We are so LUCKY to live, in different forms, for 20 or 50 millions years, then a Buddha revealing the Truth or Dhamma appears, we have five Buddhas in our present earth-cycle.

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

15 June 2024

We are so LUCKY to live, in different forms, for 20 or 50 millions years, then a Buddha revealing the Truth or Dhamma appears, we have five Buddhas in our present earth-cycle.

Why so lucky ?

Because in the previous 91 earth-cycles, lasting 50 or 100 billions years each, the Buddha only found six SammasamBuddhas like Him. 

Furthermore the Dhamma is only for the ones in suitable conditions to understand It and only for the ones ready or able to understand It.

It is like winning at a lottery (where we have billions or almost uncountable possibilities to loose and only one to win) and this means that the so lucky ticket is when the true Dhamma can be heard, evaluated and understood. 

Having it now in our hands, we should not  waste it, because so rare that can be easily seen as the only possibility each of us has in a future that can hardly be quantified. 

🙏❤️🙏

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“This is the best opportunity of your life.”

“If you are convinced that nibbāna is the best for you, you will be willing to commit yourself to the path of practice dāna, sīla and bhāvanā. But if you are not convinced yet, then you’ll be still undecided. 

You will still think ‘Should I leave my wife, my husband, my family, my wealth for nibbāna? 

Is nibbāna really that good?’ You won’t get the answer on your own. You have to seek advice from the noble ones – people who have attained to nibbāna. Then, they will tell you in no uncertain terms that nibbāna is the best for you. 

If you seek advice from teachers who haven’t yet reached nibbāna, they would not be able to tell you whether nibbāna is good or not good. Because they themselves are not sure. 

So, when you go to look for teachers, when you listen to Dhamma talks, you should look for the noble teachers – teachers who have attained to nibbāna. Then, they will speak in no uncertain terms that there is nothing in this world that is as good as nibbāna. 

And the way to get to nibbāna is to practice dāna, sīla and bhāvanā. 

So, this is what you should try to achieve, to have the inspiration in the Dhamma, and to be convinced that nibbāna is the best for you. 

The Buddha was convinced that the life as a prince was not as good as the life as a monk. 

As a prince, he still had to face a lot of problems. But once he became a monk, he could get rid of all the problems. And he found that there’s nothing like peace of mind. Peace of mind is nibbāna. When you have no desire, your mind will become peaceful and happy. 

So, you have to practice. By merely listening to Dhamma is not enough. Listening to Dhamma is just learning what you have to do. 

Once you know what you have to do, then you have to do it. Only when you do it, you will be able to achieve it. It’s easy for you to achieve it because the 

Buddha’s teachings are still around. You don’t have to do trials and search for the path yourself. 

Right now, you have the Buddha's teachings that tell you exactly what to do. If you can do it, you’ll get the result as what the Buddha has promised – you can achieve the result in 7 days or 7 months or 7 years. 

Without the teachings, you will never be able to achieve the result because you don’t know how to do it. 

So, this is the best opportunity of your life. It is an opportunity that only happen once in many, many millions years. Because every time you are born, it doesn’t mean that you will come across the teachings of the Buddha. Now you have found the teachings and therefore you should not throw it away. 

You should make use of it as best as you can.”

“Dhamma in English to laypeople from Malaysia & Singapore, May 12, 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.

12 April 2026

The Buddha teaches us to contemplate that as a result of birth:

I am of the nature to age. I cannot escape from ageing.

I am of the nature to get sick and experience pain. I cannot escape from sickness and pain.

I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape from death.

All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will become otherwise, will become separated from me. 

This is something that is worthwhile for us to remember constantly, many, many times a day. 

Otherwise this truth will not stay with us. We will then not forget and be deluded into working on anything that brings no benefit to ourselves and will instead take on worthwhile activities, such as making merit, nurturing our virtue, meditating, and listening to and practising Dhamma. 

