Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015

— 94 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 then the defilements will be very strong. When you contemplate death or asubha, they will try to disrupt, and try to bring you to think about other things. So you won’t be able to contemplate this subject on a long term basis. You might be able to contemplate them briefly but the next thing you know, you start thinking about some other things. The reason why you have to contemplate on a long term basis is to be reminded constantly, so that you don’t forget. Every time you see a body, you have to see it as asubha, not as subha. You should look at it as something repulsive, something ugly, not something beautiful or attractive. Without the contemplation, it is normal for the mind to look at the body as attractive, as beautiful, as good looking. If you use the asubha contemplation, then you will see that besides being good looking, it is also not good looking. It is like a coin. There are two sides to it. If you look at only one side, you might think that both sides are the same, but if you flip over then you will see that one side is different from the other side. So if you contemplate the asubha aspect of the body continually then you will know that the body is not only attractive, it is also unattractive. When you see it as unattractive, you can eliminate your sexual desire, which is something that will destroy your practice if you cannot tame it or get rid of it. That’s why when you are first ordained you have to examine the five physical parts of the body: kesa, loma, nakha, danta, taco. This is the reminder to guide you that this is your work and this is what you have to do. You have to study the body in its entirety. You have to look into all the aspects of the body, like anicca – impermanence; the body is constantly changing, developing and also deteriorating. The body will develop to a point and it will start deteriorating. It will become older, get sick and eventually die. You want to look at this anicca aspect of the body so that you don’t forget because if you forget then you will cling to the body, you will have attachment to the body and you will want the body not to dissolve, not to die. When you have this desire, it will create suffering or stress in your mind, sadness or unhappiness in your mind.

— 95 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 The goal of our practice is to eliminate our sadness or unhappiness that is being created by our desire. Our desire arises due to our delusion, our ignorance about the nature of the body. If we know the true nature of the body, the desire for the body not to get old, get sick or die will not arise. When there is no desire of this type then there will be no suffering or stress when the body gets old, gets sick or dies. You will look at it as something normal. Your mind will not be affected by whatever happens to the body. This is one aspect of the contemplation. The second aspect, you want to look at it as impersonal, this body has no person, no ‘I’, no ‘me’, in this body. If you tear this whole body apart, you only see the 32 parts, that’s all there is to this body. There is no ‘you’ in this body. The ‘you’ is just your own perception. Your mind creates this perception, thinking that this body is ‘you’ but when you really look at it, contemplate it, there is really no ‘you’ in this body. If you separate the 32 parts, all you see is just the 32 parts of the body and when the body dies, it dissolves. It is made up of the four elements, earth, water, fire and air or wind. So when the body dies, these four elements start to separate. When you first die, what happens? The body becomes cold, that means the fire element has already escaped from the body. The air element is the smell of the body. After the stench of the body starts to leave the body, then the water part will leave the body. After you leave it for a while, all that is left is just the earthen parts like the skin, the bones, the flesh, the organs that are all dried up and become brittle and they all eventually turn into dust. This is what you ought to contemplate so that you understand the true nature of the body that there is no ‘you’ inside this body. The ‘You’ is in the mind. The mind comes and takes possession of this body and creates this conception or perception of this body as being ‘You’. It is only in your thought. The ‘You’ is in your thought, not in your body. So when you have fully seen that the body doesn’t have ‘You’ in it, then you can easily let go of it, then you know that the body is like another person. You don’t worry about

— 96 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 other people, right? You don’t care whatever happens to them, because you are not part of that body. It is the same way when you contemplate the 32 parts of the body, the four elements aspect of the body. You will see clearly that there is no ‘you’ in this body. So once you see it, you can easily let go of it. You know that whatever happens to it, is not happening to you. Because you are part of the mind, you come from the mind. You arise from your own thoughts. You think you are therefore you are, but these are all thinking. So you understand what the mind is, what the body is. There are two separate entities, two separate persons. The body is just a slave. The mind is the master. The mind is the one who tells the body what to do. You came here due to the mind giving the directions to the body. If the mind said ‘don’t come here’, you won’t be here today. The mind is the one who takes possession of this body at the time of conception. When the father and the mother start this process of birth, the body starts to grow up and the mind from previous life, which has no body, will then come in and take possession of this body from the time of conception. Due to delusion and no one telling it anything contrary, everybody said the body is ‘you’, you are the body, so this is deeply ingrained in the mind so whatever happens to the body will then cause bad feeling to the mind because the mind wants the body to be well, to exist forever, but the truth of the body, like we all know, is it is going to get old, get sick and die. You want to constantly remind the mind about this truth so that the mind will have the right attitude towards the body, that is, be ready to accept the truth, be ready to let the body get sick, get old and die. If the mind is ready and accepts it, then there will be no suffering, no mental stress in the mind. The mind will remain peaceful just like the way you are now. But if you haven’t trained your mind and taught your mind this, when your body becomes sick, your mind will react right away. It will have bad feelings right away because it wants to get rid of

— 97 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 the sickness. Sickness is something that you can not just get rid of through your mind alone. It comes and goes according to whatever the cause is. If there is a cause to make it become sick, it will get sick. If you have the cause to eliminate this sickness then it will become well again, but in the meantime when you are sick you just have to live with it. If you want it to disappear then you will only create suffering and stress in your mind. If you know that this is something that takes time for it to heal, then just be calm and just accept the fact of the sickness and live with it. If it lasts forever, then it is okay. There is nothing you can do about it because it is anattā. Anattā is something beyond your control. Everything is anattā. You might be able to control some of the things, some of the time, but eventually you will not be able to control everything all the time. Like your body, right now you might be able to control it to a certain extent, you can get it to walk, to sit and to do things but you cannot control sickness. When the body becomes sick you cannot just say: ‘get well’, it won’t happen. You just have to find a way of curing it. But if you cannot cure it, then you know maybe that’s the end of the path, that’s the end of life. If you cannot cure your sickness then what will happen? Eventually there is death, which will happen to everybody, sooner or later. But if you understand this truth then you will not resist it. You will not create any desire not to die or not to get sick. When you have no desire then there is no suffering, no dukkha. The Four Noble Truths states that dukkha arises from your desire and if you want to get rid of your dukkha then you have to get rid of your desire. The thing that can get rid of your desire is the magga. The magga is mindfulness and wisdom, to know the truth of the body. The truth of the body is, it is going to get sick, get old and die and no one can stop it, not even the mind who is in control or in possession of this body. The only thing the mind can do is to accept it. Once the mind accepts it then there will be no desire for the body not to die or not to get sick. Once that happens then there will be no dukkha in the mind. That’s the purpose of

— 98 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 our practice, not to prevent the body from getting sick, getting old and die. No one can stop this process, but we can stop the process of creating dukkha in the mind, by stopping our desire for things to be like we want them to be. Our desire tends to go against the truth, like we all want the body not to get sick, get old or die. This is going against the truth and you will never be able to achieve it. You only create dukkha in your mind. So, if you know the truth and accept the truth, you will stop creating this desire. Then you will have no dukkha. You can live with the body peacefully all the time regardless of what happens to the body. The body can get old, get sick or die but it won’t bother the mind, because the mind has accepted the truth of the body and has no desire for the body to be otherwise. This is contemplation of the wisdom part, but before you can really do it effectively on a continual basis, you need to have samādhi first. If you don’t, your mind will not stick to this contemplation for long because your kilesas, your defilements will then start to pull your mind towards some other subjects, some other things. Just look at you right now, how much contemplation have you done on your body so far? You have been ordained for so many years. Have you seen clearly the body yet? Have you let go of the body yet? That’s because probably you don’t have samādhi first of all. If you don’t have samādhi, you cannot contemplate this on a continual basis. So you have to come back and begin at the beginning, start developing mindfulness, so that when you have mindfulness you can sit and make your mind become ‘one’, become peaceful, become happy and stop the defilements from working, from pushing your mind to think about all sorts of things but the Dhamma. Once you have samādhi and you come out of samādhi, you can then direct your mind to think of any particular subject that the Buddha wants us to think of and it is on body contemplation, on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā and on asubha. This is our first goal, this is the problem that we have to solve at the outset; that is,

