Dhamma in English 2016

Dhamma in English 2016
A collection of Dhamma talks in English

at the Chula-dhamma Sala
on Khao Chi-On
of Wat Yannasangwararam, Chonburi.
by
Phra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

A collection of Dhamma talks in English

By Phra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
Copyright © PhraSuchart 2019. All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-616-565-482-1
December 2019
700 copies
Wat Yannasangwararam
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Table of Contents
Youtube Video Title Page
1. Layperson from USA, February 3rd, 2016 1

2. Q&A, February 16th, 2016 11
3. Sāmaṇera from Australia, February 22 , 2016
nd
17
4. Laypeople from Malaysia, February 25 , 2016
th
23
5. Layperson from Canada, April 21st, 2016 35
6. Bhikkhuni from Australia, May 3rd, 2016 43
7. Q&A, May 19 , 2016
th
69
8. Q&A, May 25 , 2016
th
79
9. Laypeople from Indonesia, June 12th, 2016 91
10. Q&A, June 14th, 2016 99
11. Layperson from USA, June 24 , 2016
th
111
12. Q&A, June 30 , 2016
th
123
13. Laypeople from Indonesia, July 1st, 2016 137
14. Laypeople from Virginia, July 11th, 2016 147
15. Q&A, July 14 , 2016
th
153
16. Answers and advice to a newly ordained monk,
July 28th, 2016 169
17. Q&A, August 2nd, 2016 171
18. Laypeople from Malaysia, August 3 , 2016
rd
191
19. Layperson from UK, August 19 , 2016
th
203
20. Q&A, August 30th, 2016 207
21. Q&A, September 20th, 2016 223
22. Laypeople from USA and Indonesia,
September 23rd, 2016 239
23. Layperson from Vancouver Canada,
October 10th, 2016 255
24. Laypeople from Indonesia, October 21st, 2016 267
25. Layperson from Australia, October 25th, 2016 277
26. Laypeople from Australia, October 26th, 2016 305
27. Q&A, October 27 , 2016
th
311
28. Q&A, November 24 , 2016
th
327
29. Laypeople from Singapore, December 2nd, 2016 343
30. Laypeople from USA, December 24th, 2016 355
31. Laypeople from USA, December 25 , 2016
th
365
32. Q&A, December 27 , 2016
th
377
Biography of Phra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto 399
Daily Schedule 400
Alms Route 401
Layperson from USA.
1
February 3rd, 2016
Than Ajahn: Do you have anything to say? Do you understand what

she said? She asked about asubha. She said her contemplation
on asubha does not seem to have any impact on her mind and
I said, ‘Well, asubha only has impact when you have sexual desire.
When there’s no sexual desire, then the contemplation on asubha
does not have any impact. If you don’t have a headache and you
take a pain killer, it does not make any difference. But when you
have a headache and you take some aspirins, then you will feel
the difference. In the same way when you have sexual desire and
you contemplate on asubha, it can suppress or eliminate the sexual
desire in the mind. So, when you don’t have it yet, you have to first
prepare the ground work or do the homework. Contemplate so that
it can becomes instantaneous when you need it. Once you can
spontaneously recall these asubha images, then you should try to
arouse your sexual desire to test whether or not you can suppress
it using asubha. When you don’t have sexual desire, it doesn’t
mean you have lost it because it may be due to your physical
condition. So, it is necessary for you to test when you have
sexual desire whether you can suppress it or not. The reason is
sometimes sexual desire is very devious (conniving) and you don’t
know whether you have really lost it or not. You have to at least
know that if it comes up, you should be able to always get rid of it.
— 1 —
The tool to get rid of it is the asubha. You can instantaneously think
of the organs of the body or when the body turns into corpses.
Then, you don’t have any problem. This problem usually arises for
those people who keep the eight precepts or monks who have to
maintain this purity. They are not allowed to be near the opposite
sex, so this can sort of pressure the sexual desire to come up. So,
monks have to always try to contemplate on asubha to suppress
or to eliminate this sexual desire. But for laypeople sometimes you
have other ways of enjoying yourself without having sex, you know.
You can enjoy yourself by having food or drink or going to places
of entertainment. So, maybe this sexual desire is put on the back
burner, more or less.
Thus, you don’t feel the pressure to have to contemplate on asubha

because you can still be happy without having sex. But for monks,
they are prohibited from going to places to drink or to enjoy
themselves through all the senses. Then, the pressure will build up
and when a monk sees a woman, his sexual desire may suddenly
just arise. If he doesn’t have asubha contemplation, he will just
keep thinking about the woman and images of her will arouse
his desire. Eventually, he will find that he can no longer remain in
robe. Have you heard of one of Ajahn Chah’s monks who was
ordained for about 40 years?
Layperson: Recently?
Than Ajahn: Yes, the Japanese monk. Ok. He was in close

contact with a woman and he didn’t have this protection, I guess. So,
instead of trying to get rid of her, he kept on having more contact,
more relationship. Then, he eventually found it’s quite impossible
for him to remain as a monk, so he had to disrobe. After disrobing,
they got married or they lived together. This is because he didn’t
see the asubha in that body. Every time he saw that body, he saw
the attractiveness of that body, not the repulsiveness of that body.
— 2 —
1 | Layperson from USA, February 3rd, 2016
Layperson: What about the practice of asubha, just to prepare

for letting go of the body?
Than Ajahn: That’s more or less or what you call the contemplation
on the end (expiration) of the body. That’s different. But you can use
the similar objects like corpses. This is what the body will actually
become when it dies, so you have to tell your mind that eventually
you are going to lose this body and then this body will become
corpses. If you leave it in a cemetery, it will slowly deteriorate and
disintegrate, returning back to the four elements. The water will
separate, the air and the fire will separate, and all that is left is the
earth element. If you leave the body long enough, it will become
dry, eventually break into pieces and become dust. That is the path
of the body, the future of the body, so we have to remind ourselves
that this body does not live forever. And we have to be willing to let
it go when it happens because if we don’t want to let it go, we will
hurt ourselves mentally. The thing that hurts the mind is the desire
of the mind that clings to things like the body but everything that
the mind clings to will eventually be gone or the mind will separate
from those things that it clings to. So, if you don’t want to hurt your
mind, then you must let go of everything.
In order to let go, you have to constantly contemplate on aniccā

which means impermanence. Everything is temporary. Everything
will eventually be gone from you or you will be gone from them,
you see. If you contemplate and remind yourself, then when things
happen, you can accept the truth. But, if you don’t remind yourself,
then when it happens, you’re not prepared. You are not ready to
accept because you still cling to it. You still want those things and
want them so badly that they will hurt you. So, the reason for us to
contemplate on impermanence or death is to gradually or constantly
teach the mind to let go and not to cling to anything. Clinging will
hurt your mind when things have to leave you or you have to leave
them. This is contemplating of aniccā on the body or on things that
— 3 —
you’re attached to, such as your possessions because you still find
happiness from having them.
Layperson: I think I will still cling to my possessions.
Than Ajahn: Yes, the reason why we have things [is] because we
feel these things make us happy, you see. And once they make you
happy, you don’t want to lose them. When you lose them, you feel
unhappy. You feel sad. For some people, if they lose something they
love a lot, they might not be able to go on living. They may consider
killing themselves. That’s because they feel no happiness when
nothing is left for them to exist such as when they lose everything,
especially when their body lose the ability to do things to make
them happy. When people are old and get sick, they sometimes
contemplate killing themselves but killing the body doesn’t solve
the problem, you see. The problem is your desire for things, the
desire to use the body as the means of acquiring things to make you
happy. The way to solve this problem is to stop using the body as
the instrument or the tool to make you happy. In order to be happy
without relying on the body you have to make your mind calm and
peaceful. You have to practice meditation. If you have samādhi and
calm, the mind will become happy in itself. Then, you don’t need to
have the body or anything else to make you happy because you
can be happy without having anything, and all you need is a calm
mind that stops grasping and desiring for things. Indeed, when the
mind becomes calm, all these desiring, grasping, wishing, wanting
will disappear and you don’t feel you need anything. That’s why we
have to meditate. In order to meditate we have to temporarily give
up all the things that we used to rely on to make us happy, such
as going to movies, going to parties.
Layperson: That’s easy and it’s not so difficult. But there are other
things that’s a lot more difficult.
— 4 —
Than Ajahn: What’s difficult?
Layperson: It’s the idea about… but I think I will still go out as
I become more aware of things. Even at the monastery where I
stayed, I still want to be a part of that, just like all the things desired
in the world. Like you want the teacher’s attention, you want…
there’s still the same desire
Than Ajahn: It’s still desiring. Only different objects of desire but
it’s still the desire and the Buddha said there are three kinds of
desire. Firstly, desire for sensual gratifications which you may
not have any problem with. Secondly, the desire to become or to
be accepted, to be something, to be somebody, or the other. The
third one is not to be mistreated, not to be forgotten, not to get old,
not to get sick, or not to die.
These are the three kinds of negative desire: the desire to be,
the desire not to be and the desire for the sensual pleasure or
gratifications: to see, to hear things to make you happy by doing
these things. So, different people might have different issues with
these desires. Like you said, you have no problem with going out
to parties or that kind of thing. Maybe because of your age and
you are through that already.
Layperson: Yes, to a certain extent.
Than Ajahn: Maybe it is more on intellectual things that you desire

but it’s still desire.
Layperson: Yes, and another kind of desire, to get there (meditation

result) and not just to be in the process but wanting to be there.
Than Ajahn: The desire to be calm can block you from getting
there. It’s ok to have the initial desire to practice but once you start
— 5 —
practicing you have to forget about that initial desire and then only
concentrate on the process of making it happen. But if you keep
on desiring only, then you will surely not get there. That’s because
you’re not working on the process. You forget the process (that leads
to it). You just think about the end result but you’re not thinking of
doing it. You just want to get it and it’s not like an object that you
can just go to the store and buy. But even then, it still involves a
process of going to the store and buying it. So, if you want peace
and calm, you have to be alone and concentrate on one object.
Don’t think about other things. Just focus on one object. Keep your
mind focused. Then, you can sit in meditation and use this ability
to focus and get the mind to enter into calm. This is something
you have to do all day long, from the time you get up to the time
you go to sleep. You have to continually restrain your mind from
going everywhere and bring it back to one place. You can use a
mantra. You can use your body or something that you can focus
or concentrate your mind on. If you can do this when you sit, then
you can bring the mind to enter into samādhi, into calm.
And once your mind becomes calm, you achieve what you want,
peace of mind, happiness, bliss and contentment, whatever you call
it. Samādhi is actually a temporary Nibbāna. Nibbāna is what you
call continuous, endless calm. With samādhi, it’s only temporary.
When you enter into samādhi, you find it peaceful and calm but
you can only remain in that state for a while and not all the time.
After you withdraw, you come back to your previous stage and you
start to think and then your mind gradually becomes restless and
agitated. So, when you come out of samādhi, you want to continue
on focusing your mind and restrain it from thinking aimlessly. This
way will prevent your mind from becoming restless and you can
then go back to (samādhi) after you have done what you have
to do. Sometimes when you’re in samādhi you have to come out
because you have things to do, such as taking care of your body.
— 6 —
You may have to go to the restroom, drink, eat or whatever. But

once you finish whatever you have to do, then you want to go back
into samādhi again. Try to go in there as much as possible until
you become proficient. You can enter into samādhi any time but
that’s only the first part.
The second part is how to maintain your peace of mind after you
come out of samādhi permanently. If you use mindfulness, you have
to constantly focus your mind to keep it from becoming restless
or agitated. But if you use vipassanā or insight, this insight will
protect the mind from becoming restless and agitated because it
will eliminate the source of restlessness and agitation, which is our
desire. Insight or vipassanā will tell you that everything that you
think is good for you is actually bad for you. So, once you see that
everything you desire is bad for you, you will stop desiring them.
Why are they bad for you? It’s because they are impermanent;
they are temporary. They might be good for you briefly but after a
while things will change. Things that make you happy can turn out
to make you unhappy.
So, everything is like that. Everything will change or disappear. You

may get happiness from getting what you want and once you’ve
got it, that good feeling will disappear in a few days. What you
have doesn’t mean anything to you anymore. You’ve got to have
something more, something better. So, if you have vipassanā
or insight you’ll see that everything is temporary. They are like
a mirage, really. They seem real but when you have them, they
don’t seem to be like what you think before you have them. Before
you have them, you think they are everything. But once you have
them, you say, ‘It’s no big deal.’ So, it’s your mind that conjures up
images of things to make them look great. But in fact, everything
is not that great.
Layperson: A big mirage is a good analogy.
— 7 —
Than Ajahn: The Buddha said, ‘Everything is like bubbles.’ They

come and go. You cannot hold on to anything for long. Everything
is fleeting and transient. So, you can see this and you cannot
control them. You cannot tell them to be like this all the time. Some
days when you have this good feeling, you will say, ‘Oh! I want to
have this good feeling all the time.’ But you cannot do that. Sooner
or later, it will evolve into something else. So, if you have this
insight that sees the nature of things around you, then the things
that you desire are not really that good. In fact, they will make you
sad and hurt you one day because they will change or disappear. So,
it’s better not to have them. It’s better to go back to your samādhi.
So, once you’ve got rid of your desire, then there will be nothing
to disturb your samādhi, your peace of mind. Once you’ve got
rid of all your desires, then your samādhi will be continuous
without having to enter into samādhi. You can be sitting normally
like this and your mind can be peaceful and calm as if you were
in samādhi.
That’s what Lord Buddha called, ‘Nibbāna’, the permanent state of

calm. Regardless of what happens, the mind is not being affected by
them because the mind does not have any desire for anything. The
mind has gotten rid of the desire for the body. But now you still have
the desire for the body to be strong and healthy, and to live forever
but the mind or you know with insight that it’s impossible and the
body will get sick, get old and die. So, this is vipassanā or insight
to see things as they are. The delusion will create this deception
to make you think that the body is good and it will last. But in truth
it doesn’t. So, when you know that the body will die, then you stop
relying on using the body for your happiness. Once you stop relying
on the body, then you can let go of the body. Whatever happens
to the body will not matter. Right now, it does matter because you
still rely on your body. If you have wrinkles, you will start to worry.
— 8 —
Layperson: I worry and I don’t want to get old. The path to enter
into samādhi, master, is not easy to do. I try to see it, focus on it,
but still my mind goes everywhere.
Than Ajahn: That’s why you have to be mindful all day long. You
have to focus on one thing, ‘buddho, buddho’ all day long.
Layperson: ’Buddho, buddho’ and then it goes the other way.
Than Ajahn: Bring it back to ‘buddho, buddho’. When you start

doing it, it’s like a tug-of-war. Your mind wants to go one way but
your ‘buddho’ wants it to come the other way. So, if ‘buddho’ wins, it
will come back. If ‘buddho’ loses, then it will go all around the world.
Layperson: I am less concentrated than I was, so my mind is

worse now.
Than Ajahn: Because you’re not controlling it.
Layperson: Because I let the mind go (thinking without restraint).
Than Ajahn: Yes, you let it go. But you have to be strong (to
control it).
Layperson: I just don’t want. Maybe it’s because of other things

that I don’t want to see.
Than Ajahn: It’s your desire, the desire to be free, to be able to

think about anything, to do anything you want to do but this desire,
this freedom actually hurts you more than helps you, you see. So,
that is delusion in the world today. People feel they have to do what
they want to do. That’s freedom and then they will be happy. But
they don’t know that the happiness they get is fleeting (short-lived).
Once they have done it, it doesn’t mean anything anymore. They
— 9 —
want to have more and more of something. They do it and then it

disappears right away. They go to a party and have fun. The next
day it disappears, so the next day they go to another party. Thus,
they have to keep chasing these things all the time because these
are temporary happiness. And eventually they will run out of things,
run out of money, or run out of ability to chase after this kind of
happiness. Then, they want to kill themselves because they’re not
happy. They cannot do what they want to do anymore.
But if you can make your mind peaceful in time, then you don’t
have to do anything and you can still be much happier than doing
everything that you used to do. So, try to restrain your mind. Forget
about the freedom (to do what your desire wants) because that
really is a delusional idea. The real freedom is to restrain your mind
because once you can restrain your mind, you will find another
kind of freedom and that is freedom from desire. The freedom to
do what your desire wants you to do is bad for you. Let’s put it
that way. You have two kinds of freedom: freedom to do what you
want to do and freedom to stop you from doing anything. The latter
is better because it’s the freedom not to do anything, not to be
pressured by your desire. Then, you can just sit here comfortably
and do not have to do anything, and you can still be happy. You
don’t need anything.
Layperson: Not worry about anything.
Than Ajahn: Because you have nothing to worry since you have
nothing. You have nothing to lose. When you have nothing, you have
nothing to lose but when you have something, you have something
to lose since everything is impermanent. Everything is temporary.
OK? I have to switch back to the Thai mode.
End of Desanā.
— 10 —
Q&A
2
February 16th, 2016
Question: Is upekkhā vedāna similar to Nibbāna? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: No, it is different. Upekkhā is a kind of feeling. There

are three kinds of feelings: good feelings, bad feelings and neutral
feelings. This is not Nibbāna. Upekkhā is in the khandha; vedā-
na is in the part of the body, not the mind. Upekkhā of the mind
is samādhi. They are two different things. Upekkhā vedāna and
upekkhā are different.
Upekkhā is when the mind absorbed in jhāna. That’s the neutral

state of mind, while upekkhā vedāna is neutral feeling (of the body).
Right now, do you have bad feelings or good feelings? If you don’t
have those, then you are in neutral feeling. This is called upekkhā
vedāna but your mind may not be upekkhā; it can still be restless
because of greed, desire, hatred and delusion. So this upekkhā
vedāna is not the upekkhā (of the mind) that arises out of samādhi
where your mind is peaceful and calm, and is temporarily without
greed, hatred, fear or delusion.
Question: What is the difference between Enlightenment and

Nibbāna? (Malaysia)
— 11 —
Than Ajahn: Nibbāna is the result of the enlightenment. Once

you have realised the Four Noble Truths and you have completely
eradicated all your desires, then the dukkha entirely disappears
and the mind becomes pure. The pure mind is Nibbāna.
Nibbāna is a state of mind; it is not a place. It is like purified water;

it is different from dirty water. You don’t call dirty water purified
water. Once you have purified the water, then the water becomes
pure. You call the purified water, Nibbāna. When you purify the
mind, you get rid of all desires, then your mind becomes pure. That
pure state of mind is called Nibbāna because it does not take any
birth anymore. There is no dukkha anymore. There is only ultimate
happiness (paramaṁ–sukhaṁ).
Question: I take breakfast and lunch at nine am and only take food
again the next day. In late afternoon, when I am hungry, I drink a cup
of coffee or Milo. Am I considered as practising one meal a day?
Than Ajahn: You can drink juices, coffee, tea but not milk because
milk like Milo is considered in the category of food. Anything that
has milk or any edible stuff or something similar, is considered to
be food. So, we have to avoid things that are considered as food
such as milk, soy bean milk, Ovaltine, Milo. You can have fruit
juices, coffee, tea and some herbal drinks.
Question: After midnight, can I take some food as it is considered

as the next day already?
Than Ajahn: No, you can’t. In Buddhism, the next day starts at
dawn (when the sun rises).
Question: Please tell me the difference between dāna, puññā

and pāramī and how should I go about practising it accordingly?
— 12 —
2 | Q&A, February 16th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Dāna is the act of giving, sharing and sacrificing things
that you have for the benefit and happiness of other people. This
is called dāna.
When you do this, the result of dāna is puññā. Puññā means

happiness of heart or mind. You feel good; you feel happy. This
is puññā.
Pāramī is the ten types of puññā that a person needs to develop

to become enlightened. Pāramī is translated as perfections such
as dāna, sīla, nekkhama, upekkhā, paññā. These are perfections.
Question: How can I calm down the non-stop-wandering mind

during ānāpānasati meditation?
Than Ajahn: You have to focus only on the breathing and do not let
your mind go about thinking about other things. Just keep focusing
on the breathing. Just be aware of your breathing in and breathing
out. Don’t think about the breath itself. Don’t think about anything
else. Just be aware.
Question: How can I meditate longer than 30 minutes?
Than Ajahn: You just have to keep doing it and do it a lot then you
can extend your time. The most important thing is that you have to
keep maintaining mindfulness even after you sit. If you want to sit
for a long time, you need strong mindfulness. And you can have a
strong mindfulness by developing mindfulness all day long.
Question: When I meditate for 30 minutes or an hour, should I

bring my mind to contemplate on aniccā, dukkha, anattā or should
I keep going on samatha?
— 13 —
Than Ajahn: You will have to develop samatha first, if you do not
have samatha yet. Vipassanā is the second level that needs the
support of samatha. If your mind does not have samatha, your mind
will be restless and it will not like to think about aniccā, dukkha,
anattā.
Question: Is the internal work of an upāsikā more important than

the external work such as studying Buddhism at Buddhist Institute?
Than Ajahn: The immediate goal is to first develop the mind. Once
your mind is developed and you become enlightened then you can
do other work. Like the Buddha, he did not do anything in his first
six years, except developing his mind. After he became enlightened,
then he established the Sangha. So, the most immediate goal is
to develop your mind first. You have to abandon everything else,
leave everything alone and get yourself enlightened. Once you
are enlightened then you can build a temple, teach meditation or
do anything you want.
Question: When undergoing organ transplant, immediately after

breathing stops, does one feel pain?
Than Ajahn: Please ask the doctor as this is a medical question.
Question: My daughter is currently on medication for bi-polar

disorder. I would like to know in terms of kamma, what could I
have done wrong?
Than Ajahn: Kamma is complicated and is beyond our

comprehension. So just accept the fact that this is your kamma.
Whatever kamma you have is complicated. You don’t even know
what you did today. How could you know what you did two years
ago? Everything that you did in the past contributed to what you
are today. That’s all you have to know.
— 14 —
2 | Q&A, February 16th, 2016
Question: As I come from a Chinese Buddhist background, I am

used to reciting ‘amitabha’. Can I recite ‘amitabha’, instead of
‘buddho’ as the object of my meditation?
Than Ajahn: Yes, you can.
Question: Every being is part of the ‘one’ citta (mind) that is eter-
nal. When one is enlightened, does the citta merge into one citta?
(Singapore)
Than Ajahn: Each person has his own citta. The Buddha said
you have your citta; I have my citta. The difference between the
Buddha’s citta and your citta is that the Buddha’s citta is pure while
your citta is still not pure. Once you have purified your citta, then
your citta will be like the Buddha’s. That is what it means by being
one. All purified citta are the same, like all purified water. All are the
same. You can take any bottles (of purified water) and they are all
the same. You can take another bottle and you will have the same
purified water, once the water is purified. So you can say that it is
one with the same purity, but other than that they are not; they are
two separate things. They are equal, like A equals to B, B equals to
C, so A equals to C, C equals to B; they are all equal, all the same,
so you can say that they are all ‘one’ in that sense.
May all of you be ever closer to the Dhamma goal.
End of Q&A
— 15 —
Sāmaṇera from Australia
3
February 22nd, 2016
Than Ajahn: It doesn’t matter where you are. What you do is

