The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  If somebody is in upacāra samādhi, how could he recognize that he is in upacāra samādhi?

Than Ajahn:  First of all, upacāra samādhi is difficult to get to. You have to go to appanā samādhi first. If you have appanā samādhi, when your mind begins to move away from it and begins to make contact with various types of beings, then you are in upacāra samādhi. You’ll be in contact with dead people, the spirits or the devas. Like the Buddha, he used upacāra samādhi to communicate with his mother. This is something that you will know if you get there. 

So, don’t worry, not everybody will get into upacāra samādhi. There are very few people who can get into it. So, don’t worry, just aim for appanā samādhi, making the mind calm for as long as possible, because this calm mind can be used to assist vipassanā in getting rid of your defilements. 

Question:  Being in appanā, does it mean that they are pausing the mind?

Than Ajahn:  Right. The mind becomes still, it merely knows. It only has one thing left that is the knowing. There is no emotion, no love, no hate, no fear, no delusion.

Layperson:  No body pain at all.

Than Ajahn:  No. 

Question:  In such case, does the body become immaterial?

Than Ajahn:  The body is just like sleeping or a dead body. The body is like a dead body to the mind.

Question:  After the appanā, does it go to upacāra?

Than Ajahn:  Not everybody. 

Question:  If he attains these appanā and upacāra, does it mean that the first part of samādhi is completed, and after that, he goes to the second, third, and fourth part of samādhi?

Than Ajahn:  No, you don’t need to have upacāra samādhi. To practice for enlightenment, you don’t need upacāra samādhi. You need appanā samādhi which is fourth jhāna. You don’t have to go into fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth jhāna either. You want the mind to be calm and neutral.

Question:  If somebody dies in appanā or upacāra, what rebirth can he get?

Than Ajahn:  It depends on his kamma, good or bad kamma. If he still has bad kamma, he could go to hell, like the Devadatta. He tried to kill the Buddha three times, so he committed a very bad kamma. When he died, eventhough he had upacāra samādhi, the upacāra samādhi couldn’t help him resist the Law of Kamma. Nobody can resist the Law of Kamma, except nibbāna. You have to enter into nibbāna. You have to stop your desires completely, then the Law of Kamma will not be able to exert its influence on your mind. Other than that, you will still be subjected to the Law of Kamma.

Layperson:  I always thought that when a person dies, the last moment or the last breath is very important.

Than Ajahn:  It’s not important. What you mentioned is what people believe, but the last breath is just the transition point, that’s all. At the last moment, you’re transiting from the physical body into the spiritual realm. Whether you go to a good or bad spiritual realm, it’s decided by your kamma. Sometimes people thought that they could do their best good kamma at the last minute, but in reality, they couldn’t do that. 

You have to keep accumulating good kamma and try to stop doing bad kamma, so when you’re transiting, you will have good kamma to take your mind to heaven, to a good realm. If you keep doing bad things all your life and expect to switch it around in your last minute, you cannot do that. 

Layperson:  I’m a being and inside me is the citta. Everybody, like my teacher or people I know, said that the basic nature of the citta is to remain pure and I’ve made it impure by generating defilements. So, how does this citta take birth for the first time? Because I am in a lot of misery right now, and I feel that I am generating a lot of defilement and my citta was not intelligent enough to not generate defilement at the time of its birth.

Than Ajahn:  This is a misperception. Your citta has never been pure. It has always been defiled. 

And there is neither ‘beginning’ nor ‘ending’ of the citta. The citta always exists. The only thing you can do is to purify the citta now, to make it pure now. 

Question:  My citta is different from your citta, they are two different entities. When we clear the citta, does it mean that one citta has been cleared?  

Than Ajahn:  Yeah, just one, yourself. You can only purify your own mind. You cannot purify other people’s minds. But you can teach other people to purify their citta. Like the Buddha, once his citta is purified, then he teaches us to purify our minds. 

Question:  How does the citta takes its birth at its very first start of life?  

Than Ajahn:   No first time. No last time. It’s always there. This is a different concept from what we know. 