— 99 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 the body problem before we can move on to the vedāna and the mental problem which are more subtle, harder to solve than the body. The body is the easiest of all the problems. Then you have to go through the vedanā, the painful feeling. You have to eventually see it as aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā also and let it go, leave it alone. You can live with the painful feeling. What you cannot live with is not the painful feeling, but the dukkha that arises from your desire to get rid of the painful feeling. The painful feeling of the body is not the problem. The problem is the dukkha that is being created by your desire to get rid of the painful feeling. So you need to use wisdom to teach your mind that you cannot get rid of the painful feeling, because it is anattā, it is anicca. It comes and goes as it please. You cannot tell it to come and go as you like. You just have to accept it when it happens. If you accept it then your mind will have no dukkha because you have no desire to get rid of it. So this is the step that you have to do. First of all, you have to get rid of your attachment to the body. You should not let the body cause any dukkha in your mind, but if it still does, that means you still don’t have the wisdom to accept the truth of the body that is anattā, it is beyond your control. You cannot stop it from getting sick, getting old or die. So, this is briefly what I teach. Monk: You mentioned how we have done our part on dāna, on the material level. We have given up the material world, but something like the chores or communal harmony is also important. You also talk about the importance of being happy, like happiness being part of the condition for samādhi. Many people find that they just don’t find that kind of happiness in brahmacariyā. Is there a role for doing, as a service, generosity in the community, maybe to create the feeling of happiness? For example, Than Ajahn Paññā liked to fix watches for his friends, which is a kind of being generous. How is this connected to development of samādhi?

— 100 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Than Ajahn: It is an alternative way, but it is not the right way because the right way is samādhi that you eventually have to achieve. Other things are just a means to bring your mind towards that goal eventually. When you do things for other people, you are in a way stopping your defilement from going to do things for yourself and it is this defilement that is one of the problems which we call hindrance that prevents you from having samādhi. You have to be very careful because sometimes you may overdo it and you become attached to the path and forget that it is just a path, it is not the goal. The problem is sometimes we take the path to be the goal, so we are not getting anywhere. The path here is to stop your mind from doing anything for yourself, so instead of watching TV or doing something that is harmful, not useful, you go do some work for other people. But for monks I will discourage this. I think monks should solely concentrate on developing mindfulness. Because the Buddha said, in order to achieve the results of your practice, you need constant development of mindfulness. You have to live alone in a secluded place, don’t socialize and don’t mingle with other people. You have to know how to be moderate in your eating. You have to constantly guard your senses, so when you go help other people you are generally not guarding your senses. You are actually opening the gate to let your mind go out towards all the senses, so I don’t think that that is the proper way, except that if you cannot do these four things that the Buddha requires you to do, then maybe you have to go back and do this pre-requisite work first, do things for other people. But eventually that is to lessen your desire to do things for yourself, then you can come back, be with yourself, be alone and develop mindfulness. Monk: May I ask about yourself when you were with Luangta Mahā Boowa from the early years when you had just been ordained, how many years were you there for?

— 101 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 Than Ajahn: I was there for nine vassa. On the first five vassa I never left the monastery. After I have completed my five vassa I asked permission to come back home to visit my parents for about 2 weeks then I went back. On the 8th vassa I asked permission to come out for the second time where I stayed longer, about 3-4 months and then I went back for my last vassa, vassa 9. After vassa 9, I got news from back home that my father got terminal cancer, so I asked permission to come and stay here and I never went back. After my father’s funeral I came to stay here. I have been here from 1984, about 31 years. Monk: Can you share something like living with Than Ajahn Mahā Boowa? What would you say about one or several things that you felt was most important or most valuable? Than Ajahn: He provided us with a place to practise. He provided the environment for practice. He tried to keep the external curricular to the minimum, like building kutis or anything like that. If there were any building works he tended to use the laypeople and not the monks. He wanted to give the monks all the time to practise. That’s what I like about his temple. When I was going to be ordained, I was looking for that kind of monastery. Just practice and no other activities like being invited to go out for meals or chanting, or all sorts of ritual stuff. I just wanted to practise. That was exactly what Wat Pa Baan Taad was then. It was very quiet, with no electricity and no running water. We had to get water from the well. There were very few people at that time because Than Ajahn was very strict to the laypeople. Laypeople were afraid of him, so they would rather go to some other teachers than to go see him. I think he wanted to concentrate on teaching the monks. When you have a lot of laypeople coming to the temple, it can create a lot of work for the monks, to look after and to take care of things. So he tried to get the laypeople to stay away by being very strict and not accommodating. It was very good. He was very strict with the monks and the number of monks too. When I was there, there were about 18 monks but he then started to increase the

— 102 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 number. By the time when I left there were about 26 monks. He was saying that quantity can destroy quality. He wanted to have a small number of monks so that he could concentrate on every individual person. Monk: Did he give individual instructions, or did he give general instructions and he would know what to say at certain times? Than Ajahn: Normally he would call a meeting. When I first went there, he would call a meeting every four or five days, but as his health deteriorated and as he aged, the interval between meetings became 7 days or sometimes 2 weeks. He thought that giving instruction to the monks was the most important thing for the monks, so he tried to call for a meeting to give Dhamma talks. His Dhamma talks were always divided into 2 sections. The first section will be the general principles, like the dhutanga practices, sīla and so forth. When he finished that he would take a break, have some water to drink, chew his betel-nut and then he would start talking about his personal practice. Hardly any monks dared to ask him any questions because he seemed to have covered all the grounds so you don’t really have to ask. All you have to do is just do what he told you to do. If you wanted personal instructions then you need to go and work for him, take care of his bowl, clean his kuti, something like that, then you would get a more personal treatment because he would watch every step of your actions. If you did something that was not right, it meant that you were not mindful and he would correct you right away. He was very kind to the western monks and he tended to take the western monks to go and work for him, because he thought maybe we, the Thai monks could understand the teachings but the western monks might need hands-on teaching from the teacher. Monk: With regards to gaining samādhi, is it more on trying different methods or is it just a matter of keeping on doing one practice or whatever practice one is doing?

— 103 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 Than Ajahn: I think the main problem that has created all your hindrances is your lack of mindfulness. If you have mindfulness then all this problem will disappear. You also need the support of other practices like the support of moderation in eating or fasting. Sometimes when you eat too much you get drowsy, sleepy and you don’t feel like doing walking or sitting meditation, then you might have to fast. When you fast, your mind becomes alert because it is hungry. It forces you to maintain mindfulness, to stop your mind from thinking about food. By doing this, you gain mindfulness and when you sit in samādhi, your mind becomes peaceful and calm and the hunger disappears because most of the hunger arises from the mind and not the body. There are two types of hunger, the physical hunger and the mental hunger. The mental hunger is the main culprit, the main problem. Ninety percent of the hunger comes from your mind. Once you stop thinking about food and your mind has samādhi, your mind will become full and you feel that the hunger of the body is very minimal, and it has no effect on your mind. So it is good to fast if you have this temperament, and if it fits your character. Fasting is a good method. It is a fast track to get your practice going, to get rid of your hindrances. When I first started my practice, I still had problems with thinking about food in the evening. The mind still thought about food, but once I started fasting, all the thoughts in the evening about food disappeared. So it was very good. This is considered as part of the Buddha’s instruction, moderation in eating. If you eat too much, you’ll be sleepy. Sometimes even eating once a day can be too much for a practitioner, so you might have to skip meals, maybe fast for 3 days, 5 days, then you will find that you are constantly alert and you are forced to maintain mindfulness to stop thinking about food. If you cannot stop thinking about food then eventually you will not be able to maintain your fast or maintain your practice. You also have to be alone, and have minimal activity with other people. This is why fasting is helpful because it leaves