If we do not reflect deeply, we may think that we will not experience old age, sickness, pain, and death. We will then go seeking fortune, status, fame, and pleasure through ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body just like our current lifestyle. We will make very little effort to ne, keep the precepts, meditate, or listen to and practise Dhamma. On the contrary, when it comes to seeking fortune, status, fame, and pleasure through the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body, we strive the whole day and night, except when we are asleep. 

When we wake up, we are off again to seek pleasure through the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body. We open the refrigerator, looking for snacks, looking for drinks, or go off to the kitchen to see what else there is to eat. 

Once our stomach is full, we are off again seeking pleasure through the ears, nose, eyes, tongue, and body, seeking entertainment all night long in all sorts of places, looking for this person or that person, looking for this thing or that thing. This is seeking that is of no use to our heart. It does not bring fulfilment and contentment, but leads only to more and more mental deprivation, hunger, and craving continuously. 

When we don’t have anything to protect our mind, we will have loneliness, irritation, depression, and be easily agitated. This arouses dukkha in our mind and causes us harm. If we are only concerned with seeking fortune, status, fame, and pleasure through the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and body when the body cannot meet our needs our mind will be stressed and tormented. 

For instance, when the physical body falls into sickness or becomes bed-ridden, it is not possible to seek pleasure through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. 

It is not possible to seek pleasure through fortune, status, and fame. When that happens, we will be lonely and depressed. It may even lead to feeling like we want to kill ourselves because we do not know what we are still living for without the means to enjoy physical pleasure as we did before. That is because we do not know the means to find happiness within the mind. 

For if we can find happiness within our mind, when anything happens to the body, we will not be agitated because we know the way to find happiness within our mind. Even if the body is sick, painful and bed-ridden or paralyzed, we can still find happiness within the heart. We can calm the mind, develop mindfulness, and practise the repetition of Buddho, Buddho. 

If we practise Buddho continuously without thinking of this or that person, this or that issue, our mind will be clear, cool, and relaxed, leading to calm and stillness. 

There will then be bliss. 

This is happiness that does not need the body or fortune, status, and fame. This is nurturing our mind to have happiness that leads and delivers us away from dukkha. For when we are calm, we are bound to be able to see the origin of dukkha and the origin of our perpetual death and rebirth, thus leading us into deeper levels of calm and reducing our kilesas (defilements), craving, and desire. 

For when the mind is calm, defilement and craving stop working and as a result the stressed, agitated, and angry mind ceases and disappears completely as well. This is the contentment that will stop discontentment, only it is temporary. The practice of mental calm through the repetition of Buddho, Buddho is not lasting, for when the calm mental state becomes weak, the kilesas will have the power to rise up, distressing the mind. 

To overcome this, we will have to use wisdom to teach the mind to understand that kilesas are the origin that of mental distress and torment that not worth wanting. 

If we do not wish to experience mental distress, but instead to have mental peace and calm forever, we should stop and resist desire, stop and resist greed, hatred and delusion. The method to stop and resist greed, hatred, and delusion is to teach our mind that whatever we desire through the kilesas and the resultant sukha that it brings to us is not comparable to the happiness that is already within our mind. 

The pleasure acquired through desire is little, arises only once, and will be followed by discontentment. 

Craving will arise again to regain the lost pleasure, and we will want it even more. It is like someone who already has a handful who then wants a whole sack. 

Having a sack, he craves and wants the whole store. 

Already having $10,000, his greed wants $100,000, and then a million. 

Already having a million, he wants 10 million, 100 million, without any end in sight. This goes on and on. 

Our mind is agitated, seeking all of this according to our desire. 

If we want our mind to be calm, cool, and happy, and not agitated, we have to fight against desire and teach our mind not to desire. For if we desire, dukkha will follow. 

Whatever happiness gained will be minimal because it is not permanent, and we cannot control it to provide happiness for us forever. 

Whatever sukha brought to us may within a day or night change and bring dukkha (unhappiness) instead. 