Our concept is there’s a beginning and there’s an end. But with the citta, there is no beginning, no end. 

Question:  Does it mean if I clear the defilements and I get to nibbāna, the citta will remain?

Than Ajahn:  Yeah, the citta is the one that becomes nibbāna. Nibbāna is a purified citta—that’s what it means.

Layperson:  In my concept, when we get to nibbāna, the citta is purified and goes to the nibbāna state. It will not remain in this changing world. 

Than Ajahn:  No. nibbāna means the mind doesn’t take birth. It doesn’t take up a new body. It exists as a spiritual being in the spiritual world. It’s purified, meaning no dukkha (no suffering), only happiness. 

Nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ: supreme happiness, when you have purified your mind. 

Layperson:  Thank you.

“Dhamma in English, Jun 23, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

“The Buddha said that for people to reach Nibbāna, they have to follow the Noble Eightfold path.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

15 November 2025

“The Buddha said that for people to reach Nibbāna, they have to follow the Noble Eightfold path.”

Question:  Can followers of other religions which have different beliefs & practices develop their mind to reach the state of Nibbāna? (For example those who believe that God determines everything)

Than Ajahn:  The Buddha said that for people to reach Nibbāna, they have to follow the Noble Eightfold path. 

If any religion teaches the Noble Eightfold path then they can reach Nibbāna, if they don’t teach the Noble Eightfold path then they don’t get to Nibbāna.

……

Question:  The Buddha certainly talked about the benefits and happiness of various companionships, marriage, possession, etc. Even the monastic life depends on the society to meet their needs of life and existence. Is denying these things (the happiness of companionship, marriage, having possession/wealth etc) in accord with the Buddha’s teaching? 

Than Ajahn:  The Buddha’s teaching has many levels, it is similar to the educational system. It has different levels of teaching and sometimes the lower level and the higher level might seem conflicting. So it depends on which level you are in, then you stick to that level. 

If you are a householder, you live accordingly: you have a husband or a wife, you still rely on money. The Buddha taught householders to be charitable and to be righteous (to have virtue/sīla). But for those who want a higher level of happiness they have to renounce the householders life and happiness in order to seek a higher form of happiness, the happiness that arises from meditation. In order to get to this higher level of happiness, you have to renounce lower forms of happiness

You have to choose between these two levels. If you still want the physical kind of happiness, you can have a family, you have money, you give dāna and you keep the precepts, then you will have this happiness. But if you want the higher form of happiness, you have to become a monk or keep the eight precepts and meditate. You have to renounce the other kind of happiness (the physical type of happiness). 

It is just a matter of choices. There is actually no conflict. It is like playing a game, there are many levels in a game, the beginner level, the intermediate level or the advanced level. Different rules are involved in these different levels. That’s all.

For monks, we have to renounce the physical types of happiness, but we still have to rely on society to support us through their charity/dāna. People who have money give dāna because giving dāna make them happy. So this is how it works. There is no conflict but they are two different levels of happiness. You have to choose which level you want.

*********

“The eight precepts are what will prevent you from wasting your time with other sensual activities: through your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body”.

Without the eight precepts, you'll waste your time by being pulled towards sensual pleasures. You'll waste your precious time that could and should be spent on your practice.”

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English

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

In reference to Method 2 (see earlier post or link at the end of this post for the 7 Steps), Ajaan Lee's advice for those who have difficulties dealing with breath sensations in the whole body (as related and elaborated by Ajaan Thanissaro):

In reference to Method 2 (see earlier post or link at the end of this post for the 7 Steps), Ajaan Lee's advice for those who have difficulties dealing with breath sensations in the whole body (as related and elaborated by Ajaan Thanissaro):

'Ajaan Lee sometimes talks about not being aware of the breath in the whole body. He sometimes recommends focusing on one spot and just staying right there . 

Some people, he says, find it too distracting to deal with the breath sensations in the different parts of the body. As you're thinking about your hand, your arm, or your leg, other thoughts related to hands, arms, and legs might sneak in and carry you off someplace else.