— 104 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 you alone, you don’t have to come to do any communal work. You can be alone in your kuti or you might find a place in the forest to sit and walk. So you don’t need to go dhutanga outside of the temple. You can do your tudong inside the temple, which is much more convenient because you don’t have to worry about where to find food. You will also be close to your teacher who will constantly remind you about what you should be doing. If you go out dhutanga by yourself, sometimes your mind can go wild. Instead of practicing, sometimes you might think where should I go next? What should I do next? So I never went for dhutanga. I stayed in the temple and did my dhutanga by fasting. Monk: In the current period, after 30 to 40 years, when Thailand has become different from the 70s, what would you say about the biggest obstacles and the danger for young monks? What is your advice? Than Ajahn: It is the same. The world is the same. The danger is not to practice; it is to think about all other things rather than practising. When you are not becoming mindful you are not practising already and you start creating hindrances for your mind unknowingly. If you can maintain mindfulness, you can get rid of all the hindrances. So the Buddha said mindfulness is the most important tool in the practice. The biggest Dhamma, the superior Dhamma is not paññā or samādhi, but mindfulness (sati). He compared sati to a footprint of an elephant, while the other Dhamma is like the footprint of other animals. The footprint of the elephant can cover the footprints of all other animals. That’s how important mindfulness is. That’s why the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is very important. If you can read and understand and can practise following the instructions in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Buddha said you can attain (enlightenment) in 7 days, 7 months or 7 years at the maximum. So don’t forget this, it is the most important thing, that is, mindfulness. To be able to be mindful, you have to be alone, live in seclusion because then you will have no distraction to your

— 105 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 development of your mindfulness. When you come to be involved with people and things, your mind will start to go adrift with the events, with happenings, then you are not being mindful and your desire starts to come out. So try to seek seclusion: ปลีกวิเวก กายวิเวก จิตวิเวก (stay in isolation: body and mind). First the body has to be secluded. When the body is secluded then the mind will become secluded. When the body is not secluded then the mind will become involved with other things that the body encounters. Isolate and develop mindfulness then everything will come, samādhi will come. Once you have samādhi, learn how to extend it by investigating the body, the vedāna and the citta to see that they are all aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā. When you see them then you can leave them alone. Right now you want to manage all these things. You want to manage your body, your vedanā and your citta. This is wrong because you cannot, instead of bringing peacefulness to you, you are bringing dukkha to yourself by trying to manage something that is not manageable. Question:Can I ask about the basic, the beginning of the practice, the meditation object? When I use parikamma ‘Buddho’ or ānāpānasati as the object of meditation, is the aim to get a complete body feeling, to maintain the inside body feeling? Is this called sati? Than Ajahn: No. The aim is to stop thinking, to stop the mind from wandering all over the world. Bring it back to the present, to the here and now. Question: Does it (the here and now) mean in the body? Than Ajahn: If you are with your body, then you are not going anywhere. You are in the present. When you are in the present, you are ready to enter into samādhi. Samādhi can happen when the mind is in the present.

— 106 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Question: Do we focus our attention on our body and if we cannot do it then we use the preparatory work of parikamma? Than Ajahn: The goal is to stop your mind from thinking. If your mind is thinking, somehow you should stop it by using the body as a point of focus or using parikamma, like a mantra as your point of focus to stop your thinking. When the mind stops thinking, the mind will converge and become one. It becomes singular, สักแต่ว่ารู้ (sak-ta-wa-roo) means really knowing. It separates from the body, it becomes by itself. Question: Does ‘Jit ruam yai’ mean having just peacefulness? Is it samādhi? And when I reach this state, can I then start to contemplate asubha etc? Than Ajahn: Yes. When you reach this state then you are in complete control of your mind. You can stop your mind from generating all kinds of defilements. If you cannot do this yet, when you come out (of samādhi), you cannot stop your defilement when it starts to manifest. When you have this ‘ruam yai’ then you have the strength to stop your defilement when it appears. Question: Is this when there is separation of the body and mind? Than Ajahn: Yes. ‘Ruam yai’ is when the body disappears from the awareness of the mind. It is like there is no body anymore, so in a way you can see that the mind and the body are two separate things. You can deduce from this fact that whatever happens to the body doesn’t happen to the mind. You can use this as a basis to investigate your body to see that the body is not the mind, and then you can let go of the body. Question: So even when you stand up, will the separation last for a long time afterwards?

— 107 — 9 | Monks from Wat Pah Nanachaat, June 9th, 2015 Than Ajahn: No. When you come out of samādhi, the separation: the body and the mind will rejoin. Then you need to use wisdom to remind yourself that we are two different parts but we are together right now and we must not cling to this body because the body is only a temporary part of our life. We should stick to the mind. Just to be aware. Just know. Don’t have any desire to have anything remaining with you all the time, because you cannot, everything comes and goes. That’s the duty of wisdom when you come out of samādhi, to remind yourself that the mind is not the body, to remind the mind that one day the body will disappear. It will separate from the body forever and to cling to it will only create dukkha in the mind. If you don’t want any dukkha then you will just have to let it go. You have to go find something fearful that causes you to have fear of death. Then you have to let go of your body and that fear of death will disappear. That’s why you have to go into the forest to be alone, to find some place fearful, some place that might present you a life and death situation. When you face something like a tiger or a snake, then you can have a choice of clinging or letting go. If you cling then you will have dukkha. If you let go then you will have peace because the dukkha will disappear. Once you have let go then you know that it is better to let go than to cling. When you cling you have dukkha. When you let go you have peace of mind. However, you will need to have samādhi first. When you don’t have samādhi, when you are faced with the life and death situation, you are not able to stop your clinging. Your clinging will be stronger than your letting go, even though your logic tells you to let go, the mind won’t listen to the logic because the mind is still driven by delusion. It still thinks that it is going to die with the body. So you need to have samādhi first, so that you can resist this clinging, get rid of this clinging. When you are in samādhi, you are already rid of this clinging temporarily, but when you

— 108 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 come out of it, the clinging returns. Samādhi cannot destroy the clinging permanently. You need wisdom to tell the mind to let go of the clinging because by clinging you are only creating dukkha in your mind. If you don’t want dukkha, you have to let go. I hope you will all meet your goal one day. If you all try hard enough, I think one day you will. Wherever there is a will, there is a way. It is like eating. If you keep eating, one day you will get full, right? If you keep on practising, one day you will attain your goal. As soon as you stop you will never (reach your goal). End of Q&A

— 111 — Than Ajahn: You are used to physical contact, so when you cannot get this physical contact, you feel that you are far apart. You should look at the essence of our contact. It is Dhamma that we are concerned with. The Buddha said even if you sit next to him, but if your mind never thinks of Dhamma, you are still so far away from him. However, if you are very far away from him, but your mind always thinks of Dhamma, you are close to him. So whether one is close or far is not determined by the physical distance but your thoughts towards the Dhamma. If your mind is constantly thinking about the Dhamma, then you are very close to the Buddha. At any time you are not thinking of the Dhamma, you are very far away from the Buddha. Lay devotee: How do we go about with the Dhamma practice? Than Ajahn: The study and the practice. First you have to study to know the proper way of practice. Once you know the proper way then you can practise correctly. If you practise correctly, then you will achieve the result very easily. This is the three step structure of Buddhism. First you study, second, you practise and third you achieve the result (attainment). 10 Laypeople from Singapore June 14th, 2015 (Lay devotees are inviting Than Ajahn to visit Singapore.)

