The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

30 December 2025

Q:  When sankhāra (thinking) comes in, the five aggregates will mix together so there will be pain, otherwise there will be no pain, am I correct?

Than Ajahn:  It depends on how your sankhāra thinks. 

If you think with defilement then you have dukkha. If you don’t think with defilements, the mind has no dukkha. The painful feeling is not due to sankhāra but due to the impermanence of the body. Sometime your the body gets sick so you have painful feeling. You have to separate them.

There are two types of feelings: mental feeling and physical body feeling. The mental dukkha is caused by your defilement, by your cravings; the physical dukkha is caused by the impermanent nature of the body. When the body gets sick, hungry or when it’s hot or cold, you get painful feeling which you can’t do anything about. 

But the mental feeling, the dukkha that arise from your craving, you can stop it by stopping your cravings.

- - - - - 

Q: You mentioned that physical pain is not as bad as mental pain. Does this mean that mental pain is caused by our defilement but physical pain is just from the body and if we know how to let go of the body, it will not be as painful as the mental pain.

Than Ajahn:  That’s right. Because physical pain is only 10% of the total pain and the mental pain is 90% of the total pain so if you can stop the mental pain then you're only experiencing the 10% of the physical pain. 

Like somebody who is afraid of the needle, when you take a shot, the mental pain is much stronger than the physical pain. Even before you get the physical pain, the mental pain has already started when you think of getting that shot. Or, when you go to see a dentist, when the doctor said that you have to take the anaesthesia injection, you start to feel the pain before the needle actually touch your body. But if you calm your mind and just say, ‘Okay, no problem,’ then when you get the physical pain, it's just a very small pain. 

Sometimes you don't have any physical pain at all but you have mental pain like when you lose someone you loved. When you feel sad or depressed, that’s mental pain. 

Q: The way to counter mental pain is to remind myself that this pain will go away, it will pass and I try to forget about it.

Than Ajahn:  Accept the truth. Maybe the pain won't go away yet. If it stays on, let it stay. If it goes away, let it go. Don't expect because when you expect, you start creating stress, ‘When will it go away? When will it go away?’ So just be happy with the pain then your mind will be happy. Welcome the pain like you welcome the pleasure. They're the same things. They are only in the opposite end of each other, the pain is on one end and the pleasure is on the other end. 

As long as you don’t have any craving - attraction or aversion - then there will be no mental pain. That’s why you need to practice a lot of mindfulness and meditation to train the mind to be neutral, to be merely knowing, to not reacting with aversion or attraction, then the physical pain will not hurt your mind at all it. 

It will hurt the body but the body doesn't care because the body doesn't know anything anyway.

The body is like a car. If you smash a car, the car doesn't know that it's being smashed, right? The same way with the body. The one who knows is the one who is reacting. Once there is no connection between the mind and the body then you can take the body anywhere, you can bury it, you can burn it and the body won't react at all because the body is just like a car. The one who reacts is the mind and when it reacts, it causes suffering or stress in the mind. 

So if you don't want to have any stress, don't react. Just stay calm, stay neutral. That's why you need to meditate, to practice, to teach your mind how to stay calm, how to stay neutral. 

Just merely knowing. Know that ‘I have good feeling today.’ If you have bad feeling tomorrow, know that you have bad feeling. Know that you have painful feeling, you have pleasure feeling, they all come and go, they are all just feelings. They are impermanent, they keep changing. They are anatta, they are not under your control. You can’t tell them to go away or to come whenever you want them to come. If you learn to accept them for what they are, accept them as they are, then you will have no cravings. And when you have no craving, you have no stress in your mind.

“Dhamma in English, July 30, 2024.”

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Q: When I am suffering from pain, what should I do?

Than Ajahn:  There are two ways to deal with painful feelings. First is the way of mindfulness. When you are experiencing pain in the body and if you don’t want it to disturb your mind, you have to recite a mantra. Keep reciting a mantra to prevent your mind from reacting with aversion or with the desire to have the pain to go away. If you can succeed then there will be no pain in the mind and the pain in the body will be bearable. But this is a temporary measure because when you fail to maintain the mantra, or fail to keep the mind from reacting, your mind will have aversion or the desire to have this painful feeling disappears. 

[Next] How to deal this painful feeling permanently is to study the nature of pain. 

According to the Buddha, the painful feeling is a natural phenomenon like the weather. Cold weather, hot weather, come and go. 

They are affected by some other factors which we can’t control. What we can do is we can live with this pain by accepting it. Don’t try to deny it. Don’t try to have any desire to get rid of it. Just learn to live with it. This is the reality of life. We can stop our desire or our aversion to this painful feeling by accepting the truth that we can’t run away from it. It’s like the weather, hot or cold weather. If we can accept this then there will be no pain in the mind.  

“Dhamma in English, Aug 13, 2024.”

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.

28 December 2025

The Buddha said ‘bhārā have pañcakhandā’: the five aggregates are a very heavy burden. 

When you wake up, you have to feed your body and then walk after finishing your meal. 

You have to change your postures regularly and to take a bath. You have to do a lot of things. For example, when someone comes to see me, I have to give them a Dhamma talk, teach them, and speak to them—these are all work.

Without a body, you will be at ease as there will be no need to take care of the body. The mind can be separated from the body; that is to know what the mind is, what the body is, what makes the mind happy, and what makes it suffer. When the mind is aware of its nature and able to discern what causes suffering and agitation, then it will become disengaged.

It is better to let things be as they are. If you can still continue living, then do so. When you can no longer do so, when it is time to leave, then leave. No one can live forever. We all have to die one day. So you should make it count and not waste it while you still have the opportunity. 

While you are still alive, you should practise Dhamma and cultivate merit and perfections (pāramī) to make spiritual progress. It will bring more peace and calm to the mind as well as wisdom in order to fight against your mental defilements (kilesas), namely craving, passion, and hatred. These defilements are the things you have to address more than anything else.

As for other people, you don’t need to fix or change them, because we all have to rely on ourselves in the end. No one can fix or change anyone else. You only have to see to yourself by relying on the teachings of those who know, such as the Buddha and his noble disciples. 

The Buddha cannot eradicate your defilements, and neither can any respectable teacher. They can only advise you on the methods to do so. But if you don’t make use of their methods, you then cannot rid yourself of the defilements.

The body is a means to cure issues of the heart. You need your body to listen to the Dhamma. Once you’ve listened, you can put your body to work—to get rid of the defilements. It is to practise walking and sitting meditation in order to fight against the defilements. 

The defilements also need your body to carry out their work. They use your body to go out, watch movies, listen to music, eat, and drink. 

The defilements need your body and so do you.

So you have to drag yourself to get on a walking-meditation path and to go to the temple. Do not let yourself go along with the defilements. Once you can resist the power of the defilements, your craving and defilements will gradually disappear. 

Nothing can then disturb your mind. You’ll be at ease and happy wherever you are. 

Whether it is to sit, walk, or sleep, you’ll be happy inside because there is nothing to trouble your mind. 

There is no craving or wanting of anything from the outside world. 

You live and eat only out of physical necessity to maintain your body, but your mind no longer has any craving to have or to be.

“Against the Defilements.”

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.

24 December 2025

Q:  What is the best way to practise vipassanā?

Than Ajahn:  Vipassanā means the development of wisdom (insight), to see the true nature of things. 

Before you can develop vipassanā, you have to develop samatha or samādhi first because the mind that is not calm will not have the ability to see things as they are. 