He compares this to starting an orchard. If you plant your whole orchard all at once, using all your resources, you may find that you've overextended yourself. You're faced with a drought for several days, the trees all die, and you end up with nothing. 

In cases like that, it's smarter to start out with one little area and to focus on planting just that, caring for that. Say you plant a mango tree. You care for it for a couple years, and then when they give their first crop of mangoes, you collect the seeds and plant them. The same with the second crop. That way you gradually enlarge your orchard until you fill your whole plot of land.

So if you find that focusing on the breath here and there in the beginning of the meditation gets you distracted, just focus down on one spot and stay right there. Tell yourself: You're not going anywhere else. 

You may want to use the word buddho to help keep things under control. But just use one spot in the body: It might be right between your eyes, the middle of the forehead, wherever you feel is closest to the center of your awareness in the body. You stare right down, right there.

The one warning is that you not tighten up around that spot. Think of the area as being open and free flowing. In other words, the blood can flow in, the blood can flow out. Energy flows in, energy flows out, but you are not moving. You're going to stay right here. No matter what happens, you're going to stay right in this one little spot. That can gather the mind together and keep it there. You're not trying to take care of too many things at once.'

From  "One Point, Two Points, Many Points" in Meditations 4, retrieved from

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/meditations4.html#points

Method 2 (7 Steps): 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html#method2

In "Keeping the Breath in Mind: Lessons in Samadhi" 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html

“If you rely on maintaining mindfulness only when you are in sitting meditation, your mindfulness will not be strong enough.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

9 October 2025

“If you rely on maintaining mindfulness only when you are in sitting meditation, your mindfulness will not be strong enough.”

Question:  How by keeping on reciting Buddho can tame the mind? 

Than Ajahn:  When you recite Buddho, you prevent your mind from thinking about other things and when you are not thinking about other things, your mind becomes calm. It can become still.

…….

Question:  I realize that upon sitting, reciting and counting Buddho for about an hour and ten minutes, my mind starts to drift away more often. In order to build the strength of my mindfulness, should I just keep continuing in this position or should I start to go into walking meditation?

Than Ajahn:  You can maintain mindfulness in all four postures, you can walk, you can sit. 

Whatever you do, you should maintain mindfulness. If you rely on maintaining mindfulness only when you are in sitting meditation, your mindfulness will not be strong enough. So you have to develop mindfulness from the time you get up. 

When you get up you have to use something to keep your mind away from thinking. You can use reciting a mantra like Buddho, Buddho or you can focus on your body activities, whatever your body is doing, just focus on that activity only, like if you are washing, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, dressing, just be with that activity, don’t let your mind goes think about other thing. In this way, you are developing and maintaining mindfulness. If you can do this, by the time you sit, you have a strong mindfulness. You can sit and concentrate and your mind can become calm and peaceful very quickly.

By Ajaan 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.

Question:  Ajahn, I’m grateful for my present job but I still have the desire to move on to another position. Should I follow this desire and how do I know that it’s the right time to move on from my current situation?

Than Ajahn:  Should you move on to another job or not depends on the result. If you move on and it’s better for you, then do it. If you move on to a new job and it’s not better for you, then it’s better to stay on. 

If you move on and there is no difference, then you can either stay on or you can move on, so you have to look at the consequence or the result of your action, whether it’s gonna benefit you more or not. If you think it benefits you more to move on to a new job, then you go for it. If you think it does not make much difference, then why bother? So, whether you stay on with your current job or you move on to a new job depends on the situation, whether you’re happy where you are now or you are not happy. 

If you are not happy and you want to change job, then do it. And the time to change job is when you can get a new job. If you don’t have a new job yet, then don’t leave your old job because you’ll be out of work, so you should wait until you get a new job before you move on. If you move to a new job, you also have to face the consequences. Maybe your analysis is not what you think it is. You might think it’s gonna be better, but after you’ve moved to the new job, you find out that it is worse than your old job. So, nothing is ever certain. 

