The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

12 March 2025

Q:  You’ve just redefined smartness and stupidity for me. We spent on other things which are less useful for ourselves.

Than Ajahn:  Yes. Everything you do in the world is useless. It’s worthless. Really! It doesn’t worth anything as far as your mind is concerned. It doesn’t make your mind happier. It doesn’t make your mind relieved from stress, from suffering. It doesn’t do that for your mind at all. So looking from the perspective of the mind, it’s useless. 

It's only useful from the perspective of the defilements. 

Defilements like to make money, spend money, be rich, be famous, be respected and so forth. These are all useful to the defilements but they are not useful to the mind. They don’t help you getting rid of the mental suffering of the mind at all. In fact, they increase more suffering, more stress and depression to the mind. 

But you don’t see that. You think that having more money is good, getting a higher position is good, being able to spend money on traveling, buying a new car, or buying a new condo is good. What does it do to your mind? Nothing. It just produces more craving for your mind. It creates more hunger. There is no contentment arising from those things. 

No peace. No contentment. Just restlessness, agitation, hunger and more craving. Have you reached the point where you’d say, ‘I have had enough yet?’ Just for sometimes, but eventually you’d want for more again. 

You don't see how important your mind is to you. 

Because you are being influenced by your defilements to see that what you can get for your body is more important than what you can get for your mind. But the body is temporary. Once the body dies, everything that you’ve accumulated for the body becomes useless to the mind. The mind couldn’t take anything with it at all. 

Try to practice because whatever you accumulated from your practice the mind can take that practice with it. 

You can take mindfulness with you, you can take wisdom with you, you can take jhāna with you; but you can’t take your Rolls-Royce with you, you can’t take your condominium with you. So what do you want? 

You can’t take anything that is physical with you. You can only take the mental qualities with you like charity, morality, contentment, peace, calm and wisdom. These are the things that you can take with you. These mental qualities will keep the mind peaceful and happy. 

But if you don’t have any of those mental qualities, if you keep hungering for this and that thing, when the body dies, the mind will be consumed with hunger because those were the things that you’ve been giving it to the mind everyday of your life. You give the mind more hunger, more craving, more desire. You will end up becoming a hungry spirit when you die. You take these poisons – greed, hate, delusion and fear – with you too. 

If you have mindfulness and wisdom, you can get rid of those 4 poisons, so you don’t have to take them with you. 

Just keep practising the triple steps: charity, morality and meditation. This is the path to freedom, path to everlasting happiness. 

The path of the worldly things is not the path to freedom; it’s path to subjugation, path to imprisonment in the realm of saṃsāra – continuous rebirth: birth, ageing, sickness and death.

“Dhamma in English, Sep 19, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

 16 October 2025

Q: What does หมากน้อยสันโดษ (mâak nói săn-dòht) mean?

Than Ajahn:  mâak nói means wanting little. 

Small is beautiful. Săn-dòht means to be content or happy with whatever you get whether it is many or little. Be thankful for getting it. Less is more. Small is beautiful. 

Because it doesn’t require much to have little. If you want to have more things, you have to work harder to get it. If you don’t want as much, you don’t have to work as hard to get it, so it releases the stress on your mind. If you want lots of things, then you have to work hard to get it. If you don’t want that much things then you don’t have to work that hard to get it. And if you are just happy with whatever you get then you don’t have any worries because you are just happy with anything or nothing. 

“Dhamma in English, Jun 1, 2024.”

- - - - -

Q:  In one of your teachings, you mentioned that the more you have, the more suffering you will be. Can you help enlighten me on this?

Than Ajahn:  If you have one house, then you only have one house to worry about. If you have two houses, then you doubled the worry. It also depends on how strong your attachment is. The cause of your suffering is based on your attachment. The stronger your attachment to things is then the stronger your suffering will be. If you are not attached to anything then you don’t have any suffering. The reason why you have more is because you have attachment so you want more. When you have more, then you have more suffering. If you have less attachment, then you have less suffering. 

Q: We do need a house to live so how much is enough? Does it depend on the individual?

Than Ajahn:  Yes, it depends on the individual. The Buddha tells the monks to not have a house, just live in the forest instead. 

You can decide for yourself. There are a wide range of accommodation you can chose from. The least expensive one will give you the least suffering. The most expensive one will give you more suffering because you have to pay more for it. 

“Dhamma in English, Jun 5, 2024.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

25 December 2025

Q:  How should I practice for a good death?

Than Ajahn:  For a good death you need to practice to keep your mind calm. You can do it by the method of mindfulness or the method of wisdom. The method of mindfulness is by focusing your mind on something to keep your mind away from thinking. If your mind does not think then there will be no fear, no nothing; the mind will be calm and quiet. But this is only a temporary measure. 

To get to a permanent fix, you need to use the method of wisdom – to understand the nature of the body. The body is impermanent, it’s a natural phenomenon, it doesn’t belong to you. The body is just the combination of the four elements that join together to form a body and one day it will have to separate and there is nothing anybody can do to stop it from happening.

The cause of our suffering or mental stress is our clinging to the body. We want the body to last forever. 

Due to our delusion, we don’t want it to disappear. We think that the body is us while in fact we are just the one who knows, the one who thinks which is called the mind that is connected to this body temporarily. 

So we have to understand the nature of the mind and the nature of the body. The body is not the mind and the mind is not the body. 

One day they have to separate. In order for them to be separated in a peaceful and happy way, we have to let it go, we have to let it happen. 

You need the strength of mindfulness to stop your mind from resisting this truth. Your mind still wants to cling to it. You want to keep this body for as long as possible even though it causes the mind tremendous suffering. 

So if you want to reduce the suffering, you just have to accept the eventuality of the body that the body, one day, has to return to the four elements. 

If we can see this with wisdom, see that we are not the body, and there is nothing we can do to keep the body forever then we just have to let it go. We just remain calm. Merely knowing – know that this is happening. 

Just focus on our breath until we no longer breathe then we know that the mind and the body are separated. 

That’s why we need to practice a lot of mindfulness and meditation in order to still the mind or to calm the mind, to stop the defilement from resisting the truth. 

Once we can control the defilement then we use wisdom to teach the mind to let go. We know that we have to let go because if we don’t let go, we will suffer. 

If we don’t want to suffer then we have to let go. 

So there are two levels. The first level is mindfulness. If you go to a fearful place that might cause you to be concerned about your life, you can recite a mantra, ‘Budho, Budho,’ to calm your mind down. Once your mind becomes calm then your fear disappears temporarily. You just remain calm, you are not affected by the situation.  [The next level] If you want to permanently get rid of your fear then you have to accept the truth of the body that one day the body will have to die and no one can stop it from dying. 