For example, when the relationship with our partner first starts, our partner is agreeable to us. 

Everything is delightful, and we are happy. 

But when our partner changes, whatever brought happiness before may become disagreeable and stressful for us. When our partner changes from being nice to being mean, from being truthful to being dishonest, our mind is no longer happy and only suffers. 

Additionally, it is not within our power to stop or change our partner. If our partner chooses to be bad, we will be depressed and despair. 

This is wisdom we use to teach our mind every time it desires anything, to teach the mind not to take things whenever it is not necessary. If we really need something, take it, such as our clothing. If it is torn and not possible to be worn, buy a replacement. But know what is enough and sufficient; two or three sets is enough. The same goes for sandals and other goods. Do not want more than necessary, otherwise it is desire driven. 

If you follow your desire, it will keep on increasing until it becomes too much and overloads your house. 

Owning too many things is not what increases the happiness in our mind. 

“Dhamma for the Asking, May 11, 2013.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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

“This is what we should do as a monk.”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

25 April 2024

“This is what we should do as a monk.”

- - -

“We also use body contemplation to get rid of our sexual desire. Whenever sexual desire is arising, we have to look at the unpleasant parts of the body, like the 32 parts of the body. If you observe the 32 parts, if you see the organs underneath the skin, then your sexual desire can be eliminated. 

So, whenever you have sexual desire you have to get rid of it, because if you don’t do it, this sexual desire will prevent you from attaining Nibbāna, and you will be stuck in the realm of rebirth. So, you have to contemplate the unpleasantness of the body. 

Look at the body when it gets sick, or when it gets old, or when it dies. It is not pleasant at all when you look at a corpse. Everybody eventually becomes a corpse. So, whenever you have sexual desire to sleep with somebody, just remind yourself that you are going to sleep with a corpse. The difference is that now the person is still breathing, that’s all. Otherwise there is no difference. 

When we die and stop breathing, the body turns into a corpse. But the body is still the same, it still has the 32 parts. This is what we have to do regarding the body. 

We have to study the nature of the body until we can get rid of our fear of losing our body. Once we see the truth of the body, and if we have samādhi, we will be able to let go of the body because we have a calm, peaceful and happy mind that can exist without relying on the body to have happiness. 

When we don’t have samādhi yet, we will not be able to let go because we have to rely on the body to acquire happiness for us. If we have samādhi, we have happiness inside the mind, then we don’t need to have the body. 

We know that when we eventually have to lose the body, we will not be sad; it will not have any impact on us in any way. 

So, we first must have samādhi before we can develop wisdom or paññā to let go of our attachment to the body. We will see that if we are attached to the body, the result will be suffering, sadness, and unhappiness. If we let go of the body, the result will be peaceful and calm. This is what we have to do. 

First, we have to develop samādhi. Once we have rested in samādhi and come out of it, we have to study the true nature of the body in order to get rid of our delusion, our attachment, and our desire towards the body, be it our own body or other people’s body. 

They are all the same, they are all aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. They are all asubha, not beautiful, not pleasant to see when they become sick, when they get old or die, or when you look inside under the skin. This is how we have to train the mind to look at the body. 

Once we see the body as it is, then the mind will let go of the body and the mind will not be affected in any way. There will be no sexual desire. You can live alone and be happy. You don’t have to have a partner or a wife to make you happy. Instead of having happiness from having a wife, you may end up having problems with a wife, so it is better to live alone than to live with a wife. 

If you see with wisdom, then you can leave your wife and become a monk. This is basically the first level of practice, that is to understand the nature of the body, so that we can let go of our desire towards the body. If we can do this, we will achieve the third level of attainment, called the Anāgāmī level. 

An Anāgāmī has no attachment to the body, has no desire towards the body in whichever way at all. It has no attachment, no desire for the body not to get sick, get old or die. It has no desire to have sex with anybody because he has seen the unpleasant parts of the body. 

So, this is what we should do as a monk.” 

