❖Why meditate? ❖ ~ Answer by Ajahn Jayasaro ~

❖Why meditate? ❖
~ Answer by Ajahn Jayasaro ~

Human beings want to be happy and do not want to suffer. Meditation is the most effective means of cultivating the inner causes of happiness and of eradicating the inner causes of suffering.

Meditation has numerous physical benefits. New technologies such as MRI, for example, have revealed that regular meditation over many years has positive effects on both brain structure and function. 

Meditation reduces stress and by so doing strengthens the immune system, leading to a decrease in the frequency and severity of illnesses. The training of the mind develops the ability to let go of toxic mental states, thus reducing the psychosomatic factors involved in physical illness. Having cultivated the ability to calm the mind, meditators are better able to deal skillfully with the feelings of depression, anxiety and fear which often accompany illness. Such skill reduces the mental suffering attendant upon physical illness and accelerates the healing process. At the end of life, experienced meditators are able to leave the world in peace.

The first task for meditators is to learn how to sustain attention on an object. By doing so they expose the normal untrained behavior of the mind, and can learn how to identify and deal with distracting and confusing mental states, and how to cultivate nourishing ones. A valuable ability learned at this stage of meditation is impulse control, one of the most significant predictors of success in all walks of life. The calmness and sense of well-being that arise through meditation leads to an inner self-sufficiency. As a result, the urge to seek pleasure through the senses is much diminished, and harmful behaviors such as drug use are abandoned without regret. 

Noble thoughts of generosity and kindness arise in the mind naturally and with increasing frequency.

The mind that has been well trained in meditation possesses sufficient clarity and strength to perceive the true nature of things as a direct experience. Seeing things in this light allows one let go of the mistaken assumptions and attachments which are the root cause of human suffering. Ultimately meditation leads to awakening and complete liberation from suffering and its causes, and to a mind pure and unimpeded in its functions, replete with wisdom and compassion.

(From “Without and Within, The Buddha” by Ajahn Jayasaro)

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To read the ebook, please visit ‘Without and Within', by Ajahn Jayasaro:

https://www.bia.or.th/ebook/content/web/index.php?bookid=130

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WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE Religion Of Freedom ~ Ven. Dr K Sri Dhammananda

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE
Religion Of Freedom
~ Ven. Dr K Sri Dhammananda 

This is a religion of freedom and reason for man to lead a noble life. 

Buddhism does not prevent anyone from learning the teachings of other religions. In fact, the Buddha encouraged His followers to learn about other religions and to compare His Teachings with other teachings. The Buddha says that if there are reasonable and rational teachings. The Buddha says that if there are reasonable and rational teachings in other religions, His followers are free to respect such teachings. It seems that certain religionists try to keep their followers in the dark, some of them are not even allowed to touch other religious objects or books. They are instructed not to listen to the preachings of other religions. They are enjoined not to doubt the teachings of their own religion, however unconvincing their teachings may appear to be. 

The more they keep their followers on a one-track mind, the more easily they can keep them under control. If anyone of them exercises freedom of thought and realizes that he had been in the dark all the time, then it is alleged that the devil has possessed his mind. The poor man is given no opportunity to use his common sense, education, of his intelligence. Those who wish to change their views on religion are taught to believe that they are not perfect enough to be allowed to use free will in judging anything for themselves. 

According to the Buddha, religion should be left to one's own free choice. Religion is not a law, but a disciplinary code which should be followed with understanding. To Buddhists true religious principles are neither a divine law nor a human law, but a natural law. 

In actual fact, there is no real religious freedom in any part of the world today. Man has not the freedom even to think freely. Whenever he realizes that he cannot find satisfaction through his own religion to which he belongs, which cannot provide him with satisfactory answers to certain questions, he has no liberty to give it up and to accept another which appeals to him. 

The reason is that religious authorities, leaders, and family members have taken that freedom away from him. Man should be allowed to choose his religion which is in accordance with his own conviction. One has no right to force another to accept a particular religion. Some people surrender their religion for the sake of love, without a proper understanding of their partner's religion. Religion should not be changed to suit man's emotions and human weaknesses. One must think very carefully before changing one's religion. 

Religion is not a subject for bargaining; one should not change one's religion for personal, material gains. 

Religion is to be sued for spiritual development and for self-salvation. Buddhists never try to influence other religionists to come and embrace their religion for material gain. Nor do they try to exploit poverty, sickness, illiteracy and ignorance in order to increase the number of Buddhist population. The Buddha advised those who indicated their wish to follow Him, not to be hasty in accepting His Teachings. He advised them to consider carefully His Teaching and to determine for themselves whether it was practical or not for them to follow. 