more important than where you are. Wherever you are, you have
to practise as much as possible. Try to develop mindfulness all the
time and sit in meditation as much as possible. You have to calm
your mind first, and don’t worry about developing wisdom.
After you can calm your mind then you can develop wisdom.
Wisdom arises only from a calm mind, not from a restless mind.
Once your mind is calm, you can then think rationally. If your mind
is not calm, you will be emotional and your thinking will hurt you,
and not benefit you.
Sāmaṇera: My samādhi was good but I’ve lost it.
Than Ajahn: It is because you have stopped maintaining and

developing it. You have to constantly maintain your mindfulness.
Sāmaṇera: It is not easy to stop thinking. When mindfulness

decreases, it is difficult to stop thinking, to suppress the
unwholesome thoughts.
— 17 —
Than Ajahn: If you have strong mindfulness, you can suppress it.
So, you have to maintain and develop mindfulness. Keep developing
it and your mindfulness will become stronger and eventually you
can stop any thought.
Sāmaṇera: In the beginning of my practice, it seemed like every

method to get into samādhi was working.
Than Ajahn: When you first started, you were not distracted by
anything. You focused on what you were doing. After a while, you
lost that focus and started to think about this and that. Your fight
(to maintain mindfulness) became more difficult. But it is not due
to the method. It is the ability to focus on your practice.
When you first started, you were enthusiastic. You put in all your
energy in the practice. After a while, you lost the enthusiasm. So
you have to bring back the enthusiasm. You should think back on
things that made you enthusiastic. It is like in a marriage. When you
just got married, you were happy. After a while, when reality sets in,
you realise that being married is not as good as you thought it to be.
It is the same with the practice. When you first started, you had
this noble idea of becoming a Buddha, but when you actually
do the practice, you start running into all sorts of obstacles, you
realise that it is not as easy as you think. You just have to accept
the reality and try to persevere with your practice. Keep pushing
yourself. Keep doing the basics. It is like learning the alphabets.
Just keep learning the alphabets first. Don’t skip steps. Right now,
you have to maintain mindfulness. Eventually it will lead you to
samādhi. When you have samādhi, it will eventually lead you to
wisdom. These are the basics.
Sāmaṇera: I have the craving to go back to the peaceful state.
— 18 —
3 | Sāmaṇera from Australia, February 22nd, 2016
Than Ajahn: Craving is not good. You just know that you have to
get back to it, but do not crave for it. You just know how to get back
to it and just do it.
Sāmaṇera: How important is mettā in order to get samādhi?
Than Ajahn: Mettā is the basic quality that you have to maintain
at all times. You should be friendly and be kind towards all living
beings. This is the basic ingredient you should always have in your
mind. Remind yourself that: ‘I have to be kind and be friendly. Even
when I am in a bad mood, I have to be kind and be friendly’. Try
to force a smile out even when you don’t feel like smiling. If you
don’t have mettā, your mind becomes cruel and full of hatred. It is
difficult to calm your mind if your mind is cruel and full of hatred.
Everybody who walks this path must always maintain this mettā
quality, by trying to reflect that we are all human beings, and we
are all subjected to aging, sickness and death. There is enough
suffering in each one of us. There is no point to add more suffering
upon each other. So, it is better to forgive each other. You have to
think in this way. Then, your mind will be peaceful and calm and
you will be able to maintain mindfulness.
Mettā is the first quality, the first paramῑ (perfection). When you
have mettā you can do charity. When you are kind and friendly
then you will be happy to give. Once you can give, then you can
maintain the precepts. If you can maintain the basic precepts, you
can then move up to maintain the higher precepts — the eight
precepts. When you can maintain the eight precepts, you can
meditate. When you can meditate, you can develop pañña
(wisdom). These are the steps to do in order to develop wisdom.
— 19 —
Just take each difficulty you encounter a day at a time. Don’t think
too far ahead. The future is still far away. Just do what you have
to do today. Reading books is good when you don’t know what to
do. Once you know what to do, then you can lay down the books
and do what you have to do.
Sāmaṇera: Is it better to stick to one kammaṭṭhāna or to develop

different methods of meditation?
Than Ajahn: Basically, you have to develop the four protections

or kammaṭṭhānas: Mettā is one of them; the others are the
contemplation of death, reflection of the Buddha and contemplation
of asubha. These are the four kammaṭṭhānas that you should be
fluent with. You should have them in your grasp, so that you can
use them when you are in trouble.
When you are mad, you use mettā. When you lose faith, you think
of the Buddha. When you have sexual desire, you use asubha. And
when you become reckless, you think of death. These are the four
basic kammaṭṭhānas you should develop as part of your practice.
You also need to have a main kammaṭṭhāna to calm your mind. If you
like reciting mantra then you use ‘buddho’. If you like ānāpānasati,
you use ānāpānasati. If you like to focus on your body activity, you
focus on your body activity. You use the other kammaṭṭhānas to
fix problems. When you are angry, you use mettā. When you lose
faith, you don’t have desire to practise, you think of the Buddha.
When you have sexual desire, you think of asubha.
Sāmaṇera: Reflecting on asubha can be easy if sexual desire is

caught early but it can be rather difficult when it proliferates too
far into the momentum and the mind doesn’t want to think about
asubha. You will have to wait until it subsides.
— 20 —
3 | Sāmaṇera from Australia, February 22nd, 2016
Than Ajahn: So you should develop mindfulness because it will

stop all your bad thoughts. Ok.
End of discussion.
— 21 —
Laypeople from Malaysia
4
February 25th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Do you know why you have to make dāna, to give
your money away? Money is poison. It is better not to have any
money.
Layperson: It is very difficult to give it away. It is like a love potion.
Than Ajahn: Money is only good when it is used for buying food
and basic necessities of life. If you buy other things, it is like you
are buying drugs, buying addiction. Money is only good for taking
care of your body. If you use money to buy happiness, it is like
using money to buy drugs, buy alcohol or cigarettes. They are
addictive. After you get hooked, you cannot stop the addiction, you
have to keep on having them. Whenever you cannot have them,
you become unhappy. So, the Buddha said that you should not use
money in this way; you should give your money away to charity
because it makes you happier.
This time you come to Thailand and have offered dāna to different
temples. These are the proper way of spending money, because
it makes you happy. When you give things away, other people can
benefit from the gifts you gave them. You know they are happy and
— 23 —
you are also happy because you know that you have done some-
thing good for other people. You don’t get the same feeling if you
go sight-seeing or go to other tourist attractions. Going sight-seeing
gives you more desire to go for more sight-seeing, to go for more
places, and no matter how many places you’ve gone to, you will
feel like you want to go again because it is never fulfilling. But giving
dāna can make you feel full, make you feel that you don’t have to
go to other places. This is the purpose of charity or dāna, to make
use of your money wisely, to benefit your mind, to get rid of your
addiction to using money in the wrong way, and it can also reduce
your desire of wanting to have more money.
If you make money and you give your money away for charity, you
will then think of the purpose of making money. The reason why
you make money is because you want to spend it on yourself, but
spending money this way is harmful to your mind because it keeps
you having to make more money so that you can spend more
money. The result is never fulfilling. Your mind is never fulfilled if
you are using your money this way. If you use money in a way of
charity, it can make you feel content, make you feel happy, then
it makes you feel that you don’t have to work so hard to make so
much money anymore.
When you don’t have the desire to make money then you will have
the time to practise Dhamma, to keep the sīla: the five-precepts,
the eight-precepts, and to meditate. You will then find the real kind
of happiness. This kind of happiness is fulfilling. It will make you
content. It will make you have no desire to have anything, to be
anything or to want anything. You are happy with yourself, you can
leave everything alone, let go of everything.
Right now, you cannot let go of things because you depend on them;
you cannot depend on yourself. You have to depend on money to
make you happy. You have to depend on other people to make you
— 24 —
4 | Laypeople from Malaysia, February 25th, 2016
happy. You have to depend on other things to make you happy. If

anything goes wrong with them, you feel unhappy. But if you have
happiness from meditation practice, you don’t care about what
happens to other things or other people because you don’t have
to rely on them anymore. Even your body will not be a concern to
you. You will not be afraid when the body gets old, gets sick or dies
because once you can find happiness from meditation, you don’t
need to rely on the body to make you happy. You use mindfulness
to make your mind peaceful, calm and happy. This is the right way
to create pure happiness, without sadness accompanying it.
The other kind of happiness that you go for now is all

accompanied by unhappiness. There will be a time when you are
unable to find happiness this way, like when you run out of money,
when your body is too weak or when you are sick. You cannot find
the happiness you used to have. There are times when things or
people are no longer with you, either they die or they disappear,
then the happiness that you get from them will also disappear
and the happiness is replaced with sadness. When you lose your
loved one, how do you feel?
Layperson: Very sad.
Than Ajahn: That’s right. That’s the kind of happiness you go after,
the kind of happiness that will be followed by sadness. This will be
the same with everything in this world, whether it is people, things,
places or anything. They will give you happiness but eventually they
will disappear from you then what follows is sadness.
If you don’t want to have this kind of sadness then you must give
up this kind of happiness and seek the other kind of happiness, the
kind of happiness that the Buddha has discovered, the happiness
from peace of mind, from meditation, from controlling your mind
with mindfulness. You need mindfulness to stop your thoughts. Your
— 25 —
thoughts are the ones which make you feel hungry, desiring for
things. If you can stop your thoughts then the desire will disappear
and you will find peace and contentment.
Layperson: Normally, we feel guilty if we don’t take care of our

family.
Than Ajahn: That’s the consequence of being born. The reason

why you are being born is because you have the desire to find
happiness through your body. Once you have a body, you will have
other obligations. You have your father and your mother to look
after. You have your own body to look after. You have a wife and
children to look after. All these are due to the desire to use the body
to make you happy. For example, you want to have a wife, right?
If you don’t need to have a wife then you won’t have the obligation
to look after your family.
Right now you are in a vicious cycle. So, you have to reverse the
process like what the Buddha did. The Buddha said that ‘I have to
get out of this circle, I have to get out of my family’. You can leave
your family alone. They can continue on with their lives. What will
happen if you die today? Life goes on for them, right? You just do
like what the Buddha did. You can go away and stay in the temple
where nobody knows where you are and try to be like a monk. You
just assume that you are dead. Like you have an accident or you
have a cancer and you die. Your family will just go on with their
lives. If you leave them some money, then there is no problem. If
you don’t take any money with you and you leave all the possession
for them, then they will go on living their lives.
Layperson: What about if they are in a bad state, like if they are
not able to take care of themselves?
— 26 —
Than Ajahn: How do you know that they cannot take care of
themselves? What will happen if you die today? If you die today,
whether they can take care of themselves or not is not your
business anymore, right? If you want to ensure that they can take
care of themselves then you prepare some money for them. You
teach them to do things for themselves so they don’t rely on you
so much, tell them to go to work to earn money for themselves.
This is the way to get what the Buddha got.
Everybody has to do the same things. Before we become a monk,

we were like you. We had obligations, we had parents, and we had
duties. If you think hard enough, these things are not important.
What will happen if you die today? Those people who are still living
will somehow manage to go on. If they cannot go on, they will also
die. Anyway, even if they can go on living, eventually they will have
to die in the end. It is just a matter of time. That’s all.
If you want to get out of this cycle of rebirth then you have to do
what the Buddha did. You have to find another kind of happiness
which can stop your desire to use the body as the means to find
happiness. The reason why you come back and are reborn again is
you need the body – you want to see, you want to hear. You need
a body to see, to hear. If you meditate and have another kind of
happiness, then you won’t need the body. Once you don’t need the
body, you don’t have to come back and be reborn again.
It is like when you don’t need to use a car, then you don’t have to
buy a car. The reason why you want to buy a new car is you still
want to use a car. If you can stay at home, don’t have to go out
of the house, have all the things you need in the house, it’s better
to stay at home. Why do you have to go outside of the house if
you have everything you need at home? The problem is you don’t
have anything in the house, so you have to go out. When you want
to go out, you need to have transport. If you have everything in
— 27 —
Penang, you don’t have to come here. If you have peace of mind
and happiness inside yourself, you won’t need to come all the way
from Penang to here. You will actually think, ‘why do I need to travel
here?’ You will think that way because you won’t get as much as
what you can get when you are in Penang: peace of mind.
The happiness that you can get from meditation is a better kind
of happiness than the happiness that you find from going outside
of the mind. The happiness you find through your body is not as
good as the happiness that you get from your meditation. But if
you haven’t gotten to that point yet, you still need to use the body.
That’s why you still have to keep coming back again and again.
However, coming to Thailand is also good because you come to
the right place to get the message which tells you what you have to
do. Once you get the message, you can carry on and do what you
were told to do. One day you won’t have to come here anymore.
So, right now, you have to reduce the other kind of happiness. Try
to develop this new kind of happiness. The only way to do this is
to choose one way but not the other way. You can’t do both. If you
do both, you have to reduce the old way and do more of the new
way, more of the way the Buddha recommended you to do. For
example, at least once a week you take the eight-precepts, stay
at home, don’t go outside, don’t use the body to find happiness for
you. You don’t go to parties or to entertainment venues. You don’t
do any kind of activity that uses the body. You go to stay in a quiet
place either in the house or stay in the temple, where you will not
be disturbed by the sight, sound and smell which can distract your
concentration.
Be alone and try to concentrate your mind, focusing only on one

object like repeating the mantra ‘buddho, buddho’ or watch your
bodily activities. Don’t think about anybody, or anything. Just try to
be with the body or with the mantra, ‘buddho’. If you can do this,
— 28 —
you will not think about other things. When you don’t think about
other things, your mind will have no desire for anything.
Desire only comes up when you think about something. If you think
of food, then suddenly you have the desire to eat. If you think of
people, you have the desire to go and see them, to get in touch
with them. If you don’t think about other people, then you don’t
have the desire to do anything with them. This is the way to bring
your mind inside and to become peaceful and happy. You have
to stop your mind from going outside. When you think, the mind
has already gone outside. When you think of Penang, in couple
of days you will be back there. If you don’t think of Penang, you
might stay here for another year. You would forget about Penang. If
you keep thinking about Penang, about your business, your family,
your property, then you will say, ‘oh, I have to go back to look after
my property, my friends, my family. I have obligations’. These are
all in your thoughts. If you can stop thinking about all these, you
can stay here with me. That’s the goal of meditation – to stop your
mind from thinking. When you stop thinking, your mind becomes
empty, peaceful and happy.
The next step after you can stop thinking about taking care of
them is to stop thinking about everything else by using the truth.
The truth is: everything is impermanent. Everything will disappear
from you. Your property, your family, your friends, your body, all will
disappear one day. They don’t last forever. So why cling to them?
What for? If you cling to them, when you have to lose them, you
feel sad. If you don’t cling to them, when they leave you or when
they disappear, you don’t feel sad, because you don’t need them.
Layperson: Some of the things you just said create fear.
Than Ajahn: You feel the fear because you want to have them
with you. You don’t want to accept the truth. Right now, your mind
— 29 —
is clouded by delusion. The delusion is everything will last forever,

but nothing lasts forever. When you first think about impermanence,
your mind will reject it. It makes you feel sad, feel afraid. If you can
force yourself to keep thinking about it, eventually you will accept
the truth. When you accept the truth, you will feel peaceful, because
you do not resist the truth anymore. You must first calm your mind.
This is the only way to do it, in order for you not to feel sad. When
your mind is calm, the resistance is reduced.
The resistance is your defilements, your delusions and desires

to have things to last forever. Truth is nothing lasts forever. Even
this planet doesn’t last forever. One day this planet will become
like Mars when all the atmosphere disappears. Right now, we are
having global warming. Who knows that one day the temperature
will be so high and it will burn everything on this earth, then this
earth will become like Mars. There are no trees, nothing left. Or
maybe Mars was like our earth before, like our planet. This is the
way things are.
Everything is eventually going to be destroyed. So, don’t cling to

them. Accept them. It doesn’t matter because the truth is, you are
not going to be destroyed with them. This is the secret you don’t
know because you don’t know who you are. Your delusion tells you
that you are the body. The truth is you are not the body. You are
the mind. That’s the truth, but you don’t know that. You can only
see this if you meditate.
If you meditate, when your mind becomes completely calm and

concentrated, the mind will separate from the body. You will then see
that the ‘one who thinks’ and the ‘one who knows’ is not the body.
So, whatever happens to the body, doesn’t happen to the ‘one who
knows’. Right now, there are two persons in you: your body and the
‘one who knows’, the ‘one who thinks’. You don’t know the other
guy (the ‘one who knows’) exists, although you are using him all the
— 30 —
time. When you talk, it is not the body that talks; it is the mind that
talks. The mind tells the body to say what the mind wants to say.
You don’t know this. Nobody knows this, except the Buddha. So
the Buddha told us not to be afraid of anything because everything
will eventually disappear from you. Things are not you. They don’t
belong to you. You don’t disappear with them. Sometimes people
are afraid that if they go to Nibbāna, everything will disappear and
they will also disappear. No! Everything disappears, except you.
The mind is always there. It’s just like your mind and my mind right
now: they are there.
Your mind is not happy because it doesn’t have the peace of mind
to make it happy, so it has to use the body to make it happy. That’s
why it has to change from one body to another body. Once this
body dies, you go and look for a new body. You then come back
and do the same things again. This is the things that you have been
doing for many millions [of] times. You keep doing this again and
again. You are alternating between being happy and being sad. If
you don’t want this again, then you have to do what the Buddha
did. You have to give up the body. You have to stop using the body
to find happiness for you. You use meditation to make you happy.
If you can do that once, you can do it all the time. No matter how
old you are, you can still meditate. Even if you are sick in bed, you
can still meditate.
Meditation does not rely on the body. It depends on your

mindfulness and wisdom or insight. Insight means you are seeing
the truth all the time. Right now, you don’t see the truth, so it makes
you deluded and makes you cling to things that cause you to be
unhappy. If you know that the thing you catch is a snake, will you
hold on to it? You will let it go, right? If you think it is an eel, you
will think that it is a good food, you will keep it. If you know that it
is a cobra, then you will let it go, right?
— 31 —
Everything you cling to is like a poisonous snake, but you think it is

an eel; it is the food for you to eat. So you feel sad with everything
you have because you think everything is an eel and you have to
let the eel go. But one day, everything has to leave you or you will
have to leave it. This is the insight that you have to use to teach your
mind – to see things as they are, not as what you think they are.
You think that everything is good, everything lasts forever,

everything belongs to you, but the truth is everything is not good;
everything doesn’t last forever; everything doesn’t really belong to
you – sooner or later things can be gone any time, any day. If you
think in this way all the time, you will be able to let go. And when
things leave you, you won’t feel sad. However, before you can
let go, you must have the happiness inside first, so you don’t have
to rely on things outside you. Right now, you depend on your family,
your money, your body, to provide you with the happiness you want,
but one day they will not be able to make you happy.
Try to do what the Buddha taught you to do. Try to stop using
money in the wrong way. Give your money to charity. Stop wasting
your time looking for more money. You just need to make enough
money to look after your body and your family, so that you can have
the time to meditate, you can have the time to stay in the temple.
When you first start, you might do it once a week. When you
progress in your practice, then you might want to do it more often,
like two days a week, or three days a week. Eventually you might
want to be ordained to become a monk so that you can have all
the time to make your mind peaceful and happy.
So, do dāna (charity) and keep the sīla (precepts). You have to
keep the precepts because if you break the precepts, it will make
you unhappy. When you steal, you cheat or you tell a lie, you don’t
feel good. Try not to break the precepts. After you can keep the
— 32 —
five precepts then you can move up to keep the eight precepts.
Once a week, you keep the eight precepts and on the other days
you can keep the five precepts. You can do this on a gradual basis.
You don’t have to do this all at once, like suddenly become a monk
straight away. You won’t be able to do it.
It is like running a marathon. When you go for running for the

first time, you won’t be able to run a marathon. People who can
run a marathon, start by running for one kilometre and gradually
increase to two kilometres and so on. They keep on increasing the
distance to build up the strength. It is the same way with training
the mind. You have to build up your mental strength – by giving up
your money, keeping more precepts, practising more meditation.
You have to start from the point where you are capable of doing.
When you start, you don’t want to go to the level where the monks
do or the Buddha did because that’s not possible. First you have
to be a temporary monk, or be a monk once a week, like keeping
the eight precepts, staying in the temple. This is similar to being
a monk for one day. The Buddha wants you to taste the food first
before you order the food. Once you taste it and you find that it
tastes good, then you say, okay, ‘I want to have the whole plate’.
After you try this for a while, then you will find out that this is good.
It is better than what you used to have. Then you might want to
become a monk or a nun.
So remember: dāna, sīla and bhāvanā. These are the steps you
have to take. This is the path to true happiness, the path to the
cessation of all suffering, the path to the cessation of rebirth. It is
dāna, sīla and bhāvanā.
Layperson: I read the comment from an American millionaire who

said that money is indispensable, so we accept it because we think
it is the necessity of life. We think that to maintain the body, we
— 33 —
need the house and also need all other things. But Luangphor said
we shouldn’t cling to them, because we cannot take them with us.
Than Ajahn: Yes, money cannot buy you happiness. Money can
only buy you addiction. Stop looking for money. If you have enough
to eat, then start looking for happiness inside, by doing meditation.
End of discussion.
— 34 —
Layperson from Canada
5
April 21st, 2016
Layperson: OK. I’m just interested in something like the practice

of ānāpānasati and awareness.
Than Ajahn: Mindfulness. This is the basic. You should start with
mindfulness and do a lot. If you have mindfulness, then you’ll find
peace.
Layperson: Yes. That’s where I find the answers to most of the

questions.
Than Ajahn: There are a lot of questions that are not necessary to
have an answer. Once you know how to make your mind peaceful,
you’ll get all the answers.
Layperson: Now I kind of think that there may be many things

like working with technology or so many things you can do in
California to start up but still I just think the most important thing
is peace inside.
Than Ajahn: No matter how much you have acquired externally,

they have nothing to do with your peace of mind.
— 35 —
Layperson: Right, yes.
Than Ajahn: They don’t contribute to peace of mind but they tend
to contribute to more chaos of the mind. The mind becomes more
restless, more agitated because the more you have, the more you
have to look after. And you cannot really look after different things
that you have anyway because they are in the impermanent world;
they come and go. But you forget this reality, this truth. You keep
thinking that what we have will last, or be with us all the time.
Layperson: Yes, even if you know it, it’s always so subtle.
Than Ajahn: And because you cannot find happiness within