The Buddha said that the best thing is to be contented with what you have and be grateful for what you get. So, if you’re happy now, why change it? Stay with it. Look at life as a temporary thing. Sooner or later, you’ll die, then, whatever things you have accumulated are gonna disappear. You cannot take anything with you. The only thing you can take with you is your happiness or your sorrow. So, if you’re happy now, the Buddha said that you should just be contented and be happy with it, because you don’t know what’s gonna be over there on the new job. Generally, the mind is always deceived by itself. It always thinks that something over there is better than here. You don’t know it until you get there. Like the saying, ‘The cow always sees the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.’ But once it gets over there, it’s just as green as this side. It’s your imagination that is deceiving you or luring you to get away from your old job, and to go get a new job. 

So, you have to look at the fact. If you move on, are you getting more money and will your work load become more relaxing? If yes, then, why not? But nothing happens like that. Because the more money you get, the more stress you’ll have; the less money you get, the less stress you’ll have. So, you have to see whether you want to pay the price because when the company pays you more salary, they’ll expect more from you. When they expect more from you, you’ll have the pressure to perform better in your job. Then, stress will become part of your life. 

“Dhamma in English, Jun 23, 2019.”

- - - - -

Question:  When should I change job or when should I change my view about my current job when I’m feeling dissatisfied? How to have the wisdom to see clearly on what is the best way forward?

Than Ajahn:   You have to weigh in the option between changing job and not changing job. If changing your job is better, then you change it. If changing job doesn’t make you feel better, then you don’t change it. As simple as that. If you change job and you still feel the same, then you can either change job or don’t change it because it doesn’t make any difference. So, you look at the consequence: if you change job, is it going to be better or worse, or the same? Then, you can make a decision.

Layperson:  Sometimes our assessment can be clouded by our defilement thinking that if we change job, it will be better. A lot of time, I feel that I am not very clear on what is the wise assessment to make a decision. 

Than Ajahn:  Then don’t change. Stick to the old horse. Stick to the horse you know. 

“Dhamma in English, Sep 28, 2021.”

- - - - -

Than Ajahn:  How are you doing? Good to see you. Are you working now or just meditating?

Layperson (M):  Meditating, mostly. 

Than Ajahn:  Ok, good. As long as you’re happy, what you do doesn’t matter because happiness is in your heart. It is not how much you have or what you do. Maybe you have a lot of possession or have done a lot of work, but you aren’t happy. If you’re not working, you don’t have much possession, but you’re happy—that’s better, as far as I’m concern. 

I don’t have anything. And I’m happy.

“Dhamma in English, Apr 10, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

Reflections of Ajahn Chah

Reflections of Ajahn Chah

Finally you’ll look on the breath as if it  were some relatives come to visit you. 

When the relatives leave, you follow them out to see them off. You watch until they’ve walked up the drive and out of sight, and then you go back indoors. We watch the breath in the same way. If the breath is coarse we know that it’s coarse, if it’s subtle we know that it’s subtle. As it becomes increasingly fine we keep following it, at the same time  awakening the mind.  

Eventually the breath disappears altogether and all that remains is that feeling of alertness. This is called meeting the Buddha. We have that  clear, wakeful awareness called Bud-dho, the one who knows, the awakened one, the radiant one. This is  meeting and dwelling with the  Buddha, with knowledge and clarity.  

It was only the historical Buddha who passed away. The true Buddha, the Buddha that is clear, radiant knowing, can still be experienced and attained today. And if we do attain it, the heart is one.

So let go, put everything down, everything except the knowing. Don’t be fooled if visions or sounds arise in your mind during meditation. Lay them all down. Don’t take hold of anything at all, just stay with this  unified awareness. Don’t worry about the past or the future, just be still and you will reach the place where there’s no advancing, no retreating and no stopping, where there’s nothing to  grasp at or cling to. Why? Because there’s no self, no “me” or “mine.” It’s all gone. The Buddha taught to empty yourself of everything in this way, not  to carry anything around... to  know, and having known, let go.