Buddhism teaches that mere belief or outward rituals are insufficient for attaining wisdom and perfection. In this sense, outward conversion becomes meaningless. To promote Buddhism by force would mean pretending to propagate justice and love by means of oppression and injustice. It is of no importance to a follower of the Buddha whether a person calls himself a Buddhist or not. Buddhists know that only through man's understanding and exertion will they come nearer to the goal preached by the Buddha. 

Amongst the followers of every religion are some fanatics. Religious fanaticism is dangerous. A fanatic is incapable of guiding himself by reason or even by the scientific principles of observation and analysis. 

According to the Buddha, a Buddhist must be a free man with an open mind and must not be subservient to anyone for his spiritual development. He seeks refuge in the Buddha by accepting Him as a source of supreme guidance and inspiration. He seeks refuge in the Buddha, not blindly, but with understanding. To Buddhists, the Buddha is not a savior nor is He an anthropomorphic being who claims to possess the power of washing away other's sins. Buddhists regard the Buddha as a Teacher who shows the Path to salvation. 

Buddhism has always supported the freedom and progress of mankind. Buddhism has always stood for the advancement of knowledge and freedom for humanity in every sphere of life. 

There is nothing in the Buddha's Teaching that has to be withdrawn in the face of modern, scientific inventions and knowledge. The more new things that scientists discover, the closer they come to the Buddha. 

The Buddha emancipated man from the thralldom of religion. He also released man from the monopoly and the tyranny of the priestcraft. It was the Buddha who first advised man to exercise his reason and not to allow himself to be driven meekly like dumb cattle, following the dogma of religion. The Buddha stood for rationalism, democracy and practical, ethical conduct in religion. He introduced this religion for people to practise with human dignity. 

The followers of the Buddha were advised not to believe anything without considering it properly. In the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha gave the following guidelines to a group of young people:

 'Do not accept anything based upon mere reports, traditions or hearsay, Nor upon the authority of religious texts, Nor upon mere reasons and arguments, Nor upon one's own inference, Nor upon anything which appears to be true, Nor upon one's own speculative opinion, Nor upon another's seeming ability, Nor upon the consideration: 'This is our Teacher.' 'But, when you know for yourselves the certain things are unwholesome and bad: tending to harm yourself of others, reject them. 'And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good: conducive to the spiritual welfare of yourself as well as others, accept and follow them.'

Buddhists are advised to accept religious practices only after careful observation and analysis, and only after being certain that the method agrees with reason and is conducive to the good of one and all. 

A true Buddhist does not depend on external powers for his salvation. Nor does he expect to get rid of miseries through the intervention of some unknown power. He must try to eradicate all his mental impurities to find eternal Happiness. The Buddha says, 'If anyone were to speak ill of me, my teaching and my disciples, do not be upset or perturbed, for this kind of reaction will only cause you harm. On the other hand, if anyone were to speak well of me, my teaching and my disciples, do not be over-joyed, thrilled or elated, for this kind of reaction will only be an obstacle in forming a correct judgment. If you are elated, you cannot judge whether the qualities praised are real and actually found in us.' -- (Brahma Jala Sutta). 

Such is the unbiased attitude of a genuine Buddhist. 

May you be well and happy!

The Buddha had upheld the highest degree of freedom not only in its human essence but also in its divine qualities. It is a freedom that does not deprive man of his dignity. It is a freedom that releases one from slavery to dogmas and dictatorial religious laws or religious punishments.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart

5 September 2025

Layperson 1:  What is the best way for one to control one’s words when he or she is upset?

Than Ajahn:   Upset to yourself or upset to other people?

Layperson 1:  Upset to other people. 

Than Ajahn:  Well, you have to be mindful. You have to think before you say anything. You have to know what you’re thinking at the moment. And the way to be able to watch your thought is by developing mindfulness. If you have mindfulness, you will be aware of what you’re thinking, so before you speak what you are thinking, you can first decide whether it’s worthwhile to say it or it isn’t worthwhile to do so. 

If it’s harmful, it’s better that you don’t say it. You can stop it. 

So, what you need is to have mindfulness. 

Normally, you don’t have mindfulness, and you just let out what you think right away.

If you have mindfulness, you will be watching your three actions: your thoughts, your speech and your bodily actions. 

