The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

4 September 2025

Q:  How can I attain to Anāgāmī level? 

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

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

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

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

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

Don’t continue your thoughts. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

1 September 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- - - - -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

Collected and shared by Andrew Sum

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

26 August 2025

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

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

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

Mind becomes calm and happy by itself. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, February 27, 2018. ”

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

#ajahnsucharttabhijato #meditasi #perhatian #jhana

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

2 September 2025

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

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

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

You have to try to develop mindfulness all the time. 

Stop your mind from thinking aimlessly or uselessly. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

"The hard part is the practice."

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

3 August 2025

"The hard part is the practice."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

Wat Yan Sangwararam, Chonburi

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

19 August 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, Nov 16, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

13 August 2025

Question—

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

Than Ajahn—

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

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

 Question—

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

Than Ajahn—

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

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

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

Question—

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

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

Than Ajahn—

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

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

Question—

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

Than Ajahn—

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

Question—

How to get rid of ego?

Than Ajahn-

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

Question—

Is getting rid of ego equivalent to realising anattā?

Than Ajahn:

Just part of it because there is no ego.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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