Realizing the Dhamma, the path to freedom from the round of birth and death, is a task that we all have to do alone. So keep trying to let go and understand the teachings. Put effort  into your contemplation. Don’t worry about your family. At the moment they are as they are, in the future they will be like you. There’s no-one in the world who can escape this fate. 

The Buddha taught to lay down those things that lack a real abiding essence. If you lay everything down you will see the real truth, if you don’t, you won’t. That’s the way it is. And it’s the same for everyone in the world.  

So don’t grasp at anything.

Even if you find yourself thinking, well that’s all right too, as long as you think wisely. Don’t think foolishly. If  you think of your children, think of them with wisdom, not with  foolishness. Whatever the mind turns to, think of it with wisdom, be aware of its nature. To know something with wisdom is to let it go and have no suffering over it. The mind is bright,  joyful and at peace. It turns away from distractions and is undivided. Right now what you can look to for help and support is your breath.

This is your own work, no-one else’s.  

Leave others to do their own work.  

You have your own duty and responsibility, you don’t have to take on those of your family. 

Don’t take on  anything else, let it all go. This letting go will make your mind calm. Your sole responsibility right now is to focus your mind and bring it to peace.  

Leave everything else to the others. 

Forms, sounds, odors, tastes... leave them to the others to attend to. Put everything behind you and do your own work, fulfill your own  responsibility. Whatever arises in  your mind, be it fear of pain, fear of death, anxiety about others or whatever, say to it, “Don’t disturb me. 

You’re no longer any concern of mine.” Just keep this to yourself when you see those dhammas arise.

What does the word dhamma refer  to? 

Everything is a dhamma, there is nothing that is not a dhamma. And what about “world”? 

The world is the very mental state that is agitating you at the present moment. “What are  they going to do? When I’m gone who will look after them? How will they manage?” This is all just the “world.”  

Even the mere arising of a thought  fearing death or pain is the world. 

Throw the world away! The world is  the way it is. If you allow it to dominate your mind it becomes obscured and can’t see itself. So  whatever appears in the mind, just  say, “This isn’t my business. It’s impermanent, unsatisfactory and not self.”

Thinking you’d like to go on living for a long time will make you suffer. But thinking you’d like to die right away or very quickly isn’t right either. It’s suffering, isn’t it? Conditions don’t belong to us, they follow their own  natural laws. You can’t do anything about the way the body is. You can beautify it a little, make it attractive and clean for a while, like the young girls who paint their lips and let their nails grow long, but when old age  arrives, everybody’s in the same boat. 

That’s the way the body is, you can’t make it any other way. What you can improve and beautify is the mind.

Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that, that sort of home is not our real home, it’s only nominally ours. It’s home in the world and it follows the ways of the world. Our real home is inner peace. An external, material home may well be pretty but it is not very peaceful. There’s this worry and then that, this anxiety and then that. So we say it’s not our real home, it’s external to us. 

Sooner or later we’ll  have to give it up. It’s not a place we can live in permanently because it  doesn’t truly belong to us, it belongs to the world. Our body is the same.  

We take it to be a self, to be “me” or “mine,” but in fact it’s not really so at all, it’s another worldly home. Your body has followed its natural course from birth, until now it’s old and sick, and you can’t forbid it from doing that. That’s the way it is. Wanting it to be any different would be as foolish as  wanting a duck to be like a chicken.  

When you see that that’s impossible  –  that a duck must be a duck and a chicken must be a chicken, and that the bodies have to get old and die  –  you will find courage and energy.  

However much you want the body to go on lasting, it won’t do that.

~ Ajahn Chah

"Thus, the threefold training — virtue, concentration, and discernment — is a group of truths that can let go of the causes of stress. Other than this, there's no way to release."

"Thus, the threefold training — virtue, concentration, and discernment — is a group of truths that can let go of the causes of stress. Other than this, there's no way to release."

