimes they are established in the path but their methods of teaching might not suit you. So you might have to look for someone else.

“Dhamma in English, Sep 3, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

5 July 2025

Q:  How can we let go our attachment to the world and have a strong motivation to begin practicing the Dhamma in every moment?

Than Ajahn:  By contemplating on death that life is impermanent, one day we’re going to lose everything. 

No matter how much we have, eventually we will have to give it all up. 

So if we know that we will be forced to give it up then it will be easy for us to give it up now because when we are not attached, we feel better. When we’re attached to things, we feel bad because we have to worry and we have to look after things that we are attached to.

So by contemplating on death, it will help you cut off your attachment to things and people then you will have the motivation to practice Dhamma. You need Dhamma to help you detach from everything. You cannot detach by just knowing that you will die. This is a way to initiate the practice and to start practicing Dhamma by developing mindfulness to get samādhi. 

Once you have samādhi then you will have the power to let go, the mind will be strong enough to be able to resist your attachment. 

Q:  Ajahn, I have some friends who are not Buddhists but they have interest in Buddhism. How can I explain to them about Buddhism and about meditation in a simple way? 

Phra Ajahn:  Buddhism is like a subject you study in the university. When you go to a university you study science, mathematics, etc. Buddhism is another subject that people can study. The Buddha and his noble disciples are the teachers. So it doesn’t require you to be a Buddhist to study Buddhism and to practice Buddhism. It’s like when you go to a university, they don’t require you to be of a certain religion, you can be a Christian, you can be a Muslim and you can still study all the subjects. 

Buddhism is just another subject. It deals with looking after the mind, how to take care of the mind. Most subjects in the university teach you how to take care of your body. No subject teaches you how to take care of your mind. Only Buddhism teaches the knowledge of how to take care of your mind, to make your mind always happy and never sad. 

Tell your friends like this: it’s just another knowledge, another subject that they can study. They don’t have to be Muslim, they don’t have to be Buddhists, they don’t have to be anything. It’s just the knowledge like any other knowledge. The only difference is all the other knowledge deal with the physical things; only Buddhism deals with the mental or the psychic thing which is more important than the physical things. 

Our life is composed of 2 parts: physical part and mental (or psychic) part. We don’t know anything about the mental or the psychic part because we rarely come across somebody who knows and understands and teaches us on that. Now, you’re lucky because you run into the Buddha and his noble disciples. They are teachers that can teach you about your mind, how to look after your mind, how to make your mind happy, how to get rid of all the sadness of your mind. So this is what Buddhism is. It’s not a religion, really. It’s a form of knowledge.

Q:  I have been using rising and falling of stomach as the subject of my meditation. 

Recently I discovered that it's getting more and more difficult to note about the movements of the stomach. 

Most of the time I could only note about the rising but I lose track when it comes to the falling of the stomach.

When this occurs during meditation the thoughts of changing to other subject of meditation kicks in. I tried to subdue the thought by reasoning it in my head that if I were to switch, I will not reach either ends. 

Can Than Ajahn give advice?

Than Ajahn:  Well, if you cannot watch the rising, you can watch the falling. Just keep on watching the falling. 

You don’t need to watch both of them. If you can still watch either one of them then you can still continue on with your meditation. But if you find it not productive maybe the next time, not this time - this time try to stick with your method, you might want to switch to watching at the tip of your nose instead. You can watch the breath, watch at the entrance of the breath and the exit of the breath which is at the tip of your nose. You can watch that also. But if you find that it is not productive then maybe use another method like a mantra. But don't switch it in the middle of the race. It's like racing horses, when you race horse, you just stick to the same horse until you finish the race but the next time if you find this horse is not good enough for you then you can find a new horse. When you are meditating, try to stick with just the one that you choose.

“Dhamma in English, Sep 29, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

3 July 2025

Q:  Can a layperson in white practice at home able to achieve anāgāmī?