The mind that is still clouded with delusion will not be able to see that everything is impermanent, everything is bad for the mind, everything hurts the mind, everything is not under your control. So, you have to first clear the cloud of delusion by practicing samādhi. 

Samādhi is the practice of calming the mind. 

You should first meditate to make the mind becomes calm and peaceful. Once the mind becomes calm and peaceful, the mind will be clear like a glass that has been cleaned then when you look at things, you’ll look at them in their true way, you look at them exactly for what they are. 

Before you develop vipassanā, you’ll have to develop samādhi first by using mindfulness. 

You need mindfulness to stop your mind from thinking. 

If you don’t have mindfulness, you will not be able to stop the mind from thinking. When you cannot stop the mind from thinking, then the mind cannot be still, calm and peaceful. So, you have to first learn how to develop mindfulness. 

Mindfulness is developed using the 40 objects of meditation. We call them, ‘kammaṭṭhāna.’ In Thailand, we recite a mantra ‘Buddho, Buddho, Buddho,’ continuously all the time during our waking hours, from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep. 

Then, we can prevent the mind from thinking. We only stop reciting when we have to think. If we don’t have to think, then we should not let the mind think aimlessly. 

We stop thinking by reciting the mantra. For example, you should not let the mind think when you are preparing yourself to go to work, such as when you’re taking a bath, washing, brushing your teeth, dressing, eating. You stop thinking by reciting the mantra, ‘Buddho, Buddho, Buddho.’

If you don’t like to use the mantra, you can use another method that is by concentrating on your body movement. Keep watching what your body is doing at that moment. If you keep focusing your mind on the action your body is doing, your mind can’t go think about other things. If your mind goes to think about other things, it means that your mind is not focusing on the action you are doing. So those are the ways to build up your mindfulness. Once you have mindfulness, then you can sit and meditate to make the mind becomes calm. 

When you sit, you are mindful of the breath. 

You are watching your breath: watch when the breath comes in, watch when the breath goes out. Watch it at one point, usually at the tip of the nose. And if you can watch your breath and focus on it, you will not think about other things. If you think, you should ignore it. 

Come back to your breath. If you can persist, eventually your mind will stop thinking. Your mind will become calm, peaceful and clear. 

When you withdraw from that state of meditation, your mind will still be clear. Then, you can develop vipassanā. Teach your mind to look at everything as impermanent. 

Everything comes and goes. Everything rises and ceases. Everything is not under your control. You cannot control it. You cannot stop it from coming or going. The only thing you can do is to accept it for what it is. If you can accept it, you won’t be hurt. You will only be hurt if you resist it. When you resist something, you become stressful and unhappy. But if you accept it, you become calm and peaceful. This is the practice of vipassanā.

“Dhamma in English, Jun 19, 2018.”

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.

21 December 2025

All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will become otherwise, will become separated from me. 

This is something that is worthwhile for us to remember constantly, many, many times a day. 

Otherwise this truth will not stay with us. 

We will then not forget and be deluded into working on anything that brings no benefit to ourselves and will instead take on worthwhile activities, such as making merit, nurturing our virtue, meditating, and listening to and practising Dhamma. 

If we do not reflect deeply, we may think that we will not experience old age, sickness, pain, and death. We will then go seeking fortune, status, fame, and pleasure through ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body just like our current lifestyle. We will make very little effort to give, keep the precepts, meditate, or listen to and practise Dhamma. On the contrary, when it comes to seeking fortune, status, fame, and pleasure through the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body, we strive the whole day and night, except when we are asleep. 

When we wake up, we are off again to seek pleasure through the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body. We open the refrigerator, looking for snacks, looking for drinks, or go off to the kitchen to see what else there is to eat. 

Once our stomach is full, we are off again seeking pleasure through the ears, nose, eyes, tongue, and body, seeking entertainment all night long in all sorts of places, looking for this person or that person, looking for this thing or that thing. This is seeking that is of no use to our heart. It does not bring fulfilment and contentment, but leads only to more and more mental deprivation, hunger, and craving continuously. 

When we don’t have anything to protect our mind, we will have loneliness, irritation, depression, and be easily agitated. This arouses dukkha in our mind and causes us harm. If we are only concerned with seeking fortune, status, fame, and pleasure through the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body when the body cannot meet our needs our mind will be stressed and tormented. 

For instance, when the physical body falls into sickness or becomes bed-ridden, it is not possible to seek pleasure through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. 

It is not possible to seek pleasure through fortune, status, and fame. When that happens, we will be lonely and depressed. It may even lead to feeling like we want to kill ourselves because we do not know what we are still living for without the means to enjoy physical pleasure as we did before. That is because we do not know the means to find happiness within the mind. 

For if we can find happiness within our mind, when anything happens to the body, we will not be agitated because we know the way to find happiness within our mind. Even if the body is sick, painful and bed-ridden or paralyzed, we can still find happiness within the heart. We can calm the mind, develop mindfulness, and practise the repetition of Buddho, Buddho. 

If we practise Buddho continuously without thinking of this or that person, this or that issue, our mind will be clear, cool, and relaxed, leading to calm and stillness. 

There will then be bliss. This is happiness that does not need the body or fortune, status, and fame. This is nurturing our mind to have happiness that leads and delivers us away from dukkha. For when we are calm, we are bound to be able to see the origin of dukkha and the origin of our perpetual death and rebirth, thus leading us into deeper levels of calm and reducing our kilesas (defilements), craving, and desire. 

For when the mind is calm, defilement and craving stop working and as a result the stressed, agitated, and angry mind ceases and disappears completely as well. This is the contentment that will stop discontentment, only it is temporary. The practice of mental calm through the repetition of Buddho, Buddho is not lasting, for when the calm mental state becomes weak, the kilesas will have the power to rise up, distressing the mind. 

To overcome this, we will have to use wisdom to teach the mind to understand that kilesas are the origin that of mental distress and torment that not worth wanting. 

If we do not wish to experience mental distress, but instead to have mental peace and calm forever, we should stop and resist desire, stop and resist greed, hatred and delusion. The method to stop and resist greed, hatred, and delusion is to teach our mind that whatever we desire through the kilesas and the resultant sukha that it brings to us is not comparable to the happiness that is already within our mind. 

The pleasure acquired through desire is little, arises only once, and will be followed by discontentment. 

Craving will arise again to regain the lost pleasure, and we will want it even more. It is like someone who already has a handful who then wants a whole sack. 

Having a sack, he craves and wants the whole store. 

Already having $10,000, his greed wants $100,000, and then a million. 

Already having a million, he wants 10 million, 100 million, without any end in sight. This goes on and on. 

Our mind is agitated, seeking all of this according to our desire. 

If we want our mind to be calm, cool, and happy, and not agitated, we have to fight against desire and teach our mind not to desire. For if we desire, dukkha will follow. 

Whatever happiness gained will be minimal because it is not permanent, and we cannot control it to provide happiness for us forever. 

Whatever sukha brought to us may within a day or night change and bring dukkha (unhappiness) instead. 

For example, when the relationship with our partner first starts, our partner is agreeable to us. Everything is delightful, and we are happy. But when our partner changes, whatever brought happiness before may become disagreeable and stressful for us. 

When our partner changes from being nice to being mean, from being truthful to being dishonest, our mind is no longer happy and only suffers. Additionally, it is not within our power to stop or change our partner. If our partner chooses to be bad, we will be depressed and despair. 