The way to develop mindfulness is by constantly focusing on your bodily actions, by keep watching your body and concentrating on what you’re doing at the moment. 

Don’t let your mind drift away and think about other things. If your mind goes to think about other things while you’re doing something, then you should bring it back by reciting a mantra. 

You can recite: Buddho, Buddho, or Buddha, Buddha. 

When you do this, you will stop your mind from wandering around and bring it back to where the action is, to the bodily action. 

Focus on your bodily action from the time you get up. 

As soon as you open your eyes, you start developing mindfulness right away. Be mindful with what you do with your body by not thinking about other things and by focusing only on what you do. Like when you’re brushing your teeth, just concentrate on brushing your teeth, don’t think about work, don’t think about play. 

Don’t think about anything. If your mind is stubborn and wants to think, then you have to use a mantra to stop it. Recite a mantra: Buddho, Buddho or Jesus, Jesus, or whatever word you want to recite that can keep the mind away from thinking about other things: this is the way to develop mindfulness. 

Eventually, your mind will stay put and won’t be wandering around. It will stay in the present most of the time, and it will know what the body is doing. 

When you know what the body is doing, you will also know what your thought is thinking because you’re watching it. You want to stop your thought from thinking aimlessly. You’re in the process of controlling your thoughts. When you can control your thoughts, when you think and want to say or do something, you can decide first, whether it’s good to do or say it or it isn’t good to do or say it. If it isn’t good to do or to say it, you can stop it. 

Mindfulness is very important. 

It’s the mind’s controller. The only thing that controls the mind is mindfulness. So, you need to develop it and to have it all the time. Right now, sometimes you are mindful and sometimes you are not mindful. 

When you are mindful, thing seems to work well, everything is going okay. As soon as you lose mindfulness, when you let your emotion takes over, you start doing things that you will regret afterwards. 

So, you need to develop more mindfulness. 

The goal is to be constantly mindful, to have continuous mindfulness so that you are able to control your thoughts and your actions. 

Your action is what your thought commands the body to do or say. When you have mindfulness, you are able to direct the mind to think and direct the body to do or say things that you think is good, things that don’t hurt other people or hurt yourself. 

If you don’t know what kind of action is good or bad, then you have to study ‘the law of kamma’. The law of kamma is the law that tells you what kind of action is good and what kind of action is bad. Bad action is the action that you do through your body or speech that will hurt or harm other people. Bad action will bring problems back to you, sooner or later. Good action (good kamma) is to do things that benefit other people and make other people happy. 

Good action will bring benefits back to you, it will make you happy. 

This is what you should know about the law of kamma. 

When you know the law of kamma, then you’ll know whether what you think and what you want to say or do is a good or bad kamma. When you know it is a bad kamma, you stop doing it. 

When you know it is a good kamma, you do it. This is what we try to achieve in our practice, in Buddhism: try to control our mind, our speech and our bodily actions. 

If we can control them, we will be behaving correctly. 

We will bring no harm to other people and to ourselves.

Dhamma in English, Jan 12, 2019.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

24 June 2025

Seeking privacy and solitude is, therefore, very important for those practitioners who aim for liberation.

You'll waste your time by socialising with others as your mind will be focussed on other things—talking about worldly matters and sensual pleasures, making it difficult for your mind to calm down. If you're alone, there won't be as many distractions, and so it will consistently stick to the Dhamma. You'll be able to increasingly penetrate it, discerning even more clearly the four elements and the foulness of the body. That is, your awareness will be consistent and continuous.

You'll see the unattractiveness of one's body whenever you look at it. It will stick to your mind. 

As soon as your mind is lured by the physical appeal, the clearly-developed Dhamma will counter it immediately. Therefore, there won't be any sexual craving and desire, for they can only exist in your mind by feeding off your thoughts about forms and beauty.

If you think that your body is you and belongs to you, it's like feeding to your own delusion (moha) and ignorance (avijjā)—to the blindness and illusion. 

Contemplating the truth—that your body is not self (anattā): not you or yours, and that it is merely made up of the four elements: earth, water, wind, and fire–will help eradicate these misapprehensions and blindness in your heart and mind. There is no other way.

The only way to rid yourself of these illusions is through developing your faculty of wisdom (vipassanā). However, it needs to go hand in hand with sam›dhi in order to maintain your practice. You first have to be mindful; your mind won't be calm without mindfulness.

