The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
9 April 2025
The Unsatisfactory Nature of Existence
We have faith and belief in the teachings of the Buddha who taught that when our body passes away, we do not pass away with the body but return to be born again in accordance with our kamma. For our next life to be better than the previous one, we have to make merit, do good deeds, and avoid bad deeds. And if we do not desire to be born again, we ought to meditate and constantly develop samatha (calm) meditation and vipassana (insight) meditation, and have faith in the Buddha who taught us to recollect and reflect on the certainty of impermanence of our body.
If we constantly remind ourselves of death, we will not remain negligent or careless but will quickly put in effort to fully benefit ourselves and others without complacency.
If we do not recollect death constantly, we are being complacent. We will not remember that we will have to die and we will seek out worldly things such as food, money, or people as our valuable possessions, not knowing that whatever things in this world we are able to gather up are only temporary.
When the time comes for the body to die, we cannot take these possessions with us. But what we can take with us is our merit, our wise wholesome actions such as giving, nurturing our virtue, meditating, and listening to and practising Dhamma.
Developing goodness, causing it to arise and be established within ourselves, is something that can be taken along with us. This is indeed very important, especially to our own mind, for it becomes our mind’s refuge.
Whatever valuable possessions, food, or money are not refuges for the mind. They cannot cause sukha (happiness), fulfilment, and contentment within the mind, and they cannot completely extinguish all kinds of dukkha (discontent and stress) within the heart. Our material possessions cannot protect the mind from disturbing conditions that enter and give rise to dukkha within our mind.
Thus the Buddha taught us that we ought to continuously strive to make more wholesome merit, discard more wholesome actions, and make our hearts more and more pure. For these actions will truly benefit ourselves.
They will not benefit the body, but will benefit the mind.
The mind is us and is ours. The body is not us and is not ours. We should not be deluded into excessively seeking all kinds of things through the body, for the body. Be content and just obtain what is necessary for our livelihood. Seeking food, housing, medicine for illness, and clothing is enough.
It is proper that we seek a refuge for the mind more through cultivating merit and goodness by giving, maintaining our virtue, practising Dhamma, sitting and walking meditation, developing mindfulness, developing samādhi, and developing wisdom. By undertaking these actions, we can have Dhamma and merit to oversee and maintain sukha in the mind all the time, and have no dukkha or agitation whatsoever. This noble work to oversee and nurture our mind is very important to us.
Do not be excessively concerned about caring and nurturing the body. For no matter how much care the body receives, you still cannot prevent aging, sickness, pain, or death.
However, with regards to caring for the mind, whatever progress we are able to make will bring a corresponding cessation of dukkha.
This will build up happiness and contentment within our mind even more. Overseeing and taking care of our mind is not empty of benefits but instead brings results here in the present as well as in the future.
As for taking care of the body, we just get present benefits while the body is still alive.
But when the body dies, we are no longer able to take care of the body. Whatever benefits the body used to give will also cease. This is something that we ought to constantly remember.
The Buddha teaches us to contemplate that as a result of birth:
I am of the nature to age. I cannot escape from ageing.
I am of the nature to get sick and experience pain. I cannot escape from sickness and pain.
I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape from death.
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.
“Dhamma for the Asking, May 11, 2013.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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