Than Ajahn:  It doesn't matter who you are, whether you are a layperson or a monk. What is important is the Dhamma inside your heart whether you have the Dhamma to accomplish the goal you want or not. For an anāgāmi you need to have strong samādhi to be able to stop your desire. Then you need to have the perception of what we call ‘the opposite of beauty.’ Not beautiful. If you can see the ugly parts of the body, the loathsome parts of the body then the images can eliminate your sexual desire. If you use samādhi, you can only do it temporarily; you can eliminate your sexual desire when you go into samādhi. But when you come out of samādhi, your mind will still think of beautiful body. In order for you to stop your sexual desire, when you come out of samādhi you must teach your mind to think of the ‘not beautiful body,’ think of corpses, think of the different parts of the body especially the inside parts or the parts under the skin. If you can see the body in that light then you can get rid of your sexual desire. If you can get rid of it entirely and permanently then you can become an anāgāmi.

“Dhamma in English, Sep 29, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

"Don't procrastinate"

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

1 July 2025

"Don't procrastinate"

Approaching this religion should not be to seek fame, power, or authority, not to become a manager or administrator of a temple or monastery, but to seek spiritual refuge, to seek the Dharma, not to seek fame, power, or authority, nor to seek happiness through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or body from Buddhism, because Buddhism is where the path to Nirvana is found, where liberation is found, and freedom from the cycle of rebirth and all suffering is found. Do not give importance to anything that is not related to studying and practicing the Dharma teachings of the Lord Buddha. 

Just be aware of it, and that will not lead you astray or lose focus.

Our point is to seek the Dharma and freedom from the cycle of rebirth and all suffering, so we must focus on the Dharma teachings of the Lord Buddha. Our goal is to study the Dharma teachings of the Lord Buddha and then apply the teachings with diligence, determination, and the four bases of influence that will push the practice for the path to Nirvana and the results of liberation from the cycle of rebirth and all suffering to be successful. Without the four bases of influence, the path to Nirvana cannot be reached. This is the point that should be given importance, which is to study and practice the Buddha's teachings by listening to sermons and Dhamma regularly, as we have been doing regularly for the past 7-8 years, so that it will be a light leading to liberation. 

The most important teaching is the final teaching of the Buddha, which teaches that all conditioned things are impermanent, that birth, aging, illness and death are the nature of things. Therefore, we should seek the benefit of ourselves and others with diligence. This is a summary of the Buddha's teachings, that the importance lies in being diligent, not procrastinating, and having to hurry and strive to complete the tasks that need to be done before time runs out. It is like when we enter an exam room, we cannot sit and chat, we must hurry to finish the exam within the specified time. If we chat and play, we will not be able to complete the exam completely, we will not get the full score, and the results will not be as desired. 

Therefore, the Buddha taught us to constantly practice mindfulness of death, that all conditioned things are impermanent, that birth, aging, illness and death are the nature of things. We should always think that once we are born, we will grow old, get sick and die. No one can guarantee when we will get sick or die. It is better to think that you may get sick or die today or tomorrow. If you think like this, you will not be careless because there is little time left. If you know that you will die today, tomorrow or in 3 months, you will not have the heart to do things as you used to do, which is to earn a living, to find wealth, property, money, gold, fame, praise, and happiness through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. If you go to the doctor and the doctor diagnoses you with a serious illness that will make you die within 3 months, will you still have the heart to seek fame, praise, and happiness through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body? 

You will not want it anymore because you know that it is not a refuge for the mind, it is only a refuge for the body. When the body will cease to function within 3 months, you will focus on the Dhamma only because the Dhamma is a refuge for the mind. There is nothing in this world that can extinguish the suffering of the mind except the Dhamma teachings of the Lord Buddha. If you know that you will die within 3 months, you will have diligence, determination and determination to create merit and virtue because it is the only thing that the mind can rely on, both while you are still alive and after you die. Therefore, you should think about death all the time. Do not think that it is something far away. Think that it is something close to you because death can come in many forms. If you do not die from old age or from illness, you will die from various disasters. If you think like this, you will have the diligence to study and practice the teachings of the Lord Buddha with full diligence. You will study and practice, walk and meditate all the time.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato