Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015

— 144 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Layperson: For the past two weeks, maybe ten hours. Than Ajahn: How about doing it for the rest of the year? Why don’t you meditate ten hours a day? You have the time to mediate, but you don’t meditate. You dedicate your time for some other things. In these two weeks you can dedicate your time to meditation, so why don’t you dedicate it all year long? You will get a lot of results very quickly. If you compare a professional and an amateur, for instance, in golf sport, who is better, a professional player or an amateur player? It is the same with a meditator, an amateur meditator or a professional meditator. The Buddha and his disciples were all professional meditators. That’s why they won all the tournaments. Why do amateurs never win any tournament? Because they are doing it for fun. The Buddha and his disciples were not doing it for fun, they are doing it for salvation. That’s the difference. The mind is the most important thing because the mind lasts forever, the body only lasts temporarily. No matter how well you look after the body, you will lose it one day. If you look after your mind well, you will get supreme happiness from it. That’s the mind of the Buddha and his disciples. They look after their mind well, so they become very happy forever. End of discussion. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

— 145 — Than Ajahn: When we are ordained, we are switching our way of life from that of a layman to that of a bhikkhu. A bhikkhu means someone who sees the danger in the realms of rebirth. A bhikkhu endeavors to escape from this round of rebirth because birth is suffering. Once you are born you have to get sick, get old and die and you will have to be separated from everything that you have, everybody that you know. So from the view of Theravada Buddhism, taking birth is not a good thing. Taking birth is like a curse. We are cursed to get old, to get sick and to die, so being a bhikkhu is to strive for extinction from the cycle of birth, aging, sickness and death. The practice that will help us to make the escape from samsara, the rounds of births and deaths is the practice of the triple training which is called: sīla, samādhi and paññā. Before we can practise sīla, samādhi and paññā, we first have to study. We have to learn what sīla is, what samādhi is, and what paññā is. This process is called magga pariyatti Dhamma. Pariyatti means the study of the teaching of the Lord Buddha. If you don’t study, you will not know exactly how to practise correctly. You will first need to study with a teacher. According to 14 Singapore via skype August 9th, 2015

— 146 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 the Monastic rule, a newly ordained monk has to live with a teacher for five years. He cannot live alone as it will be more harmful than beneficial, because he doesn’t know yet the proper way of keeping the sīla, the proper way of conducting himself as a monk and he doesn’t know what is the right kind of samādhi and how to develop paññā or wisdom. So, this is what a newly ordained monk should do. He has to seek a teacher and it is usually the Upajjaya or the person who ordained him, who is supposed to be his principal teacher. During the ordination, he has taught you the five kammaṭṭhāna. Do you remember you have to recite: kesa, loma, nakha, danta, taco? These are the five parts of the body, called the five kammaṭṭhāna. These are very important objects for developing wisdom. Because we are attached to our body and so in order to be able to be detached from the body, we have to study the true nature of the body by studying the body which comprises the first five parts: hair of the head, hair of the body, skin, nail and the teeth. Besides these five parts there are another 27 parts. In all we call it the 32 parts of the body. This is what the body is. If we carefully study these 32 parts we will come to the conclusion that there is nobody in these 32 parts. They are just organs, parts of the body. We, as we call ourselves, come from the mind, which has come to possess this body. Due to the lack of proper knowledge, we have been fed with the wrong knowledge. We have been fed with the knowledge that this body is ‘us’, is ‘ourselves’, so when anything happens to the body, we think that it also happens to us, but in reality it only happens to the body, to the 32 parts, like aging, sickness and death. It only happens to the body. It doesn’t happen to us who possess this body. So, this is what we want to teach ourselves to see clearly: that the body is not ourselves, we are not the body. We are only the possessor of the body. We are the one who know, who think. This is ‘us’. We are the ones who tell

— 147 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 the body what to do. For example, before you can move the body, your mind has to direct and tell the body what to do. Before you can get up, you have to think first that ‘I am going to get up’, then you tell the body to move. The one who tells the body to move is not the body. The mind doesn’t die with the body. It doesn’t get old or get sick with the body. So, this is what the teacher will teach so that you can eliminate this delusion in your mind. The delusion is that which tells you to look at the body as yourself. So, the first goal of studying is to know the true nature of the body, that the body isn’t you. It is just the composition of the 32 parts, like the skin, the hair of the head, hair of the body and so forth. This is the thing that we will have to remind ourselves all the time, that truly there is no ‘self’ in this body. There is only the 32 parts, which will eventually disintegrate and return to the original source. The source of these 32 parts are the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. What happens when the body dies? The body turns cold, which means the fire element has disappeared. The next thing is the wind element, there is no breathing, there is no air going in, there is only air that is escaping from the body. The next thing that will separate from the body is the liquid part. All the liquid parts in the body will ooze out of the body, leaving the body just with the earth part. If you leave the body in the cemetery, eventually it will turn to dust or earth. This is the study of the true nature of the body in order to eliminate the delusion that the body is ‘me’, so that you can be free from suffering when the body gets sick, gets old or dies. You will then know that you do not get sick, get old or die with the body. This is one aspect of the body that we have to study and to remind ourselves all the time. We must never forget this. In order not to forget, we have to think about it all the time in all four postures from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep. Just keep thinking about the body as being a composition of the 32 parts that comes from the four elements and which eventually disintegrate and return to its original source. If we keep reminding ourselves like this, then the delusion will not

— 148 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 be able to have desire for the body not to die, not to get sick or not to get old, because we know that this is what the body has to be. The body will get sick, will get old and will die, but we are not the body. We are the mind. The mind doesn’t die with the body. If we can remember this truth all the time then when the body gets sick, gets old or dies, we will remain calm and peaceful because we will not have any desire to wish for the body not to get sick, get old or die. When there is no desire, there is no dukkha. In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha said that dukkha or mental suffering arises from our three desires: kāma-taṇhā – desire for sensual pleasure; bhava-taṇhā – desire to be, to have and vibhava-taṇhā – the desire not to be, not to have. If we know the truth, then these desires will not arise. We will not have the desire for the body to last forever, to be healthy all the time, to be young all the time, because we know it is not the truth. The truth is that the body will get sick, get old and die. If we have this knowledge all the time with us, then whenever the body becomes old, sick or dies, it will not hurt us. The mind will not be hurt by the aging, sickness and death of the body because we know that the body is not ‘us’, we are not the body. This is the goal of body contemplation, the study of the nature of the body, to see the body as it really is, not as what we think it is. We always think that this body is ‘us’, which is not the truth. The truth which the Buddha discovered is that the body is not ‘us’. The body is just a body. We are the mind. We are the ones who come and possess this body and then use this body as the means of acquiring things that we want to have. We have this delusion that our happiness relies on acquiring things, acquiring money, acquiring status, acquiring a husband or wife and children and acquiring everything that we can acquire through our body. But whatever we acquire, is all temporary; it doesn’t last forever. When we have to be separated from them, we become unhappy

— 149 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 and sad. So we have to teach the mind, not to acquire anything. The thing that the mind should acquire is calm or peace of mind. This is the real and true happiness because it stays with us all the time and the calm mind will never leave us. This is what we should strive for, but should not desire to possess things outside of the mind. Don’t strive for money, status, praise or sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile objects. All these things can only give you temporary happiness. When you see things you are happy, but when you don’t see them, then this happiness disappears. One day you will not be able to see things because the body will have to get sick, get old and die, and when you cannot acquire things through your body, then you will be sad and unhappy. If you have the inner happiness of the mind, you will not be affected by the sickness, aging and death of the body, because you can always maintain this mental or spiritual happiness with or without the body. So this is why we have to practise samādhi. Samādhi is the way to bring about this mental happiness. Samādhi will make the mind calm and peaceful. When the mind becomes calm and peaceful, the mental happiness will arise. This mental happiness is a better happiness than the happiness that we acquire through the body. Once we have acquired this inner peace from mental happiness, the next thing to do is to maintain and protect it. The thing that will come to destroy this mental happiness is our desire. When we come out of samādhi, if we are not careful and let our desire take over, then our desire will eliminate the inner peace or mental happiness that we have acquired from sitting in samādhi. If we use wisdom from the truth that the Lord Buddha discovered and taught, we will know that our sadness arises from our desire, so if we can stop our desire, we will be able to protect our mental happiness. But if we cannot stop our desire by just believing what the Buddha had told us, then we have to look at the truth itself. We look at what happens if we do something according to what

— 150 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 our desire wants. When our desire tells us to go to find something to make us happy, are we really happy from acquiring that thing? We might be happy when we first acquire it, but once we have acquired it, we become attached to it, we become worried that we might lose it one day, so the happiness that you gain from acquiring the thing that you want to have will disappear and what replaces it is the worry, the anxiety and the unhappiness. One day when you lose it, you will become sad again. So this is the way to teach the mind to stop following our desire. Don’t go after your desire because you will only come up with sadness and unhappiness. You should stay with being calm. You should stay with the inner happiness by resisting all forms of desire. This is the monk’s way of life. A monk doesn’t seek any happiness from anything in this world. We only seek happiness that arises from mental calm. In order to be able to have this mental calm, we need mindfulness. In Pāli we call it sati. Sati is the instrument or the tool that will stop the mind from thinking. When the mind stops thinking then the mind will become calm, peaceful and happy. So what we have to constantly do from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep is to develop mindfulness, being mindful with one thing, like using a mantra, using the name of the Buddha: ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’. We just keep reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ all the time, regardless of whatever we do. This is in order to stop us from thinking about other things. The exception is when we have to think about some other things, then we can temporarily stop reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ and think of the things that we really have to think about, like what we have to do. When we are doing something, we have to use our thoughts, then we stop reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ for a while. After we finish with whatever we have to think, then we should come back and recite ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ in order to prevent the mind from thinking aimlessly and uselessly.

— 151 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 When the mind doesn’t think, we can stop reciting, we can just watch the mind. We watch the mind that doesn’t think and we keep it that way. Whenever the mind starts thinking aimlessly again, then we should start reciting the mantra again, ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’. When we have time to sit, we should sit down, close our eyes, and recite ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ again, and eventually the mind will come to perfect stillness. The mind will stop thinking, the mind will enter into fourth jhāna or appanā-samādhi. That’s where we want the mind to go, to enter where there is no thinking. All that is left is only the one who knows and a sense of peace and happiness. This is what we want to acquire. Once we have acquired it, we want to maintain it. When the mind is in appanā-samādhi, we should not do anything. We should just maintain our mindfulness, just watch this state of mind for as long as possible. It is not the time yet to develop wisdom such as contemplation of the body. This will have to come after the mind withdraws from samādhi. After the mind remains in the appanā state for a while, it will then withdraw. When it withdraws, it will come back to its normal state, and be aware of sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile objects, and start to think again. When the mind starts thinking we should direct the mind towards body contemplation, to study the true nature of the body by going through the 32 parts of the body, by separating these 32 parts of the body to see that truly there is nobody in this body. There are only the 32 parts. This is the way to develop wisdom or paññā. We need to have this knowledge in order to let go of our delusion, our attachment to the body and our desire to keep the body in this state all the time. The truth is we cannot have the body with us all the time. One day sooner or later, this body will have to leave us, but if we know this will happen and we are willing to let go of the body, then we will not be affected when the body leaves us in the future.

— 152 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 We also have to 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

— 153 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 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. First, we have to study from our teacher. Once we have studied, we then have to practise. We have to start off by developing and maintaining mindfulness because we need mindfulness to make the mind calm so as to enter into appanā-samādhi. Once we have rested in appanā-samādhi and withdraw from it, we then contemplate the true nature of the body. Keep contemplating. Keep reminding the mind that the body has ‘no-self’. The body is just the 32 parts, the body is made up of four elements and one day the body will return to the four elements. Look at the body as not pleasant, not beautiful, not good looking because when it gets old, gets sick or dies, it is not a pleasant thing to see or if you look inside the body, there is

— 154 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 nothing beautiful inside the body. So, this is what we have to do as a monk to study the true nature of the body and then get rid of our delusion, our attachment and our desire towards the body. Once we have let go of the body, we will be free from being sad, being unhappy with the body. So, this is what we should try to do as a monk. The Buddha taught us to practise all the time except when we go to sleep. He has set a schedule for a monk: from 6 pm to 10 pm we practise samādhi and wisdom, by sitting in meditation or walking meditation; from 10 pm to 2 am, we go to take a rest, to sleep; we get up at 2 am and from 2 am to 6 am we do more walking and sitting meditation until the time to go on piṇḍapāta, to collect food. While we go on our piṇḍapāta, we can still practise, we can either maintain mindfulness or we can contemplate the impermanent nature of everything surrounding us. Everything is impermanent. We can also contemplate the nature of the body while we go on piṇḍapāta. When we come back to the temple, we go to the sālā to have our food. We continue with our mindfulness or contemplation. Before we eat, we should contemplate the repulsive aspect of the food that we are going to eat because we don’t want to eat with the desire to eat. We want to eat like taking medicine. In order to eat like taking medicine, we must put all the food together into a bowl and mix them all up because eventually the food will be mixed in the stomach anyway. This is to get rid of our desire for food. If all the food that we eat is going to be mixed in the stomach, we should mix it before it goes into the stomach. We mix it in the bowl, put everything that we are going to put into our stomach in the bowl and mix it all up and eat it. If we eat it that way, then we will not eat with the desire to enjoy, to have pleasure from eating but we eat it like we are taking medicine. We eat just to take care of the body. This is something that you have to do if you have problems with eating. If you choose

— 155 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 this kind of food or that kind of food, it means that you are still delusional. You still don’t see the purpose of eating. The purpose of eating is just to maintain your body, like taking medicine. You don’t care what size or shape of the medicine you are going to eat, you just take it when the doctor has prescribed you with the medicine. It is the same way with food. We should look at it like medicine, not something to enjoy but something to maintain the body, to take care of the body. If we can eat like this, you will have no problems with eating. You can eat any kinds of food. While you are eating, you also have to have mindfulness, with every bite that you chew, with every food that you swallow. You must have mindfulness. You should not think about this thing or that thing. We should not enjoy the food. If you are enjoying the food, just imagine what it looks like in your mind if you spit it out, so as to see the nature of the food that you are enjoying and swallowing. You can choose to see what it really looks like by spitting it out, putting it into your bowl and see if you can put it back into your mouth again. This is to dispel your delusion of enjoying the food. When you really look at the food that you are enjoying, you don’t want to eat it anymore. This is how we should practise as a monk. We should not eat for enjoyment. We should eat just for the purpose of maintaining the body. This is the practice. This is the way to eliminate the desire, the kilesas that is associated with eating. After we finish eating, we clean up the place where we eat, clean up our bowl, then go back to our living quarters to continue on with our practice until the time in the afternoon when we have to sweep the temple ground and we have some refreshments. After that we take a shower, and when we are done with it, then it is time to practise again until the time to go to sleep. This is the schedule of a practicing monk. He doesn’t do any other job, if he can avoid it. Occasionally we might have to do other work, but this other work should not be considered as the principal work. Our principal work is to meditate, to develop mindfulness,

— 156 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 to develop samādhi and to develop wisdom. We need this Dhamma to eliminate all our desires. We don’t want to have dukkha or sadness or suffering, in the mind. The cause of our suffering is the kilesas or our desires and they can only be get rid of by using mindfulness, samādhi and paññā. So, this is the life of a monk that I illustrated to you as much as I can. So, I think I have said quite enough and will leave some time for questions.

— 157 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 Monk: Last night we had a chanting. All of the monks participated in the chanting and there were parts of it when we sat in meditation. In such situation where we are all new to meditation and to sit through the night, there will be intense pain. During such period of intense pain, how do we deal with it such that we can see that the pain is not us, not ours? Than Ajahn: The way to deal with physical pain depends on our ability. There are two ways to deal with physical pain. The first is easier than the second. The first way is to ignore the pain by concentrating your mind on one object, like a mantra, repeating ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’, in order to prevent your mind from thinking of the pain. If you think of the pain, then your kilesas will arise, and then your desire will want to get rid of the pain or want the pain to go away. When you have this desire, you are actually creating more pain. The pain that you create is in the mind itself and it is a lot stronger than the physical pain. You can prevent this or avoid this if you use the mantra, by constantly reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ and never let the mind ever think of the physical pain. If you can concentrate on reciting the mantra, maybe after a few minutes, the pain will subside or maybe it will disappear. This is Question and Answer

— 158 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 the easy method, but a temporary method, because as soon as you stop reciting, or as soon as you start thinking of the pain, then you can also create more pain again. The second way which is the way of wisdom, is to look at the pain. First, you have to separate the mind from the body and then you can separate the pain from your mind, because the pain arises from the body. It is the body that is painful, it is not the mind. The mind is just someone watching the pain of the body, but due to the mind's delusion, it thinks that it is the body itself. So, when it thinks that it is the body and the body becomes painful, it thinks that it is in pain itself. In fact, the mind is not the one who is experiencing the pain. The mind is someone who is just watching the pain of the body, so if you can separate the mind from the body, then you can separate the pain from the mind also. Then you can just leave the pain alone. If you have any desire for the pain to disappear, you are creating more pain to the point that you will not be able to withstand that pain. If you can keep the mind calm and peaceful and do not create any desire for the pain to disappear then the mind will be able to withstand the pain of the body. So, this is the second method, to look at the body as anattā. It is not the mind who is in pain; it is the body that is in pain, so the mind doesn’t have to be afraid of the pain of the body, because the mind has no pain. But due to delusion, the mind thinks that the body is itself. When the mind thinks that the body is the mind itself, then when the body is in pain the mind will think that the mind itself is in pain. When it thinks that it is in pain, it will have the desire to get rid of that pain. When this desire arises, it is creating more pain, and this time the pain is in the mind, which is more intense than the physical pain and as a result you will not be able to withstand the physical pain. It is not the physical pain that you are not able to withstand, it is the mental pain that arises from the desire to get rid of your physical pain. You must somehow stop creating this desire to get rid of the physical pain, by accepting it, by living with it.

— 159 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 Monk:We have two teachers who gave us meditation instructions. One of them told us that when we do walking meditation, we don’t have to be bothered about the feeling when the foot touches the floor or about noticing if it is left foot or right foot that is moving. Instead we just concentrated on the mantra ‘Buddho’. The other teacher said that we should be aware of the foot touching the floor, we should be aware of which foot is moving. Some of my fellow monks are confused with regards to these two methods, could we ask some clarity about these two points from Luangphor? Than Ajahn: Actually both methods are okay. It depends on individual preferences, that’s all. You can use ‘Buddho’ while you are walking. The goal is the same, which is to prevent the mind from thinking aimlessly. When the mind has to recite ‘Buddho’ or when it has to watch the feet walking, then it cannot think aimlessly. That’s the whole purpose, that is, to stop the mind from thinking aimlessly. So whichever method you want to use, it is okay. You can even use body contemplation, then you are developing both mindfulness and wisdom at the same time. In practice, there are many different methods. We have 40 kammaṭṭhāna, 40 ways of developing mindfulness and samādhi. So it is up to you to use whichever way you like, which will produce the result that you want. Monk: During the week there was a discussion about ‘bare attention’ that came up. Some of us have the impression of barely watching and not doing anything about what we are seeing, so we can then develop wisdom. Perhaps Luangphor may share insight about this phenomena called ‘bare attention’ which is currently very popular in the West? Than Ajahn: It depends on what you mean by ‘bare attention’. If it is just merely knowing, it is like maintaining mindfulness. If you want to have wisdom, you have to see that what you are observing is just phenomenon, and they are all aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ,

— 160 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 anattā. If you just merely watch, it is good, but for most people I think they cannot just merely watch. If they see a snake, what will they do? Will they merely watch or will they start running away? That’s what people don’t understand. They only talk about ‘bare attention’ in the normal circumstances, but when they are in crisis, can they still maintain ‘bare attention’ or do they start jumping all over the place? Monk: Can we contemplate any object of meditation while not sitting in meditation? Than Ajahn: Meditation can be done in all postures, standing, sitting, walking or lying down. You can contemplate any object that is to your liking. Monk: A person who is terminally ill is discharged and the doctor has given up hope. Will meditation at this late stage be of help to this person and at the final moment of the person’s life? What form of meditation should this person be encouraged to make use of? Than Ajahn: It depends on the ability of this person. There are two ways of meditation, one is meditation for calm and second is meditation for insight. If he can do either way, it will help to calm his mind. The easier way is to do meditation for calm, like reciting a mantra. If he can keep reciting a mantra and stop thinking, then his mind will drop into appanā-samādhi. Once the mind is in appanā-samādhi, the pain of the body will not affect him. When he comes out of appanā-samādhi and starts to think of the body again, he can become sad or afraid again. So if he can do the second one, which we call insight meditation, he has to look at the body as not himself, as what I have explained. He is the mind, he is the one who knows, who thinks, who tells the body what to do. He is the master, the body is the servant. You are losing the servant, but you are not losing yourself.

— 161 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 The servant is dying but not the master. The master should not be worried or sad because the master doesn’t die with the servant, the body. He has to separate himself from the body. If he can do that, whatever happens to the body will not affect him in any way. This is what we call vipassanā (insight), to look at the body as anattā, and to look at the mind as the one who knows. Monk: How do we know if we are keeping on the right track in our practice? Than Ajahn: Basically you have to have peace and calm and no desire, then you are in the right track. If you go after your desire, then you are going off from the right track, like when you want to smoke a cigarette, or want to drink coffee. Then you are going off from the right track. The right track is only to drink for your body and your body doesn’t need coffee, doesn’t need a cigarette. The body needs clean air to breathe in and pure water to drink. Monk: My fellow monk is reaching his 60 years old. Is there a quick way to attain wisdom? Than Ajahn: It is different for each individual because the ability for each person to see things clearly is different, so there is no fixed time. The Buddha said in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta that if you follow his instructions in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, you will be able to gain wisdom and become enlightened either in 7 days, or 7 months or 7 years, so it is up to each individual. If you have a lot of past experiences, and have developed a lot of pāramī and wisdom in the past, then it will be quicker for you, but if you have not developed any pāramī or any wisdom at all, then it will be longer for you. Monk: When someone is in meditation, how would he know that he is in samādhi?

— 162 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Than Ajahn: Normally if you are in samādhi, you are totally awake. You know everything that is happening, just like what we are doing right now, knowing that we are talking. If I compare our talking to our thinking in the mind, we know when we think, right? We know when the mind stops thinking. When the mind stops thinking, we will feel peaceful and calm and happy, so there is a difference when we have samādhi and we don’t have samādhi. We know it clearly just like what we are doing right now. When we are talking, we know that we are talking. When we stop talking, we know we stop talking and we know the difference. When the mind stops thinking, the mind will become peaceful, happy. It is like lifting a mountain off the chest; you feel contented. So, you know when you are in samādhi. If you don’t know, that means you fell asleep. Some people sit and they go to sleep and after half an hour they wake up and look at the watch and think that they have sat for half an hour. They don’t know what happened in that 30 minutes. It can happen to you when your mindfulness is very weak. You can sit for five minutes and you can fall asleep and it is not completely sleeping, it is half asleep, but in this kind of situation, you are not in samādhi. In real samādhi you will be very alert and the experience will be so amazing to you that you will never forget it, this is the real samādhi. Monk: Is it necessary to sit for long period of time in meditation? Than Ajahn: When you first start, you can only sit for as long as you can, but as you progress, you want to sit longer because samādhi is beneficial for your mind. It is like charging a battery. Whether you charge it briefly or charge it for a long time can give you different battery strength. When you sit in samādhi, you are charging your mind to become very strong to be able to resist your desire. So, if you have strong samādhi then you can resist your desire. If you have weak samādhi, you cannot resist your desire. So, the goal is to have strong enough samādhi to be able to resist all forms of your desire. That’s why you want to sit for

— 163 — 14 | Singapore via skype, August 9th, 2015 as long as possible and sit in many sessions in a day, not only in one session. After you can no longer sit then you get up and walk to release your body tension and pain in the body. After you have finished walking then you come back and sit again. Just keep on sitting for as much as possible until you have that strength to resist your desire. Samādhi itself cannot get rid of the desire. The mind has to have paññā or wisdom to instruct it to resist the desire. Alternatively, if you have paññā but no samādhi and when you are told to resist your desire, you also cannot resist it. For example, right now, you know that not eating in the evening can be quite painful for you, that’s because you have no samādhi. When you start thinking about food, you become very hungry already. If you have samādhi and you know that you are not supposed to eat, you can stop that desire and you will not feel any pain from wanting to eat in the evening. Monk: We have run out of questions for now. Than Ajahn: I have run out of answers also. End of Desanā and Q&A. Sādhu Sādhu Sādhu.

— 165 — Than Ajahn: Why not stay on as a monk? (asking a layperson who has just completed his temporary ordination as a monk). It is like swimming. If you don’t know how to swim, you don’t like to go into the water. You have to know how to become a monk, and when you know how to live like a monk then you can become a monk. If you don’t know how to live like a monk, you cannot become a monk. Than Ajahn: Why do you want to come here and see me for? (speaking to the other young visitors who have been wanting to visit Than Ajahn for some time). I have exactly the same things you have. I have teeth, you have teeth. I have hair, you have hair. We all have the same things. We are all the same, you have a mind, I have a mind. You think, I think. What is the difference? Do you want to be like me? My duty is to convert you, so you should be afraid of me because if you come close to me you might eventually become a monk. Do you want to become a monk? Layperson: Yes, if there is any chance. Than Ajahn: What chance? 15 Laypeople from Singapore August 24th, 2015

— 166 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Layperson: After I have taken care of my family. Than Ajahn: So do you have to wait for your family to disappear before you become a monk? What happens if you disappear before them? You don’t really want to become a monk, you just use your family as an excuse. During the time of the Buddha, a man who was the only son in the family wanted to become a monk but his family didn’t allow him to become a monk, so he protested by fasting. He stopped eating, until he could become a monk then he would eat. His parents asked his friend to persuade him to stop fasting but he wouldn’t listen to his friend. He either died or became a monk so eventually his parents let him become a monk and he then became a monk. So there is a difference, wanting to become a monk or not wanting to become a monk. You don’t want to become a monk yet. Don’t you want to become the Buddha and his disciples? Layperson: Yes, I do. Than Ajahn: Then you have to act like him. Have you studied his teachings? Did you study his lives, his teachings? It will give you a lot of enthusiasm, encouragement. You will find that his way of life is the best way of life. Our way of (layman) life is not a good way of life. Our way of life is full of problems, sadness and unhappiness. In the way of life of the Buddha, there’s no sadness, no unhappiness. He was always happy. Don’t you want to be happy? You should become a monk because that’s the way to happiness, the way of a meditator. Don’t look for happiness outside yourself because the happiness outside yourself is not true happiness, it is false happiness. It is like a mirage, it is not real, something you see but when you get to the point where you think the things were, it is empty. That is the kind of happiness that you have been chasing after. You think

— 167 — 15 | Laypeople from Singapore, August 24th, 2015 you are going to be happy by having this or having that, but once you get it, you find that it is not happiness but it is a problem. If you have a girlfriend, you have a problem. If you have a family, you have a problem, but you think that you have happiness, right? So everything that you think will make you happy will always turn out to be problems. We see them as happiness not problems, because we are blind to the truth. We see them according to what we think they are, not what they are. That’s why we always end up unhappy. You look at the thing that makes you happy, as being not happy. You think living as a monk is a terrible way of living. That’s why you can only last for ten days. You became a monk for ten days and you were already happy to give up the robes because you think it is not the way to happiness. Before you get to happiness you have to go through hell first; you have to fast, you only eat once a day, you have no television, no entertainment. The thing that you think is happiness is the real hell but you don’t know it, because you are so addicted to it. It looks good to you like drugs. People take drugs because they think the drugs make them feel good but anytime when they cannot have the drugs they feel terrible. In the same way, when you become a monk, you feel terrible for not having what you used to have. When you are a layperson, you can do anything you want to do, but when you become a monk, you are restrained and when you are restrained, you feel bad. But to restrain your mind is good because what you do is usually harmful to you, you don’t know that. And when bad feeling happens, it is too late to stop it from happening. Have you ever thought of the sadness and the happiness that will come in the future? Do you see any unhappiness or sadness coming towards you or do you only see happiness waiting for you? Do you see aging? Do you see sickness? Do you see death? Are they happiness or sadness?

— 168 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Layperson: Sadness. Than Ajahn: So what are you going to do with it? Can you stop it? Can you be happy by meeting it? Layperson: No. Than Ajahn: Why not? It is only how your mind looks at it. If you look at aging, sickness and death as bad things then you don’t like them. When you don’t like them, when you have to face them, you become sad. If you are looking at aging, sickness and death as good things, then you will be happy to meet them. The reason that you are looking at aging, sickness and death as bad things is you want to have this body to be your servant forever. But your body can serve you for only that long. After a while, the body will get sick, get old and die. If you know that you don’t have to use your servant or body then it does not matter when your body gets sick, gets old and dies. Actually you will feel good because you don’t have to pay any salary to your body. Right now, you have to pay salary to your body, have to feed, wash, look after and exercise your body every day to keep your body healthy and strong. This is the price you are paying for having a body. But if you don’t need to use the body then you don’t have to worry about it. Right now you rely on your body to acquire happiness. When you come here you are happy because you change sight, sound, smell and taste. When you used to the same sight, sound, smell and taste, you get bored, so you go to a new place like going to Thailand, and see different sight, hear different sound. This excites you, it makes you feel good. You have stop using the body to make you feel good and the only way to replace your body is to meditate. When you meditate you can have another kind of happiness, the happiness of not having to use the body. Instead, you use the

— 169 — 15 | Laypeople from Singapore, August 24th, 2015 Dhamma. The Dhamma here is mindfulness (sati). If you have mindfulness you can keep your mind peaceful, calm and happy. When your mind is happy, you don’t need to have the body to take you to Thailand, to take you to Hong Kong, to take you all over the world. Yes, you can do it now, but 40 or 50 years from now, what are you going to do when you want to go to Hong Kong but you cannot go, or when you want to go to Thailand, and you cannot go, because you have to stay at home or stay in the hospital? So you are afraid of getting old, getting sick and dying because you think you will lose all the happiness that you can get. If you know how to meditate, know how to keep your mind calm and peaceful, you don’t need to use the body and therefore you are happy to get sick, get old and die because you don’t have to worry about taking care of the body. Right now, you have to look after your body every day. You are afraid something might happen to your body. However, anything can happen to it. Accident can happen. Contagious diseases can happen such as the SARS, or the MERS, anything can happen. You always worry about your body because you depend on your body as the source of your happiness. You should switch your source of your happiness from the body to the developing of the Dhamma: sati (mindfulness), samādhi and paññā. When you have Dhamma, your mind can always be happy regardless of what happens to the body. The body can get sick, get old and die or you can become poor and have no money to travel to HongKong, to Thailand. You can stay at Wat Santi (in Malaysia) and be happy. I stay here for more than 30 years now. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t have to go anywhere. This is what you should try to do, to develop Dhamma. Once you have Dhamma, you have mindfulness, then you will have samādhi. When you have samādhi, you can develop wisdom. When you have wisdom you will have permanent happiness. Whatever

— 170 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 happens will not affect you. Whether you are rich or poor, old or not old, sick or not sick, living or dying will not be any problem. Right now, you are moving towards the problem in the future – getting sick, getting old and death, but you can avoid these problems. You cannot avoid getting old, getting sick and death, but you can make them not become a problem for you. That’s the purpose of becoming a monk, to stop using the body to serve you as the source of your happiness, but to use Dhamma as the source of happiness. You should set this as your goal. This is the destination of where you want to go – to have the Dhamma instead of the body. The Dhamma in your mind is permanent; it will be with you all the time, it will never leave you. Your body will leave you. That’s why you need to keep looking for a new body. When this body disappears, you go and look for a new body. You come and get reborn again. Sometimes you get a human body, sometimes you get an animal body and you have to go through all the problems of having a body again. We are more fortunate than our parents. Our parents have to go through the period of second World War, they have to go through a lot of hardship. We are lucky that we don’t have to go through it, like them. We don’t see the hardship of having a body. Some people could not withstand this hardship; some of them kill themselves. Even nowadays when they get old, get sick, and when they cannot face this hardship of getting old or getting sick, they find ways of killing themselves. That’s the downside of life. You only look at the upside. For example, when you are young, strong and healthy, you can do anything you want, but you never look at the downside, when you will become sick, old and die. You should constantly think that life is not good, having a body is not good, relying on the body as a source of happiness is not good. You should switch the source of happiness. Nowadays people try to switch from using petroleum oil to some other forms

— 171 — 15 | Laypeople from Singapore, August 24th, 2015 of sustainable source of energy such as wind, or solar, although these substitutes also won’t last, as eventually the sun will lose all the heat. The sun is just like a big ball of gas that is burning right now, and eventually the gas will disappear. Then what happens to this earth? It will have no sun, it will be dark and cold and life will not be able to exist. But if you don’t need the body, it doesn’t matter. You can still be happy. When I said ‘you’ or ‘me’, I don’t mean the body, I mean the spirit or the mind that possesses this body, that uses this body as the means of acquiring happiness. If you have the Dhamma, then you don’t need to have a body to acquire happiness. So that’s the whole point in Buddhism, to switch the source of happiness from the body to the Dhamma. You have to force it because it is like changing habits. Habits are hard to change but it is not impossible. You just have to force yourself to do it. It is like switching the usage of your hand. If you are left or right handed and if the hand happens to be incapacitated, then you will need to use the other hand. When you first try to use the other hand, it will be difficult because you never use it, but after you do it again and again, after a while it will become normal; you become used to it and you can use it like the other hand. How come the right handed people and the left handed people can use either of their hands? Because the hand is not the one who is doing the work, it is the mind. The mind that is used to using the right hand will only use the right hand but when there is no right hand to use, the mind has to learn how to use the new (left) hand. It is just a matter of learning. It is the same way of switching from the body to the Dhamma; it is a matter of learning a new skill. You used to use the body as your source of happiness. You are skillful of using your body but you are not skillful using the Dhamma, so now you have to switch before it is too late. Right now you have plenty of time. You are still young and strong. If no accident happens you have many years to switch, but if you keep

— 172 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 waiting for your parents to die before you do it, by that time, it might be too late. You can do it when your parents are still alive. You don’t have to look after your parents everyday for 24 hours a day, right? You can come here, but you cannot become a monk. You can go anywhere you would like to go, but to become a monk, it is somehow not possible, because it is like leaving your family but here you are leaving your family now, you can do it. If you can come to Thailand, you can go to Wat Santi to practise, at least once a week you should go and stay at temple, as long as you can, one day, two days, or three days, to learn a new skill, to learn to use the Dhamma, not your body. The eight precepts is the standard to stop you from using your body. If you keep the eight precepts you cannot use your body to find happiness, so when you cannot use your body, you have to use your mind, use the Dhamma, so try to keep the eight precepts and then try to develop mindfulness. Mindfulness is the most important Dhamma, it is the starting point of all the Dhamma. If you are driving a car, it is the key to your car. If you don’t have the key you cannot get into the car, you cannot start the engine and drive the car. If you don’t have mindfulness, you cannot make your mind calm and have samādhi, and if you don’t have samādhi, you cannot develop wisdom or insight. When you don’t have wisdom or insight, you cannot become enlightened. So you first need to have mindfulness. You can develop mindfulness anywhere, but it will be better to do it in the temple where there are no activities that will disrupt your mindfulness. Especially if you are alone, it is easier to develop mindfulness than being with people or doing things, because when you do things, your mind has to think. The purpose of developing mindfulness is to stop thinking. If your mind doesn’t stop thinking you will not have peace or happiness. So you have to stop the mind from thinking and you should be staying in a place like a temple, where it is quieter, where there are fewer activities that

— 173 — 15 | Laypeople from Singapore, August 24th, 2015 will disrupt your mindfulness. Once you have mindfulness, when you sit, your mind will become calm very quickly. It will become concentrated, become one, then you will find the happiness that is better than the happiness that you get from your body. Once you have this, then you can stop using the body. When you don’t need the body, then whatever happens to the body will not matter anymore. You will not be afraid of getting sick, getting old or dying because it doesn’t make any difference to you because you can still be happy without the body, and actually you will be happier because you don’t have to serve your body, you don’t have to look after your body, to take care of your body. So this is what studying of Buddhism is about, to learn the way of finding a new source of happiness. Once you find that source of happiness, then you can stop relying on your body, and you can stop from coming back being reborn again and again. The reason why you keep coming back and have a new body is, you need a body to make you happy, but the happiness you get from the body is far less than the suffering you get from the body. The pain that you get from the body outweighs the happiness that you get from the body. It is like a bad investment. It is like buying a stock. You bought it for 100 but when you sell it, you only sell it for 10. It is not worth the investment. But the opposite way is true. You invest in the Dhamma, you invest 10 and you get 100 back. End of discussion.

— 175 — How to see the body (corpse) for asubha contemplation purposes. Question 01: How should one look at the body (corpse) differently from a doctor or an undertaker, because a doctor or the undertaker sees the corpse every day, yet they are not enlightened. What should I do so that it can benefit my meditation? Than Ajahn: You look at the body the same way like them, except that you have to continue looking after it after you have seen it, not just seeing it once and then you forget about it. You want to look at it as something that impresses your mind and keeps reminding you of this image all the time. That’s the difference. A doctor or an undertaker only sees it when he works. Once he finishes working, he forgets about it. You don’t want to forget about it. You want to recollect it. You want to think about it all the time until it impresses itself on your mind all the time. So, whenever you look at the people you look at the whole body, not just the outside. You see the inside, you see the death of the body, you see everything. If you just go there and see it once and then you come back and you forget about it, after a few days it will just disappear from your mind. The reason why you go and see 16 Seeing corpse for asubha contemplation September 7th, 2015

— 176 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 it is you haven’t seen it before. Once you’ve seen it you have to keep it in your mind, don’t lose it. The problem is people lose it. They go and see it once, then they come back and they forget about it. So you have to maintain that image in your mind all the time and then apply it to the people you know, to everyone you see and remember that this is what the body will be. Such is the nature of the body. Your body, my body, everybody’s bodies will be like this. It is useless. When the body lies there on the bed, it is useless and it will be like that one day, so before it happens, you’d better make good use of it right now. You have to constantly think of it. This is called asubha contemplation. Actually you don’t have to go, you can just look at the picture and you can contemplate. But if it is not real enough, it doesn’t have the impact, then you go see the real one. Once you forget then you have to go back. You might not go to see the real thing (corpse), you might search for the dead body or the anatomy in the internet. It is like a booster. If you forget about it, then look at Luangta’s book which has many pictures of it on asubha. Just keep looking at it. If it is still not in your mind or if you still forget then you have to look at it (in the internet or asubha books), so that you can remember it. The purpose is to remember it constantly, so when you have to use it to counter your sexual desire, then you have it. But if you don’t have it when you have sexual desire, you cannot resist your sexual desire. The purpose is to counter your sexual desire and also to counter your fear of death. If you look at your body and think that this is what your body will be in the future, and nothing can change this fact, then you will not be afraid of death. Because you know whether you are afraid or not, this will happen, so why should you be afraid? When you are afraid, you are suffering, right? When you are not afraid, you don’t suffer. So which one do you want? Do you want to suffer or not suffer? If you don’t want to suffer then you accept

— 177 — 16 | Seeing corpse for asubha contemplation, September 7th, 2015 the truth that this will happen. Being afraid doesn’t prevent you from death; you will still have to die. When you accept that and you are ready to die, then you will not be afraid. This is body contemplation to get rid of your fear of death, your sexual desire and your attachment to your body. Look at your body which is just like a toy or a doll, a biological doll. That’s all there is with the body. It is made up of the 32 parts, right? Can you find any part that belongs to you or any part that is ‘you’, in that body? If you search through your whole body, can you find yourself there? Who are you anyway at the first place? You don’t even know who you are, so you think the body is you, right? That’s because you don’t know who you are. Who are you actually? You are the one who knows, right? You are the one who thinks, right? Does the body think? Can the body think or not? If you don’t think, you can’t tell the body to do anything. Can the body do anything? So the body and the one who knows are two separate persons. You are the one who knows, who thinks, who tells the body what to do. So why should you worry about it? Whatever happens to the body doesn’t happen to you. If you cannot find yourself in this body then what will happen to you? Nothing, right? When they start to take the 32 parts apart, what happens to you? Did you disappear with the 32 parts? When you cut your hair, did you disappear with the hair? When they cut your arm, will you disappear? You are still there. So you and the body are not the same. You are not in the body, that’s why the Buddha said the body is not you. If it is not you, so why should you be afraid of it dying? When someone else is dying, are you afraid of it? No, right? Because it is not you. In the same way, this body is not you also, but your delusion makes you think that it is you. This is where you want to use body contemplation to separate yourself from the body by constantly building up the body and then destroying the body. Then you will just see the creation and the destruction of the body. How is this body created? It is in the womb, right? When it comes out from the womb, it starts to grow and it gets sick, gets old and dies, and when you bury it,

— 178 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 it becomes earth, or when you cremate it, it becomes ashes. So this is what you should do, you create and destroy this body until you start to see that the one who creates and destroys the body is not the body. You are just watching the body, you are not the body. Question 02: When seeing the body (corpse), is it for the investigation purposes? Than Ajahn: Yes, to remind you about the truth that the body is impermanent, it doesn’t belong to you, not pretty, and is ugly. Question 03: Can I use it when I do walking meditation? Than Ajahn: You use it all the time. The only time you stop is when you meditate for calm. When you want to stop thinking and rest in samādhi, then you don’t think about it. Once you come out of it, you can think about it all the time, until you don’t forget, until it is permanently embedded in your mind. Every time you see this body, you see this thing right away, see the impermanence, see the ugliness of the body. Question 04: When I start sitting, can I still use it to calm down the mind? Than Ajahn: Yes, you can use that as a method to calm your mind. Body & Mind Question 05: If we are not the body so who are we? Than Ajahn: You are the one who knows. As I am talking to you, you know what I am saying, right? That’s you. Question 06: Is it a soul?

— 179 — 16 | Seeing corpse for asubha contemplation, September 7th, 2015 Than Ajahn: The terminology will be always confusing. It is just that you are the one who knows, the one who thinks, the one who feels, but not the body. There is no ‘you’ in this body. When you leave this body, when it becomes a corpse, whatever you do to the body, the body doesn’t know anything, right? But when you are still with the body, who reacts to the pain of the body. It is not the body. It is you who knows the pain that reacts to the body. This one who knows is a separate entity from the body. It is the one who comes and takes control of the body. The body is just like a robot, and the one who knows is the controller. It is the one who directs or tells the body what to do. Before you get up you have to think first, right? The one who thinks and the body are not the same person. You are actually the one who knows, but you mistakenly think that you are the body. This is why we try to separate the one who knows from the body. The one who knows is the master, the body is the slave or the puppet. The body is just like a puppet while the mind, the one who knows, is the master, the puppeteer. It tells the body what to do, to stand up, to walk, to sit, to eat, to drink, to say this or that, these are all directed by the one who knows, the one who thinks. The one who knows and the one who thinks are not the body. The mind is not part of the body. When the body dies, the one who knows still remains, but since the one who knows has no shape or form, you cannot see it. Once this ‘the one who knows’ loses its body it goes look for a new body, so when somebody has conception in the womb, this ‘the one who knows’ goes in and take control of the body. Question 07: Is it reincarnation? Than Ajahn: Yes, it is rebirth. The one who knows keeps changing from one body to the next. It needs the body because it still wants to use the body to do the things that it wants to do, but if you can get rid of your desire to do things with the body then you don’t have to be reborn again, like the Buddha. The Buddha said rebirth

— 180 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 is not good. why? Because when you are born, you have to get sick, get old and die again. So he doesn’t want to come back and get sick, get old and die, again and again. The only way to stop this is to stop your desire to use your body to do things. The way to stop your desire to do things with this body is to meditate. Once you meditate, when your mind becomes calm and peaceful, you are happy, you are content, so you don’t need the body to take you around. That’s the purpose of meditation, to make the mind become content. Once it is content, then it doesn’t have to use the body and it doesn’t have to be reborn again and again. Question 08: So it is this ultimate contentment that makes you not come back? Than Ajahn: Yes, you do not come back to take up a new body. Question 09: Where does this mind go? Than Ajahn: It is in a psychic world, it is a different dimension from a physical world, but it is in contact through the mind. This ‘the one who knows’ has the ability to take control of the physical part of the body. Once there is no connection, the one who knows still remains the same, in the psychic world, in the spiritual world. This mind never dies. The one who knows never dies. It is still there. Your mind and my mind are in the psychic world. The reason we can connect now is we have the body as a medium, but once there is no body, the only way to connect between you and me is direct contact. Some mind with high power ability can connect with each other without having to use the body. Question 10: Who can do that? Is it only the Buddha? Than Ajahn: The Buddha and others like him who had developed this psychic power through meditation. If you meditate, maybe one day you can connect with the dead, the one who no longer has a body. They can connect with you directly, mind to mind, rather than mind through body. It is like what we are doing now.

— 181 — 16 | Seeing corpse for asubha contemplation, September 7th, 2015 My mind is using this body to connect to you. My mind sends the message through my body and your mind receives it through your body. Your mind is the one who knows what’s going on, what you hear. The body doesn’t know anything. It is just like a camera, or a microphone; it picks up the sound and sends it to the one who listens to the sound. So, the goal is to make your mind content, because if you are still not content, you will still have to rely on your body to make you happy. You still want to see, to hear, to eat, to drink, for enjoyment, for pleasure. Once you have contentment, you don’t need this thing because the pleasure from this contentment is much better. Question 11: In your book, you said you make a choice whether you live in this world (as a normal person) or you meditate. How can someone, an ordinary person find that contentment you are talking about and give up everything? Than Ajahn: When you start, you don’t have to give up everything. You can start by giving a little bit of your time for meditation. Instead of watching TV for one hour, you give up that one hour and spend it meditating. Once you start doing it, you eventually will achieve some results. When you have achieved the results you may find that it is much better than watching TV so you might want to do more, like giving up another hour of watching TV and have two hours of meditation. You build it up gradually until it becomes part of your daily routine. you becomes so much enticed by your contentment and then you can give up everything eventually. One step at a time. Question 12: I am not sure whether I have enough time left. Than Ajahn: Oh yes. This thing can move very quickly, like a wild fire. Once it gets started it might just go. So you must start it now, that’s the problem. Allocate one hour a day for meditation.