Your defilements will be more overpowering when your mind isn't calm; they will distract you, leading you to think about worldly things, your children, your spouse, and your possessions and wealth. Your mind will get stuck thinking about them. The influence of defilements and delusions will only keep growing and lasting longer in order to keep their hold on you.

If your thoughts are in line with wisdom, they'll help loosen the grip of defilements and delusions, gradually cutting them down to nothing. Mindfulness, wisdom, and concentration are the three interrelated virtues of Dhamma; they are supported by conviction and effort (viriya). There need to be faith and conviction in the teachings of the Buddha. You have to put into practice what you've learnt with diligence and sustained effort.

So what does a practice entail? It entails a cultivation of mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. With these three virtues of Dhamma, liberation (vimutti) will surely follow. Such has been a tried and true method since the Buddha's time. Whoever uses and practises according to this method will surely reap good results. 

Otherwise, there won't be all these noble disciples who managed to attain enlightenment after the Buddha did until the present day.

This is because the Dhamma is timeless, that is, always relevant. It was applicable and effective then as it is still today. The only issue is that you don't put the time and effort into your practice. You might do it once a month and then complain about not making progress after five years. If that's the case, you can keep doing it at that rate for the next 100 years and still won't make any progress.”

“Essential Teachings”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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The teachings of Ajahn Suchart

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart

25 April 2026

Question:  Why am I so hard on myself like that of a perfectionist—everything I do has to be perfect. If I fall short, if I’m not the best teacher, if I’m not the best wife, if I’m not the best friend, I end up turning inwards.

Than Ajahn:  Well, knowing why is not really that important. There are many factors and causes—maybe in your past life, you’ve been trained to strive to be perfect; maybe partly due to your nature that you like to be a perfectionist; maybe due to the people around you, the community you live in or the country you live in which can also influence on what you do or who you are. So, it isn’t important to know why. The thing that you would want to know is ‘how can you deal with it? 

Or how can you do it in such a way that will bring you some peace, harmony and contentment?’ This is the question you would like to ask and get an answer from.

According to Buddhism, you shouldn’t strive to compete with other people or you shouldn’t strive to accomplish things that other people in this world do because they are illusions, they are like shadows. You can never be perfect because everything is constantly changing, everything is on the move and you can never be able to control it all the time. So, to achieve things outside of yourself is the wrong way to go, it can only create stress in your mind. The true goal is to compete with yourself to achieve peace and happiness inside yourself by getting rid of things inside yourself that cause you stress, confusion, anger and sadness.

This is the true goal: to fix yourself—not to fix other people and not to fix other things because whatever thing that you try to fix, it will keep changing. You might be able to fix it today, yet it might break down again tomorrow then you have to fix it again and re-fix it again. And when you cannot fix it anymore, you become frustrated, disappointed and sad. So, the goal is not to achieve whatever thing there is to achieve in this world like fame or wealth, because everything is constantly moving—everything is constantly changing and everything constantly breaks-down. The goal is to stop this desire to achieve for something, Really!

If you can stop this desire to achieve for something, your mind will become peaceful, content and happy. 

So, try not to prove to other people that you are good, that you are great or that you can do this and that; because to them, it doesn’t matter what you are or what you do—what matter to them is what makes them happy. And you can never make other people happy all the time because their moods keep changing—you might make them happy today, but tomorrow, they might be unhappy with you.

So, the Buddha said that you have to come back inside and forget about things outside of yourself. Right now, inside your mind is constantly boiling due to the continuing desire to achieve, to be loved, to be respected, and so forth. But you cannot make people respect you or love you all the time—some people might respect you; some people might hate you. So, this is not the goal to go after because it will make you frustrated, it will make you unhappy and confused about what to do next and you’d think, ‘What should I do now to make this person happy or to make the situation good?’ 

So, this is not the thing that you should strive for. What you should strive for is peace of mind because peace of mind is the real happiness.

"Dhamma in English, Oct 31, 2018."

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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Ajahn Chah 29th Anniversary

Ajahn Chah 29th Anniversary 1918 - 1992

Today 16 Jan marks the 29th anniversary of the passing on of Ajahn Chah, the founder of Wat Nong Pah Pong in Ubon, the poorest of provinces in Thailand.

His directness of teaching is sharp like the tip of a needle and legendary too and his humour is simply infectious.

In one teaching, he said a chicken saw a duck. The chicken wondered why the duck does  not "chip chip" like itself, and the duck wondered why the chicken does not "quak quak" like itself.  It is their nature, each to itself. He was simply showing we are no different, but our perception.