— 112 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Lay devotee: The toughest is number three. Than Ajahn: The toughest is number one and two, because the third one comes after one and two. The hardest is probably the second, but the second needs the first to provide the right direction. If you want to travel to a new place, you must first study the map. Once you know the direction, then you can take off and travel to the destination you have in mind and you will get there without losing any time. You won’t be lost because you know exactly where to go, how to go. If you don’t study first, you might not get to where you want to go because you might go in the opposite direction. Studying is the first important thing, listening to Dhamma talks especially from the masters who have attained. There is a lot of difference listening to instructions from those who truly know and those who just imagine that they know. Lay devotee: How can you tell the difference between the two? Than Ajahn: It is like if you are a merchant dealing with diamonds. You have to study how to judge which is genuine. So you have to study and ask people who know how to judge and differentiate which is genuine and which is not. We know because once you come here (to the right place), you already learn a lot. You know Ajahn Mun and Luangta Mahā Boowa. You know they are monks who really know because you have heard from other people. So if you don’t know then you have to study or ask for advice from those who know. To know whether they really ‘know’, you have to practise to see whether their instructions can provide you with the result that you want. Then you know that they really ‘know’. Because if they don’t know then they would not be able to instruct you on the practice that leads to the result that you want to achieve. This is one way to prove that the one who teaches you, knows what he is talking about. You have to practise following his instructions.

— 113 — 10 | Laypeople from Singapore, June 14th, 2015 After you have realized the result from following his instructions in your practice, then you know that this person really ‘knows’. If someone tells you how to get to a certain place, but if he has not been there before, he might not be able to tell you exactly the right direction. But if he has been there before, he can tell you exactly the right direction. When you listen to someone who has not been there before, you might not get to where you want to go, so you know this person doesn’t know what he is talking about. The person who has already been there can tell you exactly how to get there and you can get there by following his instructions. Then you know that he must have been there before. This is another way to prove. All noble disciples of the Buddha have proven that the Buddha truly became enlightened because they used his instructions to guide themselves to become enlightened. Then they know that the Buddha must be truly enlightened. If he had not been truly enlightened, he would not have been able to guide them to become enlightened. You need to prove it through your practice then you will know that this teacher of yours ‘knows’, that he has become enlightened, because by following his instructions you can also become enlightened. Now it is your turn, you have already studied, now you have to practice, to see what I have said is what it should be or not. However, if you don’t become enlightened, don’t blame me immediately, instead you may have to blame yourself because you either might not have practiced correctly or you might not be practising hard enough. Lay devotee: Is it through meditation? Than Ajahn: Of course. Samatha and vipassana bhavana. That is the core of the practice with the support of dāna and sīla. Dāna is to give up your possessions, not just 10% but 100%. You give up everything so you can be free to be ordained and not to disrobe. If you are ordained and you disrobe, what’s the point of being ordained? It becomes a ritual instead of something practical.

— 114 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Lay devotee: When a person has been meditating for a long time, but if he stops and when he comes back (to meditation), it takes a long time to restart. Than Ajahn: Yes, it is like a computer, it takes a while to restart. Lay devotee: It takes a long time because the mind cannot bring him to where he left off? Than Ajahn: Don’t stop, just continue on practicing. Lay devotee: What if he has to stop due to work, etc? Than Ajahn: Then you have to reboot, you have to restart. It is like a computer, you don’t turn it off, right? You turn it on all day long. If you turn it off, when you want to use it, you would have to wait for it to restart. In the same way, try not to stop practising. Try to give weightage to the importance of practicing over other matters. Give priority to your practice. Everything else comes and goes and they don’t really give you the same benefit as what you will get from your practice. Lay devotee: Even when he tries his best to get back to where he stopped, before he switched off the computer, it is still so difficult to get back to where he was. Although he is practising more, his mind keeps on pulling him back. Than Ajahn: Yes, I know. You have to restart. That’s all. There is nothing else you can do. If you are used to running every day and you stop running for one year, then when you start running again, you won’t be able to run the same distance that you did before you stopped. You have to start from the beginning again. That’s the fact of life. That’s why once you start, don’t stop. Lay devotee: My mind is always disturbed.

— 115 — 10 | Laypeople from Singapore, June 14th, 2015 Than Ajahn: Because your mind is not strong enough. If you have enough Dhamma, nothing can stop you. What is stopping you is your own delusion. You think that other things are more important than Dhamma. If you practise and achieve the result from Dhamma practice, then you will know that nothing is more important than Dhamma practice because nothing can give you the result that you can get from Dhamma practice. The Buddha said the happiness from Dhamma practice far exceeds any kinds of happiness in this world. So you can give up everything, like the way the Buddha gave up his princely life because he wanted to experience this result of Dhamma practice that he had achieved in previous lives, where his mind reached samādhi when he was left alone and he knew that there was nothing like this in this world. This is what enticed him to leave the palace and take up the robes, plus the fact that he knew that he was going to get old, get sick and die. These are some of the things that prevent you from stopping your practice of Dhamma once you have started, that is, you are going to get older, get sick and you will die. The only thing that will help you is Dhamma practice because when you have Dhamma then you will not be affected by the sickness, aging and death of the body. You should constantly reflect on the future of your physical body, that it is going to get old, get sick and die and the only thing that can help you to be not affected by this is the Dhamma practice. May you advance in your Dhamma practice and maybe come enlightened one day soon. Just keep on practising and you will get there. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu!

— 117 — Layperson: What is the meditation technique practised here? Than Ajahn: It is the same everywhere. You can use ānāpānasati or the mantra Buddho. It is up to you. The method that you are comfortable with and you find it useful and can produce (good) results. Basically you must have mindfulness all the time before you can sit and succeed in your meditation. If you don’t have mindfulness, when you sit, your mind will not stop thinking but will keep wandering, thinking about this and that instead of focusing on your meditation subject. First, you have to bring your mind to stop wandering. You have to maintain mindfulness all day long, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. You need to have something for your mind to be fixed on to and do not let it move around. You can use a mantra: Buddho Buddho Buddho; or you can watch your body activities. If you can bring your mind to a stationary state, then when you sit down, you can succeed in your meditation. If you have mindfulness, when you sit in meditation, you can watch your breathing. You can use your breathing as your meditation subject. Just focus on your breathing, and don’t think about other things. Don’t worry about the breathing whether it is 11 Laypeople from Indonesia June 23rd, 2015

— 118 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 short or long, whether it is coarse or fine. Just be aware of the breath. Use the breathing as your point of focus to keep your mind from wandering, and going to places. If you concentrate continuously, your mind will suddenly drop into calm. When the mind becomes calm, there is nothing for you to do because the mind will just stop doing anything. Then you can just be aware and let the mind rest for as long as possible. Don’t do anything when the mind becomes calm and peaceful. Don’t start investigation or contemplation during that time. You have to wait until the mind withdraws from that calm state because you want to establish the strength of calm mind to resist your defilements later on. It is like your body. You need to rest your body before you go out and work. So you don’t want to do anything when the body goes to sleep. You don’t want to wake it up, you want to let the body sleep for as long as it wants. After the body has rested. You can then get up and can go to work with strength. It is the same with the mind; the mind needs the strength of upekkhā. When the mind becomes peaceful, it has upekkhā. Upekkhā means to be neutral; it has no desire, has nothing. It is contented, satisfied, peaceful and happy. You want to have this (upekkhā) as the condition to go forward, when you investigate or contemplate the body or everything that you want to let go of. Your desire will want to cling to things that are harmful to the mind, thinking it is good for the mind, but in fact it is not good, because it is only good temporarily; it only lasts for a while, and when it disappears, the mind becomes sad. You want to get rid of this sadness by letting go of the mind's desire towards these things. And it can only do that when it has upekkhā. So you want to build a lot of upekkhā. Upekkhā is like food, like resting. If the mind has food and rests well, the mind is very strong and

— 119 — 11 | Laypeople from Indonesia, June 23rd, 2015 can resist the defilements. If you don’t have upekkhā, even if you have wisdom, you know that this desire is not good, you cannot resist it and you still want it. So first you want to give the mind sustenance, give it food and give it strength in order for it to be able to resist the defilements. When wisdom teaches you that everything is aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā, then you can let go. If you don’t have upekkhā, you still cannot let go, you still want that thing even though you know that it is aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. So first you have to develop samādhi, upekkhā – do it a lot. And when you come out of samādhi, you can contemplate the things that you want to let go of. You have to see that everything is impermanent, sooner or later you are going to lose it anyway, so you might as well give it up now before you are forced to give it up. When you are willing to give it up then there is no suffering. But when you are forced to give it up, there will be suffering because you are not willing to give it up. You can only give it up if you have something within you. If you don’t have something within you, then you have to rely on something outside to make you happy. If you have samādhi, you have something within you to make you happy, so you can give up everything. First, develop mindfulness when you are not sitting, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep – maintain mindfulness. When you are sitting and the mind becomes calm, let it be calm for as long as possible until it withdraws from that state by itself. When it comes out of the calm state, then you should contemplate the impermanent nature of your body, so that you can let go of your body and do not cling on to it because sooner or later you will be forced to give up your body. If you are forced to let go, it means you are not ready and you will be sad and unhappy, but if you are ready to give it up then you won’t be sad.