— 183 — Than Ajahn: What do you want to know? Layperson: Ajahn said that if I order chicken in advance, it is considered as killing. How about if we go to a restaurant and pre-order the meal, such as duck or chicken dishes, is this also considered as killing? Than Ajahn: Yes, when you place an order, it is equal to killing it yourself. Whether you tell someone to do it or you do it yourself, it is considered as breaking the precept. If you pre-order food, then you are telling them to prepare the meat you want, but if you just go right away and take whatever they have, it is a different story. You can go to the restaurant today and tell them that you want to buy duck or fish dishes on the same day, or you can tell them clearly that you want the meat that they have, and they are not from live animal. Some restaurants display fish in the tank. You can point at the fish and order them to cook it for your meal. This is considered to be wrong. If you pre-ordered your food, the cooks know that you are coming and they have to prepare the meat in advance, but if they don’t 17 Laypeople from Malaysia November 5th, 2015

— 184 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 know that you are coming, they just prepare their normal quantity of meals. The best thing maybe to become a vegetarian, but this doesn’t mean that if you eat meat you are breaking the precept. If you eat meat, it depends on how the meat is obtained. If the meat is obtained without you knowing when it is being killed or if the animal is killed as the normal practice of the sellers, then the sellers take the responsibility and not you. Layperson: How do I get rid of the not knowing? Than Ajahn: You need vipassanā. What you don’t know is that everything is aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. You look at everything as niccaṁ, sukhaṁ, atta. This is delusional. You look at everything as permanent, happiness and belonging to you so you have to untie it with the truth. The truth is everything is not permanent, like your body. The Buddha said that you should contemplate that the body is subjected to aging, sickness and death all the time. If you don’t think about it, you forget about it and you presume that the body will live forever. That’s why you always ask for blessing, may I have a long life, may I have good health, which is not possible. If you know the truth, you will not ask for this blessing. It is a waste of time because you are not going to get it. If you constantly know that this body is getting old, and it will get sick sooner or later or it will die anytime, then what’s the point of asking for longevity or good health? It is useless, right? You can ask for it; it can only make you feel good, give you a delusion of feeling good. It is better to acknowledge the truth and it will make you feel better because it makes you not be afraid of getting old, getting sick or dying. Once you are prepared for it, it cannot hurt your feeling. Right now you are not prepared for it, so when you have to face it, you become unhappy. This is what you have to contemplate – impermanence, not just your body, but everybody’s bodies and contemplate everything

— 185 — 17 | Laypeople from Malaysia, November 5th, 2015 such as your possession, your status. Everything that you have, come and go. Once you are ready to face it, when it goes away you don’t feel sad because you know it is part of the nature. It is like the rain. When it comes, you don’t feel sad because you know that it is natural. When the rain stops, you know it is natural. You don’t expect anything from the rain; you know it comes and goes, and so does your body; your body comes and goes. This is what we call vipassanā. Before you can train the mind in this manner, you need a calm mind because if your mind is not calm, your delusion will resist you from looking at the truth and it only wants to look at what it wants to see, that is to look at everything as permanence. We all are seeking for permanent, happiness, and something that will belong to us forever, but this is delusion. As long as you have delusion, your mind will think in this manner. So first you have to subjugate your delusion by having samādhi. When your mind becomes calm, your delusion will stop functioning temporarily and when you come out of samādhi, this delusion will still be weak and it will not interfere with your investigation of the truth, like looking at your body. How many times in a day that you say that my body will get sick, get old and die? Never. It is because your delusion will not let you think about it in this way. The delusion always makes you think that I should live long, I should have good health, and therefore before you can investigate the truth, you need to have a clear and calm mind. You need to have samādhi first, because if you don’t have samādhi, you won’t be able to do it. Even if you can do it, it will only be just like a flash. Once in a while you think about it and then it disappears like a flash. Layperson: When I am aware that defilement arises, do I use wisdom to stop it? Than Ajahn: It depends on what you have. If you have paññā (wisdom) then you can use it, but if you don’t have paññā then

— 186 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 you have to use sati (mindfulness). For most people, they don’t have paññā. When you start practising, you don’t even have mindfulness, so sometimes when the kilesas arise, you follow your kilesas unknowingly. For example, when you get angry, you become angrier because you become greedy and you want to have what you want. When you don’t have paññā, you need to develop sati which is a lot easier than paññā. Paññā can only be developed after you have sati and samādhi, so for most people it is most likely that they try to develop sati first. Once you have some sati, you can observe (be mindful) when the kilesas arise. If you lack sati, then when you are angry, you just repeat Buddho Buddho Buddho. Don’t think about the object that cause your anger because if you keep thinking about the person that causes your anger, you become angrier but if you think about Buddho, Buddho, Buddho then you forget about the person and then your anger will disappear. So first of all, you need sati which is the easiest way to counter your kilesas. Paññā is a lot more difficult to develop because you have to analyse and figure out the cause and the effect of things. If you have it (paññā), then it’s fine to use it, but when you don’t have it, what are you going to do? You then have to use sati which is so easy to do, just repeat: Buddho Buddho, and you don’t think about anything that makes you angry or sad. If you don’t like Buddho Buddho, you can use chanting: Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā sambuddhassa, just keep on chanting it repeatedly. It is the same thing when you are exposed to fear. When you go and stay alone at a place which is fearful to you such as at the cemetery or in the forest, the way to overcome fear is to use chanting or repeating the mantra and try to bring your mind away from thinking about the things that cause your fear. If you can bring your mind to stop thinking about it, your mind becomes calm

— 187 — 17 | Laypeople from Malaysia, November 5th, 2015 and your fear will disappear, then you will realise that fear is not outside, the fear is inside. You are the one who creates the fear for yourself. This is still considered as a temporary measure, using sati to stop your fear. If you want to stop your fear permanently, then you have to ask yourself, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid of losing your life? Can you protect your life? One day when your body is going to die, can you stop it from dying? No one can stop it. If you understand that eventually you are going to die, and if you are willing to give up your body then you are no longer fearful. So you have to contemplate the impermanent nature of the body, contemplate the no-self aspect of the body. The body is just a form that is made up of the four elements. You are not the body, you are just the one who takes possession of the body. You are the mind who comes and possesses the body, and you have to give up the body one day. If you think like this, then you will be willing to accept death and when you accept death, you will not be afraid of death anymore. Question: Sometimes I meditated when I was very tired and I experienced a sudden flash of light and it was followed by the feeling of being in a dark tunnel. Fear arose in me. What should I do during that time? Than Ajahn: You should continue with your meditation and continue maintaining mindfulness. Disregard everything that you observed. It doesn’t matter. It’s like watching a movie. It’s not real. It cannot harm you or hurt you. The only thing that can hurt you is your reaction, being fearful of it. It is not what you saw that hurt you, but your reaction to what you saw hurt you, so you want to stop reacting to it. In order to stop reacting you have to have mindfulness to hold your mind, to keep your mind from reacting. You were afraid because you didn’t like the dark tunnel, but if you had liked the dark tunnel then you wouldn’t have been fearful. So you have to keep your mind neutral; there is

— 188 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 no likes or dislikes. Force yourself to be neutral and take things as they come. Layperson: It is very hard to do because I cannot control the mind when I was inside (the experience). Than Ajahn: You can if you have mindfulness. Just be aware and don’t react. So next time when you see anything, don’t react to it, just be aware of it. Everything will come and go, eventually. Whatever happens to your mind or to your body, there is nothing you can do to stop it from happening. The only thing you can do is just to be aware, to know that your mind won’t be hurt. Regarding the body, there is nothing you can do. If the body has to die, it will die. It is not the end of the world, it is not the end of the mind. The end of the body is not the end of the mind. You don’t have to react; you just accept it. If you can accept things, your mind will be peaceful. You have to train it and if you keep training your mind like that, eventually you will know how to conduct your mind towards everything that happens. Right now your mind tends to react to everything that is happening, and now you want to reverse that process; you just want to train the mind to just observe and be aware and not to react. You need strong mindfulness. You have to keep developing strong mindfulness all the time. If you can develop wisdom, it will be even better because wisdom will teach you that everything is a mirage; everything comes and goes, it is not real. They don’t have anything to do with you.They are like bubbles; they rise and cease, they come and go and they are not under your control. When you understand this, you can let go of everything that you come into contact with, just be aware and acknowledge it, then you don’t hurt yourself, you don’t hurt your mind. The only thing that can hurt your mind is the mind’s reaction towards whatever it comes into contact with. This is how we