This is wisdom we use to teach our mind every time it desires anything, to teach the mind not to take things whenever it is not necessary. If we really need something, take it, such as our clothing. If it is torn and not possible to be worn, buy a replacement. But know what is enough and sufficient; two or three sets is enough. The same goes for sandals and other goods. Do not want more than necessary, otherwise it is desire driven.   

If you follow your desire, it will keep on increasing until it becomes too much and overloads your house. 

Owning too many things is not what increases the happiness in our mind. 

“Dhamma for the Asking, May 11, 2013.”

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.

20 December 2025

Q:  How does the Law of kamma work and how can we prove its validity?

Than Ajahn:  Well, it’s hard to prove the Law of kamma because the one who does the kamma is invincible. The one who does the kamma is the mind, not the body. The mind tells the body what to do. To go rob a bank or to give food to somebody, this is kamma. 

Robbing a bank is bad kamma. Giving food to people is good kamma. So the one who reaps the consequence of the kamma is not the body. The one who reaps the consequence of the kamma is the mind. And what is the consequence of kamma? It’s feeling good or feeling bad. 

If you rob a bank, you’ll feel bad because you have to try to stay away from the cops. You don’t want to get caught, you have worry and anxiety. But if you give food to people who need your help, you’ll feel good and happy. 

This is the result or the consequence of kamma. It’s in your mind, not with the body. 

But sometimes the body also has to reap the consequence of the kamma, as the collateral consequence. Like if you rob a bank, you might get caught and your body will have to stay in jail so your body is locked up and your mind feels bad. 

Actually we have to look at the mind itself, the feeling appears after we do certain actions. If we do something good, we’ll feel good. If we do something bad, we’ll feel bad. 

That’s the Law of kamma. It concerns the mind, not the body. 

And this also affects the mind after death because the mind doesn’t die with the body. 

The mind continues on as a spiritual being. If it’s in a happy state, we call it ‘heaven,’ if it’s sad, in turmoil or anxiety, we call it ‘hell’. It’s a state of mind after the body dies. You have to prove this yourself, you cannot prove it to other people. There is no instrument to measure your mind. You can have instrument to measure your body but you can only measure your mind by yourself, by the way you feel whether you feel good or you feel bad, you are sad or you are happy. 

And this is usually the consequence of the actions that you do.  

“Dhamma in English, Jul 7, 2024.”

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Q:  I heard that kamma is just ‘cause and effect,’ so, if there is no ‘self’, there is no ‘I’ and we are just the physical bodies. As such, who is doing the wrong act?

Than Ajahn:  Well, kamma deals with the mind. The mind is the one that is doing the action. But the mind itself is not a ‘self.’ A ‘self’ is a concept created by the mind. So the one who is doing the action is the mind and the one who bears the consequences of the action is the mind. When you do good kamma, the mind feels happy. If you do bad kamma, the mind feels unhappy. 

So it’s the mind who is being subjected to the Law of kamma, not the body. The body is only an instrument of the mind. 

Let me give you an example. If a driver drives a car, the driver and the car are two separate entities. The driver is the one who drives the car and the car is just an instrument used by the driver. When the driver drives the car and the car hits somebody, it’s not the car that has to pay the price, right? It’s the driver. So, it’s the same way, when the mind does something through the body, the mind is the one who bears the consequences. 

If the mind does bad kamma, the mind will feel bad. If the mind does good kamma, the mind will feel good. 

The body doesn’t know anything. The body is only like a car. 

But the question you asked is not really important. 

What you want to know is how to make your mind happy. Once your mind is happy, you understand that all the things that you don’t understand will become clear to you after you have studied the mind and know how to make your mind happy. And when you are happy, if you don’t know anything, it doesn’t matter because what you know or what you don’t know doesn’t matter as long as you are happy.

“Dhamma in English, Jan 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

“The mind also needs the four requisites like the body.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

11 December 2025

“The mind also needs the four requisites like the body.” 

The food requisite for the mind is charity. The clothing for the mind is keeping the precepts or morality. The home for the mind is meditation (samādhi/calm). And the medicine for the mind is wisdom. These are what the mind needs in order for the mind to be happy, healthy and content.”

But we hardly give these things to the mind. 

So the mind is constantly in a state of hunger, in a state of dissatisfaction, discontent. Even if you give the mind $100 million dollars, the mind is still discontent, dissatisfied because you give it to the wrong person. 

All the things that you do, you do it for the body not for the mind. It’s because nobody teaches you what to give to the mind unless you come to Buddhism. 

Buddhism teaches you to give the four requisites to the mind.

(i) If you want to give food to the mind, you do good things for other people like do charity;

(ii) If you want to give clothing for the mind, you keep the precepts. This is like putting on nice clothing. When you put on nice clothing, when people look at you, they will feel happy, and they want to be near you. If you are morally good, people want to be close to you because they know that you are not going to hurt them. 

This is clothing for the mind —morality; 

(iii) Housing for the mind is meditation, jhāna. 

When you get to jhāna, you know that you are in a safe place, nothing can harm you. It’s like when you stay in the house, you feel protected;

(iv) When you are sick , you use the Dhamma medicine which is wisdom—the Three Characteristics of Existence or the Four Noble Truths—to tell you why your mind is sick, why you have stress. It’s because you have cravings. So stop your cravings. Once you stop cravings then your mind has no stress then your mind is well, your mind is not sick. 

Q: Do we have to have the first three requisites before we get to the 4th one because without the first three requisites we are not able to use the medicine fully?

Than Ajahn: Well you might be able to use it partially by studying from the text or learning from the Buddha’s teachings. You can apply it to cure some sickness that is not deeply rooted. Like when you have a cut, you can use a plaster, you don’t need a surgery. But if you have cancer, then you have to go to hospital to get surgery. 

So wisdom has many levels: lower level and higher level. The wisdom that you learn here is on a lower level and you can apply it when you have lower-level stress. 

It’s like using a bandage or applying some tincture on to your wound. For wound that needs surgery [wisdom on higher level], you need to do meditation first. You need to calm the mind first before you can apply this higher type of medication. You need upekkhā.“

~ Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

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Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

28 November 2025

Q: In this age it seems a lot of people are suffering from fear, and there is a lot of fear in the world. Do you have any thoughts about how people can deal with this fear?

Tan Ajaan: Fear arises out of ignorance, the lack of right knowledge or truth. We are afraid to lose things and afraid to lose our body because we are ignorant of the truth of those things and our body. 

We don’t see the impermanent nature of things or the body. We don’t see that everything arises and ceases, with nothing remaining the same or remaining forever. 

We also don’t know who we are. This is the real problem. 

Our delusion makes us think that the body is ourselves when in fact the body is just another vehicle, like a car that we use to take us from place to place. We are the driver, but the problem is we don’t know that we are just the driver, instead, we think we are the car. 

The driver doesn’t die with the car. The mind doesn’t die with the body. 

If you meditate, you will see this. If you can enter total calm, you come to realise that there is this separate entity which is the mind. When you meditate and the mind becomes totally concentrated, you will temporarily let go of the body. The body will disappear from the mind’s perception, leaving the mind by itself. 

Then you will know that this is the mind without the body. Once you know this, you are no longer afraid of death, no longer afraid of losing anything. 

It’s the delusion that makes you think that you will lose everything when everything in the first place never belonged to you. 

Everything belongs to the earth. We have come and use the body to acquire things, but when the body has to die, you lose everything. Life is just like going to the movies. While we watch a movie there will be this and that, but when it’s over, we have got nothing. We leave the movie theatre with nothing. 