If you want to live in peace and die in peace then you just have to accept the dissolution of the body. 

- - - - - - 

Q:  I would like to ask for instruction to realise anicca (impermanence).

Than Ajahn:  Look at all the changes that is happening all around you. The leaves are anicca, people dying are anicca, people get sick are anicca. The Buddha saw the ageing person, the sick person and the death person and that’s why the Buddha taught us to constantly reflect on them. Once being born, we are subjected to ageing, sickness and death and to separation from the one we loved. This is something we have to constantly reflect on, not just once or twice a day but as much as possible. 

The Buddha asked his assistant (Ven. Ananda), ‘How many times you reflect on death in a day?’ and he replied, ‘Four or five times.’ The Buddha said that it’s not enough, ‘You have to reflect on death in every in and out breath.’ When you breathe in and you don’t breathe out, you die; when you breathe out and you don’t breathe in, you die. This is the way to reflect on anicca (impermanence). 

Everything is the same. Everything rises and eventually it has to cease. Nothing exists forever except the six elements (the earth, water, wind, fire, the knowing and the space element). These six elements will remain forever but they will form into something all the time. 

They will combine and form a human body or an animal body. Once having a form, it eventually has to disintegrate, it will go separate ways again - this is the work of nature. We have to understand it and we shouldn’t cling to anything because if we cling onto it, we will have stress or suffering when we lose what we cling to.

“Dhamma in English, Nov 18, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

“When you meditate, you will see the real face of the mind, and this face is simply the act of knowing. That is all that the mind does. It knows.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

26 February 2025

“When you meditate, you will see the real face of the mind, and this face is simply the act of knowing. That is all that the mind does. It knows.”

The first step is that we must develop samatha-bhāvanā. 

In order to do this, we need mindfulness or sati. Sati is the Dhamma that will stop the mind from thinking, a process that will bring the mind into calm, into concentration, into oneness, into singularity, into the real mind, into the one who knows—all characteristics of the healthy mind.

Right now we don’t discern the knowing from the knower. We see the thoughts. We have been constantly thinking from the time we are born to the present. We might stop thinking when we go to sleep, but the rest of the time we are constantly thinking and cannot see the thoughts or the knower behind the thoughts. When we stop the mind from thinking, we will see the knower. 

We will see that this is the mind, and we will understand that this mind is not the body. It is this mind that came to take possession of the body and it is this mind that will lose this body when the body dies. So this is the first thing you want to do, that is to separate the mind from the body by developing mindfulness.

Mindfulness is concentrating or focusing your mind only on one object, such as the recitation of a mantra. 

In Thailand we use the name of the Buddha. We keep reciting mentally Buddho, Buddho, Buddho, from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep. 

Because when we can maintain the recitation of Buddho, the mind cannot think. And when the mind cannot think continually, it will eventually stop and become concentrated into the knower. 

When you meditate, you will see the real face of the mind, and this face is simply the act of knowing. That is all that the mind does. It knows. But it is being deluded to follow the thoughts; whatever the thoughts say, it believes. The thoughts say this body is I, this body is mine, and the mind believes the thoughts. So whenever things happen to the body, like getting old, getting sick, or dying, the mind becomes miserable because the mind doesn’t want the body to get old, get sick, or die. 

When you meditate, and your mind has temporarily withdrawn into itself, the awareness of the body and everything else will disappear. All you have left is the mind. 

So you know that even though there is no body, the mind still exists. After you have experienced this truth, when you come out of your meditation, when you come out of your concentrated state and become aware of your body and things around you, what you want to do next is to keep reminding your mind that the mind is not the body and that the mind cannot keep the body forever. Also everything else that the mind has acquired, be it fortune, wealth, money, status, fame or the happiness that the mind gets and acquires through the body are all temporary, all impermanent. One day, sooner or later, the mind will lose everything.

If the mind is constantly reminded of this fact, the mind can then make preparations for this eventuality. When things happen, when the mind loses anything, it will not have any desire to have it back because the mind doesn’t really need it anyway.

If the mind has developed samatha-bhāvanā and samādhi, the mind will be peaceful, contented, and happy. So it knows that it doesn’t need anything to make it happy and that nothing in this world can make it forever happy because everything in this world is temporary. So this is the development of vipassanā, to constantly remind the mind to let go, not to cling to the body and to things because clinging will only cause the mind to have suffering, sadness, misery, fear, worry, and anxiety. 

So this is the development of vipassanā. You can do it effectively only after you have developed samatha bhāvanā, after you have experienced the true mind, seen the true mind, known that the true mind is not the body, and experienced the peace and happiness that arise from this experience. 

Then you will know that you can let go of everything because nothing you have is as good as what you have from your samatha-bhāvanā, from your peace of mind.

This is very important. You first must have something better, a better kind of happiness, before you can give up the lesser kind of happiness. If you don’t have this happiness that comes from having peace of mind, from samādhi, you cannot give up the happiness that you have through your body. This is the reason why the Buddha said you must first develop samādhi. 

If you have no samādhi, your mind will be constantly desiring, wanting, hungry for this or that. But when you have samādhi, your mind will become peaceful and calm, your mind will become contented, it will be full. 

It doesn’t feel like it needs anything. Once it has this fullness, this contentment, then it can give up everything, especially seeing the result of not giving up, of clinging. When you cling to something and when you lose it, it can make you become very unhappy, very miserable.

So this is the thing that you have to develop, this samādhi, and samādhi can only happen if you have mindfulness. So you need to first develop mindfulness, which you can do all the time, from the time you get up until the time you go to sleep.

You don’t have to go the temple. You don’t have to be alone. Yes, it will help if you can be alone, or if you can go to the temple. But if you have not yet gone to the temple, or been alone for a long time, you can still develop the mindfulness by reciting the mantra.

When you don’t have to use your thoughts for necessary activities, keep reciting your mantra. Don’t let your mind think aimlessly and emotionally because it is useless and harmful to your state of mind. It can only make you feel miserable, unhappy, and discontented.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

"The real happiness is a mind that is calm and peaceful."

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart_

16 January 2025

"The real happiness is a mind that is calm and peaceful."

Question:  “If one has family responsibilities, how can one have a proper retreat while still having to do his duty towards his family? Can these two be done together?” 

Than Ajahn:  “When you first start, you might not be able to do it completely. You might have to do it partially. You do it on your spare time, like going for retreat on your days off when you’re free from your work. You use that time to be alone, rather than doing the normal things that you used to do on your days off.