yourself, you have to go looking for happiness outside of yourself.
So, you have to reverse that process. Try to find happiness within
yourself. Once you do that, once you find that, then you don’t need
to go after things. That’s the happiness you have within yourself.
It’s long-lasting, permanent. For the happiness you get from other
things, it is only temporary and you have to keep on looking, getting,
acquiring, pursuing. No matter how much you have, you still don’t
feel fulfilled. But if you find peace of mind, then you’ll find fulfilment.
That will make you feel you don’t need anything. Meditation is the
path towards that fulfilment.
Layperson: Yes, that’s what I find.
Than Ajahn: And you need to be alone, need to be in the

environment, away from all the distractions and tension.
Layperson: Right, and sometimes I should do this.
Than Ajahn: Also, you have to control your mind and your thinking.
Stop it from thinking because most of your thoughts go through
(are always about) acquiring, possessing, pursuing things.
— 36 —
5 | Layperson from Canada, April 21st, 2016
Layperson: In the practice, sometimes it’s like you can observe,

say with ānāpānasati, you’re focusing your mind on it and another
time you’re just more like you’re watching, right?
Than Ajahn: When you’re watching your breath, it’s usually when
you sit in meditation.
Layperson: OK.
Than Ajahn: But at other times when you are not in meditation,
you have to control your thoughts. So, you sometimes might have
to use a mantra to replace your thought. If you use a mantra,
you cannot think about other things. Or you can watch your body
movement, every movement of your body.
Layperson: And maybe things like anicca or something like that.”
Than Ajahn: “If it can stop you from thinking. If you’re thinking of
anicca, it might stop you from being ambitious, from wanting this
and that.
Layperson: OK. So, your thoughts might otherwise be going into

craving or the like.
Than Ajahn: Right, but be very careful because if you use your
thought, sometimes it can backfire; instead of thinking to stop
thinking, thinking can create more thinking.
Layperson: OK.
Than Ajahn: You have to think (on a subject that can leads you)
to stop thinking. But if you think and you’re craving for more
thoughts, then you shouldn’t do that.
— 37 —
Layperson: Yes, sometimes even for my work, I need to keep

thinking about it and it’s seriously exhausting.
Than Ajahn: It’s better just to focus on something else. If you’re

sitting, focus on your breath. But if you’re moving or doing
something, just watch your body movement. Don’t think.
Layperson: Just be certain with the truth of the moment.
Than Ajahn: Yes, just be aware. Just be aware of what’s going

on but don’t criticize, don’t make comments. We normally like to
make comments about things, this and that, good and bad, right
and wrong, commenting or making mental judgment and mental
thought.
Layperson: Right.
Than Ajahn: The mind should just be aware, be an observer

rather than being a critic. But if you cannot stop it from criticizing,
analysing, then you will need (repetitive recitation of a) mantra
to stop it. You need a mantra so that you cannot criticize or think
about this and that.
Layperson: OK. That’s it. Keep the mind from working.
Than Ajahn: Yes, you can use ‘anicca, anicca, anicca’ or ‘buddho,
buddho, buddho’ or any other words that you find comfortable, that
can stop you from thinking or just watch your movement, your body
movement. When you walk, just watch your feet, left, right, left, right.
So, the goal is not to think about anything. If you have something
to concentrate on, then you cannot think about other things. It’s
because you have nothing to tie your mind to, so your mind will
think about this and that. If you let your mind go on thinking, then
you will not be able to enter into samādhi or calm.
— 38 —
Layperson: So, that’s in general what you should be doing all

the time for 24 hrs.
Than Ajahn: Yes, mindfulness.
Layperson: Mindfulness.
Than Ajahn: Control your thoughts, stop your thinking in all body
postures: sitting, walking, standing, and sleeping (lying down) in
your waking hours. From the time you open up your eyes to the
time you go to sleep, try to have a controller. Control your thoughts,
stop your thinking, breaking your thoughts, stop thinking.
Layperson: When necessary, maybe thinking about a plan or

otherwise?
Than Ajahn: But if you’re in the meditation, what is there for you
to think about except when you drink or when you go to the toilet.
But other than that, you don’t need to have any plan. Unless you’re
working, then you have to. You have to think about work, think about
things you have to do; then you have to stop your mantra. But be
mindful of your thinking. Think only about what you have to think.
When you have finished thinking, then stop. Don’t think aimlessly.
Don’t fantasize. Don’t dream.
Layperson: Yes, I think most of my life has been like that. Like in
the past, I’ve been fairly serious for the past 12 years. I practiced
the precepts. I had some problems, I don’t know, with stress or
different, emotional things.
Than Ajahn: It certainly and surely arises from your desires.
Layperson: Right.
— 39 —
Than Ajahn: The desires for things, to be like this or like that.
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: When you don’t get what you want, you become
stressful.
Layperson: Yes, too many things. Yes, desires.
Than Ajahn: So, we have to reduce our desire to the basics, just
the four requisites of life: food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. For
other things, you should try to let go. Don’t desire them because
they only contribute to more stress. You might have some happiness
from them when you first acquire them but then you will be stressful
because you will have to look after them. And if you lose them,
you’ll become unhappy. And then you want to have a replacement,
so go looking for it. That’s the kind of things you should not desire.
You should desire for a place to meditate, and be peaceful, and
not have to rely on so many things.
Layperson: Right, very simple.
Than Ajahn: Just rely on the basics, something that you need to
have, like food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Once you have
that, then you should change your goal towards meditation. It will
give you the real happiness, the happiness without stress. If you go
towards other things like fame and fortune, money, and so forth, it
will create stress because these things are not something that you
can hold on all the time. Sometimes they come; sometimes they go.
When they go, you feel bad. When they stay with you, you worry
about how long they will stay with you. So, you’d better not rely
your happiness on these things. You should rely your happiness
on meditation because once you know how to meditate, you can
always do it. It is more reliable than money and fame.
— 40 —
Layperson: Yes, I think sometimes because of my usual worldly

things (craving), when I meditate I sometimes feel a little weak
(mentally or emotionally). I think maybe it is because I desire certain
things or something like that.
Than Ajahn: Because you cannot control your desire or your

thoughts. Your desire needs to have your thoughts. That’s the
means. You have to think of something before you can desire or
crave for it. When you think about food, then you start craving for
food. When you think about holiday destination, then you start to
desire to go to that destination. When you can stop thinking, then
your desire cannot work.
Layperson: OK, even though you feel a little certain amount of

emotion for some physical things arising from thought?
Than Ajahn: Yes, first the thought, then the emotion arises after
your thoughts. You first think of something, then followed by this
emotional desire towards that thing. You want to have it. Or when
you think of something you don’t like, you want to get rid of it.
When you cannot get rid of something that you dislike, you then
become stressful. Thus, it’s better not to have anything, not to do
(be involved) with anything. Try to bring your mind inside. Stop
thinking and your mind will not do anything. Your thought connects
you to the things outside yourself. If you stop thinking, then there
is no connection and when you don’t think about your work or your
home, they don’t exist, right? But when you start to think, then they
come to existence right away. And then all kinds of emotion arise
from your thought, thinking about those things. So, to get the mind
to become blank and peaceful, you need to stop thinking. Also, you
need mindfulness, whichever way you can use it. Mindfulness can
arise by many different means, by repeating a mantra, by focusing
on your body movement or when you sit, concentrate, focus on your
— 41 —
breathing, on your breath. These will stop your mind from thinking.
Try it because, if you can stop your mind from thinking, you’ll find
peace and happiness.
End of Discussion.
— 42 —
Bhikkhuni from Australia
6
May 3rd, 2016
Than Ajahn: What do you want to say? What do you want to know?
Bhikkhuni: What is your main teaching?
Than Ajahn: Did you read my book?
Bhikkhuni: I haven’t really finished it, quite a few books.
Than Ajahn: Read the book and then you’ll know. The main
teaching is mindfulness. You have to first develop mindfulness.
Without mindfulness, it’s like driving a car without a key. How can
you start a car without a key, right? You have to get a key to get
into the car to start the car in order to drive it around. You need
to have a key, right? In order to get to Nibbāna, you need to have
mindfulness. You first have to develop mindfulness, so when you
sit you can have samādhi. After you have samādhi and when you
contemplate on the Four Noble Truths, you can then get rid of your
craving and desire which is the cause of your dukkha.
Bhikkhuni: So, if someone is mindful and mindfulness is all you

need, how important is it to live the monastic life? Does it mean
monastic life is just something extra to people?
— 43 —
Than Ajahn: Monastic life is the place to develop mindfulness,

the higher kind of mindfulness, not the ordinary kind. You can
have the ordinary kind in your daily life but you need a higher
kind of mindfulness. You have to be totally focused on only one
thing continuously. When you sit you have to fully focus on your
breath only and nothing else. The other part of the monastic life is
to restrain you from spending your time on things that are harmful
to you, like breaking and not maintaining the five, eight or the ten
precepts. This is to protect you from going in the wrong direction.
You want to go to Nibbāna but if you can’t keep the eight or the ten
precepts, you’re going in the way of saṁsāra. So, more or less, it
prevents you from going in the wrong direction and also helps you
to develop the path to enlightenment, the path to Nibbāna. That’s
what monastic life is about.
So, once you are in the monastery, what you need to do is to

develop mindfulness. Simply keeping the eight precepts is not
enough to take you to Nibbāna. Do you know the Noble Eightfold
Path? Sammā kammanto, sammā vācā, sammā ajīvo are
pertaining to the eight precepts. The other five are sammā sati,
sammā samādhi, sammā vāyāmo, sammā ḍhiṭṭhi, sammā
saṅkappo. These are sati (mindfulness), samādhi (peacefulness)
and paññā (wisdom). So, you have to have the complete eight
factors in your path when you practice. You keep the precepts, so
you have the tools: sammā kammanto, sammā vācā, sammā ajīvo
(Right livelihood). It’s the monastic life that will provide you with
these but after that you have to develop sammā vāyāmo which
means right exertion. So, what do you exert yourself on? You exert
yourself on developing mindfulness (sammā sati), sammā samādhi,
sammā ḍhiṭṭhi, sammā saṅkappo. That’s why you have to walk, sit
mindfully, be mindful all the time, from the time you get up to the
time you go to sleep.
— 44 —
6 | Bhikkhuni from Australia, May 3rd, 2016
You must continuously stop your mind from wandering, thinking

about this and that. You have to use something to stop it. You can
use a mantra, repeat ‘buddho, buddho,’ all the time, recite ‘buddho’
mentally, not verbally, or you can watch your body movement, every
movement, every action of your body. You keep watching it, focusing
on this action in order to keep your mind from going somewhere
else. If you cannot focus on your body, then use a mantra. If you
watch your body and you still are going to think about Australia,
think about Korea, think about places, people, and things, then
you need a mantra or chanting. You can mentally chant, ‘arahaṅ
sammā’, ‘svākkhāto’, ‘sutipanno’, ‘buddhaṅ saranaṅ kacchāmi,’ or
you can use, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ This will bring your mind
to the present, stop it from wandering around, going to the past or
going to the future. If your mind is not in the present, you cannot
become peaceful and calm. So, you need mindfulness to bring
your mind (to the) here and now, to be focused on one object, one
thing: the body, a mantra. When you sit, fix on your breath. If you
do this, your mind will enter into samādhi and your mind becomes
peaceful and calm, and will discover the real happiness, the
happiness that arises from concentrated mind, rested mind, still
mind, upekkhā mind.
Once you have this, you have the ability to resist your craving
and desire, and the goal is to resist or to destroy your craving
and desire because these are the causes that drive you around
saṁsāra, push you and drive you to go to take rebirths and cause
you to suffer (dukkha). But if you have strong mindfulness, you can
stop your desire, accompanied with your wisdom. The wisdom of
the Buddha shows us that to do what the desire wants us to do
is creating suffering for ourselves and not happiness. Wanting to
go here and there is desire, as it does not bring you peace and
happiness. It just brings you more desire. You will want to go to
more places. You have to sit down and concentrate your mind.
Once it becomes still, then you don’t want to go anywhere. You
— 45 —
find peace. You find contentment. Going around the world doesn’t
bring you any contentment; it brings you restlessness. So, you
have to find a place and stop your mind from going, to stop your
mind from wandering around.
But somehow, your mind can sneak out of the monastery, without
you being aware of it, you see. You think you have a good
reason to come out of the monastery, right? Actually, you’re
sneaking out of the monastery. You don’t want to be kept inside
the monastery because you cannot stop your mind from being
restless. That’s because you don’t have mindfulness. If you don’t
develop mindfulness, you have to keep running around doing all
sorts of things but you’ll never find peace and contentment from
what you do.
Bhikkhuni: By going out, I just want to find out more about things.
But I also want to stay in one place, developing concentration
only. I’m not restless and that’s possible. Sometimes I practised
meditation at a long retreat and I just want more. That’s it. But
from my short experience in an intensive retreat, half of the time
it’s peaceful but the other half the time my mind was crazier than
before.
Than Ajahn: That’s because you don’t have mindfulness to stop.
Bhikkhuni: So, how can I develop mindfulness?
Than Ajahn: Like I told you, keep repeating your mantra. Don’t
think. If you think, you become restless and you go crazy. If you
stick to the mantra, then your mind will be peaceful and calm. You’re
not sticking to your mantra.
Bhikkhuni: Normally, I do more on ānāpānasati.
— 46 —
Than Ajahn: Yes, ānāpānasati is only good when you sit but you
don’t sit all the time. You walk and you do things. Then, you need
a mantra to stop you from thinking.
Bhikkhuni: Is all thinking to be avoided?
Than Ajahn: Yes, as much as possible.
Bhikkhuni: At all stages?
Than Ajahn: That’s the first stage when you develop samādhi.
After you have samādhi, then you think in terms of wisdom. You
think in terms of anicca, dukkha, anattā. Whatever you want, you
say, ‘They are anicca.’ They are useless. They hurt you more than
help you. When you want something, the things that you want
will disappear one day because they are anicca. Try to see that
everything is anicca, anattā. ‘Anattā’ means you cannot control
them. You cannot tell them to be with you, to be good to you, to
serve you all the time. Sooner or later, they will rebel. They will no
longer serve you. They will no longer make you happy. So, you
have to look at everything as anicca, dukkha, anattā. What you
see, what you hear are all anicca, dukkha, anattā. So, you should
not delight in them; you should abandon them. You should let go
of them. Don’t go after them.
What you should go after is samādhi or internal happiness. This is

the way to get rid of your craving by thinking in the way of paññā.
Paññā is to think that everything is anicca, dukkha, anattā. But you
need to have samādhi to be able to let go of everything once you see
that everything is bad for you. Everything in this world is bad for the
mind. It will only make your mind unhappy sooner or later because
everything is impermanent. Everything will change; everything will
disappear. Even this body is anicca, dukkha, anattā. You have to
contemplate on the body also as anicca, dukkha, anattā, and not
— 47 —
just your body, but also everybody’s body: your father, your mother,
your sister, your brother, your husband, your son, your daughter
and everybody you love. You should contemplate that they’re all
impermanent. But that is the later stage. The first stage is to stop
your thinking first. If you cannot stop your thinking, you cannot direct
it to think in the way of paññā (wisdom) because you would like to
think in terms of kilesas (defilements). You will think this person is
my father, my mother because they are somebody belonging to
you. You want them to last forever but they don’t. When they die,
you become sad; you become unhappy.
But if you think that they are not your father, your mother, they are
just bodies. They are hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth,
and skin; no father, no mother in these bodies. Your father, your
mother, your sister are in the mind and not in the bodies. When the
bodies die, they don’t die with the bodies. They go with the minds
to the new bodies. So, there is no reason to be sad. Nobody dies.
Your father doesn’t die. Your mother doesn’t die. Your sister or your
brother doesn’t die. It’s their bodies that die, you see. The Buddha
said, ‘The body is anattā; it doesn’t belong to anybody. It belongs
to the four elements, comes from the four elements, and will go
back to the four elements.’ See, this is an element being taken in,
water element, air element, you see? The food that you take in is
the earth element. Rice comes from the earth, right? When it goes
into the body, it becomes hair of the head, hair of the skin, hair of
the body, nails, teeth, and so forth. They all come from the four
elements. When this body stops breathing, the four elements
separate. The water goes one way. The air goes the other way,
goes back to the air, and reconnects with the air. The water
reconnects with the water. All that is left is the earth element. When
you cremate the body all that is left are ashes and fragments of
bones, right? Where are you? You’re not here, nothing. There is
no ‘you’ in this body, nobody in this body. You know. OK.
— 48 —
Bhikkhuni: Thank you, Than Ajahn.
Than Ajahn: What’s your name? Come on up here.
Layperson: Billy.
Layperson: I think I just want to ask you where I should go and

learn.
Than Ajahn: Did you get my book yesterday?
Layperson: I had one, before I came here. They gave it to me.
Than Ajahn: So, you want to find a place that will support and help
you practice. You need a quiet place, a quiet environment and you
need, what you call, people who do the same thing, the people
who like to practice meditation. And you need a good teacher to
guide you. In Thailand, we go to a monastery because that’s the
place to develop meditation. You have right-minded people who
want to develop meditation. And in the monastery, there is also an
abbot who is usually also a teacher. Most of the forest monasteries
are established by a single learned monk who had to study with a
teacher in a monastery before he became a teacher or an abbot.
After he had practiced and developed himself until he was proficient
and became enlightened, then he would just go alone to establish
his own monastery. When people heard of his wisdom and his
monastery, they then flocked to him and it then becomes another
monastery. This is how the forest tradition monasteries are built
by each individual monk, who is enlightened. I’m not sure if he’s
fully enlightened or not, or at the very least capable of meditation.
Let’s put it that way. So, these are the forest monasteries that you
would like to go to practice in. But you have to look for the right
one for you.
— 49 —
Since you don’t speak Thai, you want to go to the monastery where
the teacher will speak your language. Or at least somebody there
can translate his teaching to you. Like Ajahn Sumedho. When
he went to Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Chah didn’t speak English and he
would speak Thai and they asked Ajahn Chah, ‘How do you teach
someone who doesn’t speak your language?’ Ajahn Chah said,
‘How do you teach a dog? You teach dogs by examples, you
see.’ Most of the teaching is really what your teacher does by his
action, by his examples. OK, there might be verbal things you
might need to say but if you cannot say, at least you can teach by
your physical actions. So, is that what you want to know?
Layperson: Is there a specific place you would recommend

for me?
Than Ajahn: Well, you’re going to Goenka.
Layperson: Ajahn, for 10 days. Ten days is not enough.
Than Ajahn: OK. I have an American monk. He’s Luangta Mahā

Boowa’s disciple, Ajahn Dick. Have you ever heard of his name?
Ajahn Dick Sīlaratano. He has just recently established a monastery
in Virginia, so you can look that up somewhere, maybe just write
Ajahn Dick Sīlaratano. He was formerly at Wat Pa Baan Taad.
He stayed with Ajahn Mahā Boowa for at least over 20 years until
Ajahn Mahā Boowa passed away. Ajahn Mahā Boowa is also my
teacher, so we are contemporary students of Ajahn Mahā Boowa.
And I heard he went back to Virginia. He came from Virginia.
Layperson: I lived in Virginia.
Than Ajahn: Oh, really?
Bhikkhuni: Sounds good.
— 50 —
Layperson: Yes, it sounds perfect.
Than Ajahn: In the forest, somewhere in Virginia, I’m not sure which
county or which… you just have to look around, search around. Is
that all you want to know?
Layperson: Thank you very much.
Bhikkhuni: When I heard that it is necessary to practice for

the whole life, I think I understand some of it and that is, it can’t be
just quickly done. So, it means that I need to dedicate my life for
the practice. I didn’t find the idea of saṁsāra believable because
that would mean it was just me wandering for eons of life and it
was kind of me that have been living and reborn. Conversely,
without believing in saṁsāra and rebirth and only using these
teachings for the practice, I find it practically difficult. I am trying to
understand saṁsāra and rebirth but it didn’t have any practicality
for my practice. Do you have any explanations or any advice that
may be helpful? Thanks so much.
Than Ajahn: To inspire you to practice?
Bhikkhuni: Yes, so that I can understand them and be

motivated to dedicate my life to the full purpose of exiting saṁsāra
that I didn’t actually see, which sounds like a scary idea.
Than Ajahn: Sometimes, I think there are things which you cannot
see by yourself so you have to have faith in somebody else. That’s
why faith in the Buddha is important in Buddhism.
Bhikkhuni: Yes, I was a Christian when I was young and so in a

way for me it’s a little bit difficult for me to believe in something
now. Just knowing that I could believe something in Christianity
doesn’t prove that it was the truth.
— 51 —
Than Ajahn: The difference between Buddhism and Christianity

is that what you believe in can be proven.
Bhikkhuni: Can be proven?
Than Ajahn: Yes, but you have to have belief in order to get started.
You believe in the doctor to help you to fix your ailment. When
you’re sick, you go to the doctor, right? So, you believe that he’s
capable of helping you to cure yourself. It’s the same way with
the Buddha. You go to the Buddha because you believe that he
can help you to cure your suffering. But suffering doesn’t have to
involve saṁsāra or any rounds of rebirth. As it is, you’re suffering
right now; you’re running into unhappiness or dissatisfaction all
the time, right?
Bhikkhuni: But even during the practice, when I encounter

difficulty or dissatisfaction in the monastic life, how do I deal with it?
Than Ajahn: Stick with your practice.
Bhikkhuni: To stay with the practice?
Than Ajahn: Yes, you’re not sticking with your practice. That’s why
you become attached, you see, by your own defilement. But if you
stick to your practice, then you’ll be protected. You’ll be protected
and you won’t feel unsatisfied or unhappy and things like that.
Bhikkhuni: Whole time?
Than Ajahn: Yes, mindfulness. You have to be mindful all the

time, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. If you
have mindfulness, you can stop your mind from creating all sorts
of dissatisfaction or restlessness. Mindfulness is the controller of
your thought. It’s like the braking system of automobiles. If you
— 52 —
drive a car without a brake, you cannot stop it. So, it’s gonna ride
and crash into something all the time. It’s the same with your mind.
If you don’t have mindfulness, your mind will run into sadness,
dissatisfaction all the time but if you have mindfulness, you can
stop the mind from being restless, being dissatisfied. That’s why
I said from the start that you need mindfulness. Just tell yourself
every time when you are dissatisfied or restless or sad, it means
you don’t have mindfulness. You let your mind go and become
involved with whatever you see, with whatever you think. You have
to bring your mind back, back to emptiness, to a mantra. A mantra
doesn’t have any meaning, doesn’t create any feeling itself. When
you think of your father and your mother, you start to worry about
them. Or you think of your financial status, you start to worry. So,
if you don’t think, there is no problem, right?
The problems are out there. They’re still there. But if you don’t think
about them, they don’t bother you. But when you start to think about
them, then they start to bother you. But right now, you’re here, so
the problems that you had previously don’t bother you right now
because you don’t think about them. It’s only when you go back
to face your own problems, then they start to bother you. Actually,
not even going back, just thinking about them bothers you. So, it’s
your thought that creates all these bad feelings inside you. And it’s
mindfulness and wisdom that will be able to entirely and completely
get rid of all these bad feelings. At least, mindfulness will stop you
from thinking about them and if you have wisdom, it will tell you
how to tackle them. You can tackle all problems, all difficulties. All
you have to do is let go of them. That’s all. Instead, you can’t let go
of them, you cling to them and you want them to be what you want
them to be, then sometimes they won’t be what you want them to
be. That’s when the problems start.
Like your body, you want your body to be young, strong, and healthy
all the time. But one day it’s not going to follow what you want. It
— 53 —
starts to be old, starts to get sick, starts to die but you can live with
that and still be happy if you know how to let go of the body. You
don’t want to let go of the body because you think the body belongs
to you. But thinking in this way causes you misery and suffering.
However, if you look at the body as something that doesn’t belong
to you, then you could care less about whatever happens to it, right?
What you should look at the body is, it doesn’t belong to you. You
got it from your father and mother and one day you have to send
it to the cemetery. That’s where the body goes, right? Thus, you
have to be prepared, teach your mind to let go of the body. You
don’t own the body. You rent the body. Let’s put it that way.
When you rent a car at the airport, you then return the car when
you go back to the airport to catch the flight. When you die, it’s
like catching a new flight to go to a new body, to go to a new
airport. When you get to the new airport you rent a new car. Your
body is like a new car that you rent from existence to existence
because you still want to travel. You still want to go here and there
because you’re not satisfied being where you are or you’re not
satisfied because your mind is restless. Thus, if you can stop your
restlessness, then you’re satisfied. You don’t want to go anywhere,
so you don’t have to go on renting a new car. When you have
to return the old car, then you stop renting a new car. You stop
travelling. You stop going to places because you’re happy. You’re
contented. You are not restless anymore. That’s what mindfulness
will do for you. It stops your restlessness or makes you contented.
But it can only make you stop your restlessness and make you
contented temporarily. Any time you lose your mindfulness, your
restlessness will come back.
If you want to get rid of your restlessness totally, completely, then

you need wisdom. You have to look at everything that you crave
for, that you want as bad for you, not good for you. The only thing
good for you is to be peaceful and calm. If you follow your craving,
— 54 —
follow your desire, you’ll keep following them like going after your
own shadow. You would never be able to catch your shadow that
is cast ahead of you. Every time you go after it, it keeps moving
away from you. Every time you desire something and even though
you get that thing, there will be something else you want. So, you
just keep chasing after your own craving.
Bhikkhuni: Even the desire to understand things is not helpful?
Than Ajahn: They are good desires, then, it’s good for you. The
desire to meditate, the desire to develop mindfulness, these are
good. The desire to practice Dhamma is good.
Bhikkhuni: What about the desire to understand what saṁsāra

is? What is rebirth?
Than Ajahn: Yes, for the desire to study the truth, it has to be
the truth and not just the convention of truth, but the real truth,
the absolute truth, you have to follow the Four Noble Truths that
you want to study. This is because once you understand the Four
Noble Truths, then you can apply your knowledge of the Four
Noble Truths to your advantage. You know the first Noble Truth
is harmful to you, you see. The Truth of suffering and the Truth
of the causes of suffering, are harmful to you, and the other two
Truths, the third and fourth ones, they are beneficial for you: the
Truth of the cessation of suffering and the Truth of the path to the
cessation of suffering. Right now, what you’re lacking is the path
to the cessation of suffering. That’s why you have to come and
develop the Noble Eightfold Path and in practice you need to start
from sīla, samādhi, and paññā.
So, you’ve already managed the first step; you can keep the
precepts, right? Then, you will have to go to the next step, develop
samādhi. In order to develop samādhi you must have
— 55 —
mindfulness. If you’re not mindful and you let your mind think
endlessly, you’ll never have samādhi. Samādhi is the result of you
stopping thinking. So, you have to somehow stop your mind from
thinking. So, you need mindfulness to reach this. Once you have
samādhi, then you can go to the next step, paññā or wisdom. Paññā
will tell you that everything that you crave and desire is bad for you.
They are dukkha, anicca, anattā. Why are they dukkha? Because
they are anicca: they don’t last forever. It might be good for you
when you first get it but when you lose it, it becomes dukkha. And
for everything you have, you will lose it one day sooner or later. So,
once you have samādhi, then you have to contemplate on anicca,
dukkha, anattā of everything. Everything is anicca, dukkha, anattā;
be it people, places, or things. They are all anicca, dukkha, anattā.
Bhikkhuni: So, is it good to think like that, even though I don’t

have samādhi yet?
Than Ajahn: Yes, but you cannot let go of them, you see. You
don’t have the strength to stop your attachment.
Bhikkhuni: No, it’s still there.
Than Ajahn: If you have samādhi, you can let go. Your mind will
be stronger than your attachment. That’s why you need to have
samādhi first. And samādhi will also give you happiness so that
you can let go the other kind of happiness.
Bhikkhuni: Yes.
Than Ajahn: But if you don’t have samādhi, then you’ll cling to
whatever you are attached to, even though it gives you suffering.
At least, you can still find some happiness from it.
— 56 —
Bhikkhuni: But the problem for samādhi is, it’s so difficult to

sustain.
Than Ajahn: I know. If it’s easy, everybody becomes enlightened.

That’s why you have to go into seclusion; that’s the only way to
develop mindfulness continuously because if you are around things
and people, then they’ll distract your concentration. But if you’re
alone, then there is only one thing that you fight with, which is your
own thought, you see.
Bhikkhuni: So, you recommend ordination to many people?
Than Ajahn: I highly recommend it if they can do it.
Bhikkhuni: You hardly recommend it.
Than Ajahn: I highly recommend it if they can do it. It’s not easy
because if you’re not ready for it, you’ll find life going to hell, you
know.
Bhikkhuni: More suffering.
Than Ajahn: Yes, more suffering. So, you have to have a certain
amount of mindfulness, enough for you to live a monastic life
because when you live in a monastic life, you have to give up your
sensual pleasures. You have to give up all these activities to your
five senses, no movies, no parties, no anything, you know. The only
one thing that you need to have is mindfulness in order to bring
your mind to peace and happiness inside. If you can do this, then I
think being ordained is the best thing. But you cannot achieve this
yet. You might try it. You might do it but you might not last. There
are many people who became monks, mae chees, or bhikkhunis,
and after a few years they raise the white flag (give up) because
they could not find peace, satisfaction and contentment because
— 57 —
their minds were still restless. They didn’t know how to develop
mindfulness. Mindfulness is simple. It’s just the persistence that
you need to keep sticking to your mindfulness.
Bhikkhuni: I find I’m very affected by the different situations and

it is not easy to sustain samādhi to the level that I’m contented of.
Than Ajahn: Yes, you need to be alone and constantly pushing

yourself to be mindful. Once you’ve achieved that, everything will
become easy. Once you have mindfulness, when you sit, you have
samādhi. When you contemplate on anicca, dukkha, anattā, you
can let go. That’s why I said the key to your practice is mindfulness,
like the key to your automobile. If you lose your key, then that
automobile means nothing to you because you cannot drive
it anywhere. It’s the same way with your mind. If you have no
mindfulness, you cannot drive your mind towards Nibbāna. It will
take you around in saṁsāra instead.
Bhikkhuni: Thank you for your talk.
Than Ajahn: Anything else? Where did you stay?
Layperson: I stay in a hotel.
Than Ajahn: How did you get here, motorcycle?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: Do you stay at a hotel in Pattaya?
Layperson: Yes, cheap and quiet inside.
Than Ajahn: We had some Americans here, one monk from Wat
Metta. He’s an American. He has been a monk for five years. He
— 58 —
practiced at Wat Metta in San Diego but he found the place not
quite good enough for his practice, so he wanted to come and
practice in a Thai forest monastery, so he came here to stay. He
has been here for several months and we have a few candidates
for ordination coming up on the 14th of May, one Korean-American,
Shen. He lives in New York and he is going to be ordained here
and another fellow from Brazil.
Bhikkhuni: Different nationalities.
Than Ajahn: Yes, we have quite many different nationalities. We

have an American monk, a Singaporean monk, a French monk,
a German monk, and we have one more American monk and
a Brazilian monk.
Bhikkhuni: Do they get English dhamma teachers or do they just

have to learn Thai?
Than Ajahn: They just read my books and if they have any
questions, they can come and ask me. And we have one Romanian
white robe, he’s from Romania and he planned to stay here for a
long time. He said he wanted to stay until the end of the year. Here
we just have a place for them to practice and they have to strive on
their own, to study on their own, and to practice on their own. But
if they have any difficulty or they don’t understand something, they
can ask me. But here nobody pushes you. In some monasteries,
you have strong teachers, some teachers who push you or will try
to drive you to keep practicing. But here, it’s up to you.
Bhikkhuni: Is it a normal Thai monastery style or is it just your style?
Than Ajahn: Well, basically it’s a normal forest monastery style

but the difference is the teacher. Since I’m not the abbot here.
I don’t consider myself as being the teacher.
— 59 —
Bhikkhuni: Aren’t you the abbot?
Than Ajahn: No, this place, the land, belongs to the Thai
Forestry Department; it belongs to the government and they allow
us to stay and practice dhamma. And the monks, all of us here, are
affiliated to the temple below and the temple below has an abbot.
But they appointed me to be the leader of the monks up here but
I’m not the abbot since it is not a monastery. It’s the government
land. So, this is like a place where the monks go wandering in the
forest and practice.
Bhikkhuni: Ajahn, you are talking about not going around. As

far as I understand, at least Ajahn Chah’s students are usually
encouraged to stay in the monastery for their first five years after
they’re fully ordained. But after that the Ajahn encourages them
to learn from different teachers before they settle down to maybe
one way of practice or one style of certain teachers, something
like that but I’ve got the impression from what you’re saying that
you actually don’t follow or you don’t agree with that kind of life
style of practice.
Than Ajahn: No, you stay with your teacher for five years. So, you
will eventually develop a certain style of practice within five years.
So you don’t need a new teacher for that. When you go away, it
doesn’t mean you have to go to different monasteries to look for
different teachings from different teachers. When you go away
from your monastery, it’s because when you stay in a monastery,
sometimes you’re burdened by the responsibility of the monastery
and you cannot practice full time. So, sometimes you want to
go away from the monastery to acquire secluded places, so you
can practice full time. That is the purpose of going away from the
monastery, to seek seclusion. But you have to be already in the
level in which you can protect yourself and teach yourself. At least
you should know what you need, what you want, what you should
— 60 —
do. See, at first you have to stay with the teacher because when
you’re newly ordained or when you start practicing, you don’t know
what you should or shouldn’t do. So, you stay with your teacher and
the teacher will tell you what to do, such as to develop mindfulness.
Once you are capable of controlling your mind even though you
cannot get rid of your craving, at least you can control your mind to
become calm and peaceful, not restless. You may find that you’re
burdened with some other responsibilities living in the monastery,
so you want to go away from these responsibilities to have more
time for your practice. Then, you ask for permission from your
teacher. If your teacher sees that you are capable and you really
want to be alone for your practice, then he will let you go. But if
you want to go just because you feel restless and you want to go
to some places else, he won’t let you go. If you insist on going,
he’ll say, ‘You can go but don’t come back.’
Bhikkhuni: What is the role of community life and solitude? Is

solitude always the best, and should we keep the community life
to as little as possible?
Than Ajahn: Community life is for the beginner when you’re still
in the hatchery stage. Like eggs, you need to be in hatchery to
help you. Once you get hatched, you want to develop on your own
because when you live in community, you tend to associate, tend
to have attachment, tend to have group activity, you know, which
will sometimes just disturb your practice. It’s because if somebody
gets sick, you have to go look after him. If he goes to the hospital,
you have to go visit him. If he dies, you have to go to the funerals,
and so forth. And you end up doing all these useless activities:
not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, to meditate. So, after
you have developed a certain basic ability, then if you think you can
practice on your own, you should seek for permission from your
teacher. You go to seek seclusion, not to go to other monasteries
or to other teachers. All teachers are the same. They teach the
— 61 —
Four Noble Truths. They teach you to meditate. They teach you to
develop mindfulness. They are all the same. So, you don’t want
to go to another teacher. If there are ten teachers, they teach you
the same thing, basically. Except you might have some problems,
some questions, and maybe your teacher cannot solve your
problems, then maybe you have to go and look for another
teacher who might be able to solve the problems for you but you
have to have a purpose, not just to have an excuse to go away,
you know.
Bhikkhuni: So, in terms of support, especially as a nun, the

requisite and the support may not be as readily available. And
with five years or vassas, still very junior, so to have support for
seclusion may not be readily available as opposed to going to
another monastery that may be conducive in terms of environment.
If it’s a monastery in the West, usually it is quite busy because
they are still building up but in Thailand many places are quite
settled down and very well supported.
Than Ajahn: If the purpose is for you to have a better place for
practice, it’s OK but you should seek for the permission from your
teacher first because sometimes the place you go might not be
good for you even though you might think it is good for you. I don’t
know. Your teacher should be the mentor. He is like your parents,
you see. He has more experience than you and he might be able
to see some of the problems that you might not see, that you might
encounter when you go. Once you have a teacher, you have to
respect him, his decision. But if you find that he is not the right
teacher or he is a wrong teacher, then it’s OK to break up, break
away from him also. So, there is nothing absolute in this thing. You
have to use (consider) many factors to decide which is best for you.
Bhikkhuni: So, the aim is always towards the end result as much
as you can…?
— 62 —
Than Ajahn: If you have time to practice.
Bhikkhuni: To find time to practice in solitude and everything else

is only if you are still learning and don’t know what you are doing,
then, you need a community. What about dhutaṅga? In the past,
where did all pilgrims go?
Than Ajahn: That’s what I mean. ‘Dhutaṅga’ is to go away, to seek

seclusion. When a monk goes dhutaṅga, he goes alone. Yes, just
to have seclusion and to have the time to practice all the time.
When you go dhutaṅga, you’re by yourself. When you go on an
alms round, it only takes 30 minutes or so. When you come back,
it’s another half an hour. Then, you are free to practice all day long.
But when you eat in a monastery, it might take three to four hours
before you finish your meal activity. And the surroundings are quite
busy. You get people coming and going. You get laypeople to give
food. You get laypeople to come in, stay and go. You have all sorts
of coming and going. If you live in the monastery, you might have
some responsibilities, to help with the monastery. So, you end up
doing a lot of work that you should not be doing. They are good
work but they are not good for you. That’s all. So, what is good for
you is to meditate.
Bhikkhuni: Can I ask, in your own experience, how long did you
study with your teacher and how long did you use your time in
seclusion until you felt ready to teach (all the time)?
Than Ajahn: Well, first when I looked for a monastery, I wanted

monasteries that had nothing to do with other activities except
meditation. And I was fortunate to run into Luangta Mahā Boowa.
He was very keen on meditation only, so he didn’t allow monks to
take invitations to go out and chant at people’s houses and things
like that. And so, monks who stayed with him had to stay with him
for five years and could not go anywhere except for emergency
cases. And when they were at the monastery, they were not
— 63 —
supposed to move around, not to associate with other monks.

Everyone lived separately and everyone did their own practice.
Any time he saw two monks together, then he would chase
them away and if they kept doing it, he chased them out of the
monastery. So, I found I was fortunate because when I was
ordained, I was looking for a place to practice because I’d already
practiced on my own and I already had a teacher.
My teacher was the Buddha. I read his books and his discourses
and I found that I could use his teachings to guide me, so what I
really needed was a monastery, some places where I could totally
concentrate on my practice. Before that I was a layperson and I
lived in the house, so the environment was not that good. It was
good enough. I lived alone, so I could practice on my own but
still there were other things lacking that you needed to have. You
needed the environment which could scare you, some hardships
that could very well increase the intensity of your practice, to make
you counter those hardships.
So, I decided to become a monk and I was looking for a monastery

where it encouraged only practice and I found this monastery, Ajahn
Mahā Boowa. After I stayed with him, I found him to be very helpful
in his teachings and there were so many things that I did not learn
from the book. There were things that I could not get from the book.
So, I stayed with him for nine rainy seasons and he allowed me
to visit my family only twice during these nine years. However, I
was not looking for my parents. I was looking for something else.
So, visiting my parents was not my concern. I did go because they
sent me news that they got sick, OK? I had to go and visit them to
show my concern, and so forth. But my concern was to take care
of my mind. So, I wasn’t concerned about going here and there and
looked for a teacher or something because I knew basically what I
had to do. All I need was just ‘the Four Foundations of Mindfulness’.
Have you searched that yet?
— 64 —
Layperson: I will read it.
Than Ajahn: Read that sutta and it will tell you exactly what you’re
supposed to do. Have you heard of it? Have you read it? Can you
follow the instructions in that sutta?
Bhikkhuni: I’ll try.
Than Ajahn: OK. The Buddha said, ‘You can do it.’ If you can
do what he told you in that sutta, he guaranteed you will be
enlightened within seven days; if not seven days, then seven
months; if not seven months, then seven years. Why don’t you
believe him? Why do you have to go and look for another teacher?
You’ve got the best teacher already. Who could be better than the
Buddha? It’s because you didn’t understand or you didn’t think
that you could do it, so the problem is you. You cannot apply it to
yourself, cannot apply his teachings to your practice. If you can
apply his teachings to your practice, then you don’t need anything
anymore. You need a place to practice. OK? Do you have anything
else to ask? So, I can give my time to other people.
Bhikkhuni: Thank you.
Than Ajahn: Have you ever heard of a book called, ‘A Guide

to Thailand Monasteries (Living Dhamma)’? It will list all the
monasteries in Thailand, the meditation monasteries, the kind of
teachers, the methods that they use, the kind of food you will get,
the kind of accommodation and so forth. Just search in the Google;
try to type ‘Thai monasteries.’ That’s how I found my temple, my
monastery before I was ordained. I got this book and read it all.
Bhikkhuni: I got that book three years ago.
— 65 —
Than Ajahn: Yes. That book was authored by an American monk

but he disrobed. His name’s Jack Kornfield. I’m not sure you have
heard of him. So, how many monasteries do you want to go?
Bhikkhuni: We are leaving tomorrow and then back to Perth

tomorrow.
Than Ajahn: How many monasteries have you been to?
Bhikkhuni: This is the third one.
Than Ajahn: Third one.
Bhikkhuni: Yes. We mostly stayed with Luangpor Ganha. Well,

because Ajahn Brahm actually in his talk mentioned his name that
he’s such a good monk, so some of us who learned from Ajahn
Brahm had the inspiration and recently a fellow, a bhikkhuni, who’s
quite old and had been sponsored by her son to Luangpor Ganha’s
temple. She said that, ‘Luangpor is nice. You can study with him.’
So, most of the time we were with Luangpor Ganha and then
towards the end, we just look for this place.
Than Ajahn: What other monasteries besides Luangpor Ganha’s?
Bhikkhuni: This one is Luangpor Uthai’s monastery which is quite

close to Luangpor Ganha’s. It’s on the way to Bangkok. We also
met Ajahn Jayasaro when he was giving a talk in his heritage. It’s
on the same area.
Than Ajahn: Did you visit Wat Ratanawan? That’s where Ajahn
Sumedho stays.
Bhikkhuni: Yes, we only visited it but they didn’t have anyone

on that day.
— 66 —
Than Ajahn: So, are you satisfied with your trip?
Bhikkhuni: Yes, it is very good. For me I am a beginner to the

Buddhist practice and I keep asking people, ‘Have you met an
Arahant? Do you know what an Arahant is like?’ So, this inspired
me. If I start practicing, I know what I can expect, the kind of person
I can become.
Than Ajahn: Do you live in Australia?
Bhikkhuni: No, I’m Korean but I lived in different places in Europe,

and in New Zealand more. Australia, I just visited.
Than Ajahn: Working or ….?
Bhikkhuni: Working and studying then.
Than Ajahn: So, where do you base now? In Korea or ….?
Bhikkhuni: Most recently I was in Korea for a year before I

studied in France for two years.
Than Ajahn: Were you always going to some places?
Bhikkhuni: I was working a lot in different places.
Than Ajahn: Have you found the right place to settle yet?
Bhikkhuni: No, there is no right place.
Than Ajahn: OK. I’ll give you the anumodanā.
End of Discussion.
— 67 —
Q&A
7
May 19th, 2016
Question: What is the significance of the Vesakha Days for us?
Than Ajahn: It is a reminder of the miracle that we have come

across, the miracle of meeting the Buddha, which only happens
once in a very long time. By having met a Buddha it gives us a
chance to learn the truth of ourselves, learn the truth about suffering,
learn the truth of the endless rounds of rebirth and learn the truth
about our ability to be able to cut off this endless round of rebirth.
So this is a very significant day: the day of the Lord Buddha’s birth,
his enlightenment and his passing away. We should constantly
remind ourselves that without him we will never be able to become
enlightened; we will not be able to stop this ceaseless and endless
round of rebirth.
Now we are fortunate to have come across his teachings. If we

apply his teachings to our practice, we will sooner or later become
enlightened and be free from all forms of suffering. This is the
significance of the Vesakha Puja day: it is for us to be thankful
that we have come across the Buddha and met his teachings. We
might not have met him personally but he said that his teachings
are his representative. The Buddha said that if you see Dhamma,
— 69 —
you see me. And before he passed away, he said, “After I die, my
teachings will be your teacher.” So, we have to study his teachings
or the Dhamma. We will then know what he told us to do and by
doing what he said we will become enlightened and be free from
suffering.
Question: Is it possible to attain jhāna without seeing nimitta?
Than Ajahn: Yes. Jhāna is not nimitta, but in the process of

attaining jhāna you might have some nimitta. Some people might,
while others might not. For some people after having attained
jhāna, they start to have nimitta and others don’t. The point is not
to become involved with nimitta because the goal of samādhi is to
keep your mind peaceful and calm. If you become involved with
nimitta, your mind will not be peaceful and calm and you might
not have the strength to resist your kilesas after you come out of
samādhi. However, if you have just plain samādhi during which your
mind remains peaceful and calm without any nimitta, then when
you come out of samādhi, you will have upekkhā.
Upekkhā means that your mind is free of greed, love, hate,

delusion or fear. So, when the mind sees anything, after it comes
out of samādhi, it will not be disturbed by whatever it sees because
it has upekkhā. However, this upekkhā is only temporary. After you
come out of samādhi for a while, upekkhā will gradually disappear
and you will have to go back to samādhi again, to regenerate this
upekkhā. You need upekkhā for the development of vipassanā
or wisdom. You want your mind to be able to see the truth of all
things, to see that everything is aniccā, dukkha and anattā. If you
see that everything is aniccā, dukkha and anattā, then you will have
nothing to do with them. You will get rid of them so that you will not
be disturbed by them. It is your attachment to them that causes
you unhappiness and sadness because it will one day leave you
or be separated from you.
— 70 —
7 | Q&A, May 19th, 2016
Question: If someone attains first jhāna, can he see ghosts?
Than Ajahn: Don’t worry about it, just keep on practising. The
jhāna that we want to get into is the fourth jhāna, and the way to
get the fourth jhāna is to focus your mind on one object only, either
your breath or mantra, ‘buddho, buddho’. Just keep focusing on
those objects, either your mantra or your breath. Don’t worry which
jhāna you are in, and don’t worry whether you see anything or you
don’t see anything.
If you have good feelings, don’t pay attention to them, just keep
on focusing (on your object of meditation) until your mind comes
to a sudden stop like falling into a well and then everything will be
empty and blank, and your mind will be peaceful and happy. That’s
the destination of samādhi practice. If you haven’t got into that
point, keep on focusing on your mantra or on your breath.
Question: Do lay people who have attained Stream Entry