The earth is like a stage or movie screen. The mind just comes and uses the body as an instrument to experience this movie. Once the body that we used to experience the movie no longer exists, we have to leave the movie theatre, go to a different theatre, and get a new body. 

So know the truth is that we are not the body, that everything we have here does not belong to us and is only a temporary possession. 

Once you have the right attitude, the right knowledge, then you can adjust your attitude accordingly. 

You don’t own the sun, right? So you don’t get mad when the sun sets. You don’t feel bad about the sun setting, because you know the sun doesn’t belong to you. It is the same thing with the body and everything that you have here.

Your delusion makes you think that everything belongs to you, including your body, so when you lose it, you think that you are losing everything. You think that you disappear with the body, but that is not the case. 

Because when you meditate, you don’t have to use the body. Once the mind has entered calm, it separates from the body, and it actually becomes a lot happier than when having a body. The body is really a burden that you have to carry. Like an automobile it gives benefits, but it also comes with costs. 

You have to pay for it. You have to take care of it; you have to buy gas. You have to clean it; you have to fix it when it needs repairs.

“Dhamma in English, June 22, 2013.”

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.

24 November 2025

Human greed is never ending. Having just finished a meal, we already want to eat again upon hearing someone mentioning about delicious food. If we want to stop ourselves, we have to use reasons. Why do we want to eat again? We just finished eating and we are full. The food is still being digested. Wait till tomorrow if we really want to eat it. This is an example of how we use reasons to stop our craving. 

Never ending desire is what causes problems for all of us. If everyone thinks rationally, we all can live peacefully on this planet. The world has plenty of everything, more than we ever need. However, due to unrelenting greed, it feels like we never have enough. 

We think that the more we have, the happier we will be. 

This creates problems. 

Wars occur because of greed. If everyone is a Buddhist, people can live peacefully together. 

There is no need to invade other countries or to take advantage of other people. We, Buddhists, live and eat in simple ways. We do not take too much food. We are content with what we have. We eat only what our bodies’ need. We consume only what is necessary. 

Two sets of white garments are enough. We can wear them alternately. Today we wear this set. Tomorrow we wear the second set while we wash the first set. On the following day, we change again.

Monks use only three pieces of garments. 

They consist of an inner robe, an outer robe and a double-layer outer robe for use during the cold season. 

Normally, only two pieces are used. If we live according to the Buddha’s teachings, we do not need much. There is no need for closets to keep our clothing. 

However, in reality people have so many kinds of clothing for various uses, such as morning dress, daytime dress, evening dress, and nightgown. These clothes need to be cleaned and taken care of. This gives rise to all kinds of problems because we don’t think rationally, and not know how much or how many is enough for us.

If we think wisely and logically, we will live peacefully together in this world. Real happiness is within us. It is having peace of mind. 

Unfortunately, we never keep the mind under control. 

We allowed it to be dragged by the force of our kilesas that cause so much suffering and pain, pain from greed, pain from anger, and pain from delusion. 

The Buddha says our mind is aroused and agitated by what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. When we see or hear something, we immediately want it. When we have this desire, we become restless. On the other hand, if we are rational and follow the Buddha’s teachings, we can tell our mind not to blindly want things. 

In this world, no matter how much money we have, be it in the millions or billions, we can never buy the kind of happiness, which the Buddha points out to us. That kind of happiness is inside us. We only have to make it happen. We will then be free from all kinds of problems.

We can be forever happy because when we have this kind of happiness we can keep it. It is truly our own possession. Other belongings can be stolen. They can deteriorate. Cars can be stolen. Thieves can break into our houses. 

Even our husbands and our wives will one day leave us. 

But no one can take from us the happiness that comes from having peace of mind. 

I would like you to think about this, keep it close to your heart and mind, and to strive with all of your might to achieve the real kind of happiness that arises from a peaceful mind.

“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.

23 November 2025

Question :  The beginning of all conflict starts from objectification, what does it mean?

Than Ajahn :   It means everything comes from a self. 

When there is a self, then there will be conflict with other self because each self wants to provide things for itself. So when they try to get things from the same resources, they might resort to conflicts. If there is no self, then there is no need to go seek for anything. If the mind can return to its original true state which is merely knowing, then there is no need to have any conflict with anyone because in that state you are happy. You don’t need to have anything to make yourself happy. 

But as soon as your mind is being identified by the sense of a self, then you feel that you have to get something for yourself to make yourself happy. So you have to kill this self by stop thinking about yourself, and by meditating a lot to get into jhāna—that’s when the sense of self will temporarily stopped. 

And you will discover that having no self is better than having a self.

Question :  So the only way to solve this problem is to see all things as anattā, am I right?

Than Ajahn :  Yes. You need to meditate. You have to get into jhāna—this is when you will see anattā. But you can only stay in there briefly. 

When you come out of that state, you have to use your thought to remind yourself that everything is anattā, there is no self in everything. So, no need to fight, no need to compete for resources because each of our mind is complete in itself, it doesn’t need to have anything. But the deluded mind doesn’t know this. The mind that is delusional is constantly craving for things to make it happy because it never enters into jhāna. 

So you want to train your mind to enter into jhāna to see what it is like when the mind has no craving, when the mind is not creating a self, then you will see that there is peace and happiness in that state of mind.  And when you come out of that state, you have to keep reminding yourself not to go after anything. 

Because everything you go after, sooner or later, will cause you suffering than give you happiness because everything is temporary, everything is impermanent. 

Question :  So it means that the mind that is peaceful is the mind that is in abundance, a mind that is complete on its own, it isn’t a mind that is in scarcity.

Than Ajahn :  That’s right. Because what makes the mind in scarcity is the craving. 

Once you have craving, no matter how much you have, it will never be enough. If you have $1million, you want $10 million; if you have $10 million, you want $100 million, and so forth. It keepst going. It keeps multiplying. It never feels content. Look at all the millionaires. 

Ask them if they already have enough money, they would say ‘no’, even though they know they can’t spend all the money they have in their lifetime, yet their minds are still hunger for more. 

So you have to stop your craving. 

Once you stop your craving, you have contentment. You become full. You become complete. You don’t feel you need anything. 

That’s why meditation is very important to retrain the mind. 

And what is important for mediation is mindfulness. So you have to practise mindfulness from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Try to stop your thoughts as much as possible. 

Question :  Now I am using the word ‘non-reactive’ which is helpful.

Than Ajahn :  You can use ‘no thinking, no thinking’ or ‘stop thinking, stop thinking’. 

Stop talking to yourself! Why are you keep talking to yourself for, all day long? Just watch. Just observe. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 14, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #jhāna #meditation #mindfulness #contentment

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

22 November 2025

Question :  Is chanting considered as rites and rituals?

Than Ajahn :  No. Chanting is the practice of developing mindfulness. 

Rites and rituals are the activities that you perform because you expect to get something out of it. Like when you are sick, and then you perform some rituals and expect that the rituals you’ve done can cure your sickness. 

Chanting in order to develop mindfulness is the practice of noble eightfold path, sammā-sati (right mindfulness). 

Question :  A group of friends from the Buddhist Society has started to chant Ratana Sutta on every Sunday, and one of them was saying that what we were doing was a kind of rites and rituals.

Than Ajahn :  It depends on what you want from your chanting. If you chant and you expect to get rich, or you want to get well from your illness, then this is rites and rituals. 

But if you chant because you want to calm your mind, then this is the practice of noble eightfold path, sammā-sati (right mindfulness). So it depends on what you expect to get from doing chanting. 

If you chant and you expect to get rich from your chanting, then this is rites and rituals because it can’t happen. 

Question :  Our Sunday meeting started last year during the pandemic and one of the Buddhist Society members suggested that we chant Ratana Sutta as a kind of protection from the pandemic. Is this considered as rites and rituals?

Than Ajahn :  When you chant, you protect your mind, you can’t protect your body. Even the Buddha couldn’t protect his body.  When his body was sick, and was going to die, he couldn’t protect it. But he could protect his mind from experiencing any suffering caused by the illness of the body. 

So, when you chant, you want to protect your mind, to make your mind have equanimity.

Question :  So, as long as our intention when we chant the Ratana Sutta is to protect our mind, it is a form of mindfulness training, it isn’t considered as rites and rituals.

Than Ajahn :  Right. It’s okay to chant if you want to develop Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi, Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi (Dhamma as your refuge). This Dhamma is mindfulness (sati). 

Layperson :  Thank you, Ajahn.

“Dhamma in English, Dec 28, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #chanting #ritesandrituals #mindfulness #

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

20 November 2025

Q: The first path/one of the Noble Eightfold Path is sammā-diṭṭhi (right view) Could you explain the exact meaning of sammā-diṭṭhi as described in the teachings of the Buddha? 

How crucial is it (having the right view) in the process of developing the other seven (e.g. sammā-sati, sammā-samādhi etc) factors?

A: The first factor is very important which is right view. Right view (sammā-diṭṭhi) means to know the Four Noble Truths, to see that suffering is caused by our cravings. For us to stop our cravings, we have to develop the Noble Eightfold Path. So when we have this [right view] we have the first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path which will initiate the other factors to fall into place.

If you know that your rebirth is caused by your cravings and your suffering is caused by your cravings then you have to stop your cravings. And what you should do to stop your cravings is to practise the Noble Eightfold Path’s remaining seven factors.

The second (sammā-sankappa) is to think continually of stopping your cravings, stopping your bad kamma because your bad kamma and cravings are the causes of your mental suffering. Once you have the second factor - to think of stopping your cravings - then you develop the third one which is right action and the fourth one which is right speech, then the fifth one is right livelihood, the sixth one is right exertion, the seventh is right mindfulness and the eighth is right meditation or right concentration. So once you have the first one (sammā-diṭṭhi), then the other seven will follow suit.

To have sammā-diṭṭhi according to Buddhism is to know the Four Noble Truths - to see that our suffering, our endless rebirth, aging, sickness and death are caused by our own cravings and the path to stop the suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path.

- - - - -

Q: Could you explain the concept of non -attachment in Buddhism and how it helps to lead a happy life while being faithful to social commitments? (family life, office work, education, etc)

A: Non-attachment or non-clinging means not being attached or cling to things that will be separated from you one day.

Everything is anicca - everything is temporary. So when you cling to things and when that same things have to be separated from you, you will become sad. So being non-attached means you can have things, but you have to be ready to let go of them when the time comes (such as your body). 

Your body is anicca (impermanent), one day it will have to die. If you cling and have a craving for the body to exist forever, then when the body starts to age and dies finally, you will undergo a lot of suffering. But if you know that the body is temporary and one day it will have to die, then you don’t cling or get attached to the body and when the time comes, then you will have no suffering.

When it is not yet the time for the body to go (decay and die), you can still have it, but you have it with the thought that you have to let it go when the time comes. 

That is what non-attachment is.

You can still have what you already have but you have to tell yourself that what you have now, you won’t always have them. When the time comes, if you don’t want to have any sadness or suffering, then you have to be willing to let them go. 

“Dhamma in English, Mar 26, 2023.”

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 November 2025

Attention controls awareness; if the level of attention is insufficient, realizations are limited. Information perceived by the senses—a sound heard, something seen, a scent smelled, for example—triggers distracting moods and emotions. Remaining attentive to these allows for their regulation. Having a low level of attention is akin to being in a rudderless boat, drifting along with moods and emotions, whereas holding the helm allows one to steer in the desired direction. 

Awakened beings use attention like everyone else, but they are no longer deceived by the insidious effects of their moods and emotions, such as their desires or anger. 

Consequently, they act, speak, and think solely with compassion, wish to help others, rejoice in others' happiness, or remain neutral. It's similar to how a drunk driver and a sober driver both drive: the one under the influence of alcohol, or here, under the influence of their moods and emotions, does not fully control their behaviors, words, and thoughts, and sometimes does senseless things, possibly harming others. Meanwhile, the sober one is careful, acts, speaks, and thinks with clarity, contributing to the well-being of their surroundings and humanity.

Being attentive to oneself allows one to observe and thus become aware of the mechanisms of one's feelings, memories, daydreams, and sensory-derived moods and emotions. Realizing these in every moment is a treasure that anyone can enjoy. Observing something else leads nowhere, true knowledge lies within oneself. As the Buddha taught, where the world comes from and how it was created is not the question, what is important is to purify what is within oneself, to heal one's sufferings, and to put an end to the cycle of rebirths.

Ajahn Suchart Abhijato

(พระอาจารย์สุชาติ อภิชาโต)

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

17 November 2025

Phra Ajahn. :  The real cause of the world’s problems is birth. If there is no birth, then there will be no problem. 

If there are human beings or animals on this earth, then there will always be problems. So if we can somehow stop rebirth, if everybody, human or animals, stops being born, then there will be no problems on this earth. So let’s stop our cravings—the cause of our rebirth, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for not-being. 

Once you take birth, then you have to look after your body, then you need the 4 requisites of life, that is, food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. So you have to create these requisites of life and you end up destroying things on this earth by producing what you need for your existence. So the best way is to stop birth by stopping your cravings, by practising the noble eightfold path, or by the triple training (practising sīla, samādhi paññā), or practising dāna, sīla, bhāvanā. 

These are the practises that will stop rebirth. 

Once you can stop rebirth, at least you will get yourself out of the problems. For those who still take rebirth, they have to live with their problems because no matter how much they try to deal with their problems, if they don’t stop rebirth, they will never be able to stop their problems. Because they will keep creating more demand, hence more problems. The more demand they create, the more problems they get. 

- - - - - - -

Question.  :  If people always have bad comments and bad intention, say mean things to us, like the bullies, we just ignore them because we don’t want to create anger or suffering to ourselves. If they still keep disturbing us, can Ajahn advise how can we deal with these people?

Phra Ajahn. :  The same way you deal with the flood, the hurricane, or the storm. You cannot stop them. You cannot tell them to be nice to you. So let them be. 

Shelter yourself by not listening to them, by not being near them if possible. But if you are near them, then just think of them as being the weather, the storm, or the flood. You just have to learn to live with them.

What else can you do? If you can think like this, then there will be no anger, no disturbance in your mind. 

Just accept that this is the consequences of being born. 

Birth is suffering. Birth is not happiness. 

When you are born, those are the problems that you have to deal with. If you don’t want to deal with these problems anymore, then you should stop birth—this is the way to deal with problems. It’s not by trying to stop other people from being mean to you. But you have to stop yourself from taking birth.

- - - - - - -

Question. :  Many people will not consume meat if they have to kill the animals by themselves. They eat meat because it is being sold at meat stalls. By buying meat they create a demand for meat. Haven’t those who buy meat for consumption, created a demand for meat thus making the meat industry owners kill animals?

Phra Ajahn. :  I think everybody creates some kind of demand. Being born is the real problem. If there is no human, then there will be no problem on this earth. So stop birth. 

This is better. This will stop every problem. 

Stop the one who takes birth and it will stop all the problems that exist in this world. 

Being born is the real problem. The problem is not whether you eat meat or you don’t eat meat. The problem is whether you are being born or not being born. So stop birth. Then there will be no problem on this earth. 

Because when you are born, you create demand because you need other people to look after you. And people are different. 

Some people eat meat; some people don’t eat meat. So being born is the one that creates all these demand. 

When you were born, you have to be looked after by other people, e.g. by your parents, your doctors. They have to look after you to keep you alive. And some of them eat meat, some of them don’t eat meat. So they are creating demand for the killing of animals because they have to live to take care of you. 

So it’s better for you not to be born. It’s better for everybody not to be born. And when there is no human on this earth, then there will be no killing of animals. 

- - - - - - -

Question. :  Human are biologically programmed to have sex and rebirth non-stop. There are 8 billion human on earth now. 

Are human nature meant for self-destruction and to create suffocation?

Phra Ajahn. :  It’s not human nature. It’s the defilements i.e. greed, hatred, and delusion, which cause rebirth and suffering. Birth is suffering. Birth is dukkha. Because birth is followed by ageing, sickness, death and separation from the one you love. These are all dukkha (sadness or misery).

- - - - - - -

Question. :  If we have not successfully removed all the 3 cravings, does it mean that we are still going to have rebirth and be hopeful that we have left some footprints on the Path?

Phra Ajahn. :  Yes. But leaving footprints on the Path is not enough. You have to stop your cravings permanently.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 6, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Buddha has said that you have to help yourself first before you help other people.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

12 November 2025

The Buddha has said that you have to help yourself first before you help other people.”

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 

Question (M) :  I’m here now for almost one and a half year. Sooner or later, I will have to go back to the Netherland where I’ve lived for most of my life.

I’m too old to get into the working system. 

So, I’m looking for an opportunity to coach people such as the elderly, and going to the direction of meditation. 

I have the feeling that I can reach to people. 

Sometimes I’m practicing, sometimes I am not practising, but my heart is with meditation. I need the directions and the vision from someone like you to guide me whether I am on the right course.

Than Ajahn : Well, if you look at the example of the Buddha, his first priority is to teach himself until he became fully enlightened, until he finished his job. 

Once he had finished his job, then he started helping other people. In Buddhism, this is usually the priority. 

The Buddha has said that you have to help yourself first before you help other people. 

If you think that you are happy with yourself, that you don’t need to help yourself anymore, and you have spare time to help other people, you can do that. 

However, this will stop you to progress to the final destination if you haven’t reached it yet. Because as soon as you start helping other people, you’ll lose the time that you need to send yourself to the final destination.

Layperson (M) :  I understand. It’s more of the willingness to organize things and to have contact with the teachers here in Thailand who may want to visit my country. It’s in that direction because I have much more years to cross before the pension system in Holland takes place. Till then, I have to look for the opportunity.

Than Ajahn : Ok, I hope I’ve answered the question you asked. If you still have to do whatever you have to do, then you have to do it.

Layperson (M) :  Yes, but my enlightenment is not for this life.

Than Ajahn : Yes, you take the Bodhisattva path – helping others before helping yourself. 

You have to develop compassion first before you can relinquish and go live in isolation and help yourself. So, it might take a long time. 

Layperson (M) :  Yes, that’s what I mean.

Than Ajahn : If you follow the Buddha’s path, right now you might finish it in 7 days, 7 months, or 7 years. It’s your choice. 

Layperson (M) :  Ok, thank you.

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #meditation

“New Year”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

8 November 2025

“New Year”

In this New Year, if we want our lives to be better than before, we must make more merit, give up more sins, and purify our hearts more than before. Because these are the reasons that will increase happiness, increase prosperity, reduce suffering, and reduce decay. 

This is the matter of our lives. If we want to gain more happiness and prosperity, we must diligently make more merit, give up more sins, and purify our hearts more. Because this is the only way that will bring us happiness and prosperity. There is no other way. 

No one can chant or blow on us happiness and prosperity. Even the Lord Buddha cannot chant or blow on us to be prosperous and happy, or to attain the path and nirvana by chanting and blowing on it. 

The Lord Buddha can only show us the path that will lead us to the path and nirvana, lead us to happiness and prosperity, and lead us to the end of suffering and rebirth. The Lord Buddha can only do this, but it is the most wonderful thing. Because no one knows the path that will lead us to the end of all suffering. 

There is only the Lord Buddha. If the Lord Buddha did not come to enlighten us and teach us this truth, We will never reach the end of all suffering in the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, the teachings of the Lord Buddha are truly miraculous teachings that can enable beings who are lost in the cycle of birth and death to escape and find true and lasting happiness. 

Whoever hears the teachings of the Lord Buddha and puts them into practice with sincerity, diligence, perseverance, and determination, will certainly sooner or later achieve the results of this practice.

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.

31 October 2025

Q:  When we die, we can’t take our money with us, but we can take our dāna with us.

Than Ajahn:  Yes, the happiness from giving (dāna) will stick with your mind, it will go with your mind. 

The happiness stays in the mind. 

It can produce result when the body dies then this happiness will support your mind to go to heaven. It makes your mind heavenly because you have good feeling or happiness going with you. 

Q: What if I’ve forgotten all the dāna I’ve done?

Than Ajahn:  It doesn't matter. It's contained in your mind automatically. You don't have to remember it because it keeps your mind happy already. You don’t have to remember your good or bad kamma. Once you do it, it produces the result right away. It makes your mind happier or sadder depending on what kamma you did. A sad mind goes to hell, a happy mind goes to heaven. After you consumed this happiness in heaven or sadness in hell, the kamma will expire and you will have to come back and be reborn as a human again. And then you will do more good or bad kamma again. 

Q:  Is human mind neutral?

Than Ajahn:  Human mind is like a depository for good or bad karma, for happiness or sadness (dukkha). It’s like the Fort Knox – the US kept their gold in the Fort Knox.

Q: Our mind can also take in garbage, right?

Than Ajahn:  That’s right. If you think bad, you’re creating garbage in your mind. If you think good, you’re creating good things in your mind. And these things can affect your well-being or ill-being, affect your mental health. 

Q: Is mental health more superior than physical health?

Than Ajahn:  Mental health lasts longer. It doesn’t expire with the death of the body. It continues to affect your mind either happy or sad. When you don’t have the body to give you good feeling then you need the good kamma that you’ve done when you were alive to give you the good feeling. 

Q:  Preparation for death.

Than Ajahn:  It’s like getting ready to travel. 

When you die, you move on to the next world so you have to prepare your suitcases, your Visa, exchange your money, bring your credit card with you. If you don't, then you go like a refugee. This is what dāna is. 

Dāna is the wealth you can take with you - the money, the credit card. Without it you'll be like a refugee, they won't let you enter the country, they let you stay at the border and stay in the refugee camp.

Q:  If dāna is like credit card, how about those people who are meditators?

Than Ajahn:  Meditators go to a higher realm, they go to the realm with more happiness. 

The result is still like giving dāna, but with more happiness. 

When they come back to become human, they don’t bring anything with them except the way to get more jhāna. They will be practising meditation whichever way they used to do. They will come back and continue to do it again because that’s the way it makes them happy. 

If you are happy giving dāna, when you come back to become human, you will continue to give dāna. If you are happy doing meditation, when you come back, you will continue to meditate. So that’s why some people ordain and some people don’t ordain. Some people give dāna, some people meditate. It becomes a habit. If you used to drink a certain type of drink, you’ll always come back and order it again, right? If you like Coke, you’ll always order Coke, you never order other drink. 

Some people keep changing because it’s their habit, they have the habit of wanting to keep changing. That’s why people are different because people have different preferences. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 12, 2023.”

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 October 2025

Q: I’ve found recently a few times when I intensify the practice a little bit, like keep the 8 precepts on the weekend, on a Saturday, on a Sunday for example, toward the end of that sometimes I get a lot of anger arising. It doesn’t come out, speak or act because I am on my own but I get some quite angry thoughts coming up.

Tan Ajahn: Because when you keep the 8 precepts you are putting pressure on your mind, on your defilements. 

So it causes you to react negatively because the mind or the defilements want to be freed from restraint. 

But once you start to put restraints on them they start to react negatively. But that’s normal, don’t pay attention. 

It’s just the normal reaction of the defilements. This is something you will have to go through. 

So one way to reduce this is to maintain more mindfulness. Think less. Have mindfulness to hang onto something and then these thoughts will not bother you or will come up less often. It’s because you don’t increase your mindfulness, you keep the same level of mindfulness but you are putting more pressure on your defilements so they are reacting. So it means when you are keeping the 8 precepts you need to be more mindful. 

Practice more mindfulness.

“Dhamma in English, Jun 11, 2024.”

- - - - -

Q: Why do I find that the sensual desires tend to be more pronounced during meditation retreat compare to my normal days?

Than Ajahn:  It’s because your sensual desire is being curbed more when you’re in a retreat. You cannot let your eyes, ears, nose, and tongue see and hear things as they normally do because you have to meditate, so the desire can become stronger. It’s like a pressure cooker, when the steam inside the pressure cooker has no exit, the steam keeps on building up and it becomes very strong. 

When you are not in meditation retreat, you can see, hear and do anything you like, whenever you like, so the sensual pleasure has some outlet to release its pressure and you don’t feel the pressure. When you go for a retreat, you are closing the pressure releaser. It then builds up inside your mind and it becomes stronger. The only way to deal with this is by using mindfulness and meditation. When you have mindfulness or when you meditate, you stop your mind from creating cravings and desires, then the pressure will subside and disappear temporarily. But as soon as you come out of your meditation, if you are not mindful, you start creating more cravings and desires again.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

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.

6 November 2025

Q:  Is it correct that kilesas are part of the citta and the Dhamma is also part of the citta? 

Than Ajahn:  Well, they all come from the citta. They are inside the citta. They are in your mind. Your defilement is part of your habits – the habit to greed, to hate, and the delusion of not knowing that it can cause you suffering. You think that it’s giving you pleasure, but instead it is giving you suffering. 

When you crave for something, if you get it, you feel good. But you don’t think about the opposite result, how do you feel if you don’t get it? You’ll feel bad, you’ll feel angry, disappointed or sad because you can’t get what you want. Our delusion causes us to only look at the good side of craving or greed so we don’t look at the other side of it. What happens if you can’t get what you crave for or you lose the things you have? 

You get something and sooner or later you’re going to lose it because everything is anicca (impermanent). 

This is what we call ‘wisdom’.

Wisdom is Dhamma. Usually it has to be taught to us. 

We don’t have wisdom within us so we need somebody like the Buddha to come and say that everything that we crave for can give us disappointment or sadness because everything that we get, sooner or later, we will lose it or it will change. It doesn’t remain the same all the time so it doesn’t give us happiness or pleasure all the time. It can turn into poison instead of giving us pleasure. So this is what we don’t see. 

Our delusion prevents us from seeing anicca, dukkha, anattā so we go after things. In the pursuit of getting thing, you have to work hard to get it. This is already dukkha. After you got it, you can lose it and when you lose it then you become sad, and you go look for another thing again for replacement and it’s the same thing happens - the replacement is also impermanent. 

When you cannot remain without anything, you are like a drug addict. You have to have the sensual pleasure to feed you all the time. 

You need to see, to hear, to smell and taste and touch things all the time. Without them you feel empty, you feel unfulfilled. But these things cannot fulfil your mind. They cause you to have more cravings because they are like drugs. You take them and then you want more of them and when you cannot get them, you suffer. So the defilement is in the mind. 

Usually we have defilements. We lack Dhamma. We lack the wisdom of the Buddha until we are fortunate to come across his teachings and start to study and follow his teachings. Then we have something to counter measure or to go against the defilements (kilesas). He gave us the tools, the noble eightfold path, to counter the defilements. 

The noble eightfold path can be condensed into 3 parts: the practice of morality, meditation and wisdom (vipassanā). If we keep practising these 3 practices, we will have the ability to get rid of our defilements and consequently, get rid of our suffering that the defilements create for us. 

Don't try to study the mechanic of things. Try to study the ‘how to do it.’ It’s like driving a car. Just learn how to drive the car. Don’t worry about the mechanic of the car like what RPM should the car drive at, what cylinder is in the car, or what horsepower is it and so forth. You don’t have to know all these things. 

All you have to know is how to drive the car safely to take you home or to take you to places where you want to go. 

Our goal is the complete eradication of our suffering. In order to get there we need to practice morality (sīla), meditation (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā). In Pāli, we call these the triple training.  

Sometimes we study too much about the mechanic or the composition of things. We forget the things we have to do. People spend years studying Buddhism and they never practise the triple training. Or if they practise, they practise partially. Like monks, they practise morality but sometimes they spend too much time on the scholastic side of Buddhism, they forget the practice of meditation and wisdom.

“Dhamma in English, May 28, 2024.”

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.

21 October 2025

Question: What about walking meditation?

Ajahn:  Walking meditation has two purposes. 

Walking for the sake of cultivating mindfulness and walking for the sake of developing wisdom. Which purpose we choose depends on whether or not we have concentration. 

If we are not yet able to attain concentration, then we should cultivate mindfulness in order to do so. If this is the case, then as we walk, we shouldn’t allow the mind to think in terms of wisdom, but only allow it to think Buddho, Buddho, or to closely watch the movements of the body, such as observing the feet, noting whether the left or right foot is hitting the ground. We do this to prevent the mind from thinking about this or that issue.

- - -

Question:  Should this be done alternately with sitting meditation?

Ajahn: After you walk for some time and you start to ache, you have to sit, don't you? If you are stiff from sitting, get up and walk. 

The purpose of meditation is to restrain and control your thoughts in order to make the mind peaceful, at least on the level of entering concentration. Once we have attained concentration and come out of it, we might be sore and stiff from sitting for a long time so we can then again do walking meditation. 

But this time instead of observing the movements of the body, watching the left or right foot, or repeating Buddho, Buddho, we can contemplate the body. We contemplate the 32 parts of the body, its loathsomeness, its nature to be born, age, sicken, and die, how it is composed of earth, water, wind, and fire. 

We contemplate continuously until we see that the body is just another doll that we have possessed and taken as ours temporarily. It is just like a cell phone. We have to look at it in this way until we can really see it, until we can let it go, until we are no longer bothered or fear old age, pain, or death. No matter where we are, no matter how alone, we’ll be able to stay. We will feel no fear.

“Mountain Dhamma, Apr 6, 2013”

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.

26 September 2025

Q:  When the mind is very agitated, what is the best technique to calm down the kilesa?

Phra Ajahn:  Well, the easiest but also the hardest way is to use a mantra. Simple. You just keep reciting the mantra until you stop thinking then your mind will stop being agitated. The problem is if you haven’t practiced using the mantra, you’ll find it very difficult to do it. Or maybe you despise it because you think it’s stupid, ‘How could I just keep reciting one word and achieve something so spectacular?’ It’s because you haven’t tried it before. 