For example, if you usually go to watch a movie, or go for shopping on your day off, you cut down these activities. You go find a quiet place to meditate. You have to switch off your usual way of finding pleasure. 

Normally, on your days off, you find pleasure by using your senses. You want to stop those kinds of pleasure and look for a different kind of pleasure, the pleasure from meditation. 

You have to start from the free time you have. 

You use that free time to calm the mind, stopping the mind so that the mind can become peaceful and content. 

Once you could do this, then you’ll find more inspiration to find more time to do it. So, you start by cutting down the activities that you feel you don’t really have to do. As you move along, you will find more time that you can cut down in terms of the path for acquiring material things. When you have happiness and contentment, you’ll find that you don’t need much. 

You don’t need to have so much money. You don’t need to have so many things to make you happy. This is because you’ve found a different way of making yourself happy. 

You will reduce your acquisition for material things, your desire for money or other material things. Then, you can reduce the amount of work that you need to do. 

Gradually you can reduce everything, and then it will allow you to have more time to be alone and to practice, to calm your mind. 

The Buddha has said that the real happiness is a mind that is calm and peaceful. That is real contentment. 

Once you can calm your mind, make your mind peaceful, you’ll be happy and content. You don’t need anything. 

You don’t need to see a movie. You don’t need to go out to a party. At that point, you don’t even need to have a wife. You live as a hermit, live as a monk.”  

Dhamma for the Asking,

Layperson from England, Dec 15, 2017.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

“It differs from individual to individual.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

7 January 2025

“It differs from individual to individual.”

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 

Question (M): What do most people experience when they stay all night in the forest to learn for the first time?

Than Ajahn: It differs from individual to individual. 

For some people, if they have never tried it, sometimes they can stay until about 7 or 8 o’clock and then they ran away. They couldn’t stand the fear that arises in their minds. Some people stayed on. So, it differs from individual to individual. 

It depends on your background, on how much mindfulness you’ve already had. If you have mindfulness, when you start to be afraid, you can use your mindfulness to stop your fear. If you cannot stop your fear, you’ll feel that you cannot remain here (in the forest). 

Sometimes, you may either go back right away or wait until tomorrow. There are people who had asked to stay for one week, but stayed only for one night. Some people didn’t even stay for the night. So, it differs from individual to individual.

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Nov 9, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

10 September, 2023

Q: Should true Buddhists worry at all about those who criticise Buddhism or the Buddha for the sake of petty gains?

A: No, not at all. You cannot stop people from doing whatever they want to do. It does not hurt Buddhism whatever people do to Buddhism, because Buddhism is perfect and complete in itself and no one can change that. Buddhism is like the sun. You can do anything with the sun, you can criticise the sun, you can take advantage of the sun, but you cannot change the sun. 

The sun will always remain the sun. So is Buddhism.

 So you do not have to worry about what people say or do to Buddhism. They cannot change Buddhism.

- - -

Q: As per records the Bhikkhuni Order was established by the Buddha after about five years of establishing the Bhikkhu order. But today the Bhikkhuni Order does not exist in many Buddhist countries even though the Bhikkhu Order is flourishing. What are the reasons?

A: Lack of interest. Once there is no interest then nobody takes up the Ordination.

- - -

Q: As I have read the Paṭicca-samuppāda or Dependent Origination consists of 12 links namely ignorance (avijjā), activities (sankhāra), rebirth-consciousness (viññāṇa), mind and body (nāma-rūpa), 

The six senses (saḷāyatana), six senses contact (phassa), feeling (vedanā), craving (taṇhā), grasping (upādāna), kamma (bhava) future birth (jāti) old age, and death (jarā-maraṇa). Could you explain in simple language the 12 links and how one follows the other?

A: Well, this is how an unenlightened mind works. An unenlightened mind is being controlled by ignorance or avijjā. Avijjā is not knowing where the real happiness is. So such a mind (mind with avijjā) thinks that happiness is through sensual objects. So it (the mind) sends its thoughts towards the sensual organs first, towards the body by sending viññāṇa which is the connector that connects the mind with the body. viññāṇa connects to five sensual organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. It can receive sensual objects when it comes to contact with the sensual organs. Once there is contact and when the mind is capable of receiving this sensual object then it will become a 'feeling'.

A feeling will arise once there is contact between sensual objects and sensual organs. 

When you see something, you will start to have feelings - a good feeling or bad feeling depending on what you see.

If you see something you like, you will get good feelings, and if you see something you don’t like, you will get bad feelings. It is the same way that the other organs behave with other sensual objects. And when there are feelings there are cravings (one gets cravings). 

If the object you like gives you good feelings, you want more of it, if it gives you bad feelings then you want to get rid of it. Once you have cravings, you have an attachment towards your craving. And once you have an attachment, you keep continuing to have this state of going after what you crave for/ what you are attached to. But once the body dies, then you have to go and take rebirth, to get a new body to continue with your quest for sensual objects. So this is how rebirth comes about. These are the 12 links of dependent origination work. This is my take on dependent origination.

- - -

Q: How would you define Buddhism? Why did you get attracted to Buddhism?

A: Well, Buddhism is the teachings of the Buddha who taught the way to get rid of all forms of mental suffering such as stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, and discontent. This could be gotten rid of by following the teachings of the Buddha.

I became a Buddhist because I wanted to get rid of my stress or mental suffering. Once I started reading Buddha's teachings I realised that the Buddha knows the way to get rid of all mental suffering. I started to study Buddhism and started to apply what I had learned into my practice and I started to see that my mental suffering started to decrease and eventually no longer exists in my mind.

- - - 

Q: Some non-Buddhists hold the view that Buddhism only focuses on dukkha or suffering and as a result its followers fail to achieve material development or worldly comforts such as wealth. What is your view?

A: Well, the problem is the suffering. 

Suffering is like a mental disease. So one has to focus on getting rid of the mental disease because what is the use of having material comforts and wealth when you are still sick. 

When you are sick, you cannot use your material wealth for any happiness.

So what you want to do is to get rid of your illness. Dukkha is a form of mental illness that can be gotten rid of. And in order to get rid of mental suffering or dukkha, one has to forego the pursuit of worldly comforts such as wealth for instance because going after worldly comforts can create mental suffering. 

So one needs to make sure that one does not create suffering unnecessarily by going after worldly comforts.

But your focus is on getting rid of the disease - the mental disease, the dukkha, or suffering. It is just like when your body is sick. When your body is sick, you do not go to work or go after the worldly comforts. 

Your priority is to fix your body first or make the body well (cure the ailment.) It is the same way with Buddhism. Our priority is to take care of the mental sickness which is dukkha or stress that appears in the mind all the time.