(Sotāpanna) still have the desire to earn money, love his or her
partner and will they be bothered by mundane worldly life?
Than Ajahn: They will not be bothered by mundane worldly life

such as aging, sickness and death or separation from love ones
because they have seen the truth of aniccā, that everything rises
and ceases. Everything doesn’t belong to anyone; it belongs to
this earth. Everything comes from the four elements. However,
Sotāpannas have not gotten rid of their sexual desire; they still
have sexual desire and they still want to have a wife or a husband.
That’s because they have yet to develop asubha perception which
is the next step in the practice.
To develop asubha perception, they have to train themselves

such that every time they see a body, they see all the 32 parts of
the body. That is not just seeing the external part but also seeing
— 71 —
everything, including the skull, skeleton, heart, lungs, intestine,

liver, kidneys, blood and everything that is in the body. This is what
a Sotāpanna has to do.
If Sotāpannas have not developed asubha, they will still have

sexual desire and want to have a wife or to have a husband but they
are no longer afraid of death or sickness because they understand
that it belongs to the body and not the mind or themselves. He or
she is in the mind, and not in the body, so whatever happens to
the body will not affect them. Therefore they are not afraid of losing
their body, livelihood, status or wealth because they see that these
are aniccā, anattā, and do not belong to them. If they are attached
to these things, they will become unhappy and so they have let go
all of these things.
Question: Can a Sotāpanna disrobe? (if he is a monk)
Than Ajahn: Yes, because he still has not yet gotten rid of his
sexual desire.
Question: Does citta (mind) stay eternally in Nibbāna?
Than Ajahn: The word Nibbāna means the state of citta (mind) that
is pure without the defilements of lobha, dosa or moha, or taṇhā:
kāma-taṇhā, bhava-taṇhā, vibhava-taṇhā. The mind and Nibbāna
are the same things. Your mind and the Buddha’s mind are different
because your mind still has kilesas so your mind is not Nibbāna but
the mind of the Buddha is Nibbāna because it has no kilesas. It is
like the shirt that is already cleaned and the shirt that has not been
washed or cleaned. They are two different shirts. The shirt which
has been washed is called the cleaned shirt and the shirt which
has not been washed is called dirty shirt. The minds of ordinary
people like us are called dirty minds while the Buddha’s mind is
a clean mind and is called Nibbāna. That’s all. It is just the label
called Nibbāna that we put on the cleaned mind.
— 72 —
7 | Q&A, May 19th, 2016
Question: When it is said that one is enlightened or awakened,

what is he awakened from?
Than Ajahn: He is awakened from delusion. Delusion causes you

to think that everything belongs to you and makes you happy. But
in fact, everything that you have will make you sad and unhappy
because everything will one day be separated from you, but you
don’t see this separation so you think everything you have will
always make you happy. One day when things disappear from
you, you will become sad. For an enlightened person, he sees that
he will have to lose whatever he has one day, so he decides not to
be attached to anything because he does not want to be unhappy.
An enlightened person sees everything is aniccā: everything
rises and ceases. He sees everything is anattā: everything doesn’t
belong to him. He sees that if he becomes attached to them, he will
become sad when they leave him. So, this is what enlightenment is.
Enlightenment has four levels: Sotāpanna, Sakadāgāmī, Anāgāmī

and Arahant. They have different levels of attachment. A
Sotāpanna has gotten rid of his attachment to the body, to aging,
sickness and death but he is still attached to the beauty of the
body. He still has sexual desire and he has to let go of his sexual
desire by contemplating on asubha (loathsomeness), which will
enlighten him to the true nature of the body; contemplating that
the body is not pretty; that the body is repulsive. Progress to the
next two levels of enlightenment is dependent on seeing the body
as asubha and not beautiful.
The Sakadāgāmī level is the second level which lets you see
asubha partially, but not completely. The third level of enlightenment
will let you see the asubha nature of the body completely, which
means seeing asubha at all times. Every time you see a body you
see it as asubha right away, so this is an Anāgāmī level.
— 73 —
Once you get to the third level, you will then have totally understood
the true nature of the body and totally let go of it. You will not come
back and be reborn as a human anymore because you see the
human body as asubha and aniccā. Once you are born, your body
will get old, get sick and die, so an Anāgāmī will not come back
to take birth in a new body. He will be reborn in the brahma realm,
a being without a body. The brahma realm is where the mind still
has attachment to the good feelings, which arise from the peace.
In brahma realm you find happiness in the state of peace of mind,

but this is also aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. You have to understand
that it is temporary and you have to let go of this attachment and
to see that even this happiness that you have in the level of jhāna
is still impermanent and you should not be attached to it because
if you are attached to it, that means you still have desire and
this desire will bring you dukkha. So you have to get rid of your
desire even if you are in brahma realm. You have to see that the
happiness of the brahma realm is also aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā.
Once you have seen this then you become fully enlightened and
you don’t have any attachment to any form of happiness. By letting
go of every form of happiness, you realise a new form happiness,
a happiness without having anything: happiness from emptiness,
Nibbāna paramaṁ suññnaṁ – this is the highest level of happiness.
Question: When one is enlightened, does he still have pain in

the body?
Than Ajahn: When you are enlightened, you still experience the
pain but you don’t have any reaction to the pain. Your mind remains
peaceful and calm as if there were no pain.
Question: In stillness, do we become happy?
— 74 —
7 | Q&A, May 19th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Yes, this is samādhi but it is temporary. After you

come out of samādhi, your happiness disappears and your desire
will arise. If you are not careful, your desire will make you seek for
some other kinds of happiness, such as going for a drink, coffee, or
watching a TV program. This will make you attached and become
addicted to it. You will find it difficult to go into samādhi again if you
let your mind seek for this kind of happiness. So once you come out
of samādhi, you must resist all your desires that want to seek out
other forms of happiness. Bring your mind back again to samādhi
as soon as possible.
Question: When I meditated with my eyes open, my mind became

calm more easily than when I meditated with my eyes close. I
looked at an object and kept on thinking about it and I was able to
stop thinking instantly. I find it hard to do it if I close my eyes. What
is the reason for the different results when I meditated with eyes
close and eyes open? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: Each individual might have different reactions to

different ways of practice, so if this method makes you peaceful
then it is okay to use it. But I think it is only a partially peaceful
state; you have not gone into full jhāna level, in which everything
disappears including the body. In order for everything to disappear,
you have to close your eyes because if you open your eyes, your
mind still has contact with the external things so the mind cannot
enter into full concentration. If you want full concentration you have
to close your eyes.
Question: I find it effective (to develop calmness) using musical

sound or my vocal cord because it lures my mind away from
thinking. Can Ajahn clarify the reason for the good result of using
this method?
— 75 —
Than Ajahn: It takes your mind away from thinking about other
things that cause your mind to become restless. However, this is a
brief or shallow kind of stillness; you have not gone deep enough.
You rely on music and at any time if the music stops, you will then
not be able to make your mind calm, so this is not a good method.
There is a better method, and that does not rely on anything, but
on your own ability which is your mindfulness. It is better to use
mindfulness to make your mind peaceful and calm. If you cannot
do that yet when you just start, you may use music or listen to
Dhamma talk if you think that can help to calm your mind, but once
your mind is calm, you have to turn off the music or Dhamma talk
and then concentrate on your breath. Keep on practising this way,
so that your mind can go deeper.
Question: What is the meaning of saying condolences in Thailand:

Duang Viññan, to the departed one? Does it mean wishing the citta
to have a happy birth into good realm? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: A person has different reactions to another person

who passed away. Sometimes he feels bad so he wants to ask
forgiveness from the person who passed away, so he goes to the
coffin and says sorry for what he did, but practically I don’t think the
person in the coffin hears what he is saying. So, if you want to say
sorry, you should do it when the person is still alive because after
he or she died then forget about it. The only thing you can do is to
make merit and share the merit to the departed one. If the person
is in the state where he needs the merits then he will be able to
use the merit that you share, however if he has more merits than
you, he will not need the merit you share. But we still do it, just in
case he needs it; he can have the merits that we share for him.
So, it is customary in Thai Buddhist practice that we share merits
to the deceased.
— 76 —
7 | Q&A, May 19th, 2016
Question: I realised that I always avoided meditation even though

I can get calm when I meditated. Is my paramῑ weak or what
influences this laziness?
Than Ajahn: Generally, the minds of ordinary people are inclined

towards the other kinds of happiness, the happiness from the
senses: from seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting, so it is
not easy for people to meditate. In order to meditate, people have
to force themselves to do it; otherwise, if you leave it to the desire
to do it, then this will very seldom happen. If you have developed
this habit before in your previous lives, for example you had been
meditating a lot in your previous lives, then you might find it easier
and more inclined to meditate rather than to watch TV. So, if you
are more inclined to watching TV than meditating, it means that
you are used to doing that before.
It is similar to when you are used to using your right hand, you will
keep using your right hand; you don’t want to use your left hand,
and if you want to use your left hand to do something, you have to
force yourself to do it. The same applies when you are looking for
happiness, whether it is inside or outside of the mind. Most people
are used to looking for happiness outside the mind and they will
go and find happiness through their senses. But for some others,
they may in their past lives used to find happiness inside, so they
will tend to like meditating more than watching TV. So, this is your
past actions.
Question: Are all things pre-destined and if yes, how much is

pre-destined and how much is our efforts in this life?
Than Ajahn: Your personality and your habits are predestined. If

you are right-handed person that’s because you used to use your
right hand all the time so you become right-handed. If you like
green colour that’s because you used to like green colour in your
— 77 —
past lives, so what you like and what you hate are pre-destined,
but you can change them. For example, if you know that liking
green colour is harmful to you, then you can force yourself not to
like green colour. If you like to watch TV and if you find that it is
bad for you, then you can force yourself to stop watching TV, and if
you find that meditation is good for you, then you can force yourself
to meditate and change your personality, change your inclination,
change your habits.
Right now, all your habits that you have are predestined. They are
brought forward from your previous lives. In this life, if you have
been habitually doing the same thing all the time, you will become
used to it, but if you want, you can still change. You have to realise
that if doing certain things is not good for you, you can still force
yourself to change. However, if you think that certain habits are
good for you, then you need not change them. You might also be
forced by certain circumstances to change, for example if you are
used to being right-handed but you lose your right arm, what would
you do? You will be forced to use your left arm instead. You have
to learn how to use your left hand and eventually you will become
left-handed and maybe in the next life you can use both hands
because you used to know how to use your right hand and left
hand. Some people can use both hands.
End of Q&A
— 78 —
Q&A,
8
May 25th, 2016
Question: Are all deaths painful? (for ordinary people)
Than Ajahn: Yes, everybody has to experience pain because

the body is such that it has to get sick. When the body gets sick
then there is pain, so it is natural. But the bodily pain is not harmful
to the mind. What is harmful to the mind is the mental pain, the
pain that arises from the desire to get rid of the physical pain. So,
the Buddha taught us to eliminate the desire that wants to get rid
of the physical pain, because it is beyond our ability to mentally
get rid of the physical pain. The physical pain has its own causes,
and when the causes disappear, the physical pain will disappear.
So, what the mind has to do is to live with the physical pain when
it arises, and not to try to reject it or to get rid of it. When you try
to get rid of it mentally, this creates a mental pain which is a lot
stronger than the physical pain. Once you can control your mental
pain, then the physical pain will not cause you any distress, and
you can live with this physical pain comfortably.
So, the way to be rid of your mental pain is to get rid of your desire
that wants the physical pain to go away. The first method (to get rid
of your desire) is to use mindfulness, like reciting a mantra: ‘bud-
— 79 —
dho, buddho’. When you have physical pain, don’t think about it.
Forget about it by concentrating on repeating your mantra: ‘buddho,
buddho, buddho’. If you can concentrate on repeating the mantra,
you will forget about the physical pain and stop the desire to get
rid of it. And because there is no mental pain then you can live
with the physical pain. Your mind will become peaceful and calm.
The next method is to use wisdom to study that the very nature of
physical pain does not belong to the mind. It affects the body but it
doesn’t affect the mind. But because the mind is deluded, it thinks
that the body is itself and so it is affected by the physical pain. So,
you have to teach the mind that the mind and the body are two
separate things, that when the body is painful the mind doesn’t
have to be. But now due to its own delusion, the mind thinks that it
itself is the body, so it wants to get rid of the physical pain. When it
wants to get rid of this physical pain, it is creating another kind of
pain: the mental kind which is a lot stronger than the physical kind.
So once the mind knows that it is not the body and the physical pain
is not the pain that belongs to the mind, then all the mind has to
do is to just leave the physical pain alone. When there is no desire
to get rid of the physical pain then there is no mental pain and the
mind can live unaffected by the physical pain.
Question: Do I need jhāna in order to get that wisdom (to study

the nature of the physical pain)?
Than Ajahn: First you need to have mindfulness to be able to

concentrate your mind to have jhāna. Once the mind has jhāna
then the mind will not be affected by the physical pain. But this is
just an escape route, and not a permanent cure. The permanent
cure is to face the physical pain and use wisdom to stop the mind
from rejecting the physical pain. Once you can stop the mind from
rejecting the physical pain, then the mind will not be affected by it.
— 80 —
8 | Q&A, May 25th, 2016
Question: Are life and death pre-destined and is it useful to know

about our past lives?
Than Ajahn: Life and death is a process. Once there is birth, then
there will be aging, sickness and death. So if you don’t want to have
aging, sickness and death then you should not have birth. In order
not to be reborn, you have to stop all your desires.
Knowing about past lives doesn’t make any difference to your

practice. The only thing it helps is to tell you that life is endless,
that suffering is endless if you keep continuing to be reborn. So if
you don’t want to have this endless suffering then you have to stop
rebirth and the way to stop rebirth is to practise meditation so you
can get rid of your desires.
Question: I know that living beings take a number of rebirths again

and again. Where the other lokas are (plane of existences)?
Than Ajahn: The planes of existence are usually invisible to the

physical eyes, so you can only see them in your meditation. So, if
you want to see all other planes of existence, you have to meditate.
When you meditate, you will enter into the invisible planes of
existence and then you will see all the different levels. So, this is the
only way to see them, and that is to meditate. When you meditate,
you open your inner or mental eye. Then you will see all the things
that the physical eyes cannot see. The Buddha can see everything
because he meditated. So, if you want to see everything as the
Buddha did, then you have to meditate.
Question: Are all other planes of existence located in this world?
Than Ajahn: The mind and the body exist in different planes of
existence. The body is in the physical plane. The mind is in the
spiritual plane; they are at different levels. To see the spiritual plane,
you have to meditate.
— 81 —
Question: How does this lifecycle process happen?
Than Ajahn: It happens because you have the desire to use the
body as a means to happiness. So, when you lose this body, you
will go and look for a new one, because you still have the desire to
see, to hear, to smell, to feel, to touch and to taste. If you can get
rid of this desire then you won’t need to have a body.
Question: If all lower beings are destroyed, where will they go?
Are they all going to higher realms or are they free from rebirth?
Than Ajahn: Every being has its own kamma that directs it to the
various planes of existence. While the body which is not the real
being is destroyed, the real being which is in the mind or in the
spirit cannot be destroyed. And it is the mind that goes and takes
up birth in different planes of existence. So even if everyone in this
world is killed by an atomic bomb and nobody is left, the spirit will
then take up birth in different planes of existence according to their
kamma in their past life or current life. Everybody has a spirit and
this spirit doesn’t die with the body
So kamma is the one that separates people in the different planes

of existence. If you do good kamma, you go to the higher plane
of existence. If you do bad kamma, you go to a lower plane of
existence. A lower plane of existence means more suffering;
a higher plane of existence means less suffering and more
happiness. The highest is Nibbāna where you have 100% happiness
and zero suffering. The lowest is hell, where you have 100%
suffering and zero happiness. This is the result of your kamma,
through your words, speech, thoughts and actions. When you do
good kamma, you are putting your mind into a higher realm. When
you do bad kamma, you are putting your mind into a lower realm
and when you die, this good or bad kamma will direct the mind
accordingly.
— 82 —
8 | Q&A, May 25th, 2016
Question: Is this mind or spirit consciousness?
Than Ajahn: You can use any name but you can never really
describe it. You have to experience it through your meditation
practice. Words are just words. So different religions and different
cultures call it differently. Some call it mind; some call it ghost; some
call it spirit but it is all the same thing. It is the non-physical part of
us. We have two parts: physical and non-physical. The Non-physical
part can be named mind, heart, spirit, ghost and so forth. They are
all referring to the same thing but with a different label, that’s all.
This is the one that doesn’t die with the body. This is the one that
goes to a different realm of existence.
Question: Is this the arūpa jhāna which the Buddha explained

about the consciousness element?
Than Ajahn: When you are in arūpa-jhāna, you are in a higher

realm of existence. There are many realms. If you keep the sīla
(precepts) and give dāna, you are in the deva realm. If you meditate,
and you have rūpa-jhāna, you go to the higher realm which we call
the Brahma rūpa and if you have arūpa-jhāna, you go to even higher
realms. If you attain magga-phala, you go to the Ariya realm, the
noble disciples’ realm which is higher than all other realms.
Question: When I go to sleep (after my meditation), my mind

always comes out and starts flying here and there. Based on this
experience, I know that the body and mind are two different things.
It is very joyful but I know it is not right. How can I stop this?
Than Ajahn: If you practice then you will be able to stop your mind.
The dreams that you have will indicate the result of your practice
or your good or bad kamma. If you have bad dreams, it means that
you have done a lot of bad kamma. If you have good dreams, it
indicates that you have done a lot of good kamma. And if you can
— 83 —
stop your mind, then you won’t have any dreams, so even when
you sleep you will have no dreams, which means that you have
reached Nibbāna. But you can still have dreams even though you
have attained Nibbāna because sometimes you may have some
other things that come, but usually most of them are good dreams.
Question: From the Buddhist view, what is considered to be of

benefit and of no benefit?
Than Ajahn: Dhamma is the most beneficial thing and everything

else is not. Therefore, the Buddha said that the taste of Dhamma
excels all other tastes. The delight in Dhamma excels all other
kinds of delight. So, we should seek Dhamma because Dhamma
gives us the supreme happiness; everything else gives us suffering.
Question: Are these benefits and non-benefits subject to change

without any conditions?
Than Ajahn: They change according to your ability to create them.