— 120 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Layperson: When I first start sitting, I felt some discomfort in my body. Than Ajahn: They are all distractions. Don’t worry about them. They are your defilements. When you have to do things that your defilements don’t like, they will create all sorts of distractions. Don’t pay attention to them. Just concentrate on your meditation subject, then everything will disappear by itself. Layperson: My previous meditation technique was Mahasi technique – rising and falling, but I experienced discomfort. Than Ajahn: You can change it. Try to watch your breathing instead. Focus your breath at the tip of your nose where the air comes into contact with the body, where it comes in and out of the body. Just focus on that point. Don’t be too intense. Be relaxed. When you are too intense, you can cause all kinds of problems to arise, so you have to be neutral. You don’t need to have too much enthusiasm or anticipation. Just don’t expect anything. Just watch. If you have a lot of anticipation, you can create a lot of stress later on. Just be neutral. Just say: I am just watching my breathing, I don’t care what happens, I just want to watch the breathing and nothing else. If anything happens, don’t pay attention to it. Layperson: I want to spend time the best way I can when I am practising here, so can I talk to other people? Than Ajahn: Meditators should avoid association. You should separate yourself from others because when you talk your mind starts to think, it starts to work. You want to stop your mind from thinking. So you only come together to do whatever activities that you need to do together. When there is no need, you should separate yourself from others. Stay in your room. Do your own practice.

— 121 — 11 | Laypeople from Indonesia, June 23rd, 2015 Unfortunately we don’t have a facility like this (forest) to cater for everybody. So you just have to do with whatever you have and may have to look for some other places outside which can provide you with the environment you want. It is easier if you come alone. If you come in a group, it is very hard to accommodate all of you because we only have a very small facility. For a real meditator, you should go alone. Then you don’t have to worry about other people. If you go in a group, you always have to wait for everybody to be ready to do things. This can be an impediment to your practice instead of being helpful. I advise you that if you want to meditate, you should go alone. If you cannot, and still need company, then it is okay. You can start from there first, but eventually when you start to advance in your practice, you want to be alone. You can read my book instead of coming to see me. By reading the books, you probably get a better understanding because it is exactly the same thing with what I am telling you now. Layperson: You said that we have to bring our mind to appanā. Is appanā fourth jhāna? So must we bring our mind to appanā? Than Ajahn: Yes, appanā is fourth jhāna. As a Layperson it is almost impossible to achieve that. You need to be a constant practitioner and do nothing else. It is like playing golf and hit a hole-in-one. You have to be a professional to have that ability. For amateurs, you don’t expect it, you just try to sit and focus your mind and when you gain some level of calm, it is already good enough. To get to appanā, you have to be constantly mindful and do nothing else. If you have to work, if you have to think, you will never be able to achieve that. It is hard enough for forest monks to achieve this, so it is almost impossible for lay people to achieve it.

— 122 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Layperson: Is the fourth jhāna or appanā pre-requisite for us to be able to penetrate the aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā? Than Ajahn: It is not to penetrate the aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. It can give you the strength to resist your desire. If you have fourth jhāna, you have the strength to resist your desire to have this and have that. If you don’t have jhāna, you don’t have the strength to resist your desire. If you have jhāna, you would probably become a monk now because you can give up your lay life. You cannot give up your lay life because you don’t have something to replace it. You need fourth jhāna to replace the lay life. If you have fourth jhāna then you are a monk now. Layperson: When we don’t have jhāna, can we see aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā? Than Ajahn: Yes, we all see it. You see aging, sickness and death but you cannot let go of the body. You know that you are going to die, right? But you are still afraid of dying, right? It is because you cannot give up your body, you don’t have the fourth jhāna to help you to be able to give up the body. If you have fourth jhāna, you know that you don’t need the body, you can exist without the body. You can be happy without the body. When you don’t have that (fourth jhāna), you still need the body to make you happy. Without jhāna you cannot have any insight. You need jhāna first. Sīla, samādhi, paññā – they are supporting each other. Layperson: In your book, when you said samādhi, does it mean jhāna? Than Ajahn: Yes. samādhi is jhāna. Appanā-samādhi is fourth jhāna. Most people probably get the first or second jhāna. When

— 123 — 11 | Laypeople from Indonesia, June 23rd, 2015 you are sitting still and watching your breathing, you are probably starting to get to first jhāna but you haven’t gotten into the fourth jhāna where everything stops. You can only concentrate on your breathing, that’s how far you can go, you don’t go deep enough. When you are concentrating on your breathing, you are already into the first jhāna. When you are aware of your breathing in and breathing out activities, this is the first jhāna. What you want is to go to second, third and fourth jhāna, where the mind becomes completely blank, empty. Layperson: What is the main point of ānāpānasati? Than Ajahn: Just watch your breathing. Just know that you are breathing in and breathing out. Just watch the contact point of your breath at the tip of your nose. When you can feel the contact point, you just watch it, don’t follow the air – the air that is moving in or out, just stay at one point. You want to fix the mind at one point. You don’t want the mind to move with the breath. Don’t follow the breath that goes in and out. Fix it at the tip of the nose where you can feel the air. Just stay there and don’t think about anything. If you think, it means that you are not mindful. You are not watching your breathing. You are watching your thinking instead. Just pay attention to your breathing. Don’t pay attention to anything else. Don’t lose your concentration, don’t be distracted. There are many kinds of distractions, such as the noise outside or the noise inside, images that arise, so just don’t pay attention to them. Just focus on your breathing, on your meditation subject, then eventually everything will disappear. If you read my books, you should have enough information to get you going. End of Desanā.

— 125 — Than Ajahn: Why are you interested in meditation? Layperson: I have been reading about it. Than Ajahn: What is it in meditation that makes you think that it is interesting? Layperson: To control myself and to be a better person. Than Ajahn: That is the purpose of meditation, to control the bad part of you and to promote the good part of you. We have both: the good part and the bad part. The good part is the one that benefits us, the bad part is the one that damages us. So what you want to do is have a damage control mechanism by controlling the bad part. Buddhism knows the way of controlling the mind but it is not easy to do, because the mind is like a wild horse. It is very difficult to tame a wild horse. It takes persistence, patience and perseverance, but it is not impossible. It just takes time. 12 Laypeople from Spain and Kazakhstan June 30th, 2015

— 126 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 The key to success in controlling your mind is to be able to establish a controller in the mind. The controller in the mind that you have to establish is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is to bring your mind to stay in the present and to stop it from wandering around, to stop it from going to the past or to the future. You try to fix it in the present. To be able to do that you need an object to anchor your mind. You can use a mantra, a word that you can repeat all the time, all day long if possible. In Buddhism we use the name of the Buddha. We repeat his name: Buddho Buddho Buddho. If you can recite this, it can stop your mind from going here and there. But it is not easy because you may only be able to do it for a few seconds and then you will start thinking again. But if you can persevere, eventually you can stop your mind from wandering. If you can stop your mind from wandering or thinking, you can stop your mind from doing bad things. Everything starts from the mind. You have to first think about whether to do good things or bad things. After you have thought about it, then you can direct your body to do things you want to do. For example, if you want to drink, then you tell your body to buy a bottle of beer. If you have a controller, you can stop your action by reciting Buddho Buddho Buddho. If you can do this for a while, you will forget about the thoughts of drinking beer. But doing this is not enough, it is only a start. Once you can stop your mind from doing bad things, you need the next step which is to teach the mind the logic behind itthe logic of why you should not do bad things. You teach the mind that if you do bad things you are hurting yourself. If you can see this logic, eventually you will stop doing bad things because by doing bad things you are not helping yourself but hurting yourself.