In order for us to be able to completely get rid of the sickness of the mind, we have to forego our pursuit of worldly comforts because pursuing worldly comfort is another way of increasing the stress in the mind. 

So we have to stop this. Once the mind is cured, the mind becomes happy. It can live a very simple life. It does not need any material comfort because it has mental comfort which is far better than material comfort or worldly comfort.

“Dhamma in English, May 23, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

- - - 

This Q&A was also published on Sunday Observer: https://www.sundayobserver.lk/2023/05/28/spectrum/%E2%80%9Cbuddhism-perfect-and-complete-itself%E2%80%9D

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

23 January 2024

Q:  I tend to struggle with the balance between wanting to find peace & happiness and wanting to accomplish my own goals & be successful. The two seem to be at odd with each other and everything I learned seems to contradict itself. So how do I find the balance between the two?

Than Ajahn:  Well, there is no balance between the two, really. It’s one or the other. 

You can continue on with what you want to achieve but you just have to learn to know the limit of your ability. 

You have to know how much you can do and what you cannot do then try to curb your ambition. 

Try not to have ambition more than you can achieve then you won’t have much stress this way. 

And if it’s possible, you should also provide some time for rest. 

Like on your day off, you can go to a quiet retreat and calm your mind, rest your mind, do some meditation and do some reflection on the nature of life. It will then tamper your ambition and your desire to achieve so many things. 

Because if you have time to reflect on life, you’ll find that life is impermanent, life is short, life is temporary. 

We don’t live forever. 

And when we go, we don’t take anything we’ve achieved with us. So once you see the real picture of life then your ambition might be curtailed or lessen. 

And then you’ll find that what you really want to achieve is just to be able to exist/to survive then you’ll have more time for finding peace and happiness by practising meditation. P

Right now we forget that we only live here temporarily and there are so many things we want to achieve. 

We forget that whatever we’ve achieved, when we die, we won’t take them with us. So what’s the point of trying to do so many things or achieve so many things when in the end we just don’t take them with us anyway?

What we take with us is what we’ve established in our mind. Peace or stress? So it’s better to spend more time to establish peace of mind and reduce the stress from being ambitious. 

Then when we die, we take a peaceful mind with us rather than a stressful mind. Because the mind continues on, it will go to look for a new body and continue the ambition again. 

So you need the wisdom of the Buddha to remind you that what you try to achieve is really useless to your mind, it can only create more stress for your mind. So eventually you’ll stop having ambition to whatever you want to achieve and you’ll find a new goal. 

Your new goal is to achieve peace of mind all the time. 

Like the Buddha. He was a prince and destined to be the emperor. But after he looked at the end point of life, ‘What’s the point?’ He’s going to get old, get sick and die and whatever he might had achieved wouldn’t mean anything to him anymore. So he looked at the other way. He looked at his mind/his heart/his spirit that it will continue on and so it’s better to do things for the mind than for the body. 

So right now try to reduce your ambition. 

Look at the nature of life, look at the impermanent of life then you can reduce your ambition and just do whatever it’s needed to do to survive. 

Then you’ll have more time to devote to find peace of mind which is more important than to achieve your ambition. Because when your mind becomes peaceful, you’ll become happier than when you achieve something. 

When you achieve something, you might be happy for a few days then you want to achieve more. But with peace of mind, you have contentment and you don’t need to achieve anything and you can be happy. 

So study the Buddha’s teachings especially the meditation part, how to make your mind peaceful and happy. 

“Dhamma in English, May 27, 2023.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

"For every time you pay respect to the Buddha, it will remind you of the Rightly Self-awakened One, who is without any defilements.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

30 November 2025

"For every time you pay respect to the Buddha, it will remind you of the Rightly Self-awakened One, who is without any defilements.

For every time you pay respect to the Dhamma, it will remind you of things that the Buddha taught.

For every time you pay to the Sangha, it will remind you that you too will be enlightened one day, becoming a noble disciple just like them.

In paying respect (to the Triple Gem), it is guaranteed that Nibbāna - liberation from all suffering - is within reach."

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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“Maintain your mindfulness at all times—sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. You can chant while walking if you like to avoid thinking about other things.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

16 April 2026

“Maintain your mindfulness at all times—sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. You can chant while walking if you like to avoid thinking about other things.”

Listening to a Dhamma talk from someone who is wise, skilful, and interesting can be useful. If you listen to someone who doesn’t make sense, you’ll get bored. 

The person who gives a talk plays a part when it comes to listening to the Dhamma. If the talk is logical, relevant, and practical, it can be very useful. If it is full of technical and formal terms, then it won’t make much sense. It was much easier for me to understand what’s written in English, that is, without formality.

For instance, whether it was the Buddha or a beggar, the word ‘to eat’ would be used for both. I got confused by the technical and formal terms that I had never learnt. If you’re familiar with the English language, it is easier to read Dhamma books in English.

When I first began practising, I was reciting the English translation of ‘the Great Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness’ (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta). I could memorise the whole sutta. 

When I sat in meditation, I would start off by reciting the sutta. When I first began to practise sitting meditation, I couldn’t really become focussed, so I had to rely on reciting the sutta in English. 

It took me about forty minutes. I just kept reciting while sitting in meditation–– contemplating the body and reflecting on feelings (vedanā) in English—until I could memorise it. It also gave rise to wisdom in me—making me aware of all the works that need to be done. 

So the recitation just became my meditation subject, instead of reciting ‘Buddho’ or watching the breath.

Chanting is also a form of meditation. When you use chanting as a meditation technique, you don’t need to put your hands together or sit with your legs together. 

You can sit cross-legged—in the lotus position—just as when you’re meditating and start chanting. Just carry on chanting and make sure you’re mindful of it. 

You can start with ‘Namo tassa’ to revere to the Buddha and then chant whichever discourse (sutta) you can. 

Keep chanting for a while and then you’ll be able to sit in meditation for a long period of time.

If you recite ‘Buddho’ and keep getting distracted, you’ll start to feel aches and pain everywhere. But if you chant continuously for a little while, you won’t feel much pain because your mind is focussed on chanting and not paying attention to bodily sensations. 

When you finish chanting after half an hour or forty minutes, you’ll feel light and that’s when you carry on watching your breathing. Your mind will stay focussed by watching your in-breath and out-breath. 

Once it is with the breathing, your mind will gradually calm down and become more and more still. Just stay with that sense of stillness until your mind withdraws from it. 

When withdrawn, you can get up and do other things.

You have to be mindful when you’re getting up. Before getting up, make sure you’re aware of your action. 

