The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
2 June 2025
"The Path to Nirvana"
Our bodies, our lives, if we do not have a human body, the body of an animal is useless. If we are born as dogs or cats, we will only come to live in the temple and eat.
The only benefit is to stay in the temple, have a place to live, have food to eat, but we cannot benefit from the teachings of the Lord Buddha because we do not understand the language. Therefore, we do not know what the meaning of the sermons and teachings of the Lord Buddha is.
If we are humans, but listen to the sermon like a ladle in a pot of curry, it is no different from cats and dogs who do not understand the sermon. A ladle in a pot of curry does not know what kind of curry it is, right?
Asking a ladle what kind of curry it is, it does not know.
It only knows how to scoop curry out of the pot and put it in a bowl. But it does not know whether it is spicy curry, bland curry, or what kind of curry. Listening like a ladle in a pot of curry, we listen to the sermon with a wandering mind. While listening, we think about this and that. If we do not listen carefully, we will not understand. So it is like a ladle, not like a tongue. When a tongue has a drop of curry flavor that touches the tongue, we know what kind of curry it is. If we want to benefit from listening to the sermon, we have to listen like a tongue and curry.
That is, focus on listening to the Dhamma and think and consider it. When you consider it, you will understand it. Now I understand how important Buddhism is. It is like a map, like a GPS. Our body is like a car. We are like the driver. Right now, we are lost and cannot find our way home. Our home is Nirvana. It is the safest place, free from suffering, and full of happiness. This is our home, which the Lord Buddha has reached. He has found the path to Nirvana. So he told us about it. If we listen carefully, we will know which way to Nirvana.
He said we must go to the precepts. After the precepts, we must go to meditation.
After meditation, we must go to wisdom.
Once we go to wisdom, we will arrive home. It is like going to Bangkok, which way do we have to go? If we go back via Sukhumvit, we must go to Si Racha, Bangsaen, Chonburi, and then we will go to Bangkok.
There are places on the road that we must pass through.
The way to Nirvana is a place that we must pass through. He told us to go to the precepts. Do we have the precepts yet? If we do not have the precepts, we will not go to the precepts. We can go to other places if we are still killing animals, stealing, committing adultery, lying, and drinking alcohol. We will not go to the precepts. Going to different paths of immorality.
Therefore, if we want to go the way the Lord Buddha went, we must go as the Lord Buddha taught, to follow the precepts, to follow the precepts, to follow the 5 precepts first, not to kill animals, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to drink alcohol and other vices. Once we have followed the 5 precepts, the next step is to follow the 8 precepts.
At the beginning, we can follow the Buddhist holy days first, on weekdays, follow the 5 precepts. When it is inconvenient to follow the 8 precepts when going to work, follow the 5 precepts first. As for holidays, we follow the 8 precepts. Nowadays, Buddhist holy days do not coincide with holidays, so they have been changed from Buddhist holy days to holidays. On days when we stop working and do not go to work, we can follow the 8 precepts because if we go to work, we have to eat dinner and have energy. But if we do not go to work, we can just eat lunch because we do not use our physical energy. We will sit still, meditate, and listen to sermons and Dhamma. Once we have the 8 precepts, we will be able to reach meditation. If we follow the 8 precepts, we will have time to meditate because when we meditate, our minds will be calm. We will reach the wisdom stage, listen to the sermons and Dhamma of the Lord Buddha and attain the Dhamma.
This is the path to our home. We must seize the opportunity quickly. Because the opportunity to come to this body, this human body and meet Buddhism is not easy. They say that winning the first prize in the lottery is easier. Think about it, have we ever won the lottery in our lives? First prize, don't even mention first prize, have we ever won the second or third prize? This is the same. We consider ourselves to have won the first prize in the lottery. We have met Buddhism and were born as humans. We consider ourselves to have won the first prize in the lottery. Now, when we win the lottery, what do we do? We have to go and claim the prize, right? If we just keep the ticket, there will be no prize for us.
So when we win the lottery, we have to go and claim the prize. We have won the lottery of Buddhism. We have found the GPS, and we have to go and claim the prize. We have to travel along the path that the Buddha taught us to practice. Having been born as humans and receiving the Buddha's teachings, the next step is to follow the teachings.
Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato
By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
Youtube: Dhamma in English