— 127 — 12 | Laypeople from Spain and Kazakhstan, June 30th, 2015 Sometimes we do bad things because we think they are helping us, they make us happy. However, this is a false kind of happiness. This happiness lasts only briefly. You are happy doing what you wanted to do for a while, and after that you become sad when you are unable to repeat it again. So you have to use logic to teach your mind about the benefit you get, or the damage you create from your actions. If you can see the logic, then you can stop doing the bad things because bad actions are hurting you more than helping you. It might make you happy briefly. When you drink alcohol, you enjoy and have fun briefly. But when you drink too much, you then become an alcoholic and becoming an alcoholic is hurting yourself because you cannot stop drinking. If you drink too much it hurts your body, and it also hurts your mind because you cannot function normally. This is something you have to contemplate – to see the bad side of drinking. Don't just think about the good side of drinking. When you weigh the good side and the bad side of your actions, you will see that the bad side is heavier than the good side. Then you will think that it is better not to drink and you can stop drinking and you will stop forever. No matter how many people offer you all sorts of drinks, you will say no. Layperson: If we stop doing the bad things, then we will all stop doing everything. We will all become monks. Than Ajahn: You can do a lot of things. Monks do a lot of good things, like doing charity and helping other people. When you do charity you will find the real kind of happiness. You are being useful to other people, helping other people make their lives better. It makes you feel good. The feeling is much better than drinking alcohol.

— 128 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 In Buddhism we believe in kamma – do unto others what you want others do unto you. If you give happiness to others, that happiness will come back to you. If you make other people suffer, that suffering will come back to you. This world would be a better world if we were all monks or lived like monks because we will help each other. We don’t need much for ourselves to exist. All we need are just the four requisites of life: foods, clothing, shelter and medicines. We don’t need Ferraris, we don’t need a yacht. This morning I saw a person driving a Ferrari to the temple. I said to myself that if he were to take the money to build a school for the blind or for the handicapped, it would be so much more beneficial than just driving an expensive car. He doesn’t get anything out of driving it; it is just a feeling, that’s all. Layperson: What if at the same time this person is also helping others? Than Ajahn: That will be good, but it will be even better if he doesn’t drive an expensive car and gives up the money to help the needy. He can drive a cheaper car. It gets him to the same place, maybe a few minutes’ difference. But I just said it to myself. I didn’t impose my mind or my wishes on other persons. He can do anything he wants to do. But I know that deep inside the heart, he is not that happy especially if he sees someone else driving a better car than he is. (laugh!) It is better to compete to be poor because it is easier to do than to compete to be rich and because there is always someone else who is richer than you are. The Buddha taught monks to live like a poor man. He told us to have only three pieces of robes, to take one meal a day, and to have a place that protects us from the rain and the sun. That's all we need. What we really need is a peaceful mind.

— 129 — 12 | Laypeople from Spain and Kazakhstan, June 30th, 2015 Layperson: Everyone wants to have a stronger body, to provide better food for their children, to get richer, to become sexier or better looking so he can find a better partner and can have a better descendant genetically. But you are the example of how one should be in the natural wilderness. Than Ajahn: Because we are using different measurements. Lay people use the body as their measurement. They have to have all these (material) things to make them happy. Monks use the mind as the measurement, not the body. And the happiness of the mind doesn’t rely on all these (material) things. Layperson: When I saw you, I saw my future, but a very far future. Than Ajahn: It takes time. You just read the books and you will get to see the world in a different light. Right now you only see things in a very close perspective. You base your understanding about yourself on your body, not on your mind. In our lives, we are not only made up of our bodies, but we are also made up of our minds. But unfortunately, the mind is invisible, so we cannot see the mind. We can only see the bodies and we think that the bodies are all we have. So, we concentrate all our efforts to look after the bodies, to give all kinds of happiness to the bodies, and in so doing we are neglecting our minds and making the minds miserable. No matter how much money you have, your mind will still be miserable. This is the part that you’ve neglected. The mind is the more important part than your body. Because your body is temporary. At most it only lasts for 100 years, but the mind lasts forever. So, if you take care of your mind and make it happy then you will be happy forever.

— 130 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 The mind doesn’t need the body to be happy but due to the delusion, you think that you must have a good body, a strong body, and a healthy body to make you happy. You must have all the support the body needs to make you happy. But no matter how much you have; for example, if you have one hundred Ferraris, you will still feel bad. You will still not be able to get rid of the bad feelings you get from time to time because these bad feelings need a different kind of attention. It needs meditation. It needs peace of mind. And in order to become peaceful you have to give up everything. When you meditate you close your eyes, you forget about everything. You concentrate on stopping your mind from thinking. If you can persist and control the mind, eventually the mind gives up resisting, becomes peaceful and you then find another kind of happiness. It is much better than the happiness you get from your body. That’s what the Buddha did. He was a prince and he had something equivalent to Ferraris and palaces, but he felt something was lacking. He was still worried. Every time he thought about the future of his body, he was worried. Because he had seen an old man, a sick man and a dead body. He knew that eventually his body would also be like that, so what was he going to do then? So, he wanted to get away from this body. That's why he decided to give up his princely life and became a monk because he saw a monk and he asked his attendant: what was the monk doing? He was told that the monk was looking for peace of mind, looking for a way out of getting old, being sick and death. So, the Buddha also wanted to find the solution, and therefore he gave up his princely life and became a monk. He meditated and eventually he found peace of mind. He realised the mind is the most important thing, and the mind can be happy by itself without having to have a body. However, due to the delusion, the mind thinks that in order to be happy it needs to have a body, so it keeps going after one body after

— 131 — 12 | Laypeople from Spain and Kazakhstan, June 30th, 2015 another. When it loses this body, it goes to look for a new body. This is called rebirth. It is the same mind that goes through different bodies like a driver driving different cars. You drive a car and when the car becomes old and when you cannot fix it anymore, you either sell it or you throw it away, and you buy a new one. The driver is still the same driver. Similarly, the mind is the same mind. It just keeps changing the body. Layperson: The problem with us, the Europeans is that, since we were kids, we were taught to do more things, to be creative, to be more productive. After 30 or 40 years of life we were told that we would understand life from our doings. Than Ajahn: The reason for you to do all these things is because you are looking for happiness. You want to be happy and you think by doing these things you will be happy. People are judged by three things: his own ego, his creativity, and his self-worth. There are two approaches to life: doing or not doing. Finding happiness by not doing anything is easier. You just sit down. You don’t need anything to be happy. You don’t have to have anything – no cars, no mansions, nothing. If you can do that, why not? It is easier than having to do so many things, having to work so hard, or having to work seven days a week, ten hours a day in order to buy a Ferrari. At least you have come here and see that there is another different side of life. I was like you. I went to school and studied to become an engineer. After I graduated, I asked myself, what is the next goal? Looking for a job. After having a job, what is the next goal? Making myself richer, better. So, I was just like you. I kept chasing one goal after another. Then I asked myself, ‘When will I stop? If I don’t stop, how can I be happy?’ Then I started reading about Buddhism and it taught me that everything is impermanent. No matter how much I have, one day

