The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

2 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.

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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.’

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

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

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

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

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

So you have to know these 2 things.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

 

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

12 September 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, Nov 12, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

11 September 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dhamma in English, Dec 5, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

#ajahnsuchartabhijato #dhamma

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

10 September 2025

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

Than Ajahn :  10 ways of making yourself happy are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then you’d feel happy with him/her. 

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

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

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

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

People don’t like arrogant people. 

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

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

8.  To have Right View (sammādiṭṭhi). 

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

Some people have the wrong view. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is sharing of Dhamma. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once you understand them, you will never forget them. 

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

So you have to understand them. 

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

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

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

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

Than Ajahn :  Okay. Good. 

Question :  When we experienced it, is this sandiṭṭhiko?

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

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

Layperson :  Thank you, Than Ajahn.

“Dhamma in English, Mar 1, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

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

“Disciples’ Carelessness”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

9 September 2025

“Disciples’ Carelessness”

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

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

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

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

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

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

After listening, we forget.

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

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

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

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

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

Phra Ajahn Suchart Aphichato

Wat Yan Sangwararam, Chonburi

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

7 September 2025

Namo Buddhaya 

—🌷🌷🌷—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visitor:  I try not to forget. 

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

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

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

Visitor:  Thank you very much.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

“Dhamma in English, Sep 18, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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