Carry on cultivating mindfulness and practising the Establishing of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna)—being aware of the four bodily postures, for instance. When it is time to come back to sitting, just continue to sit in meditation. 

Maintain your mindfulness at all times—sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. You can chant while walking if you like to avoid thinking about other things. You can chant in all of the four postures if you like.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

If one is a Brahma or born in a Brahma world, it’s not necessary that one will have less rebirth.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

27 May 2026

Student:  If one is a Brahma or born in a Brahma world, it’s not necessary that one will have less rebirth. 

Than Ajahn:  Right, you will still come back. When the strength of your mindfulness lessen, your defilement will push your mind out of jhāna, push it toward the sensual pleasures. First, the defilement will do it by the spiritual sensual pleasures. In the spiritual world, there’s spiritual sensual pleasures. The pleasure you get from good dreams are sensual pleasures in your dream, right? When you come out of the Brahma world, you enter into the Deva world. The Deva world is the world of good dreams, let’s put it that way. Next, when you run out of this kamma, you’ll be reborn as a human again and you come back and do whatever you used to do. If you like meditation, you’ll come back and do meditation. If you like to do good kamma, you’ll come back and do good kamma. 

Student:  Are the spiritual sensual pleasures also created by defilements?

Than Ajahn:  Yes, they are driven by defilements. The defilements are constantly craving for sensual objects, whether spiritual or physical. You get sensual pleasures in the spiritual world by your good kamma. Your good kamma will be the one that generate good experiences in your dreams. Your bad kamma will generate bad experiences in your dreams, like having nightmares, wandering as a beggar, being in a war zone or constantly fighting with somebody. If you keep fighting with people when you are alive, when you die, you will continue to fight with them in your dream. 

When you do good kamma, this good kamma will be recorded in your mind and will be replayed when you die. If you do bad kamma, this bad kamma will be recorded in your mind, and when you die, this bad kamma will be replayed in your dreams. Until these good and bad kamma can no longer produce any good or bad dreams, then it’s time for you to take a new birth, a human birth. When your kamma is neutral, you have no good dreams and you have no bad dreams, then it’s time for you to wake up. 

So you have a new body and come out of your mommy’s womb and start crying. You wake up. You’ve been in a long sleep. It’s like sleeping. The difference is you get a new body when you wake up. Your old body no longer can function anymore, so you discard your old body and take up a new body in the mother’s womb. When you’re born, you’re ejected from your mother’s womb, and then you wake up and start crying. 

The first thing you do when you wake up is crying because you feel hungry, thirsty, or you have to breathe on your own. When you’re inside the stomach, you don’t have to breathe on your own, but when you come out of the stomach, you have to breathe on your own. So you experience the first dukkha: the dukkha of having to breathe. 

Birth is suffering because you have to breathe. If you don’t breathe, you die, and then your defilements will start to push you. Even babies have defilements. Babies want to have comfort. When it’s hot, they will cry. 

When it’s cold, they will cry. When they are hungry, they will cry. When they are thirsty, they will cry. When they want to see something, they will cry. When they want hear something, they will cry. 

That’s why you have to have something for babies to listen to or something for them to watch. So even babies have craving for sensual pleasures. Babies want to see, babies want to hear, that’s why you have to have toys for them to play with to keep them subdued, not complaining, not crying. That’s why you buy toys for children, right? It’s to prevent them from bothering you, to keep them occupied. Nowadays they’re given smart phones to keep them occupied, but this could be harmful to them because smart phones have so many bad influences that will stimulate them to do more bad kamma than good kamma. 

This is what it is. It’s all your defilements that keep pushing your mind to go after sensual pleasures. When your body dies, it pushes you to go look for a new body to replace the old body, and you keep replacing your old bodies just like how you’ve been replacing your old phones. How many phones have you replaced so far? If you don’t use them much, then you don’t have to replace them often. Some people use them all the time, from the time they get up to the time they go to sleep, so they have to replace them every year. Every time when there is a new model, they will buy it right away. 

So it’s all your defilements, and the only way to slow down and eliminate them is to practice samatha and vipassanā meditation. Samatha will only stop them temporarily. Vipassanā will stop them permanently. 

Student:  If we don’t use vipassanā, even if we’re good at meditation, it doesn’t help.

Than Ajahn:  It doesn’t help you eliminate your cycle of rebirths because your defilements do not die by your mindfulness alone. The cause of your defilement is your delusion, not seeing the truth—the truth of the objects of your craving are actually harmful to you, and not helpful to you because they can give you dukkha. 

The objects that you want to have to make you happy can turn into something different after you’ve got them because of their anicca nature; and you cannot force them to remain good, to give you happiness all the time because of their anattā nature. So you always end up with dukkha when you go after the sensual objects. 

They are like drugs, no matter how much you take it, it’s never enough, you will always want more of it. It’s never fulfilling and when you cannot get the next dose, you’ll get dukkha. 

So this is what you have to do to prepare for your spiritual world: avoid doing bad kamma, do only good kamma, and meditate to purify your mind, to get rid of your defilements. 

Student:  It sounds so scary when you said that we’ve done this for millions of times. So scary.

Than Ajahn:  It’s scary and it’s also good news that now you know how to get rid of this scary thing. 

Without the Buddha telling us what to do, we’d never know anything. We would think that we are the body and when the body dies, we’d think that it’s the end of it. This is how most people think, right?  

Because they cannot see the other half of themselves, which is the mind. 

“Dhamma in English, Jul 5, 2022.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

“Samādhi is a resting state of the mind while paññā is its working mode.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

10th July, 2022

“Samādhi is a resting state of the mind while paññā is its working mode.”

“To observe your mind in order to develop your mindfulness, you need to be aware of your thoughts, be they positive or negative. 

You need to stop those negative thoughts. If you're not reciting 'Buddho', then you're being unmindful. For those who use 'Buddho' as their meditation subject, you'll be reciting it from the moment you awake until you fall asleep if you're truly mindful. If you're not reciting, then it is clear that you've lost track of your mindfulness.

If your meditation subject is the thirty-two parts of the body, then you have to constantly be contemplating your hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, etc. In the beginning you should set your awareness on your body because it is much easier than to set it on your mind. The body is coarser than the mind—something that is observable with just plain eyes. 

You have to engage your mind to your body—your mind is constantly present with your body—and not let it wander. 

Your mind shouldn't be thinking about something in Bangkok while your body is here.

Your mind is consistently aware of your body, whether you're walking, eating, or taking a bath. If you can manage that, then you're being mindful as your mind hasn't gone astray. When you put it to watch your breathing or recite 'Buddho', it would. 