“Singapore via skype – talks given to monks, Aug 9, 2015.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: 

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

“Teaching meditation to Westerners”

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

14 April 2024

“Teaching meditation to Westerners”

Monk1   :  Do you think when teaching meditation to Westerners, it is proper to use (the verbal or mental recitation of) Buddho or to teach something different?

Phra Ajahn :  I think you should let them decide what is suitable for them. I think most Westerners prefer ānāpānasati because it has been taught in the Mahā Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness teaches mindfulness of breathing as a way to calm the mind, so I think it is generally used to teach Westerners. But there are many different meditation objects that can be used. It is up to the teacher depending on what he found to be effective or useful for him. He will then use that technique to teach other people.

But the students who take up the teaching might have to improvise or adapt to a different technique if the technique that was taught is not suitable to them because there are 40 meditation objects that could be used for calming the mind. I think if you read in the texts, they are divided into three or four different categories. However, people in Thailand are generally very devoted and close to the Buddha. The Buddha is almost like God. For them, thinking of the Buddha will help them to calm down the mind very quickly because they rely on the Buddha to help them in times of stress or suffering. 

But many people in Thailand will usually start with chanting because sometimes they find that repeating the word Buddho is still not easy for them. The mind still drifts and goes thinking about different things. 

For them to chant suttas or verses first helps to slow the mind down, and after the mind slows down, they can just use the word Buddho. So how has your meditation been going?

Monk1.  : It’s usually not… (The conversation was diverted to some other topics.)

Laywoman (F1).  : Ajahn, do you know Mr. Pompan who went to the same school as you?

Phra Ajahn.  : Yes, we were in Seventh-day Adventist School, a Christian school.

Laywoman (F1).  : So, you were Christian?

Phra Ajahn.  : No, no. We went there because they taught English, and my father wanted me to learn English. The school was run by the Seventh-day Adventist missionary and one of the requirements to be accepted into the school was to go to church every Sunday. 

So I learnt a lot about Christianity in the school, but they could never convert me. 

They asked me why, and I told them that I respected Jesus and loved his teachings, but somehow, for me to be convinced that he saved my life was something I could not see. I thought that I had to save myself rather than anybody else. 

When I read about Buddhism, I realised that this was the right religion for me because Buddhism teaches us to save ourselves. We have to save ourselves. We have to be our own refuge. Attãhi attano nãtho. So, I started to study (Buddhist) books and meditate by myself, and I realised that this was a good way to go because it helped make my mind peaceful and more secure. Before, when I was about to go to university, I thought that after I graduated, I would be very secure and happy. But it didn’t make any difference — before or after graduation — my mind was still the same, still very insecure like a roller coaster.

So, I realised that the education I had gone through was not good enough. So, I started looking for something else, like reading books, and I eventually came across books on Buddhism. I was in Thailand, living in a Buddhist country, but I had never read a Buddhist Dhamma book before or listened to a Dhamma talk because, to me, the religion in Thailand appeared to be very ritualistic. You pray, light incense and candles, and then pray for wealth or whatever you want. 

But those are only the superficial parts of Buddhism that most Thai people are exposed to. They never have the chance to get the teachings, so I never knew that Buddhism was the religion I should follow. It was only after I was given a book on Buddhism written in English, I think, by a monk in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka there were many English monks who translated some of the texts and distributed them for free. I was given a small one. After reading it, I felt that I had found the answer to my question. So, I wrote back and asked for more books to read, and eventually I got one on the

Four Foundation of Mindfulness. So, I started practicing following those instructions, sitting using ānāpānasati, being mindful of my movement, and investigating my body, the 32 parts or the ten stages of decomposition. And I found that the more I did it, the more my mind became calm and secure. I became less and less afraid of things because I realised that this is the truth, this is what will happen. The mind isn’t afraid of the truth. In fact, the mind is helped by the truth which makes it strong and ready to face the eventuality. 