But if you really try using a mantra, a mantra can stop your thoughts. If you focus on the mantra, how can you think about other things, right? So you use either a mantra or if you know some chanting then keep doing the chanting. You don’t have to do it verbally, you do it mentally. Keep it inside  then you can do it anywhere, any time. 

So what you need to do first is to learn how to chant or learn how to use a mantra. It’s like running. If you don’t practice running before, you cannot enter the race because you run for a hundred meter and run out of breath. 

But if you keep practicing running, you might be able to run a marathon eventually. Using a mantra is like that. If you don’t practice it before, when it’s the time for you to use it, you cannot use it because you won’t have the strength to recite it.

Q:  Does it mean that we have to practice a mantra when we are not agitated? So when we are agitated then we can use it. 

Phra Ajahn:  Right. You can do a mantra all day long mentally from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep except when you have to use your thoughts for some practical reasons. Other than that, you should stop your thinking because they are all useless, they are all your imagination.  You are day-dreaming. They are your wishful thinking which create agitation in the end. 

So you should replace them with a mantra, any kind of mantra. 

You don’t have to use ‘Budho’ if you don’t like it. If you like Jesus, you can use ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.’ You can use ‘Mary, Mary’ but ‘Mary’ might not be good because you might start thinking about somebody beautiful. ‘Hale Krishna.’ People use ‘Hale Krishna, Hale Krishna.’ These are all mantras or chants to prevent your mind from thinking aimlessly or wishfully which can result in agitation and restlessness. 

Q: It’s what I did yesterday night. I was agitated when I came up here and I recited a mantra and also I walked for one and a half hour and after that I started to calm down. 

Phra Ajahn: That’s right. In the beginning it might take a while because your mantra is not strong enough but if you keep practicing it, eventually, you can stop your thought in a few minutes. So just keep practicing using a mantra or focusing on something to prevents you from thinking. Like when you have to stay at dangerous place, you have to focus on your steps to see whether you’re going to run into something or not. Then you cannot be daydreaming think about the past or about the future. You have to be in the present. This is what we call ‘mindfulness.’ Reciting mantra or focusing your attention on your bodily action is a form of mindfulness.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

"Practitioners must seek a place of sufficiency for meditation."

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

24 September 2025

"Practitioners must seek a place of sufficiency for meditation."

A place where we are alone will facilitate meditation. It is free from form, sound, smell, taste, and touch that will stimulate the mind to think and fabricate. If we are at home and see various things, we will not be able to stop thinking, worrying, and worrying, making meditation difficult. Therefore, he taught us to find a quiet and secluded place. This is to restrain the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, not allowing form, sound, smell, taste, and touch to disturb the mind. 

The word "sufficiency" means comfortable. 

Practitioners must seek a place of sufficiency for meditation. The mind will be easily calmed. A quiet and secluded place, free from hustle and bustle, people, and noise, and the people you are with must be sufficiency. 

Do not quarrel. Everyone lives separately, does not interfere or disturb each other. 

Food and air also affect meditation. It can be convenient or difficult. If the food does not suit the body, it will make you sick. This is not sufficiency. It does not mean food that is not to your taste or taste, but food that is a problem for the body. The air also plays a part. Too hot or too cold can be a problem. 

The most important thing that cannot be missed is mindfulness. We must have mindfulness to control the mind at all times. 

Do not let your mind wander. It is like a dog that must be tied to a pole so that it does not go anywhere. But if it is not tied, it will wander around. It is tiring to find it. 

If the mind thinks carelessly and does not control itself, it will be distracted and various emotions will arise. If you have mindfulness and tie it to the Buddha or to what you are doing, whatever you do, stay with that action. 

When walking, be aware that you are walking. 

When eating, be aware of eating. If you are still thinking about this and that, you must also recite the Buddha. Do not let it think about anything else. Just think about the Buddha. If you do this, you will draw the mind close to you, close to peace. 

When you meditate, focus on the Buddha or your breath. The mind will not go anywhere else. It will not be long before it can be brought together. There are many factors, both external and internal, that practitioners must know. They must know how to create factors that are conducive to meditation. 

Externally, they must have supplies. 

Internally, they must have mindfulness. They must restrain their senses. They must be isolated. They must know the amount of food they eat. Eating too much will make them lazy and sleepy. Sitting will make them fall asleep. 

They must observe the Eight Precepts and reduce their food intake. If they are still sleepy, they must eat only one meal a day. At first, I observed the 8 precepts and did not eat after noon, but I was still sleepy, so I had to reduce it to only one meal. If I was still sleepy after one meal, I forced myself to eat only 5 or 10 bites and then stop. If I was still sleepy, I would abstain. These are the factors that support the practice. There are quiet and secluded places, mindfulness, knowing the limits of eating, not mingling, not being in a secluded place, and talking for hours when meeting other people. This is not right. If you are in a secluded place, you must not mingle with others. Find a suitable place, restrain your eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. If you can do this, your meditation will definitely progress.

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

Characteristics of good practice and right practice”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

19 September 2025

“Characteristics of good practice and right practice”

How to practice Dhamma to attain Dhamma is like how to study to graduate as a doctor. It’s the same thing. 

Studying, studying medicine to become a doctor, you have to study fully, right? You’re going to divide your time to work and study at the same time. Do you think you’ll graduate? Studying only on weekends like this, this is the same. 

Practicing Dhamma is also studying, studying to become an Ariya, studying to become a Sotapanna, a Sakadagami, an Anagami, an Arahant, you have to study fully and fully, not just on weekends, asking to go to work, earning a living to feed your stomach.

If that’s the case, monks don’t have to ordain. 

The reason why monks don’t have any jobs to do after ordination is so that they can use their time to practice Dhamma fully. If monks have to work to earn a living like relatives and laypeople, no one gives them alms, they have to sell vegetables, sell things, etc. Then how can they find time to practice Dhamma to become Ariyas? So, in conclusion, you have to practice fully, 100 percent. The word “supatipanno” means practicing well, doing well, you have to do it fully. If you are a student, you should get 4 points or more, a grade of 4.0 like this. This is called good study, excellent study, Supatipanno.

The word Supatipanno means this. You have to devote all your time to practicing Dhamma. 

Only then will you be able to attain Dhamma. 

Those who attain Dhamma, 99 percent, are all monks. 

If you look at the history of all noble ones, there may be 1 percent who are special cases. They have old merit. As soon as they pick up the book, they understand it and can take the exam. These people have old knowledge. Some laymen can attain Arahantship after listening to the Dhamma once. But it is an exception. It is a very rare case.

So to summarize, you have to Supatipanno, Uchupattipanno, Nyapattipanno, Samichipattipanno. The 4 types of practice. 

Supatipanno is to practice fully. Uchu is to practice for, I can't remember. Ayapattipanno is to practice to achieve the desired goal, which is to be free from all suffering. It is not to practice for the sake of receiving respect or honor. It is not to practice to get a position. 

Nowadays, there are positions to lure monks. 

See? If you finish your Pali studies, To be appointed as a prince, this 9th level of the Buddhist scriptures, give encouragement, so he gave encouragement, but it turned into a diversion from studying to achieve the noble one to studying to become a royal monk. This is not like that. Samiji also practices correctly according to the scriptures, according to the teachings of the Lord Buddha. This is the characteristic of good practice.

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

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.

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.’

- - - - -

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