If you can manage to do that for about five to ten minutes, then your mind will calm down and become absorbed. 

It would be beneficial if you don't let your mind get involved with the externals. If it happens to drift away, you should refocus it, reminding yourself that it is inadvisable to get distracted by other things and that your priority is to establish calmness for the mind. If you let your mind wander, it won't be calm. After your practice, you won't feel the effect of meditation or have the will to resist your defilements. As soon as you come into contact with any sensual stimuli, your defilements will be readily activated.

With a calm mind, impervious to things, you'll be able to resist your defilements. Seeing things won't immediately conjure defilements. 

You'll have the time to contemplate these phenomena and their nature with your calm and undisturbed mind—to cultivate wisdom (vipassanā). 

Your mental calm will weaken after developing wisdom for a while. Your contemplation won't be as effective as before due to the arising of defilements, and so you need to get back to your mental absorption.

Samādhi and paññā take turn in their workings—they support one another. 

Samādhi is a resting state of the mind while paññā is its working mode. 

Mental cultivation through meditation practice is just like your daily routine: leaving home to go to work in the morning, coming back home to rest in the evening, and starting all over again the next morning. When you come out of your absorption, you contemplate the three marks of existence and the five aggregates. 

Once it is no longer effective, you then get into your concentration to give your mind a rest. 

Your mind will automatically withdraw from samādhi when it is fully recharged; you can then start contemplating again. 

Repeating this cycle consistently will hone your wisdom faculty, making it more in tune with your defilements. 

You'll be able to readily detect any thoughts that aren't in line with the truth. You'll be aware of your attraction to things, longing to live forever, and aversion to sickness. 

You'll be able to quell these defilements promptly, that is, your mind is able to detach itself.”

“Essential Teachings”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

“Paying respect to the Buddha is thus not for the sake of wishing and asking for things from him. But it is out of respect and gratitude.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

8 December 2024

“Paying respect to the Buddha is thus not for the sake of wishing and asking for things from him. But it is out of respect and gratitude.”

"Buddhism is the teachings of the Buddha—the Rightly Self-awakened One, who realised the truth and saw things clearly. The Dhamma that the Buddha taught is real—relevant and timeless—as practitioners can see and prove it for themselves. His teachings, or the Dhamma, will guide those who practise to real happiness and success. The Buddha is the One who knows: ‘Buddha’ means ‘to know’. The Buddha is an enlightened noble being (arahant). For he is the One without any defilements (kilesas), that is, without greed, hatred, and delusion.

The Buddha’s propounding of his Dhamma was truly out of his pure and good intentions. 

There was no desire for any material gain or anything else. There was no expectation from anyone by putting forth his teachings. His heart was already brimming with eternal bliss; his teachings were, therefore, purely out of his compassion.

He noticed that all sentient beings in this world were still blinded by delusions (moha). 

Ignorance (avijjā) was still pervasive in their hearts and minds; it gulls them into being subjected to the endless cycle of rebirth and death—the burden of suffering due to being born, ageing, getting ill, and dying—without any ends in sight.

Without heeding the Buddha’s Dhamma, there is no chance to be liberated from this perpetual cycle of rebirth and death. The Buddha himself was also once subjected to this endless cycle. 

In each realm and existence, he experienced sufferings (dukkha). The term bhava-jāti (existence-birth), in fact, means sufferings. 

When there are birth, growth, and existence, there must then also be ceasing. With ceasing naturally come sufferings, sadness, and lament for all sentient beings.

The Buddha discerned such sufferings thoroughly. 

After having gained his unequivocal knowledge of Dhamma through practice and liberated himself from the endless cycle of rebirth and death, his compassion and empathy compelled him to help and salvage other sentient beings, who were still subjected to such an endless cycle, so that they would have a chance of ridding themselves of dukkha.

The Buddha hence put forth his teachings of the Dhamma to those who were interested. 

Having listened to his Dhamma, they began putting his teachings into practice out of faith and conviction. 

They also managed to liberate themselves from sufferings. Therefore, the Buddha was a noble teacher: a mentor, not a God or someone who could grant people their wishes, so that they would be free of sufferings among other things.

Paying respect to the Buddha is thus not for the sake of wishing and asking for things from him. 

But it is out of respect and gratitude—being aware of the insurmountable compassion that he had for all sentient beings. It is also to recollect the noble path—the proper conduct of his that he had practised and then demonstrated to us. We are, therefore, learners who believe in his teachings and try to put them into practice with confidence, sheer effort, mindfulness, and wisdom."

“Essential Teachings”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

“Making people happy is the giving of mettā. Caring for people, loving people, being kind to people, these are mettā.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

29th April, 2022

“Making people happy is the giving of mettā. Caring for people, loving people, being kind to people, these are mettā.”

Question (from Malaysia): How to send mettā to our spouse/children who always have mood swing and are quick tempered? 

Than Ajahn:  Mettā is to be applied when you are with them. When you see them, instead of making them sad, you should try to make them happy, like giving them something – foods, drinks or gifts. Making people happy is the giving of mettā. Caring for people, loving people, being kind to people, these are mettā. 

You can only do this when you are with them, not when you are alone. When you are alone, you cannot send mettā to them because there is no delivery system to send mettā, in which you can sit here and then send mettā to your spouse in another place. You have to meet him or her, so you can give him or her mettā. See your wife, give her a kiss, say, ‘Hello’ or ‘How are you? I love you.’ This is mettā.

*******-

Question (from Singapore): What should I chant to have a better relationship with my wife? 

Than Ajahn:  Metta bhāvanā, you should give her love and kindness. Then, you will have a better relationship. You should forgive her transgression or mistake. You should give her whatever she wants. 

Then, you will always be happy with her. You cannot use chanting. 

Chanting is not the solution. The solution is to treat her nice. Treat her like when it’s the first time you met her. Go back and reset your relationship to the first day when you met her. 

Then, you will have good relationship with her.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

“Kamma is complicated and is beyond our comprehension.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

21 May 2025

“Kamma is complicated and is beyond our comprehension.”

Question:  My daughter is currently on medication for bi-polar disorder. I would like to know in terms of karma, what have I done wrong?

Than Ajahn:  Kamma is complicated and is beyond our comprehension. So just accept the fact that this is your kamma. Whatever kamma you have, it is complicated. 

You don’t know what you did today, how can you know what did you do two years ago? Everything that you did in the past contributed to what you are today. That’s all you have to know.

…….