So, after practising like this for about a year, I decided to do more. The way to be able to do more and to do it all the time is to become a monk, so I became a monk.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto

www.facebook.com/AjahnSuchartAbhijato

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.

29 October 2024

You have to look at the big picture. And the big picture is: we are all going to get old, get sick and die. So no matter how successful our life might be we are all going to end with ageing, sickness and death. 

Once you can see the big picture then you will not worry about the small picture anymore. The small pictures are not significant as compared to the big picture. 

That's why the Buddha teaches us to contemplate on ageing, sickness and death all the time. So don’t forget the big picture. 

Sometimes you forget about the big picture and worry about the small picture which is not significant at all. You worry too much about the small picture and forget about the big picture.

You have to always have the big picture in the back of your mind so when you deal with the small picture you can say, ‘Oh, it’s not a big problem, it’s not that important.’ If you can deal with it, do it but if you can’t deal with it then leave it alone, let it be. You can’t change the big picture anyway. So do what you can do and accept what you can’t do. 

Your goal should be more concerned about dealing with the big picture. Once you can deal with ageing, sickness and death, all other problems are insignificant. If you can accept ageing, sickness and death, you can accept anything. 

You like to forget about the big picture because it doesn't make you feel good when you think about the big picture. Small picture can delude you to make you feel secure, make you feel happy so you don't like to look at the big picture. You like to look at the small picture like planning for your wedding, planning for your holiday, planning for your birthday party – these are the little pictures that you indulge in in order to forget about the big picture. 

This is a delusion – not seeing anicca, dukkha, anattā nature of life. This keeps you looking for pleasure in life while the truth is life will only give you dukkha because life is anicca, life is anattā.

If you keep looking at the big picture, you gradually will become enlightened to the truth. But if you turn your back on it and don’t look at the big picture then you will be deluded or deceived by the little picture or little happiness that you can get from little things like from your marriage, graduation, anniversaries.

All these little pictures will deceive you or will not let you see the big picture. So you always hope for something good, something better because you don’t see the big picture. If you can see the big picture then you know that there is no hope; but you don’t want to be hopeless so you don’t want to look at the big picture so you can be hopeful.

You can only do this [look at the big picture] if you have something to replace life like meditation, getting happiness from peace of mind. Then you can look at the big picture and are not worried about life because you don't really rely on it anymore, you have something better that you don’t get from life that is the spiritual things that you get from meditation, from peace of mind, from contentment. 

Once you have this [peace of mind from meditation] then you are not worried about life because you don’t rely your wellbeing on life. You don’t rely your happiness on life because you know it's not dependable, it's not reliable. You cannot rely on life for happiness and for security. 

But you can rely on your meditation to give you happiness and security.

So you should practice more mindfulness and meditation then you won't have to rely on life to give you happiness. 

“Dhamma in English, Dec 5, 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.

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

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

12 October 2024

The fifth and last of the spiritual powers that will assist us in our spiritual advancement is wisdom or paññā. To have wisdom is to be wise as opposed to being ignorant. The difference between the wise and the ignorant is that ûthe ignorant become street sweepers and dish washers, while the wise get better jobs, working in air-conditioned offices, giving orders. This is because they are educated, smart and knowledgeable. 

They know what should be done and what should not be done. Those who don’t know how to type, for example, will have to wash dishes, mow the lawn, or sweep the streets instead, because this kind of work does not need a lot of knowledge or wisdom. To be able to work in a specialized field, one has to be capable and knowledgeable. 

In Buddhism however, the emphasis is on knowing about suffering or dukkha, about the four noble truths or ariya-sacca namely, suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering. 

Usually when we are unhappy we don’t know what causes it. But one who possesses wisdom or paññā will know right away that the mind is on fire. Right now as we sit here quite comfortably, if someone does something that bothers us, we can no longer remain calm. If we don’t have wisdom, we will not know that we are suffering. If we have wisdom acquired from regularly listening to Dhamma talks, we will know that when we feel ill at ease, we are suffering. 