If you can create more Dhamma, you get more benefit, and create
more happiness. If you create more defilements (kilesas), you are
creating more suffering.
Question: Can followers of other religions which have different

beliefs & practices develop their mind to reach the state of Nibbāna?
(For example those who believe that God determines everything)
Than Ajahn: The Buddha said that for people to reach Nibbāna,
they have to follow the Noble Eightfold path. If any religion teaches
the Noble Eightfold path then they can reach Nibbāna. If they don’t
teach the Noble Eightfold path then they don’t get to Nibbāna.
Question: The Buddha certainly talked about the benefits and

happiness of various companionships, marriage, possession, etc.
— 84 —
8 | Q&A, May 25th, 2016
Even the monastic life depends on the society to meet their needs
of life and existence. Is denying these things (the happiness of
companionship, marriage, having possession or wealth etc) in
accordance with the Buddha’s teachings?
Than Ajahn: The Buddha’s teaching has many levels. It is similar

to the educational system. It has different levels of teaching and
sometimes the lower level and the higher level might seem con-
flicting. So, it depends on which level you are in, then you stick to
that level.
If you are a householder, you live accordingly: you have a husband

or a wife; you still rely on money. For a householder, the Buddha
taught him to be charitable and to be righteous (to have virtue
(sīla)). But for those who want a higher level of happiness then they
have to renounce the householder life and (mundane) happiness
in order to seek a higher form of happiness, that is, the happiness
that arises from meditation. In order to get to this higher level of
happiness, you have to renounce lower forms of happiness such
as having money, having a husband or wife, because they might
be conflicting.
You have to choose between these two levels. If you still want the
physical kind of happiness, you can have a family, have money,
give dāna and still keep the precepts, then you will have this
happiness. But if you want the higher form of happiness then you
have to become a monk or keep the eight precepts and meditate.
And you will have to renounce the other kind of happiness (the
physical type of happiness). It is just a matter of choice. There is
actually no conflict. It is like playing a game. There are many levels
in a game, the beginner level, the intermediate level or the advanced
level. Different rules are involved in these different levels. That’s all.
— 85 —
For a monk, we have to renounce the physical types of happiness,

but we still have to rely on society, where people still want the
physical type of happiness, to support us through their charity
(dāna). People who have money should give dāna because giving
dāna will make them happy. So: this is how it works. There is no
conflict but there are two different levels of happiness. You have
to choose which level you want.
Question: Can a monk refuse food he receives?
Than Ajahn: When monks go on piṇḍapāta (alms round), he should

not refuse the food given. It is a courtesy that you accept things
out of gratitude of people’s generosity, but you don’t have to eat
everything that people give you. You can choose (what to eat) once
the food is in your bowl, which food you want to eat, which food
you don’t want to eat but you cannot tell people what you want to
eat. For instance, you cannot tell people that “I am a vegetarian,
please don’t give me any meat”. If people want to give vegetables
and meat together, and if you just want to eat vegetables then you
just take the meat out. You don’t have to eat the meat, but you
don’t have to tell people what to give. Beggars are not choosers.
Question: When two persons offer food, one buys pork in the
market and cooks it and the other kills a pig to prepare the same
dish, so can a monk refuse the food?
Than Ajahn: No, if they don’t tell you how the food was obtained
then we (monks) cannot tell them. If they tell you that the pig was
intentionally killed, then the monk has to advise them not to do
it again because they are doing more harm than benefit. They
might get the benefit of giving the food, but they are also creating
a harmful action to themselves because they killed the pig. So, the
duty of the teacher is to tell them not to do it. But if they go to the
— 86 —
8 | Q&A, May 25th, 2016
market and buy meat (or something that had already died), then
it doesn’t matter.
Question: When I donate $10 (which is about 10% of my wealth)

and my friend donates $500 which is a fraction of his million dollar
wealth, do we get the same merits?
Than Ajahn: No, the feeling is different. When you give more,
you feel happier. If you feel that you gave less, then you feel less
happy. So, it depends on how much you have, the percentage of
what you give. If you are a millionaire, say if you have 100 million
baht and you give one million baht, which is 1% of your wealth,
but if you have 100k baht and if you give 10k baht which is 10% of
your wealth, the effect on your mind is different.
When you give 10% of your wealth, it is a lot more than giving
1% of your wealth. So, the result on the mind is different too. For
someone who gives 10%, the mind feels happier even though
the amount is not as much as the one who gives 1%. It is not the
absolute amount, but the percentage of what you have that makes
the difference on your mind.
The resultant impact on your next life depends on how much you
gave. If you gave one million, you will get five million back. If you
gave 100k, you will get 500k back. So, if you give more, you will get
more results when you come back. It is like the King Vessantara;
he gave away everything and when he died he went to heaven and
after he came back from heaven he was reborn as prince Siddharta
who became the Lord Buddha.
Question: My friend is a person who is not ready to listen to higher

Dhamma practice but he likes to give dāna to monks and temples
and in turn wishes that he has good health, abundance of wealth
or winning a lottery. How does this compare to someone who just
— 87 —
donates to beggars or animals and does not wish for any returns.
Do they get the same merits?
Than Ajahn: Whether you get more merits depends on what you
desire. If you give without any desire, you get more merits. If you
give and you desire returns, then you have less merit because
sometimes when you don’t get what you want, you feel bad. And
instead of feeling good from giving, you feel bad. So, if you don’t
have any desire for returns then you won’t feel bad; you will feel
happy.
It depends on your expectations. The more expectations you have,

the less merit you will get. If you don’t have expectation, you get
100% merits, you feel happy. So ideally, you should give without
any expectation for rewards or returns because when you expect
returns, you have defilements (kilesas), it is lobha (greed) and
having lobha will make you unhappy. And if you expect returns, it
is not called giving; it is trading, like buying or selling. I give you
this much and you give me this much back, like when you go to
the store and you give the shop owner some money and he gives
you something back, so this is trading; it is not dāna. Dāna is a
one-way street; it is the act of giving and not taking and if you are
still taking, it means you are not giving. The result (of your giving)
is automatic and comes from your mind. When you sacrifice, you
feel good. When you don’t sacrifice you don’t feel good.
Question: How can I have stillness or calm in the middle of chaotic

life, for example in a highly demanding job or a busy lifestyle?
Than Ajahn: You have to have strong mindfulness. Focus your

mind on one object, such as a mantra (‘buddho, buddho, buddho’)
or focus on the present moment, on whatever you are doing and
forget about everything else. Then everything else around you
will not disturb you. If you have a distracted mind, your mind goes
— 88 —
8 | Q&A, May 25th, 2016
everywhere, thinking about this person or that person and then, if

you bring everything into your mind, it burns yourself. The way to do
it is not to bring anything into your mind and to focus on one thing.
If you are working, just focus on your work. If you are not working
and your mind starts bringing everything inside, then you use the
mantra to get rid of these things, simply by repeating the mantra:
‘buddho, buddho, buddho’, and then nothing can come into your
mind. You block everything by reciting the mantra, ‘buddho buddho’.
Question: How does one perceive senses such as sight, sound,

taste, smell and touch before and after enlightenment?
Than Ajahn: Before enlightenment you have desire for the senses.
You have likes and dislikes for them. After enlightenment, you don’t
have likes or dislikes or have any desire for them. You perceive
them as having their own nature without reacting towards whatever
you see or hear. Before enlightenment you react to what you see or
what you hear, so the practice is to get rid of this reacting by using
sati (mindfulness), samādhi and paññā (wisdom).
Question: I have a friend who is a very wealthy and devoted

Buddhist. He takes good care of his sister who has below-average
IQ. So even though his sister enjoys a luxurious life such as having
three helpers to attend to her every day, but she is still suffering.
Why is this happening, and what things should we avoid so that
we will not be born in such a condition?
Than Ajahn: She is suffering because she only gets the support
on the physical part but not the mental part. She needs Dhamma
to make her happy inside. She is happy physically but not mentally
because she doesn’t have Dhamma. So, she has to be instructed
to develop mindfulness, to develop samādhi and to develop pañña.
That’s the only way to make the mind happy, not with money or
wealth.
— 89 —
But as she has below-average IQ, she has to pay her own kamma
first. Maybe in this life she will not be able to develop mental hap-
piness due to her past kamma that causes her to be incapacitated
mentally. So, she has to go through realms of rebirth before this
kamma disappears and then she can be normal again.
End of Q&A
— 90 —
Laypeople from Indonesia
9
June 12th, 2016
Layperson: What is viññana?
Than Ajahn: There are two kinds of viññana: one is viññana of the
nāma-rupa, the other one is the viññana when we die. Both are
called mind. When the mind leaves the body, we call it viññana.
Layperson: Is the knowing the one attaining Nibbāna?
Than Ajahn: The knowing is in Nibbāna, the state when there are
no kilesas (defilements). When there are no lobha, dosa, moha,
there is Nibbāna. The knowing of the Buddha has no lobha, dosa
and moha. You have to get rid of the lobha, dosa, moha then you
can call it Nibbāna.
Layperson: When I feel fearful because I did not sense my

in-breath and out-breath during my meditation, is this the
knowing that feels the fear?
Than Ajahn: The fear is your kilesas (defilements), your delusion;

it is not the knowing.
Layperson: How can we recognise ‘the knowing’?
— 91 —
Than Ajahn: ‘The knowing’ just knows. Anything that happens is not
the knowing. When you meditate, you want to just know – just know
that it is the lobha, dosa, moha, fear, etc. You leave them alone,
you don’t pay any attention to them. You use wisdom to teach the
mind that they are all aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. They come and
go. They rise and cease. You cannot stop them. When they come,
let them come. When they go let them go. Leave them alone. Just
be with your breath or with your mantra, ‘buddho, buddho’. Don’t
pay attention to anything else.
If you can concentrate on your breathing or on your mantra,

‘buddho’, then your fear will disappear. Fear arises from your
delusion (moha). Because you still want to stay alive. So, if anything
happens to you, you think it will harm your body, then you are afraid.
If you know that your body is not yourself, and your body is going
to die anyway, you won’t care whether the body is going to live or
die. Then, you will have no fear. Regardless of how well you take
care of your body, it is going to die anyway. It is better to accept
the truth and let go of the attachment to your body.
When you are not attached or do not cling to your body, you have
no fear. You have to use wisdom or vipassanā. You should think
that this body is not yourself; this body will die. You are the knowing.
You are the thinking. You are not the body. You forgot about that
and you think that you are the body. So, when the body gets hurt,
you think you also get hurt together with the body. But you have to
separate your mind from your body by using samādhi and wisdom.
When you are in samādhi, the mind becomes calm and the mind
will separate from the body temporarily. When you come out of
samādhi, the mind joins back together with the body. You have to
use your thinking to tell yourself that this body is not you, this body
will die, this body will leave you one day. So just keep thinking like
this and eventually you will not forget. When you don’t forget about
— 92 —
9 | Laypeople from Indonesia, June 12th, 2016
it, you will not be attached and not cling to your body, then you will
not be afraid because it is not you, so why should you be afraid?
The problem is that you keep thinking that it is ‘me’. You have to
tell yourself that it is not me, it is not me. The mind doesn’t die.
Layperson: Is it just a theory?
Than Ajahn: If you practise, it is not a theory. You have to sit and
meditate to see the separation of the mind and the body.
Layperson: When we die, our viññāṇa moves to a new body. Does

this call atta and not anattā?
Than Ajahn: It calls taṇhā (desire), not atta or anattā. It is your

desire that causes you to go and get a new body. When you still
want to see and to hear, you need a body – this is taṇhā. If you don’t
have taṇhā, if you don’t have desire, you don’t have to go and get
a new body. The Buddha taught to get rid of your taṇhā, to take the
eight precepts. Instead of going to movies, going to shops, going
to parties, you can go to stay at the temple, to cut off your desire
to use your body as a means to gain happiness.
When you stop using the body to gain happiness, when this body
dies, you don’t need to get a new body because you no longer need
to use the body. That’s why you have to keep the eight-precepts and
meditate. When you meditate, you become happy without having
to use the body. And when the body dies, as you don’t need the
body anymore, you don’t need to get a new body.
You have to get rid of your taṇhā: kāma-taṇhā, bhava-taṇhā and

vibhava-taṇhā. These are the things that you have to get rid of by
practising meditation, samatha-bhāvanā and vipassanā-bhāvanā.
Layperson: Do we do samatha first or vipassanā first?
— 93 —
Than Ajahn: Samatha first. You make your mind calm and happy
first. When your mind is happy, you can let go of your body. You
don’t have to look for happiness outside your mind because you
have happiness within you. If you don’t have happiness within,
you have to look for it outside your body. So, you have to build
your happiness inside. Once you have happiness inside, you don’t
have to look for a new body to look for other kinds of happiness.
If you don’t have happiness within, you have to go and look for
happiness outside.
You have to have samatha first. When you are happy inside, you
can teach your mind to let go of your desire to get another kind of
happiness. No other kind of happiness is better than the happiness
within yourself, the happiness arising from samatha.
Layperson: If our desire becomes lesser, does it mean that we

have accumulated our pañña?
Than Ajahn: The lesser desire is the result of you having more
wisdom. The more wisdom you have, the less desire you have. Your
wisdom will tell you that everything that you are desiring is suffering
or dukkha; they are not sukha (happiness), they are anicca. It is
like when you got married, you were happy, but when she dies or
he dies, you become sad. You don’t see this. You think that you are
going to live forever. You forget that one day you are going to die.
If you have wisdom, you will think that one day you will lose
everything you have now. So, it is better not to have anything.
When you don’t have anything, you don’t have to lose it. Then you
don’t have dukkha. But you cannot do this yet, because you don’t
have happiness inside and that’s why you want to have a husband
or a wife. If you have happiness inside, you don’t want to have a
husband or a wife.
— 94 —
So, you have to meditate to develop samatha-bhāvanā first to make

you happy and content. When you are happy and content, you
don’t need anything. You then can get rid of your husband, get rid
of your son, get rid of everybody and you can live in the monastery
by yourself, like the Buddha.
Layperson: Can you explain about anattā (no self) to us?
Than Ajahn: Anattā and atta (self) are just concepts. When I think
I am therefore I am. It is just a thought. Who are you? Where are
you? You are just in your thought. You just make it up. There is no
real self. The body is not self. The body is just the four elements:
earth, water, fire and air. And the mind is just the knower. There is
no self. The ‘self’ arises from your thinking.
If you keep thinking ‘I am’, then you become the ‘I’. When you stop
thinking about it then there is no ‘I’. When you meditate, when you
enter into samatha, all the ‘I’ disappear, and all that is left is just
the knowing, then you know that everything is just the knowing and
the ‘I’ is just a creation of your own thought.
Layperson: Does it mean that if our mind still has atta, then we
continue to be reborn again?
Than Ajahn: When you have atta, you still have desire. You have
to mediate to really see it. If you don’t meditate, it will be like telling
blind persons what the colour of red or green is. They will never
understand it.
If you were blind, when someone tells you how the colour green
is or how the colour red is, you wouldn’t know the difference. But
if you are not blind, you can see what someone who is not blind
sees. Right now, your mind is blind. You have to open up your mind
by meditating. When you meditate, you start to see everything
that the Buddha said and taught.
— 95 —
By just sitting here and thinking about it, it is like the five blind men
story. These five blind men told others what an elephant looked like
by feeling the different parts of the elephant. One blind man touched
the body and said that an elephant is like a wall. The next blind man
caught the tail and said that the elephant is like a rope. Another
one touched the tusk and said that an elephant is like a spear.
They are all correct but they are not telling the complete picture
of an elephant. To see a complete picture, you have to meditate.
So, keep reading my books and go meditate. When you meditate,

you will find all the answers in your meditation.
Layperson: I don’t have time for my meditation.
Than Ajahn: It is because you don’t practice enough. You are still
working right? Go and stay in the monastery for three months then
you will see the improvement.
Lay woman: How about two weeks? Is it enough?
Than Ajahn: Why only two weeks? You have to do it at least for
three months.
Lay woman: How about my husband?
Than Ajahn: Leave him alone. If you die today, what is he going
to do? He is going to look for somebody else. Don’t worry; you are
not indispensable. He can always find a replacement.
It is your kilesas that prevents you from practising. You have all
sorts of reasons telling you that you cannot practice, and that’s
why you’ve never had any improvement. You have to overcome
all these excuses, they are all silly reasons. Just think if you die
today, what is going to happen? What will other people do? They
— 96 —
all will go on living. They will go to your funeral and the next day
they will go and have a party; they will forget about you. You are
not important. You just think that you are important. That’s all.
When you die, you are no longer important. Their lives go on. They
will look for somebody else. Tell your husband that you are going
to die for three months. He can do anything, he can have a new
wife for three months.
Lay woman: If he gets a new wife I won’t have inner peace when
I meditate.
Than Ajahn: It means that you still have attachment. When you
have attachment, you cannot practise; you cannot improve. If you
want to improve, you have to cut off your attachment. You have to
think that you really have died. It doesn’t matter if he has a new
wife. If you have attachment, you cannot go to temple and practise.
The Buddha, when he heard the news that his son was born, knew
that he had attachment and he exclaimed, “I have bondage (rahu)”.
You have to cut off that attachment (like the Buddha did). You want
improvement, but you don’t want to cut off your attachment. You
cannot have improvement if you don’t have time to practise. You
can only improve when you have the time to practise.
Think! You are going to die sooner or later one day. It is better
that you die now and take advantage of this artificial death. If you
suddenly die, you lose all the opportunities. Keep thinking about
death. It can make you have the strength to cut every attachment.
Keep reminding yourself that you are going to die one day, sooner
or later.
End of discussion.
— 97 —
10
Q&A
June 14th, 2016
Question: What is sakkāya-diṭṭhi and can Ajahn give advice on the

minimum task to get rid of sakkāya-diṭṭhi? (Australia)
Than Ajahn: Sakkāya-diṭṭhi means having the wrong view; to think

that the body is yourself, the feeling of the body is your feeling,
which in fact is not yours. The mind is not the body. The mind is
deluded into thinking that the body is itself and the painful feeling
that arises in the body is the painful feeling of the mind but in
fact it is just the painful feeling of the body. If the mind has right
understanding that the body is not the mind, it can then deal with
the painful feeling, sickness, aging and death of the body without
being affected and hurt by it. If the mind can let go and leave the
body alone, that is: when the body gets sick, the mind lets the body
get sick; when the body get old, the mind lets the body gets old;
and when the body dies, the mind just lets the body die. Then the
mind has let go of the sakkāya-diṭṭhi. It will not be hurt by aging,
sickness and death of the body.
You have to be totally willing to let the body get sick anytime,
anywhere; be willing to let the body get old anytime, anywhere;
be willing to let the body die without having any resistance and
— 99 —
without any desire for the body not to get old, get sick and die. If
you can do that then you will be free of suffering from the body
getting sick, getting old or dying.
Question: Being a new, full-time practitioner, must I stay in a forest

monastery where I have to exercise more self-discipline (which
I can be lacking because I am a new monk) or must I stay in a
monastery in the city where there is more structured training such as
following the examples from good practising senior monks, having
a set of standard schedule such as chanting and khor-wat? Is the
place to practice important? (Thailand)
Than Ajahn: The intensity of practice is different. If you have higher

intensity of practice then you have a better chance of achieving the
result. If you have lower intensity of practice then you have a lower
chance of getting the result. So, it is up to you. What do you want?
If you want to have the result, then you need to practise intensely.
The more intensely you practice, the better the result will be. So,
it depends on how much input you want to put in.
The place will provide you with what kind of practice there is. If you
stay in a town monastery, the practice may not be so intense but
easy going. There’s no full time practising because you will have
other activities such as studying scriptures, chanting and accepting
invitation of sangha-dāna to people’s homes. So, if you engage in
these kinds of activities then you won’t have much time to put into
your practice. But for forest monks, they disregard all other activities
except meditation, so they get the result faster. So, it is up to you
to decide what you want.
Question: I can see my desire but I feel so weak and am unable to

resist it and resolve it. How can I lessen my desire and eventually
uproot it? (Thailand)
— 100 —
10 | Q&A, June 14th, 2016
Than Ajahn: First of all, you need to develop mindfulness. If you

have mindfulness you can disregard your desire when it arises.
When you have desire you just concentrate on your meditation
subject, like reciting a mantra: ‘buddho, buddho’. If you can keep
repeating ‘buddho, buddho’, eventually your desire will disappear
temporarily. This is the first step of engaging with your desire.
The second step is to eliminate it entirely by using vipassanā. But

you need to have the strength to withstand your desire, to teach
your mind that following your desire will bring you disaster and
not happiness. It will bring you more suffering because you will
lose whatever you get and when you lose it you become sad. So,
it is better not to have it in the first place and resist the desire by
remaining firm and not obeying what the desire wants you to do.
You can use samādhi or mindfulness to help you to resist the desire.
You must know that following your desire is a disaster. It is not good
for the mind. It can only hurt the mind. And this is using vipassanā.
That is to see the harm in following your desire. You have to know
this, then you will try to resist it or use samādhi to resist it.
If you use samādhi to resist it without knowing the purpose of

doing so, you will not be able to get rid of your desire entirely. So,
you have to know that your desire is the cause of your suffering
and you must not follow your desire. If you don’t follow your desire
eventually your desire will disappear and there will be nothing to
cause you any suffering.
Question: The fourth precept says that we should not lie. Does
this include not to have incorrect speech such as abusive speech,
divisive speech and idle chatter? (Portugal)
Than Ajahn: These precepts can be divided into two levels:

beginner level and advance level. If you are at the beginner level,
you just don’t speak falsehood, but if you are at the advance level
— 101 —
like when you keep the eight precepts, then you have to abstain
from abusive speech, divisive speech and idle chatter.
Question: For breathing meditation, there are different points of

focusing i.e. focusing on different parts of the body such as at the
tip of the nose, or in the diaphragm or in the throat. Can Ajahn
explain about these different focusing points? And how do I choose
the suitable point of focusing for me? (Portugal)
Than Ajahn: Different persons may have different focusing points

that are more noticeable to them. You want to find a point which
is easy for you to watch because you just want to use the breath
to stop you from thinking. If you can easily watch and concentrate
on just a particular point of in and out breath, then you use that
point and focus your attention on just the breath alone to prevent
you from thinking about other things. If you keep watching on what
the breath is doing then you cannot think about other things. You
have to know that you are breathing in now, or you are breathing
out now, but if you start to think about other things then you forget
whether you are breathing in or breathing out. So, you must always
watch your breath. You can choose the point that is more easily
accessible to you. Some people find the breath easily at the tip of
the nose, some people can watch their diaphragm, so any point
of focusing is okay, but just find one point and stay there and don’t
move around.
Question: Ajahn said that a stream-enterer can still disrobe

because he still has sexual desire. But I heard from another
Ajahn that if a Sotāpanna is a monk there is no reason for him to
disrobe and so he will not disrobe for whatever reason. So, can a
Sotāpanna disrobe and is there any case or example in which a
can Sotāpanna disrobe?
— 102 —
10 | Q&A, June 14th, 2016
Than Ajahn: A Sotāpanna still has sexual desire so it is up to

that person whether he is a monk or a layperson, if he still wants
to engage in sex. If he is a monk then he will have to disrobe. If
he is a lay person he won’t be ordained because he still wants to
engage in sex. Usually, once you are a monk, you already know
that you don’t want to engage in sex, so what you want to do next
after you become a Sotāpanna is that you want to develop asubha
contemplation so you can use it to eliminate your sexual desire. In
most cases, once you are ordained as a monk, you don’t want to
go back to become a lay person.
If you can attain the first level of enlightenment, it should give you
a lot of encouragement to pursue a higher level of enlightenment
rather than go back to be a layperson and engage in sexual activity.
So, for those who are ordained and become Sotāpanna, most likely
they won’t disrobe but speaking from theory, where a Sotāpanna
still has sexual desire and if he still wants to engage in sexual
activity, he can disrobe and there is nothing that can stop him from
doing so. Maybe he says, “Oh! I want to wait because I still have
seven lives, so I want to use these seven lives to enjoy this sexual
activity.” But usually when one becomes enlightened, even though
he is just a Sotāpanna, he starts to see the problem with engaging
in his desire because what you want may sometimes slip away
from you. Sometimes you want a boyfriend or a girlfriend, but that
boyfriend or girlfriend may get mad at you and run away from you.
So, for someone who has seen the aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, and anattā
of things I don’t think he wants to get involved with others. So, most
likely he won’t disrobe, if he is already a monk. But if he is a family
person, he will still have to live with his family because his family
may still need his or her support. Once he finds out that his family
can exist without him, he might go and become a monk so he can
develop to a higher level of attainment. So, it is not fixed whether
— 103 —
you are a monk or not. He can disrobe or he may not disrobe. It is

an individual decision.
Question: Ajahn, sometimes I see monks giving blessing using

water, writing mantra or giving out amulets. What do these actions
symbolise? Can our luck be improved or our bad kamma be reduced
by the blessing of the monks in such ways? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: Nothing, really. It is just psychological because people

still need support so the monks give something tangible. It is like
when you give dāna and the monks give you anumodāna. The
anumodāna is not a blessing; it is a teaching which tells you the
result you will get from giving dāna, so you don’t need to have a
monk chant for you once you have given dāna, because dāna itself
is already a blessing in itself. You don’t need a monk to give you an
amulet or anything to make you think that you have acquired the
blessing because the act of giving dāna itself is already a blessing
in itself so you don’t need a monk to bless you for that.
Question: How can we diminish our bad kamma?
Than Ajahn: You can diminish your bad kamma by keeping the
precepts and stopping creating bad kamma. Once all your bad
kamma in the past has given its result, it will expire and disappear.
Then you will not have any new bad kamma to experience.
Question: I have been comparing the differences between