Question:  How to help my daughter who always has health problem and need to go through pains. She is only 4 years old this year but has gone through 2 surgeries. I know the duty as laypeople is to follow five precepts closely daily. I also recite Buddhaguna chant and make monthly donation. However, it seems that it does not help my daughter much. Can you please advise how to help my daughter?

Than Ajahn:  Actually the problem is not with your daughter, the problem is with you. You suffer when you see your daughter suffers. So first of all, you have to deal with your problem that you must not suffer seeing your daughter suffers. In order for you not to suffer you have to look at kamma. 

The Buddha said that people are what they are because of their past kamma, so if your daughter is suffering, it is due to her own past kamma which causes her having to face this consequence and there is nothing you can do about it except doing whatever you can like sending her to see the doctors or go to hospital. But you don’t know whether she suffers or not, maybe she doesn’t suffer. If she is a Sotapanna, she doesn’t feel any pain, she won’t suffer. So the problem is not your daughter, the problem is you, you suffer seeing your daughter suffers and you don’t want her to suffer. 

If you want to get rid of your suffering then you must not want her not to suffer, you have to leave it to her own kamma. If she has good kamma, she only suffers the pain of the body but not her mind. Her mind may be peaceful and calm. There is nothing you help her because this is the consequence of her past kamma. 

You can solve your own problem by accepting that this is the work of kamma and there is nothing you can do about it except things related to her physical parts like sending her to doctors, but whether she will get well or not, it is up to the doctors or the treatment. You don’t know whether she suffers or not because her mind might not suffer if she has Dhamma, she might be able to let go of the painful feeling. There is nothing you can do regarding her sickness, but what you can do is something regarding yourself, you don’t have to suffer with her by accepting that this is the consequences of her past kamma and try to do the best for her. The chanting and monthly donation you do is more for yourself rather than for her. 

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

“Dāna itself is already a blessing in itself.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart

12 June 2025

“Dāna itself is already a blessing in itself.”

Question:  Sometimes I see monks giving blessing using water, writing mantra or giving out amulets. 

What do these actions symbolise? Can our luck be improved or our bad kamma be reduced by the blessing of the monks in such ways?

Than Ajahn:  Nothing. It is just psychological because people still need support so the monks gave something tangible, it is like when you give dāna and the monks give you anumodāna. The anumodāna is not a blessing, it is a teaching which tells you the result you will get from giving dāna. 

You don’t need to have a monk to chant for you once you have given dāna, because dāna itself is already a blessing in itself. You don’t need a monk to give you amulet or anything to make you think that you have acquired the blessing, because the act of giving dāna itself is already a blessing in itself so you don’t need a monk to bless you for that.

Question:  How can we diminish our bad kamma?

Than Ajahn:  You can diminish your bad kamma by keeping the precepts. By stop doing bad kamma, once all your past bad kamma expire, the bad kamma will disappear and you will not experience any new bad kamma.

……….

Question:  There are different opinions about wearing amulets and believing in magic. Have I been misled for wearing it and believing in it? 

Than Ajahn:  They (the amulets) are not worth anything. You can throw them away. It doesn’t make any difference to your life whether you wear it or you don’t wear it. It is psychological. If you believe it and then you wear it, then you feel good. If you don’t believe it, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t help you, it doesn’t hurt you.

……….

Question: One time I became so frightened that I could not even recite a simple chant. I was confused, frightened, and didn’t know what was happening. Yet it wouldn’t be quite right to say I had no mindfulness either.

Tan Ajahn: Yes, you should try to train yourself to have greater mindfulness and peace of mind. Because there is a cause-and-effect relationship, you should cultivate mindfulness and practise meditation a lot. 

These are the most important aspects of the practice.

Do not believe in amulets or magic. They don’t work, because if they did, they would be used all the time. 

We would just cast some spell on whoever we disliked, but it doesn’t work that way.

It fools us because we’re gullible and easily alarmed, just like the rabbit who believed the sky was falling down merely after hearing a piece of fruit hit the ground. The rabbit was sleeping under a palm tree when a palm fruit fell, and he thought that it was a landslide and that the end of the world was coming. 

Believing so, he started running away. When other animals saw him running and asked him what was wrong, the rabbit told them that the end of the world was coming. They were alarmed and believed what he said. 

They all ran along until they met the lion king who asked them what they were running away from. Once they told him, the lion king asked to be taken to that spot. The lion king was a Bodhisatta (Buddha-to-be) empowered with mindfulness and wisdom and so was not easily swayed by the stories of the day. He would not believe what he heard until he had fully examined things. So he went to investigate, to prove it for himself, compelling the rabbit to lead the way to the spot where the landslide occurred. Once there, he saw the palm fruit under the tree. “Oh! It’s here where theso-called ‘landslide’ happened, right where a palm fruit fell.”

Therefore, there is no need to fear black magic or whatever else people believe in these days. No one can harm us except for our own confusion, our own panicked reactions. If we are not foolish or easily scared, there is nothing that can harm us.

Do not be alarmed or panicked by the things you hear. 

If we have mindfulness and wisdom, we will know that whatever happens does not change the fact that we will definitely have to die. So, we need not worry or be alarmed whether the world will be destroyed or not; we have to die just the same. We cannot escape death, and anyway that which dies is not us. The mind is not the body.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

“When one attains the first level of enlightenment, it becomes automatic in his mind to continue to practice...”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

1 August 2024

“When one attains the first level of enlightenment, it becomes automatic in his mind to continue to practice...”

- - -

Question: How does deva make merits? 

Than Ajahn: When you become a deva or a spiritual being, you have no opportunity to make merits. It’s the time you receive your merits. Only when you become a human being, you can do good merits or bad merits. 

When you are a spiritual being, you go and receive the fruits of your kamma. If you did bad kamma, you would become a spiritual being with a lot of suffering. 

If you did good kamma, you would become a spiritual being with a lot of happiness.

- - -

Question: How do devas continue to practice Dhamma in deva realms? 

Than Ajahn: They don’t practice except for those who incline to listen to Dhamma talks. For devas who incline to listen to Dhamma talks, if they know there is a monk or an enlightened person who can communicate with them, the devas will go and look for that monk or that enlightened person and communicate Dhamma with that monk or that enlightened person. 

Having said that, if in the previous lives (when the deva was a human being) he had attained the first level of enlightenment, then he would still continue on practicing. It’s because when one attains the first level of enlightenment, it becomes automatic in his mind to continue to practice regardless of whether he has a physical body or not. He has initiated the practice. 

If at the time when one was born as a human being, he only practised casually or only practised when he felt like doing it, then when he is reborn as a spiritual being, he might not want to practise.