— 132 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 I am going to lose it all, so why bother looking for it? So, I stop acquiring things and try to live without having anything. I found this way easier, less stressful, and more conducive to peace of mind. End of discussion. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

— 133 — Than Ajahn: Do you have anything you would like to ask? Lay (M): Yes. In one of the books, you mentioned catching the last bus. It means that we have a very good opportunity because we know about the Buddha’s teaching in this life time and we don’t know if we are to be reborn again, whether there will be a Buddha’s teaching. If I cannot attain at least Sotāpanna level in this life time, what do you suggest? How can I ensure that I will be reborn and reconnect with the Buddha and his teaching in the future? Than Ajahn: Just follow the three teachings of the Buddha: avoid doing bad kamma, do only good kamma and purify your mind. This is the way that will guarantee your existence in the human realm or the high spiritual realm. It prevents you from being reborn as an animal or being born in hell. These are the three basic things you have to do. Do good kamma, giving dāna – generosity, being kind, being helpful to other human beings and animals. Don’t hurt other people and meditate. Your mind then can become pure. If you can keep doing this, it will become your habits and in every life you are reborn into, you will continue to 1 3 Layperson from Sydney, Australia July 6th, 2015

— 134 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 do this. And eventually you will either attain Nibbāna by yourself, becoming a Buddha yourself, or run into the next Buddha and you can follow his teaching very easily. So, this is basically what we all are supposed to do – keep doing good kamma, prevent ourselves from doing bad kamma and try to eliminate the defilements in our mind: greed, hatred and delusion. This eventually will take us to Nibbāna either by ourselves or with the help of the Buddha. We might forget the teaching of the Buddha after we die from this life, and instead of doing good kamma and eliminating defilements, we might do bad kamma. We might be accumulating defilements and if we do this, it will tie us up into the realms of rebirth. It is better to be able to practise now and become enlightened. Once enlightened, you know what is good for you and what is bad for you, what makes you happy and what makes you sad. Right now, we don’t know, sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sad, we cannot control them. When you become enlightened, you will see the cause that makes you happy and you will see the cause that makes you sad. So all you have to do is to eliminate the cause that makes you sad and develop the cause that makes you happy, then you will be happy all the time. When you are happy all the time, you are in Nibbāna. Is this understandable? Lay (M): Yes. Than Ajahn: You just have to keep on doing what you have been doing. Do it more and more. Do it until you finally see the Four Noble Truths in your heart, in your mind. Right now, the Four Noble Truths is in the text, in the words of the Buddha, but not in your mind. Actually, the Four Noble Truths is working in your mind, but you don’t see it. Because you don’t look inside, you keep on looking

— 135 — 13 | Layperson from Sydney, Australia, July 6th, 2015 outside. When you look outside, when you see things, you think that these things or objects make you happy or sad. But these objects are not the ones that make you happy or sad. The thing that makes you happy or sad is in your heart, in your mind. Your delusion makes you sad. The wisdom, the teaching of the Buddha, makes you happy. So you have to turn inwards, not look outwards. You look within, by meditating. When you close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing, you are pulling your mind inside. When the mind becomes completely calm, the mind goes inside. Once it is inside, it will be able to see what the mind is doing. It is the working of the mind that makes you sad or happy. You don’t know this truth because you never look inside. You blame everything you see to be the cause of your happiness and sadness. When you see someone you love die, you become sad. You blame death as the cause of your sadness, but that is not the cause that makes you sad. The cause that makes you sad is your mind clinging to life, clinging to someone that has to die. When you cling to something, you want it to last. But the thing that you cling to doesn’t last, and when it doesn’t last, you become sad. If you have wisdom, you can see things as they are, see that all things don’t last. And when things don’t last, you don’t become sad. You understand that this is the way things are. So you have to train your mind to see things as they are, not as what you want them to be. Right now, when you see things, you want things to be this way or that way. You don’t understand that things don’t become what you want them to become, things become what they want to become. If you meditate and your mind has gone inside, you then can see that your sadness and happiness are the working of your mind. Your mind is happy if your mind lets go of everything. Your mind becomes sad when your mind becomes attached to everything. That is the point.

— 136 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Once you get inside, you know what to do. You know that you have to let go of everything. You should have no attachment to anything, no attachment to your possession, your wife, your family, your friends, your status, or to whatever you have. You must not be attached to them because sooner or later they will disappear. When they disappear, if you are attached to them you become sad. If you let go, you become happy. That is the meaning of enlightenment – to see the working of your mind, to see the one who is creating happiness and sadness. You are happy or sad not because of the wealth you have or the wealth you lose. Your attachment or your letting go is the main culprit, the main cause of your happiness or your sadness. You can’t see this truth because you constantly are looking outside. You think you are happy when you gain and you are sad when you lose. You blame the loss itself to be the problem. You don’t want to lose. The harder you don’t want to lose things, the sadder you become. People don’t understand why they must give up wealth to be happy. People always think that they must have a lot of wealth to be happy. The truth is the other way around, you can become happy even if you have no wealth like the Buddha. He gave up all his wealth, lived as a beggar and he was happy because he got nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, you don’t get sad. Only when you have something to lose, you become sad when you lose it. The sadness and the happiness of the mind depend on your clinging or your attachment or your letting go of the things you have. If you can let go of everything you have, when you lose it, you don’t feel sad, because you are ready to let it go. But if you still cling to it, when it leaves you, you become sad. So it is not losing or gaining that makes you sad or happy, it is your attachment or letting go. That’s the Four Noble Truth in the practical phrase. To summarise, it is either the letting go or the attachment – if you can let go, you will be free from sadness, if you cling or you are

— 137 — 13 | Layperson from Sydney, Australia, July 6th, 2015 attached to things, you will be subjected to sadness and you will never find true happiness. Lay (M): How can I let go of my family? My family still needs me. I cannot just leave them and let them suffer. Than Ajahn: What if they leave you? Have you ever thought that they might leave you before you leave them? Lay (M): But now they don’t (leave me). Than Ajahn: Yes, but there is a possibility. Maybe one day they get into the train and the train crashes. They leave you before even you leave them, what do you do then? Lay (M): I may become a monk. Than Ajahn: You can become a monk now. Just think that they already left you, because sooner or later they will leave you. If they don’t leave you, you are going to leave them, right? Do you think that you are going to live forever together? Why don’t you look at it that way? If you see that eventually there will be separation, so what is the difference of separating now or separating later? It is the same thing. It is your attachment that makes you think that you cannot leave them, but if you constantly remind yourself about the truth, about separation, you can let go of them. You never contemplate the fact of separation hard enough. You still think that you are going to live together forever, but they could leave you or you could leave them any day, maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Who knows? But eventually, that will happen. It might be too late for you to become a monk when they leave you at the age of 80. If you think that they leave you now, you still can become a monk. This is what contemplation of

— 138 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 impermanence means. You have to look at everything as impermanent and it doesn’t matter when. Once they are impermanent, they are impermanent, today or tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. So, you have to constantly contemplate impermanence, until you are eventually convinced that this is the truth, this is what will happen, sooner or later. It is better to be sooner, so that you have time to prepare yourself. You don’t have to leave them, you just have to let go of them. No bondage is attached to them. It is like the Buddha when he heard that his wife gave birth to a son, he said: ‘oh, here comes another bond’. So, he let go of that bond. The Buddha taught us to constantly contemplate impermanence, separation and death. If you can contemplate them continuously, you then know that this is what will happen and it doesn’t matter when it is going to happen. The point is, are you ready to let it happen? That’s the test. You have to ask yourself, ‘are you ready to let this happen?’ If you are, you won’t feel sad when it happens. If you are not ready, when it happens, you become sad. That’s the whole purpose of Buddhist practice – to overcome sadness, to get rid of sadness from the heart. Sadness is like a disease. When you are sick, what do you do? You have to get rid of your sickness, right? You have to take medicine to get rid of it. It is the same way. Buddhist practice is like medicine. The whole purpose is to get rid of your sadness. If you don’t use Buddhism to get rid of your sadness, what is the point of following Buddhism? You read the Buddha’s teaching but you don’t follow his teaching. You said: ‘oh, I cannot leave my family, I cannot let go of my family’. That means you are contradicting your physician’s instruction. Your physician said, ‘take this medicine and you will be cured’ and you said, ‘I don’t want to be well’. So, what’s the point of going and seeing the physician in the first place? The physician said, ‘contemplate