practising as a monk and as a lay person. What should one
consider in order to decide whether to be ordained or to practise
as a lay person? (Australia)
Than Ajahn: As a lay person you have to rely on yourself to support

your livelihood, so you have to work if you don’t have money and
if you have to work you don’t have the time to practise as much
— 104 —
10 | Q&A, June 14th, 2016
as the monk does. As a monk, he is supported by lay people, so

a monk has a lot of time to practise. Unlike a lay person, a monk
is also being restrained by monastic conduct. A lay person can go
anywhere and do anything, anytime he wants, but as a monk he
cannot. It is better to have monastic code because it will control
and direct your activity towards the activity that will give you the
result that you want. As a lay person, you have no monastic code,
so you don’t have anything to control your activity. Some day when
you feel bad, you may want to go for a drink in a pub and you will
do it because nothing stops you from doing it. But as a monk you
cannot do that. So being a monk will be more helpful towards the
path of enlightenment compared to being a lay person.
Question: What should one do to be free from worldly responsibility

in order to be ordained?
Than Ajahn: He has to give up everything and go to temple and ask

for ordination. He has to see whether his family needs his support
or not. Maybe they can support themselves without you, or maybe
you are just using them as an excuse not to be ordained. What
happens if you die today? What will other people that you support
do? Can they exist or not? Can they go on or not? They can go
on. If they can’t go on, they will die. And sooner or later they will
die anyway, so it doesn’t depend on you whether you support them
or not, except in some special cases where they really need your
support and you might have to continue to support them or maybe
you can find someone else to do it for you.
Question: I was doing blue colour disk kasina meditation. Suddenly

the disk was glowing and the glow then slowly disappeared together
with everything that surrounded me although my eyes were still
open. After that I experienced the dark sky with glittering stars and
then also experienced the luminosity surrounding me and all these
happened with sharp awareness. I was aware that there was no ‘I’,
— 105 —
no ‘Me’, no ‘person’ experiencing it, no thoughts, no feelings. When

the thought returned: Where am I? Where is my body? Then all the
experiences disappeared. Beyond this point I cannot remember
anything. Is this a glimpse of Nibbāna? (California, United States)
Than Ajahn: No, Nibbāna should be empty, should be nothing, and

should be blissful. If you don’t feel blissful with nothing in it, then
it is not yet Nibbāna. The result of samādhi practice should make
you feel blissful, contented and aware of your true self: the knower.
Question: One day when I recollected my experience and

contemplated on it, I know that the mind can exist without the
body like in the Arūpa Brahma world, where there is no dukkha or
sukha and yet was having awareness and total emptiness. Was
my practice correct?
Than Ajahn: You have to prove if you can dispose your body by
staying in a fearful place where there are many wild animals and
see whether you can still remain peaceful, calm and ready to let
go of the body.
Question: Now I have confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and

the past and the present Savaka Sangha who helped me see this
Dhamma. However, I knew that this citta is still avijja citta because I
reverted back to my normal self when the Nibbāna was suppressed.
This proves that the citta is impermanent. Is this understanding
correct?
Than Ajahn: No, it is not the citta that is impermanent. It is the

event that happens in the citta that is impermanent. The feeling that
happens in the citta is impermanent. The citta never disappears; the
citta is always there. Everything that happens in the citta changes
but the citta never disappears.
— 106 —
10 | Q&A, June 14th, 2016
Question: I practise vipassanā for 2 hours every day and join a

ten-day Goenka course every year. Is this ok? (North India)
Than Ajahn: Yes as a start, you need to start somewhere, but

eventually you want to develop it to a full time practice, professional
practice, not amateur practice.
Question: I am a Filipino born and raised as Catholic. I have lived

with a Thai family which sometimes I could not understand. One of
them went into deep meditation and said that I have a bad กระแส
(read: grà-sĕe: current) and also said that whenever she met
me, she felt dizzy. And so many people believed what she said. I
become very sad. I have been staying with them for 7 years. What
does bad กระแส mean and what should I do?
Than Ajahn: You can suppress your กระแส by using mindfulness,

by meditating, by reciting ‘buddho buddho’. You cannot stop what
other people think about you. Just let them think whatever they want
to think, but you should know yourself. You know that whatever you
have, have nothing to do with other people.
Question: What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

(India)
Than Ajahn: It depends on how you define knowledge and wisdom.

It can be the same or different. According to Buddhism, wisdom is
to know the Four Noble Truths, to see that dukkha is birth, aging,
sickness and death and the cause of dukkha is samudaya, that
is the three desires: the sensual desire, the desire to be and the
desire not to be, and the truth of the cessation of suffering and the
truth of the path leading to cessation of suffering. These are the
four noble truths that we consider to be wisdom because those who
can attain this wisdom will be able to rid themselves of suffering
and the rounds of rebirth. Other knowledge cannot lead you to
— 107 —
the cessation of suffering and of this cycle of rebirth. Only the

knowledge of the four noble truths can, so this is considered as
the real wisdom, the highest wisdom. Other knowledge or other
wisdom cannot get rid of your suffering and stop yours going around
in the cycle of rebirth.
Question: Do monks give away surplus food and materials to

the needy? (United Kingdom)
Than Ajahn: Yes, monks don’t keep anything more than what
they need.
Question: Lord Buddha commented that “admirable friendship is

actually the whole of the holy life”. However, Ajahn’s teaching is
that there is no form of friendship and ideally you have to be alone
and you want to concentrate all your time and efforts in developing
mindfulness. What is the context of Ajahn’s teaching?
Than Ajahn: Friendship in Buddhist practice doesn’t mean that

you hang out with somebody. Friendship in Buddhism means that
you have a guide, someone to guide you in your practice. That’s
the best friendship. If you have a Buddha or teacher as your friend,
you don’t hang around with the Buddha or teacher all the time. You
hang around with him when you need his guidance. When you
need his guidance then you go to your teacher or the Buddha and
once you receive the guidance then you have to go and live alone
to develop that knowledge that is given from your teacher. So, the
friendship in Buddhist practice is not a friendship in a worldly way.
People cannot compare them likewise. In the world when you have
friends, you hang around with them, you do things with them all the
time, you eat and sleep with them. This is not the kind of friendship
we talk about in Buddhism.
— 108 —
10 | Q&A, June 14th, 2016
The kind of friendship in Buddhism, kalyanamitta, means to have

a good person as your friend, someone who is wiser and smarter
than you, to help you, to teach you to practise and to become
enlightened. It doesn’t mean that you have to live with your teacher
all the time. You only come close to your teacher when he needs
to give you the instructions. Once he has given you the instruction,
he will instruct you to go and live alone in the forest to develop what
he has taught you.
Question: How about peers?
Than Ajahn: You have to understand that it is a different kind of

friendship. The friendship in Buddhism that we talk about is to have
someone to guide you but not someone who sticks with you and
goes everywhere together, because in order to be enlightened you
have to be alone. Look at Venerable Ananda. He had lived with the
Buddha for over 20 years and he never became enlightened. But
after the Buddha died, three months later he became enlightened.
That’s because he was alone. So, that’s the kind of friendship in
Buddhism.
Question: It is not good to be alone all the time. That’s why monks
have to go for piṇḍapāta. Is this understanding correct?
Than Ajahn: We have time to do things together and we have time

to do things alone. When we have to do things together like eating
then we have to come together. When we have to meditate then
we have to be alone.
It’s time to call this session to end. May all beings be well and happy.
End of Q&A
— 109 —
Layperson from USA.
11
June 24th, 2016
Than Ajahn: How long have you been practising?
Layperson: 16 years. I have been to all places. I learnt under

Venerable Thich Nhat (Hanh) for four years. I also learnt from Master
Sheng Yen and also from the Zen tradition. But my questions were
not answered so I took time off to study. Later, I found out about
Luangphor Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto, and for the past four years
I have been practising under their guidance.
Than Ajahn: What have you learnt so far?
Layperson: What I’ve learnt were the techniques, such as noting

or keeping one’s attention in one place. However, I felt something
was missing: it was all doing. When I was practising under the
guidance of Luangphor Sumedho, he taught me about being ‘the
knowing’. When I practised it, I knew when my mind was confused
and I didn’t have to do anything to change it. My practice was to be
aware of the present moment. I knew when there was an interest
to change something or there was an interest to hold on to it.
I studied the feeling of wanting to push away things or wanting to
hold on to things, and then letting things go.
— 111 —
Than Ajahn: The goal is to be non-reactive. It is just to know that

everything comes and goes. Everything rises and ceases. There
is no need for you to manage it. It is a matter of whether you can
remain non-reactive. Due to your old habits, you like to manage
things to suit your preferences and this causes all sorts of problems
to arise because in reality you cannot really manage them. The
best way to manage them is to leave them alone.
What you have to do is to get your mind to just know, and not to
react to whatever the mind comes into contact with, whether external
things – like sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile object, or internal
things – like your emotions or feelings. You should be able to leave
them alone because that is the best solution to your problems.
This is something we do not know. We think that in order to stop

our problems we have to arrange and manage things to be what
we want them to be. This never happens, because things don’t
listen to us. Things have their own ways. So, the Buddha said to
see everything as anicca, dukkha, anattā. Anattā means everything
is beyond your control. You cannot manage them. You might be
able to do it for some time, but not all the time. Eventually you are
going to fail if you try to manage them. You will succeed if you leave
them alone because you have peace of mind. This is the happiness
that we are looking for, the real happiness.
Those things that we perceive as happiness, are actually not the

real happiness. The word ‘pursuing happiness’ actually means
pursuing suffering, because we want to manage what we have;
we want to manage the happiness that we’ve acquired without
realising that the happiness we’ve acquired is temporary. It comes
and eventually will go away. This is what we are pursuing all the
time. It is like going after our own shadow. We will never be able to
catch our own shadow because it is always one step ahead of us.
— 112 —
11 | Layperson from USA, June 24th, 2016
The only way to find happiness is to stop pursuing it. Then your
mind will become peaceful, calm and contented. In order to do this,
you need mindfulness to control the thoughts that keep running
all over the place, all the time. Once you can stop your mind from
thinking, your mind becomes still, peaceful and contented. This is
the first step in creating the real happiness: the inner peace. The
happiness that arises from inner peace is the result of stopping the
mind from thinking and letting the mind enter into samādhi or jhāna.
However, this is a temporary state of mind, because you cannot

remain in samādhi all the time. So, after you come out of samādhi,
the next thing to do is to develop wisdom, teach your mind to let
go of everything, and not to react to anything, nor to crave or
desire (for) anything. When you have craving or desire, the peace
of mind you get from jhāna is destroyed. If you want to maintain
the peace of mind which you have acquired from jhāna, you have
to stop your craving by teaching your mind that everything you
crave for is only temporary and that it is anicca. It only lasts for a
while and sooner or later it will disappear.
When things disappear, the happiness that you have acquired

from them will also disappear, and replacing it is sadness and
unhappiness. If you don’t want to run into sadness, you must not
want to acquire anything. You should not crave for anything. This is
wisdom or insight – to see everything that we think will bring us
happiness is actually bringing us sadness; everything that we
acquire, sooner or later will disappear or be separated from us. If you
can maintain this inside your heart, you will be able to stop all your
cravings, especially the three kinds of craving that the Buddha
taught: craving for sensual gratification, craving for being and
craving for not-being. You have to use the (perception of the) three
characteristics to stop these cravings. Once you know that what you
are going after will result in misery, you will stop going after it. Why
do you want to go after something that will make you sad later?
— 113 —
Layperson: I have practised jhāna early in my practice for

several years but I let it go because it didn’t last although it was
really wonderful. Now I let my mind just do what it does and try to
note it. I do get lost sometimes but my mindfulness does arise later
and I let it go. My concern is that I don’t want to have an aversion
to thinking, because it means more suffering to me. So, there
should be a balance. Sometimes my mindfulness is strong and
sometimes it is less strong. It is the way it is. I am aware when the
mind is wandering or when the mind is calm. I just try to be aware.
Is this the right way?
Than Ajahn: The truth is that you can be mindful all the time. The
problem is that you have not developed it to that level. You can
have mindfulness all the time if you keep on developing it. Then,
you will be able to control your thoughts all the time. You don’t
have to stop all your thoughts. Once you can control your thoughts,
you can direct your thoughts towards the positive side, which is
towards wisdom.
If you want to think about something, contemplate that everything

is temporary – anicca; everything gives you sadness – dukkha;
and everything is anattā – it never belongs to you, and you can
never really control them, like the weather. If you think in this way,
your mind will be peaceful and calm. Your mind will be able to get
rid of all your craving.
But first, you need to be able to stop your thinking mind and enter
into jhāna. Once you can do that, anytime your mind happens to
run amok, you can at least stop it. If you don’t know how to stop
the mind, when it gets restless or agitated, you may not be able to
stop it. Once you know how to stop it, you can then direct the mind
where you want it to go, which is the direction towards the Noble
path: to have right view, right thinking.
— 114 —
Right now, your mind flip flops. Sometimes it goes into the right
direction, and sometimes it goes into the wrong direction. This is
because you don’t have the ability to stop it from going into the
wrong direction. That’s why you have to learn how to stop the mind
first. By stopping the mind and entering into jhāna, it gives you
peace of mind and contentment. This will give you the strength to
be able resist all forms of craving or desire.
When you have contentment, you don’t need anything. When

craving approaches you and asks that you smoke a cigarette or get
a cup of coffee, you can say no to it. If you don’t have contentment,
you don’t have peace of mind and you will find it difficult to resist
your craving. This is the reason for the need to gain samādhi or
jhāna first, because it will give you the support to develop wisdom.
The next thing to do after you achieve jhāna is to protect the peace
of mind that you have gained from jhāna by resisting all forms of
craving. If you have to eat, you just eat according to what the body
needs, and not according to your desire to eat. It is the same with
drinking, seeing, hearing etc. When you have to do something, you
do it out of reasoning but not out of craving.
Because the body still exists, and you have to support the body, you
have to let the body eat. You must not eat just because you want
to eat. You eat because it is the time to feed the body, like eating
once a day, just like the way monks do. After we have finished our
daily meal, we will not eat anything anymore until the next day. For
drinks, we are allowed to have some refreshments in the afternoon.
Other than that, if the body needs liquid, we just drink plain water.
We don’t add things such as sugar, or drink coffee or tea, because
all these are to satisfy our craving. This is what you need to do in
order to get rid of your craving. When there is no craving inside
the mind, there will be nothing to disturb or agitate the mind. Then
the mind will always be peaceful, happy and content.
— 115 —
Layperson: Is it possible that creating aversion to craving will

instead create obstacles? Sometimes I know there is craving in
my mind, and if I try to push it away, aversion arises.
Than Ajahn: You don’t merely push it away but you use rationality
to do it – telling yourselves that the craving you have is only going
to create more problems or unhappiness. When you crave for a cup
of coffee, when you have that cup of coffee you feel good, but that
feeling only lasts temporarily. An hour or two hours later, another
round of craving for coffee arises and it goes on and on. When there
is no coffee to drink, what is going to happen? You become sad.
So, this is what we want to do to get rid of our addiction. We are

addicted to sensual gratification. We find happiness by gratifying
our sensual cravings and this is the wrong way of finding
happiness. The right way is to resist and stop sensual gratification.
To teach the truth to the mind, you need rationality, by using the
three characteristics in everything.
Everything that you crave for are all anicca, dukkha, anattā. Aniccā
means it only exists temporarily. Dukkha means it is giving you
unhappiness when you are no longer be able to acquire it. Anattā
means you cannot control it; you cannot tell it to remain with you
all the time. Sooner or later it will be separated from you. If you see
everything as anicca, dukkha, anattā, you can stop desiring for it.
Don’t push away your craving. Instead, teach your mind the reasons
why you don’t want to satisfy your craving. Satisfying your craving
doesn’t really satisfy you. It makes you dissatisfied. So, you start
to reprogram the mind. The mind has been influenced by its own
delusional thinking that being able to satisfy its craving will bring
happiness. In fact, it brings sorrow and misery when you lose what
you have acquired, because everything that you have acquired
would disappear sooner or later.
— 116 —
You can use the body as another object of teaching your mind
about craving. Although you can use the body as the instrument to
acquire the things that you desire, the body is also temporary and
sooner or later your body will also disappear and you will never
be able to use it to acquire the things that you desire. So, everything
that you acquire is all anicca, dukkha, anattā. You have to relinquish
it by not relying on it.
Right now, the mind uses the body as the tool to acquire things
that it craves for. If you keep relying on the body to get what you
crave for, then when this body dies, this will cause you to go and
get a new body, and this is called rebirth. After your body dies, your
mind doesn’t die with the body. The craving in the mind will push
the mind towards having a new body, a new birth. This will go on
and on as long as you still have craving in the mind. But once you
have got rid of the craving in the mind, there would be no need for
the mind to want to have a new body. And once this old body dies,
you don’t have to get a new body. But you still exist.
The Buddha still exists. The mind of the Buddha still exists and so
does the mind of all the noble disciples. They can exist without the
need for a body because they don’t need to use the body as the
tool to acquire what they are craving for. They have a better kind of
happiness: the happiness of having peace of mind, the happiness
of contentment. This is the goal of our Buddhist practice, to get rid
of our craving. When we can get rid of our craving, there will be
no more birth. Once there is no birth, there will be no suffering.
We suffer with the body because once the body is born, it is

subjected to aging, sickness and death. The mind doesn’t like it,
but this is something that the mind gets trapped into, by its own
delusion: by thinking that it is good to have a body, so that it can
use the body to go after its craving. But you forget that the body is
anicca; it is temporary, it will get old, get sick and die.
— 117 —
If you don’t want to get sick, get old and die, don’t get reborn. And
in order not to be reborn, you have to stop your craving. To stop
your craving, you need to develop mindfulness to have jhāna. After
you have jhāna, you have to develop wisdom. You have to develop
the perception of anicca, dukkha, anattā. Once you have that inside
your mind, you can get rid of all your craving.
Layperson: Does it mean that I have to develop mindfulness of

breath, mindfulness of ‘buddho’, and mindfulness of the sounds
of silence?
Than Ajahn: The Buddha prescribed 40 subjects of mindfulness.

You can use any of these subjects of mindfulness. In the
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Four Foundations of Mindfulness, he prescribed
two types of mindfulness: if you are sitting, you be mindful of your
breathing; and if you are not sitting or if you are doing an activity,
you use your body as the point of focus to anchor your mind from
thinking about other things; you just watch whatever activity you
are doing, concentrate on what you do and don’t let the mind think
about other things. This way, you will have mindfulness, your mind
will be in the present – be here and now.
Don’t send your mind into the past or into the future because it
cannot make your mind peaceful and calm. The mind can only be
peaceful and calm when it remains in the present. When you sit,
you focus on your breathing until your mind drops into calm. After
you come out of jhāna, you can start investigating the nature of
the body – to see the anicca nature of the body by looking at the
changes of the body from birth, to childhood, to adulthood, to old
age, sickness and eventually to death. This is anicca. The body is
continuously in the process of changes; it doesn’t remain the same.
After that, you also look at the anattā nature of the body – there
is no-self in this body. The body is just the product of the four
— 118 —
elements that we ingest, like the water that we drink, the air that
we breathe in– so these are the water element and the air element.
The food we take is the earth element. When these elements are
combined, they create the fourth element, the heat element. That’s
why the body is always warm. So, we are just the four elements
that form the body.
When the body stops breathing, all these four elements will go on
their separate ways. There is nothing called you or me, or he or
she in that body. The body is merely a body. But the mind comes
to possess the body. And due to its lack of true knowledge, the
mind takes the body as itself. It thinks that the body is himself or
herself, but actually it is not.
Your body was initiated from your father and your mother. It then is
developed with the support of the four elements, but this process
doesn’t last forever. The process will eventually stop and the four
elements will go on their own separate ways. If you leave the body
alone, after it dies for a while, the fluid starts to flow out – this is
the water element that goes on its separate way. The heat element
disappears – when the body becomes cold. The air element
evaporates. And all that is left is just the earth element. So, you
want to investigate this to convince the mind that the body is not
the mind, and the mind is not the body.
You can also do it by dissecting the body into 32 parts, and ask
yourself whether you are which part of the body. Like asking: ‘Am
I the hair of the body? What happens when I shave my hair and
throw it all away? Where am I? Do I go away together with the
hair?’ The answer is no. The hair is gone but not you. It is the same
with all other parts of the body. There are 32 parts of the body that
you should contemplate and investigate to see them as they really
are, not as what you think they are. You tend to think that the
combination of the 32 parts of the body is you. Therefore, you have
— 119 —
to correct that misunderstanding by separating all the parts and

ask yourself whether any of these parts is you or not.
What happens after a kidney transplant? Does somebody else take

over your body with this new kidney? You use the new kidney, but
you are still the same old guy, right? The mind is always the same.
You can always change the body parts, you can change your heart,
your lungs, and other organs, but these don’t change you. You are
still the same. You are still the one who knows, who thinks. So, if
you can see this clearly, then you can let go of your attachment
to the body. Whatever happens to the body, you are not affected.
Right now, you are affected by the changes in your body because
of your own delusion. You think that whatever happens to the body,
happens to you. In fact, you never get sick, you never get old, and
you never die. That’s the mind. You are from the mind. You are not
from the body. But you are your thoughts, so you think you are,
then you are.
When you enter into jhanā, when you stop thinking, then the ‘you’
disappears. All that is left is the knower: the one who knows. That’s
the real you. That’s where you want to get to be, the ‘knower’. When
you see anything, just know, just acknowledge. Don’t be attached or
cling to what you see. If you do, you will be sad because it doesn’t
last forever. When it leaves you, you become sad. But if you don’t
cling to it, it doesn’t matter whether it stays or it goes.
Layperson: Many years ago, I was taught to stay in jhanā where