Youtube: “Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

“Meditation requires the guidance of a teacher. This does not mean that you need a teacher beside you in meditation. We ask our teacher how to practise meditation and then proceed to practise by ourselves.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

24 April 2025

“Meditation requires the guidance of a teacher. This does not mean that you need a teacher beside you in meditation. We ask our teacher how to practise meditation and then proceed to practise by ourselves.”

First we should stop our thoughts by reciting Buddho, Buddho. It is as if we have been driving our car in the wrong direction. We have to stop first before we can make a U-turn and drive in the right direction. 

Similarly, our minds have been thinking in the wrong way, based on false beliefs, thinking things are permanent, pleasurable, and self. 

We have to first stop this type of thinking. Having done so, we can then direct our minds to consider how things are really impermanent, stressful, and not-self. As we continue contemplating anicca, dukkha, and anattā, we let go of our attachments step by step, reducing our desire bit by bit until in the end, no desire is left in the mind. Without greed or desire, no suffering of any type will arise in the mind. In this way our mind is able to free itself from suffering.

First we develop mindfulness to stop our thoughts, which leads to samādhi (concentration). 

Having the ability to concentrate, we proceed to think in the right way, which is called wisdom. 

This is mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. This is similar to realising that we are driving south when we want to go north: we must apply the brakes, stop the car, and make a U-turn.

May you contemplate this and put it into practice, because it is only by practising it that you will really experience the benefits. Listening is good, but if it is not followed by practice, then the results will not arise. 

However, if we practise without first listening to the teachings, we can lose our way. If we are not sure of the way, but proceed anyway, we might go astray. 

Before we set out on the path, we should be confident we know the way. If we are not sure, we should ask those who know how we should proceed. The Buddha taught us to first study and listen to the Dhamma. 

Once we know how to practise, then we proceed. We need both study and practice in order for us to be successful and attain the path, fruition, and enlightenment. If we practise without studying, we are walking without knowing which direction to go and which destination to head for, so we won’t reach our goal.

Meditation requires the guidance of a teacher or an Ajahn. This does not mean that you need a teacher beside you in meditation. We ask our teacher how to practise meditation and then proceed to practise by ourselves. Then we return back to relate our experiences to our teacher to see if we are headed in the right direction. It is like doing homework and turning it in to the teacher who corrects it. If it’s right, the teacher will tell us it is right. If it is wrong, the teacher will tell us how we can improve. This is how we study and practise correctly. 

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

14 August 2025

Question from Italy: In the parinibbāna state, are there still relationships with other cittas that had reached that state?

Than Ajahn:  If what you mean parinibbāna as the mind which has reached nibbāna without a body, then the mind usually doesn’t contact other minds except for some unusual circumstances. For example, Ajahn Mun has mentioned that sometimes the Buddhas who had already entered parinibbāna would still contacted him and taught him Dhamma. But this maybe for personal reasons or personal relationships basis. 

Otherwise, those minds that have entered parinibbāna will just remain peaceful and will not be in contact with any other minds.

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Question:  Is it possible for those who have reached parinibbāna to relate to those in the saṁsāric state?

Than Ajahn:  Yes, if the person is capable of contacting other minds like Ajahn Mun. Ajahn Mun had the ability to contact other minds that didn’t have the physical bodies. So yes, the person could do it. 

If in the past (before the mind entered parinibbāna), one had some personal involvement with this other person, then they might have still been able to contact each other and help each other. But this contact is on personal basis. It’s not on general basis. It isn’t the same like having a contact where the mind still has a body, and can be in contact with anybody who wants to come and listen to Dhamma talks.

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Question:  Can we experience other planes of existence during dreams or during meditative absorption state?

Than Ajahn:  Yes, when you are in jhāna, you are in a different realm from the sensual realm. You don’t go to movies. You don’t go shopping. You don’t go on holidays like those people who are in the sensual realm. 

You go to meditation retreats and enter jhāna. So, you can enter all those 3 realms of existence while you’re still alive.

“Dhamma in English, May 16, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

2 December 2023

Question:  I noticed that I have a fault-finding mind quite often. 

Can you advise me on how to manage it without becoming miserable and complaining a lot?

Than Ajahn:  Well, you have to just tell yourself that to find fault in other people is useless for you. If you want to find fault, then you have to find fault within yourself, so you can remedy and correct your fault. 

If you find fault with other people, it will just make you restless and agitated because sometimes you cannot change them. You see faults in other people but you cannot correct them because you cannot force people to correct their faults, so it’s a waste of time for you to find fault with other people. It’s better for you to find fault within yourself, ‘What is wrong with me?’ When you know what is wrong with yourself, then you can change it. And it will be better for you that way.

Question:  Should I only act upon the fault-finding thoughts if they are stopping someone from getting hurt, and let the rest of these thoughts go? Which fault-finding thoughts I should act upon?

Than Ajahn:  If you act upon it where it becomes beneficial to other people, then act upon it.

But if you cannot do it, then just leave it alone. 

“Dhamma in English, Feb 25, 2019.”

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Question:  My mind always justifies, judges, criticises, makes assumptions, condemns, approves, disapproves, likes, dislikes, etc. It does those constantly. For example, when I meet someone, my mind instantly tells me what I dislike about this person. Why my mind always behaves like my own enemy? Is this mind, myself?

Than Ajahn:  These are the habits you’ve been doing in your past lives, so it becomes your habits now. You can break these habits by using mindfulness. You have to stop it when you know that you are criticizing or judging others.

Instead of criticizing or judging others, you should analyse things as they are.

The Buddha said that you analyse everything by seeing that everything you come into contact with is impermanent, and it cannot be under your control all the time. This is the way you should behave towards things or people. If you want everything to be under your control or you want everything to be permanent, you will only be troubled by it because you can’t do it.

Don’t judge others whether they’re good or bad. It’s okay to know if they are good or bad but it’s more important to know that they are impermanent. It’s more important to know that you can’t really do anything about them, you can’t change them or manage them. 

Sooner or later, they will be beyond your control. And if you try to control them, it will only make you unhappy.

“Dhamma in English, Dec 18, 2018.”

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Question:  How to live mindfully without judgement?

Than Ajahn:  Well, don’t think.

If you have mindfulness, you don’t think. You’ll just be aware of what’s going on, then you won’t be judging others—you see good things; you see bad things; you see good people; you see bad people. You just see, you just know. You’re not thinking if you have mindfulness. 

The reason why you think is because you don’t have strong mindfulness. If you have strong mindfulness, as soon as you know you’re judging others, you can stop it right away. So, you need to develop strong mindfulness before you can stop thinking or judging things and people.

“Dhamma in English, Sep 19, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g