Of his talks compiled in The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, the shortest is so aptly titled 'Just This Much' which I endeavour to summarize and share to honour and remember this great and wonderful teacher.

He commenced asking: Do you know where it will end? Or will you just keep on studying like this? Or is there  an end to it?

He pointed out that it is ok to study but it is just external not internal (meaning realization). External study is hard to finish. The real study is internal.

Alluding to what is internal study, he posed the question when our sense faculties are in contact with the sense objects, what sort of reaction takes place (for each of us)? More directly, he asked us to reflect: are greed, aversion and delusion still there? This is the internal study. It has a point of completion.

He illustrates that it is like a man who raises cows, taking them out to pasture in the morning and bringing them back to the pen in the evening. But he never drinks the milk. Study without practice is like this man; he never drinks the milk.

Humour flows naturally like water and certainly endears his audience to him. His next example of one who studies but not practise: It's like a man who raises chickens, but doesn't collect the eggs. All he gets is the chicken dung! And he used this to tell his listeners who raise chickens back home. 

I dont know how his listeners at home felt, but for me it is a walk down memory lane. As a kid, I lived in a kampong and life was hard for most people then. Our family had may be 4 chickens, reared primarily for purpose of egg collection and when these chickens were not any more egg laying, perhaps become food on the table during festive time. 

Everyday when I came back from school, these chickens would run around my feet as though they missed me. When they could not lay eggs anymore, the family decided to let them go. I have heard of parents disillusioned by their ungrateful children and sometimes I wonder would they not be better off keeping chickens and collecting eggs?

Back to Ajahn Chah, he reminded that when we learn the scriptures, we must know how to push out the greed, aversion and delusion from our mind. Otherwise one only collects the chicken dung and not the eggs.

The real worth of mankind, Ajahn Chah reminds us, will come to fruition thru our deeds, speech and thoughts. 

Even if one does good deeds but the mind is still not good, this is still not complete.

Turning to the Noble Eight-Fold Path, Ajahn points out that the 8 factors are nothing other than this very body: 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, 1 tongue and 1 body.  

This is the Path and the mind is the one who follows the Path. 

Therefore both the study and the practice exist in our body, speech and mind.

Ajahn asked us to consider if the scriptures teach about anything other than the body, speech and mind. Defilements are born here, they die right here. This study n practice exist right here. 

Just this much, and we know everything. For example, our speech. One word of truth is better than a lifetime of wrong speech.  One who studies, he says, and doesn't practise is like a ladle in a pot. It's in the pot everyday but it doesn't know the flavour of the soup. And his final message in this talk

: If you don't practise, even if you study till the day you die, you'll never know the taste of freedom.

May all be well n happy!

🙏🙏🙏

“Your defilements will try to make you giving up the practice…”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

23 May 2024

 “Your defilements will try to make you giving up the practice…”

Upāsikā:  “When western people practice, we push ourselves very hard, and then we get stress and dishearten. Like when we try to sit in a full lotus position, and when we can’t do it, we feel bad.”

Than Ajahn:  “Those are all defilements. Your defilements will try to make you giving up the practice by misleading you to think that you have the ability to do the maximum. So, when you try to do the maximum, and when you can’t do it, then you’d say, ‘Hell! I’d better not do it.’ This is defilement.

Everyone has an ego and his ego tells him, ‘You can do it. If the Buddha could do it, I can do it.’ He doesn’t look at the status of where he is. Like right now, you are not on the same level as the Buddha. However, you can be there. It just takes more time for you to build it up.”

Upāsikā:  “There is a place in Burma where some people who have never meditated before, are forced to sit in full lotus. There are other people who will hold their hands when they scream. They have to sit for 5 hours.”

Than Ajahn:  “Usually this is counter-productive. The person will eventually give up because it’s too hard for him. So, you have to do from the level you can do. Do it as much as you can. And then, try to increase your practice.

It’s like being a child. Before he can run, he has to learn to walk first. Before he can walk, he has to learn how to stand first. Before he can stand, he has to learn how to crawl first. This is a process he has to go through. But nowadays, simply because you’ve read how to become enlightened, you expect that you’re going do it now and get the result now. You don’t look at your position and your ability, whether you can do it or not. If you try to do something more than you can do, you’ll be frustrated and you’ll be disappointed. And you’ll eventually give up.”

“Dhamma in English, May 8-12, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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