The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
16 May 2026
Monk: Tan Ajahn, the title of one of your books is ธารู้ (thārū̂) or the knowing element. In that book, you also use another name which is กายทิพย์ (kāythip) or the divine body.
I’ve never heard of that term before. What is the divine body or the knowing element?
Tan Ajahn: The knowing element is the mind, which doesn’t exist in the body. The mind exists in another world. We call it the spiritual world, the divine world or whatever term you want to use. But it’s not in the physical world like the body.
The mind and the body are connected through the viññāṇa from the mind. This is how the mind receives the objects coming into the sensual organs: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. The mind is connected to the body through the viññāṇa in the nāma-khandhas.
We call it viññāṇa (consciousness).
But the mind is never in the physical world.
It’s not in the world where the physical body is. Even if this world were to explode because of some catastrophic phenomenon, it wouldn’t catch the mind; it wouldn’t affect the mind because the mind isn’t in the world.
It’s only the body that would be exploded along with the world. But the mind is in a different place, in the spiritual world. So sometimes we call this ‘kāythip’ which is the spiritual body or the divine body, depending on how people translate ‘kāythip.’
I always compare the mind to someone on this Earth controlling a spacecraft. Someone who controls the spacecraft isn’t in the spacecraft. Whatever happens to the spacecraft doesn’t affect the controller.
The mind is like the controller of the body so whatever happens to the body doesn’t affect the mind. Physically, whatever happens to the body doesn’t affect the mind.
But due to the delusion of the mind to think that the mind is the body, that’s when the mind becomes hurt – because of delusion, because of the misunderstanding of the truth.
“Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2021.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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