— 189 — 17 | Laypeople from Malaysia, November 5th, 2015 want to train the mind, to stop reacting either positively or negatively, because positive reaction can backfire on you later on, and negative reaction can hurt you right away. For example, when you face something you don’t like you react negatively and you want to get rid of the things that hurt your mind. When you react positively to something you like and when something you like disappear, you become hurt again, but if you don’t react but just know that whatever it is, good or bad, whether you like it or dislike it, it will eventually disappear. So it is better just to be aware and not to be involved or attached to whatever you are coming in contact with. Layperson: When I stay alone then I can see this (what Ajahn has explained) clearly, but when I go out and get involved in a lot of conversations, the mind is agitated. Than Ajahn: Why do you go out for? It is your desire that wants to go out and you use your friends as an excuse. If you really don’t want to go anywhere, can anyone drag you out? You get bored after staying at home for a while, which is because your mind is not calm. So you have to calm your mind. Eventually you have to go out. You have to go to hospital, to funerals, to do things, but you don’t go out just because you have the desire to go out, that’s another defilement. That’s the kind of defilement you want to get rid of, the desire to go out. You can go out but not because of your desire, but go out because there is a reason for it then there is no problem. Sometimes I go out, but not because I want to go out, not because I am sick of where I am and I want to go out because if I do so, that’s the defilement. If you are a real practitioner, your best friend is yourself. You want to live by yourself to be your own refuge. If you need to have a friend, it has to be a reason, like your teacher or a person who can help you in your practice. If you still cannot do it by yourself, you need someone to guide you then you need that person, but

— 190 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 eventually once you know what to do, you have to come back to being alone. Don’t let the defilement use it as an excuse like seeking company because you are lonely. Lay woman: Everyday, I start meditation by scanning through my body from head to toes and from the toes back to the head and after that I will tell myself that this is not my body. The body doesn’t belong to the mind. The body and the mind change continuously.The body is subjected to old age, sickness and death. The body will die one day and return to the four elements. When I did that I develop a feeling of dispassionate towards other people, including my family members. Is this normal? Than Ajahn: Yes, that’s right, just keep doing it. You don’t want to be hurt by the death. If you know that this is what will happen when they die, you don’t have any feeling of sadness because you are studying the truth of the body. You should also separate the body from the mind. What die, is just the body but the mind which possesses the body doesn’t die. Your parents don’t die along with their body. Your parents are in their mind and they go on to a new world like going to the spiritual world first before they come back and have a new body again. When you understand the truth, you see that nobody actually dies. What dies is only the separation of the four elements which form the body, form the 32 parts. The water goes back to water, the air goes back to become air and the earth goes back to the earth. They are just a process of integration and disintegration of four elements, so you have to look at them that way. The person who possesses the body, which is the individual mind, doesn’t die with the body. The mind goes on following what it has done in the past. If it has done good kamma it goes to a good rebirth or is born into good realm. If it has done bad kamma, it goes to a bad rebirth or is born into bad realm. If it can get rid of all the desires until there is no desire in that mind, it goes to Nibbāna where there is

— 191 — 17 | Laypeople from Malaysia, November 5th, 2015 no rebirth but if that mind still has desire it will come back and be reborn again. Each mind has to purify itself because no one can purify others’ mind. You can only teach others the way to purify their mind, that’s all. Lay female: We have developed so many defilements from our past lives, how can we purify the mind? Than Ajahn: You keep developing sati, samādhi and paññā, then you can dig deep inside into the inner core of your mind and face your avijjā, the master of all the defilements. When you meet face to face with your avijjā then you can eliminate them with paññā. Lay (M): According to Ajahn’s book, death is a very painful process. In what way is death painful? Is it due to the consciousness that leaves the body or is it someone else’s experiencing death? It is not a sudden death which I think is painful. Than Ajahn: When I talked about death which is painful, I refer it from normal people’s point of view. They don’t have the understanding about the nature of the body and the mind. They are very afraid of getting sick, getting old and dying and when they have to go through it, it will be very painful for them. But if you study and understand the truth about the body and the mind, then the pain will not be as much or it can even completely disappear from the mind. It depends on how much each individual understands the nature of the body. If one understands that the body is just four elements. When one has to face death, one might not experience the pain at all. If you still think that the body is you, then it will be painful because you think you are the one who is dying. In fact you are just observing the death of the body. Through your delusion you don’t observe it this way, you become the body itself.

— 192 — Dhamma in English 2014 & 2015 Lay male: Is he experiencing pain due to the separation of the body or due to other family members feeling sad? Than Ajahn: No, it is painful because you don’t want to die. Your desire for not wanting to die causes the pain. If you have no desire, if you are willing to die, then there is no pain, just like when you give up your money willingly. You don’t feel painful, you feel happy, but if you are forced to give your money away, then it will be painful to you. The body is like money to you. Understand? So look at your body as dāna. When it is time to give up (the body), I am giving this body away as dāna. The majority of the pain is the mental suffering. The physical pain is very minimal, like when a doctor tells you that he is going to give you an injection. By hearing that it already causes the mental pain because you don’t want to be injected (with a needle) but when you actually get the injection, the physical pain is very minimal. Lay (M): When a man dies, the consciousness will leave the body and he becomes a ghost. Does a ghost have consciousness? Than Ajahn: The consciousness is the ghost, the ghost is the consciousness. The mind, the spirit, the ghost, and the consciousness are the same thing, the non-physical part, the one which possesses this body. Due to different cultures, we call the mind different names, but they are the same things. The mind is the non-physical part of you, the one that tells you what to do, the master of the body – the one that directs the body to do this or to do that, the one who thinks, the one who knows. This is called the spirit, the mind or the ghost. When it leaves the body, we call it a ghost. When it has a new body, we called it the mind, but it is the same thing. It doesn’t die. When there is no body, the mind can exist as a good ghost or a bad ghost. If you do good kamma then it exists as a good ghost, which is called devata or brahma. These are good

— 193 — 17 | Laypeople from Malaysia, November 5th, 2015 ghost because they did good kamma, had compassion and loving kindness. They didn’t hurt other beings. But if you did bad kamma, such as if you kill, steal or cheat, you become a bad ghost, a hellish ghost, a hungry ghost or you become an animal. It depends on what you do in this life that indicates what kind of ghost you will be, a good ghost or a bad ghost. When you have paid off your good or bad kamma, then you get a new body, and become a human being again. This cycle is going in this way all the time, until you meet the Buddha who said that if you want to stop this cycle, you have to meditate and get rid of all your defilements. Lay (F): Once we attain samādhi, we can then go into investigation. Than Ajahn: You investigate after you come out of samādhi, not while you are in samādhi because when you are in samādhi, you are like charging your battery; charging (strengthening) your mind to stay in upekkhā. You want your mind to remain calm and peaceful and not to react for as long as possible. Then you can use this condition to investigate and get rid of your defilements. Don’t pay attention to whatever appears, just ignore it. Just know it and try to fix your mind to just be aware of it. Lay (F): I would like to ask about investigation, can you elaborate it? Than Ajahn: After you come out of samādhi, your mind is clear and calm and so the mind is ready to look at the truth of the body, the truth about everything that your mind clings to. For example, if you cling to money, then you have to investigate the nature of money that money is not permanent and it can cause you pain when you lose the money. If you don’t want to have any painful feeling then you should not cling to your money. You can have it