Mental suffering or stress has its origin, not from the external but from within the mind itself. Its causes are the three cravings or taṇhā namely, craving for sensuality, for becoming, and for not-becoming. 

Craving for sensuality is our lust for visible objects, sounds, aromas, flavors and tactile sensations, such as beautiful clothes and other material objects. When we lust for them it would stir up restlessness right away. 

When we see advertisements on the television for some products with tantalizing offers and the telephone number to call, we would immediately make that call. 

We could not remain still because the mind has been set on fire. It’s now afflicted with suffering. 

Craving or lust for becoming is another form of suffering or stress. If we think that there is a possibility for us to become a prime minister, we would not be able to remain indifferent. We would have to go out campaigning for votes. We couldn’t just stay at home and let it all happen by itself. On the other hand, if we have no desire to become a prime minister, we could sit back and do nothing and be spared the suffering or stress that come with the race. We would be happy from our contentment.

Suffering or stress occurs in the mind. Its origin, the three cravings, also comes from the mind. If we have no craving, we wouldn’t be afflicted with suffering or stress. When we are full from a meal, we couldn’t take another bite, even if it’s our favorite dish. That’s because we don’t have any craving for food. 

But if we were hungry because we haven’t eaten for a day or two, we would devour even plain rice and a banana, let alone our favorite dish, because of our lust for food. 

When we are restless we are being consumed by stress. 

If we can stay put, we would be happy. Suffering or stress is therefore in the mind. The origin of suffering is also in the mind. Stress or suffering has to be quelled in the mind. The tool to achieve this is also in the mind namely magga or the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering. 

What is magga? Mindfulness and wisdom or sati and paññā as mentioned before are the components of magga along with faith, exertion and samādhi. We just have to realize that our craving causes our suffering or stress. Once we do all we have to do is to give up our craving. 

For example, we are already full from a meal but still crave for more, especially when we see some tantalizing dish on an advertisement. The mind wants to run to the refrigerator to grab some more food. If we are mindful of our thoughts we could tell the mind that we have just finished eating. If we eat again, we would get fat and gain weight, the cholesterol would be higher, the blood pressure would increase, and we would die sooner. This thought would stop us and put a brake on our craving. When the craving has been eliminated, the mind would become calm and peaceful. 

In Buddhism, this is wisdom. All things in this world are impermanent and bring suffering or stress. Don’t be attached to visible objects, sounds, aromas, flavors, tactile sensations, wealth, status, praise, and sensual pleasures that we treasure so much. When we acquire wealth we feel so happy. But in the eyes of the wise they are the source of unhappiness if they are more than what is needed for our existence. When we have more than we need they become a mental liability causing restlessness and anxiety, driving us to spend and spend, and to acquire more and more, locking us in this vicious circle of acquisition and spending, never ever find peace of mind and contentment. 

Don’t ever think that wealth, status, praise, and sensual pleasures can bring true happiness, because it’s transient, it comes and goes. When we get rich, we feel happy. 

When we become poor, we are unhappy. 

When all the money is gone, there could be no greater suffering. But if we, like monks, were used to living without money, we would not suffer. Life can go on with just having enough to eat each day. 

Use your head and come to the realization that true happiness comes from contentment, no more greed, hatred, delusion, no more craving for sensuality, for becoming, and for not becoming, no more craving to become a lieutenant, a general, a director, a Miss Universe. If we want them, we would have to go after them. If we don’t, we could stay put and be truly happy. 

The origin of all sufferings or stresses is the three cravings. To get rid of them, we must use wisdom or paññā in order to make us realize that they don’t give us true happiness. 

True happiness is in the mind, the mind that has quelled all the cravings. If we possess the five spiritual powers namely, faith, exertion, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom, we would have the tools to eliminate the kilesas and vanquish suffering or stress from our mind. 

Please develop these five spiritual powers as much as you possibly can then true happiness would eventually be your possession.

“Sensual Pleasures Are Painful”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

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