How Meditators Can Achieve The Aim Of The Buddha's Teachings

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All of these things (Ten Corruptions of Insight- see note), if we aren't wise to them, can corrupt the heart. So, as meditators, we should attend to them and reflect on them until we understand them thoroughly. Only then will we be able to give rise to liberating insight, clear knowledge of the four truths:

I. Physical and mental stress, i.e., the things that burden the body or mind. Physical and mental pleasure and ease, though, are also classed as stress because they are subject to change.

II. The factors that enable these forms of stress to arise are three:

a. Kama-tanha: craving for attractive and appealing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas; fastening onto these things, grabbing hold of them as belonging to the self. 

This is one factor that enables stress to arise. (The mind flashes out.)

b. Bhava-tanha: desire for things to be this way or that at times when they can't be the way we want them; wanting things to be a certain way outside of the proper time or occasion. This is called "being hungry" — like a person who hungers for food but has no food to eat and so acts in a way that shows, "I'm a person who wants to eat." Bhava-tanha is another factor that enables stress to arise. (The mind strays.)

c. Vibhava-tanha: not wanting things to be this way or that, e.g., having been born, not wanting to die; not wanting to be deprived of the worldly things we've acquired: for example, having status and wealth and yet not wanting our status and wealth to leave us. The truth of the matter is that there's no way it can be avoided. As soon as the change comes, we thus feel stress and pain. (The mind flinches.)

Punappunam pilitatta

sansaranta bhavabhave:

"Repeated oppression, wandering on from one state of becoming to another."

Different states of becoming arise first in the mind, then giving rise to birth. Thus, people of discernment let go of these things, causing:

III. Nirodha — cessation or disbanding — to appear in the heart. In other words, the mind discovers the limits of craving and lets it go through the practice of insight meditation, letting go of all fabrications, both good and bad. To be able to let go in this way, we have to develop:

IV. Magga — the Path — so as to make it powerful. In other words, we have to give rise to pure discernment within our own minds so that we can know the truth. 

Stress is a truth; its cause is a truth; its cessation and the Path are truths: To know in this way is liberating insight. 

And then when we let all four truths fall away from us so that we gain release from "true," that's when we'll reach deathlessness (amata dhamma). 

Truths have their drawbacks in that untrue things are mixed in with them. 

Wherever real money exists, there's bound to be counterfeit. Wherever there are rich people, there are bound to be thieves waiting to rob them. 

This is why release has to let go of truths before it can reach nibbana.

Meditators, then, should acquaint themselves with the enemies of concentration, so as to keep their distance from all Five of the Hindrances, the Two sorts of Uggaha Nimittas, and the Ten Corruptions of Insight. 

The mind will then be able to gain release from all things defiling, dirty, and damp. What this means is that the mind doesn't hold onto anything at all. 

It lets go of supposings, meanings, practice, and attainment. 

Above cause and beyond effect: That's the aim of the Buddha's teachings.

Those who want to get rid of kama-tanha — desire and attraction for the six types of sensory objects — have to develop virtue that's pure all the way to the heart: This is termed heightened virtue (adhisila). 

Those who are to get rid of bhava-tanha — thoughts that stray out, choosing objects to dwell on — first have to develop Right Concentration, pure and circumspect: This is termed heightened mind (adhicitta). 

Those who are to get rid of vibhava-tanha — attachment to knowledge and viewpoints, attainments and states of becoming, theories and conceits — will first have to develop clear-seeing discernment, cognitive skill that's pure and fully developed: This is heightened discernment (adhipañña). 

Thus, the threefold training — virtue, concentration, and discernment — is a group of truths that can let go of the causes of stress. 

Other than this, there's no way to release.

~~~

From Basic Themes

https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/BasicThemes/Section0001.html

PDF https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/BasicThemes_181215.pdf

(Revised and rectified)

Note:

1. The Ten Corruptions of Insight: 

https://www.facebook.com/AjaanLee/photos/p.1073921059335119/1073921059335119/

2. Uggaha nimittas are of two sorts:

https://www.facebook.com/AjaanLee/photos/p.1073934529333772/1073934529333772/

3. Five Hindrances:

https://www.facebook.com/AjaanLee/photos/a.647987305261832.1073741831.158093764251191/1073897489337476/