— 139 — 13 | Layperson from Sydney, Australia, July 6th, 2015 death, contemplate separation, contemplate impermanence’. If you keep doing it, one day you will come to see that there is no other way out. Separation is real. Death is real. Once you see this, then the only way you can do is to let go of everything, things which you are going to lose eventually. When you let go, you can then get rid of your sadness. One of the reasons why you cannot let go is that you don’t have the strength to do it. You know it but you cannot let go of it. So, you have to build mental strength. The mental strength that you need is the practice of meditation. You have to concentrate you mind to become one. Right now, your mind is scattered. You want to pull it into one point, to become strong. You need to be fully focused, fully concentrated. In order for you to do this, you need something like a lightning rod. When you build a house, in order to protect your house from lightning strike, you need a metal rod, so when there is a lightning strike, it goes to that rod and the rod will direct the lightning to the ground, instead of hitting the roof and destroying the house. That is the lightning rod. You need something to converge the mind into one and this is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is like the lightning rod. You have to focus on one object, like your breath. To develop mindfulness of breath, be aware only of your breath and nothing else. Don’t let your mind scatters to other things, but concentrate by just watching your breathing then your mind can become one. When it becomes one, it becomes peaceful and calm and strong, then it can get rid of your attachment because you see that the attachment is the cause of your sadness. So, you have to practise mindfulness, bringing your mind into one point. Don’t let your mind think because when you think, your mind starts to go all over the place. You are physically here, but your mind can be in Sydney right now. Your body is here, but your mind could be in Sydney, in Bangkok, or all over the

— 140 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 world. You need something to bring that scattered mind into one. You need mindfulness of an object, either your body, a mantra or your breath. If you can bring your mind to focus on one point, it will become calm, peaceful and strong. You mind can do anything that wisdom tells it to do. When the wisdom says that your sadness is caused by your attachment and to get rid of your sadness, you have to get rid of your attachment, and if your mind is strong, you can get rid of it because you know sooner or later, there will be separation. It doesn’t matter whether it is today or tomorrow, it is the same, it is a separation. If you are still attached to it, tomorrow you will still be sad. If you are attached to it today, you are sad today. If you can let go of it today, you will not be sad, today. So the purpose of Buddhist meditation is to get rid of our sadness that is caused by our attachment to things and people. Things and people are impermanent. They come and they go. They will not be with you all the time. They are not your possession. They are like something that you borrow from somebody else, and one day you have to return them back. Once you see this truth, if you have the strength in your mind, you can let go of your attachment because you don’t want to be sad. Sadness is bad. When you feel sad, sometimes you want to kill yourself. Sadness is harmful to you, it is not good for you. Sadness is caused by your attachment and attachment is not good for you. You have to get rid of your attachment. Try to develop mindfulness to the point that you can bring your mind inside to become peaceful and calm. Once you have that, it is very easy to let go of everything because you could exist by yourself, you don’t need anything. Right now, you need your family to make you happy. Previously when you were alone, you felt lonely. You think maybe if you have a family you will be happy. That is because you cannot live alone. You are not happy

— 141 — 13 | Layperson from Sydney, Australia, July 6th, 2015 being alone. If you meditate and your mind becomes calm, you can be happy being alone. Then you don’t need anybody or anything. This is what you are lacking right now, the happiness inside that is within yourself. When you don’t have happiness inside, you look for happiness outside. The happiness outside is temporary, it comes and goes, it can go suddenly. What happens when the happiness goes away suddenly? Sadness comes in right away. This is because you don’t see the impermanence of the event. You think the happiness that you acquired will be permanent, but it isn’t. They can leave you anytime, any day. So try to find happiness within yourself by meditating. Once you have this happiness in yourself then you don’t need the happiness from other people or things. You can let go. If they are still with you, it is fine, it doesn’t matter. But you no longer need them to make you happy. If they don’t want to leave you, you let them stay with you, but if they want to leave you, it is fine also, it doesn’t matter. That’s why we have to meditate, to build a new kind of happiness, so that we don’t have to rely on happiness which we have to use other people or things to make us happy. Lay (M): Sometimes during meditation, my legs fell asleep. Than Ajahn: Just ignore it. Concentrate on your meditation. It will eventually disappear, everything is impermanent. Lay (M): Can I still walk after that? Than Ajahn: Yes. It is natural for the body to be like that. Just understand the nature of the body. The condition in the body changes due to the different conditions. Eventually it will become a corpse, why worry about it? What you have to worry about is your mind. The mind is something that belongs to you, something

— 142 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 that will be with you all the time. But this body is only with you temporarily, sooner or later you are going to leave this body. So don’t worry too much about your body, worry about your mind. How to make your mind happy is the goal. When you meditate you want to control your mind. Once your mind is controlled, your mind can become happy. When your mind is happy, whatever happens to your body, doesn’t bother your mind. Right now, it bothers your mind because your mind is attached to your body. Once you meditate, you can pull the mind from attaching to the body and once the mind isn’t attached to the body, whatever happens to the body doesn’t matter. The body is like somebody else’s body. You are not bothered by other people’s body whether they are sick or not, right? But why are you bothered by your body? Because you are attached to your body. If you are not attached to your body like the way you are not attached to other people’s body, then whatever happens to your body, is just like something happens to other people’s body. It will not affect your mind. That’s the purpose of meditation. You want to pull your mind out of your body. Once it is out of the body, whatever happens to the body, doesn’t matter and doesn’t bother the mind. The mind is like a person living in the house. When the house catches fire, it affects the person who lives in the house, right? But if the person gets out of the house, whatever happens to the house, doesn’t matter, right? So, you have to get your mind out of the body. By meditating you are getting your mind out of the body. You are getting the mind ‘back inside the mind’, which is not in the body. The mind is in the different sphere. The body is in the physical sphere, but the mind is in the psychic sphere. The mind doesn’t like to stay in the psychic sphere, it likes to stay in the physical sphere, it likes to stay in the body. So, whatever happens to

— 143 — 13 | Layperson from Sydney, Australia, July 6th, 2015 the body, affects the mind. If you can pull the mind out of the physical sphere, and go back into the psychic sphere, then whatever happens to the body will not affect the mind. That’s the purpose of separating the mind from the body. If you are fully concentrated, whatever happens to the body, doesn’t bother the mind. No matter how much pain in the body, it will not affect the mind because the mind is not in the physical sphere anymore; it is in the psychic sphere. The Buddha compares the body to a house that is burning. Why do you stay in the house that is burning? Get out! Or you will be burnt one day. The body will get sick, get old and die. That’s what the body is burning means. So, the mind has to get out of the body, by letting go of the body, by entering into concentration, pulling the mind out of the body. If you meditate, you understand what I am saying. If you succeed in your meditation and your mind can enter into jhāna, then you understand what I am saying. Right now, you are still with your body, so you don’t understand. You think you and your body are one, so you think whatever happens to the body, happens to you also. You are the mind. The mind is the one who thinks, the one who knows. It is not the body that thinks and knows. The body and the mind are two separate persons – the body is like the house and the mind is like the occupant of the house. If you want to be safe, you have to get out of the house, because one day, the house will collapse. Layperson: I hope I can succeed quickly. Than Ajahn: It is just a matter of doing it. That’s all. The more you do it, the quicker it becomes. The less you do it, the longer it takes. How many hours you meditate a day?