I can sit for hours very easily. When I got out of my meditation,
my mind was completely still and I experienced this for months.
However, in the West, there was a negativity in terms of jhanā
practice, so I let it go. Now when we talk about samādhi, I think I
experience it when my mind is not seeking, or not pushing away,
but when I am contented with whatever the present moment is,
— 120 —
there is a sense of ease. This is what I think samādhi is. It is very

pleasant. Is my understanding of this term correct?
Than Ajahn: Correct. What you need to do is to preserve it for it to

last forever. The thing that destroys it is your craving. So whatever
things arise when you still have this sense of equanimity, you use
the three characteristics to stop your craving. If you can stop your
craving using these three characteristics, you will return to the state
of calm, the peace of mind.
You are on the right track but you are only half way. You only got
to the first level, the samatha level. You haven’t yet gone to the
next level, the vipassanā level – seeing the three characteristics.
You have to be able to see three characteristics in everything that
the mind craves for.
Layperson: I feel like I am practising the three characteristics in

a passive way.
Than Ajahn: You just know it by name, but you never use it to
correct your problem. Your problem is your craving.
End of discussion.
— 121 —
12
Q&A
June 30th, 2016
Question: I would like to overcome sexual desires in order not to

have sexual activities anymore. I know about the meditation on 32
parts but I don’t know how often I have to contemplate on them and
I don’t know if it is the only practice which can help me. (France)
Than Ajahn: You want to look at the body as repulsive, unattractive,

so you have to look at the 32 parts or look at the body when it
becomes a corpse. When the body dies, think of its unattractive
parts. You have to contemplate or think about it continuously until
you can remember it all the time. If you don’t, when you see an
attractive body you can become aroused by what you see. So,
if you want to get rid of your desire, you have to reflect on the
unattractive parts of the body and you have to be able to bring it
out right away when you need it. It is a matter of testing yourself
and see whether you have enough asubha perception, the
perception of the unattractiveness of the body. Then you look at the
attractive body and see if you can use the asubha that you have
contemplated to stop your desire. This is a trial and error process.
If you still cannot stop (your desire), that means that you need to
contemplate more. So, contemplate all the time because you don’t
know when your desire will arise.
— 123 —
Question: Can Ajahn explain more about the context in one of

Luangphor’s talks. Ajahn said, “If we have practised to Sotāpanna
then at least we will not regress. But if we stop practising, it may not
be possible to get back the samādhi that we have achieved before”.
Is it true that once we regress, we will not have samādhi again and
how can we have the chance to go higher then? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: Samādhi is still at the level of aniccā, and it still

can regress, so you have to keep maintaining mindfulness, keep
maintaining the samādhi, because once you stop for some time,
you will lose that ability to enter into samādhi. The Sotāpanna level
is attained by way of vipassanā or wisdom. He or she can protect
the mind from regressing. It is a different thing with samādhi that
is attained through the use of mindfulness only. If you use wisdom,
samādhi cannot regress, but if you only use mindfulness or sati,
it can regress. When you don’t maintain your mindfulness and let
your mind think about things then your mind will become restless
and agitated again. So, with samādhi, you need to maintain
mindfulness all the time.
Question: Is laziness normal in the nature of beings and as a monk

where can I find strength to fight this laziness?
Than Ajahn: Laziness is normal for ordinary beings, and in order

to fight laziness you have to use diligence. You must keep yourself
busy, that means busy practising and not busy making money
or busy going out to have fun. You want to be busy practising
the Dhamma especially in the development of mindfulness, the
development of samādhi and the development of wisdom. This is
something you have to force yourself to do because if you don’t
force yourself then laziness will take over right away. One way is for
you to set up a schedule and stick to the schedule, so if you have
to do this at this time and when the time comes, you just do it. If
you do not set up a schedule, when the time comes, your laziness
— 124 —
12 | Q&A, June 30th, 2016
might tell you: “oh, I don’t want to do it, I want to rest, I don’t feel
well, it’s too cold, it’s too hot, I am hungry, I am too full”, so there
will be all kinds of excuses. So, you have to resolve it by sticking to
the schedule regardless of what might happen. And the only time
when you stop is when you sleep or when you die.
Question: When a person attains Sotāpanna, how does he know

that he had entered the stream (in his previous life) when he comes
back to this earth? (France)
Than Ajahn: He will have the same ability. A Sotāpanna will never
doubt the Buddha, the Dhamma or the Sangha. A Sotāpanna will
never be attached to his own body. He knows that this body is
temporary; this body doesn’t belong to him, and he is not afraid of
aging, sickness or death.
Question: Can a Sotāpanna’s samādhi regress or can he

occasionally break precepts?
Than Ajahn: He will not break precepts because he knows that the
body is not worth breaking the precepts for. He knows if he breaks
the precepts, he will feel bad and he doesn’t want to feel bad by
his own actions, so a Sotāpanna will not break any precepts.
Question: Will there be a chance that a Sotāpanna might not

encounter Dhamma or the real teaching for his remaining
rebirths?
Than Ajahn: He already has the Dhamma inside his heart. He has
seen the Noble Truths already. A Sotāpanna knows that his mental
suffering arises from his own craving, so his goal is to get rid of his
own craving. He doesn’t need anybody to teach him, and he can
progress by himself although it might be slower if he doesn’t have
a teacher to guide him, that’s the only difference.
— 125 —
If he has a teacher who has achieved a higher level of attainments,

the teacher can guide him. But if he doesn’t have a teacher, he has
the Noble Truths as a standard for him to practise. If he doesn’t
have a teacher, he might be slow because he might not know how
exactly to get rid of his craving. He might have to go through many
trials and errors which will take a longer time, but he knows his
goal is to get rid of his craving because he knows craving is the
one that makes him feel sad or unhappy. He tries to search for the
cessation of his craving, for example when he is sad or unhappy,
he will ask himself, “What am I craving for? What do I desire for?”
And once he finds it, he will find a way to stop that craving.
Question: It is often said that the result of our action (phala) follows
the entrance in ‘magga’ after some mind moments, that means
the result of our actions is fast. But in the sutta, it is mentioned
that merits from giving dāna to a person who has entered the
stream (Sotāpanna) can come later on and do not follow the
entrance of the path. Can Ajahn clarify whether the result (phala)
comes a few thought moments after the magga or the magga and
phala can be separated by much longer time?
Than Ajahn: The magga is similar to walking up the stairs, if you

are still walking up the stairs it means that you haven’t reached the
floor you want to go to, but once you reach there, you are there,
so it is a matter of how much time it takes for you to develop the
magga. Some people can develop it quickly. Some people can
develop it slowly and that’s why sometimes some Sotāpanna can
take seven lives before he reaches Nibbāna and some Sotāpanna
can reach Nibbāna in this life so it is just a matter of how good his
magga is, how good his samādhi and his wisdom are. If he has
strong samādhi and strong paññā (wisdom), then he can move very
quickly. If he is not good in samādhi or paññā, then he may have
to move slowly. So, it varies and depends on each person’s ability.
— 126 —
12 | Q&A, June 30th, 2016
Question: If I give dāna to a Sotāpanna, will the result be fruitful

for a longer time?
Than Ajahn: Giving dāna will only make you feel good and it has
nothing to do with the Sotāpanna except that you can get the
Dhamma from the Sotāpanna. If the Sotāpanna gives you the
Dhamma and if you understand it, you may be able to become
a Sotāpanna yourself. If you give food to an ordinary monk or
ordinary person, he will not be able to teach you the way to
become a Sotāpanna, so that’s the only difference. If you give food
to an Arahant, he can tell you how to become an Arahant, but if
you give food to a Sotāpanna, he can only tell you how to become
a Sotāpanna but he cannot tell you how to become an Arahant.
Question: The Buddha taught that we have to stay in the body

all the time. However, in your teaching you mentioned about
meditation to separate the mind from the body, which means the
mind leaves the body so we are not in the body. Can Ajahn explain it?
Than Ajahn: I don’t know where you get the teaching from that the
Buddha said you have to stay in the body all the time. I think there
is a misunderstanding. I think what the Buddha said is about the
mindfulness, that is to be mindful of the body but it doesn’t mean for
the mind to be inside the body. It is for the mind to use the body to
develop mindfulness. But when you have mindfulness and when you
sit in samādhi, then the mind and the body will separate temporarily.
Question: My daughter has a natural way to have out of the body

experience (astral travel) when sleeping. The Buddha said it is
dangerous because the Buddha said that we have to always stay
in our body and not to leave our body. Is this different from the
result of meditation, to separate the mind and the body? (France).
— 127 —
Than Ajahn: In fact, the mind and the body are never together;
they are only connected by the consciousness of the mind. The
mind sends the consciousness to the body and it attaches itself
to the body, and then it gathers information from the body, for
example when the body sees things, it sends to the mind, to the
consciousness connector. So, the mind and the body are actually
two separate “persons” (entities) and the mind is not in the body
in the sense of the words. When you meditate, you merely pull
back from the consciousness or pull the connector away. It is like
unplugging the computer from the electrical outlet. So, when you
meditate, it is like you pull the plug out and therefore the mind
doesn’t receive any information from the body and whatever
happens to the body when you are in meditation, doesn’t bother
you. But when you come out of your meditation, it is as if you had
plugged the connector back to the body.
The purpose of meditation practice is to enlighten the mind that

the mind is not the body, that they are two separate entities. The
problem with the mind is that it thinks that it is the body, so it
becomes attached to the body and whatever happens to the body,
it clings to it. The mind wants the body to last, but the body doesn’t
last and when the body has to die, it causes the mind to suffer.
If the mind has wisdom, or has true knowledge and understanding
that this body is not itself, it knows that the body and the mind are
like a driver and his car. When the car breaks down, the driver
doesn’t break down with the car. The driver simply gets out of the
car and gets a new car. Similarly, when the body dies, if the mind
still needs a new body, it goes and takes a new rebirth. If the mind
doesn’t want any more rebirths then it has to stop the desire to
use the body.
Right now, the mind uses the body to seek happiness because
the mind wants to see, wants to hear, wants to go here and there
and it needs to have a body to do so. It depends on the body, so
— 128 —
12 | Q&A, June 30th, 2016
it doesn’t want to lose the body because without a body, it cannot

do the things that it wants and so it becomes unhappy. But if
you understand that having a body is carrying a burden because
you have to look after the body, feed it, take care of it, protect it and
then despite all that, it still has to get sick, get old and die anyway.
So, having a body hurts the mind more than helping it. If you see
this with wisdom, you will not want to use the body anymore, you
will get rid of your desire that wants to seek happiness through the
body and return back to find the happiness from meditation. If you
can have happiness through your meditation, then you don’t have
to use the body to bring you happiness. You won’t have any desire
to rely or be dependent on the body. When you don’t depend on the
body, whatever happens to the body will not hurt you or the mind.
Question: My daughter has out of body experiences (when she is

sleeping), does it mean that she has a natural meditation ability?
Than Ajahn: It is just the mind creating this experience in itself;

it has nothing to do with the body. It is not a meditation ability but
it is an ability to have the out of the body experience which is not
useful. It does not educate the mind to let go of the body, to let go
of everything. So, if you become involved or attached to this kind of
experience, it will just waste your time; it will not lead you to Nibbāna.
Question: In the Samyutta Nikkaya, the Buddha described there

are two kinds of practitioners: (1) truth-followers, those who
accept the Dharma only after pondering over it with wisdom, and
(2) faith-followers. They will not pass away until they have realized
the fruit of stream-entry. The elder monks of old call them “lesser
stream-winners” or “maturing stream-winners”. Can Ajahn explain
about this sutta and clarify if there are indeed people who are
destined to enter the stream of Dhamma in this life? (Melbourne,
Australia)
— 129 —
Than Ajahn: People who have faith in the teaching of the Buddha
do not see things as people who have wisdom. It is like comparing
blind persons with people with good vision. A blind person has to
rely on somebody else to tell him what’s going on around him, and
he has to use faith to believe what he hears from the other person.
But a person with wisdom is a person who has opened his eyes,
who can see everything so he doesn’t have to rely on other people
to tell him what’s happening around him. So, the person who has
faith (the faith-follower) is a person who has faith in the four Noble
Truths. The person who has wisdom sees the Four Noble Truths.
They are two different things.
Question: Can Ajahn also advise me how to reach this (stream-

entry) level?
Than Ajahn: Just have to practise sīla, samādhi and paññā.
Question: It is said that parinibbāna is likened to a flame going

out on a candle. What happens to the citta of an Arahant after his
or her parinibbāna? (Perth, Australia)
Than Ajahn: The citta of an Arahant and the citta of an ordinary

being, are the same. The only difference is that the citta of an
Arahant is pure; it has no defilements; it has no lobha, dosa or
moha, and it has no craving: no kāma-taṇhā, bhava-taṇhā, and
vibhava-taṇhā, that’s the only difference. The mind (of an Arahant)
that doesn’t have kilesas, doesn’t take rebirths, that’s all. The mind
of ordinary people still have defilements (greed, craving) and they
keep on having rebirths after rebirths.
Question: How important is it for a puthujjana to be under the

guidance of a good living teacher as opposed to relying on the
suttas alone? (Perth, Australia)
— 130 —
12 | Q&A, June 30th, 2016
Than Ajahn: The suttas are limited because when you read, you
have to interpret it and you can misinterpret what you read. If you
have a living teacher, when you misinterpret his teaching, he can
correct you, so that’s the difference. It is better to have a living
teacher because he can guide you and correct you. Reading the
suttas can only guide and not correct you. When you misinterpret
the suttas, you can follow the wrong directions without knowing it.
Question: If I do good actions, I gain kusala kamma and if I do

bad actions, I acquire akusala kamma. In both ways, I am going
to be reborn again and again. So if I don’t do anything, I won’t
accumulate any kamma. Why should I do good actions because
if I accumulate a lot of kusala kamma, I may be reborn in the rūpa
or arūpa realms where lifespan of beings are in maha-kappa? I will
be wasting my time there since my goal as a Buddhist is to attain
Nibbāna. I am confused. Please enlighten me, why should I do
good actions, Master? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: First you have to do good actions before you can
move up to the level where you don’t have to do anything. Normally
your good action is to counter your bad action, and you usually
think that your bad action is a good action and you don’t know
it. What are the bad actions that you think as good actions? For
example, making money, having fun, travelling, or having all sorts of
happiness through the body, to you, these are the good actions,
but to the Buddha these are bad actions, so therefore you need to
do dāna to counter these bad actions. Instead of spending money
on traveling, you can spend it for charity, and this will stop your
bad actions which can be a cause of accumulating your rebirths.
The more you spend money on your desire to travel and to have
fun, the more rebirths you are accumulating, so you have to stop
this desire by spending money on charity instead.
— 131 —
Giving to charity will reduce the desire in your mind, and you don’t
have to travel to seek happiness because the happiness that you
gain from doing good kamma is far better. That’s the reason. If you
still do bad actions with your money, then you should give your
money away to charity and it will make your mind peaceful, calm
and content, then you can meditate. It is for this reason that kusala
kamma makes it easier for you to meditate.
If you don’t do this good kamma, you will keep spending your money
looking for happiness by using money and this will compel you to
make more money. You will not have time to meditate to stop your
desire, because it is your desire that drives you to the next birth.
If you don’t want to be reborn, you have to stop your desire and
to do so you have to meditate. To meditate, you need time, and to
have the time for meditation, you will have to stop giving time for
making and spending money.
Question: What is the cause for people to have different

characters and behaviours such as being funny, being tough or
being attractive and charming? (Portugal)
Than Ajahn: It is our daily activities that we do every day. The

more we do something, the more we become proficient at it, so
this is something that we accumulate through our past lives until
it becomes part of our character, but it can still be changed. If we
think a certain kind of behaviour is not good, we can stop it. For
example, if you think smoking cigarettes is bad, drinking is bad,
you can try to stop it. Once you stop it then this habit will disappear
from your character. If you think being funny is bad, it doesn’t make
you respectable, then you stop being funny and eventually you will
not be funny and you will be serious. This is what we call kamma;
what you do will be the one that builds up your character.
— 132 —
12 | Q&A, June 30th, 2016
Question: What should we do to become smart?
Than Ajahn: Learn a lot, study a lot, listen to Dhamma talks, read
Dhamma books and meditate, contemplate on body, contemplate
on the characteristic nature of aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā in all
things, then you will become smart, not worldly smart, but Dhamma
smart, which is more important.
Question: In practice, we develop sati in order to get samādhi.

Is there a difference between having sati only in the movements
of the body while cleaning and thinking ‘buddho’ while cleaning?
(Portugal)
Than Ajahn: You can do whichever way you want, you just have to
prevent your mind from thinking about other things. You want your
mind to be focused on one thing, on your cleaning activity, or on
the reciting of ‘buddho’, to stop the mind from thinking aimlessly,
going to the past or going to the future because it can cause your
mind to become irritated, agitated and restless. You want to calm
and stabilise your mind, so you want to focus on one thing, on a
neutral object that doesn’t cause any emotion.
Question: Are emotions considered to be sankhāra-khandha or

vedanā-khandha?
Than Ajahn: They are the products of the nāma-khanda that

interacts with each other.
Question: I am a working mum with 2 young kids aged 2 and 6.

When is the best time to meditate? My convenient time to start
meditation is 5 am or mid-night. Is it advisable to meditate mid late
at night? (Malaysia)
— 133 —
Than Ajahn: You can meditate any time when you have the time.
You just need to find the time, it doesn’t matter what time it is. When
you are busy, you don’t have time to do it. So, you just need to find
the free time to do it but whether you can meditate or not is another
matter, because when you finally have the time, you may be too
tired to do it. That’s why it is better to leave home and become a
monk or a maychee then you don’t have to waste your time on
other things and you can have all the time to meditate.
Question: I read in the sutta that some people attained Arahant-

ship after only listening to a Dhamma talk. I find it hard to believe
because I think we all have defilements such as anger, greed and
delusion which are difficult to overcome. However, these people
can make them (defilements) disappear overnight just by listening
to Dhamma. How can this happen? Can Ajahn comment on this?
Than Ajahn: It is not overnight. They had been getting rid of them
(greed, hatred and delusion) continuously until they reached
the last step. For those people who can be enlightened after listening
to a Dhamma talk, they usually had sīla and samādhi already but
all they lacked were wisdom, so once they heard the wisdom from
the Buddha, they can apply the wisdom and became enlightened
right away. For those people who listen to the Dhamma and don’t
become enlightened, it means that they don’t have sīla, samādhi
and paññā; that’s why they don’t become enlightened.
Question: How about Venerable Angulimala?
Than Ajahn: Yes, he already had samādhi. His sīla was broken
because of his delusion and he had been misled. Normally, he kept
his sīla, but he was told that in order to become enlightened he
had to kill, so he was misled, that’s all, but normally he kept his sīla
and had samādhi already. He didn’t have the wisdom to see that in
order to become enlightened he had to kill the kilesas (defilements)
— 134 —
12 | Q&A, June 30th, 2016
instead of killing other people. So, when the Buddha told him that
he should stop killing people but kill his kilesas instead, he became
enlightened to the right way.
Question: There are different opinions about wearing amulets

and believing in magic. Have I been misled into wearing it and
believing in it? Who is speaking the truth because I do not know
what to believe now? Please give your opinion.
Than Ajahn: They (the amulets) are not worth anything, you can
throw them away. It doesn’t make any difference to your life whether
you wear it or you don’t wear it. It is psychological. If you believe
in it and wear it, then you feel good. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter
as it doesn’t help or hurt you.
Question: A deva can practise if he has a teacher who can reach

and teach him. What are the conditions for a deva to be able to
listen to those teachings?
Than Ajahn: First of all, the deva has to be interested in the

Dhamma practice. Secondly, there must be an Arahant or the
Buddha who can connect with them. The Buddha can connect
with the devas, so the devas can come and listen to the Dhamma
talks and after listening to the Dhamma talks, they can become
enlightened. It is similar to the Buddha’s mother, who was a deva
when the Buddha became enlightened. He could connect with her
and taught her the Dhamma, and after three months she became
enlightened as a Sotāpanna.
Question: To connect with the Buddha or Arahants, does the deva

have to have samādhi?
Than Ajahn: You can have samādhi as you listen to Dhamma

talk. You can develop samādhi when you concentrate on listening
— 135 —
to the Dhamma talk. You can use the Dhamma talk as your object
of meditation and when your mind is calm while listening, you
can become enlightened with wisdom. So, while listening to a
Dhamma talk, you should be still and not think about other things,
then you will have samādhi. Once you have samādhi, you will be
able to understand with wisdom what you are listening to. Once
you understand the wisdom or the knowledge, then you can apply
it to get rid of your defilements to become enlightened.
May all of you progress in the path towards enlightenment.
End of Q&A
— 136 —
13
July 1st, 2016
Than Ajahn: What do you do here? When do you come to

Thailand, what do you do?
Layperson: We wanted to meet Ajahn. If we go to Bangkok,

we can’t meet you here. If we have time, we’ll try to go to Udon.
Than Ajahn: OK. So how many days have you been here already?
Layperson: We arrived yesterday.
Than Ajahn: Yesterday. Do you go back on Monday?
Layperson: Yes, on Monday.
Than Ajahn: So, today you come here and where will you go
from here?
Layperson: Maybe to Bangkok area.
Than Ajahn: Tomorrow you’re going to Bangkok.
— 137 —
Layperson: Because it’s his first time to go to Bangkok.
Than Ajahn: I see. What’s the difference between Bangkok and

Jakarta?
Layperson: No difference, maybe many temples and different

languages.
Than Ajahn: Different languages. Is food different?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: But basically the same. You got traffic jams here in
Bangkok.
Layperson: In Jakarta, everything is the same.
Than Ajahn: So, why waste your money?
Layperson: If I come here, I can meet holy monks.
Than Ajahn: OK.
Layperson: Here, there are still many holy monks who we can
pay respect to, more holy than in Jakarta, than in Indonesia.
Than Ajahn: So, what is the difference in paying respect to different

kinds of monks? What do you get?
Layperson: At least, it makes our faith in Buddhism stronger.
Than Ajahn: It can only be stronger if you talk to the monks

because if you don’t talk, then you don’t know the difference, right?
The differences in the monks are what they can tell you. If the
— 138 —
13 | Laypeople from Indonesia, July 1st, 2016
monks are intelligent monks, they can give you good information,
good knowledge and you need knowledge to guide you in your life
because you need the right view, sammā diṭṭhi and the Buddha
has the best of the right view. Once you have the right view,
right information, then you can use it to guide you in your life. The
Buddha said, ‘You should do puñña, to make puñña (make merit)
and keep the sīla (precepts) and practice meditation (bhāvanā).’ It’s
because this is the way to make your mind or heart happy and get
rid of your sadness and unhappiness, no other ways, not by making
money. You can have lots of money and you can still be unhappy.
If you have money, you should know how to use it wisely. First,
you use it to take care of your body. This is important. Once you
have taken good care of your body, the surplus money should be
spent on charity, on helping other people because it will make you
happy, rather than buying expensive things, or going to holidays
and travelling. It only gives you brief happiness and it can make you
become addicted to spending money like this. Then, it will force you
to have to make more money. But if you give the surplus money to
charity, it will give you peace of mind, contentment. You don’t feel
you need anything. You don’t feel you need to buy expensive things.
You don’t feel you have to go travelling, vacationing because the
happiness that you get from giving to charity can fulfil your mind,
make your mind full. But the happiness that you get from buying
expensive things, buying non-essential things only makes your
mind hungrier. You want to have more.
So, the Buddha said, ‘You have to know how to spend money wisely.’
Spend it to take care of your body, your family and keep some for
the future. For the rest, if you don’t need it, give it to charity. Help
other people. Other people are like you. They need help if they
don’t have the ability to help themselves. Then, when you help
them and make them happy, that happiness also comes back to
you. It makes you feel good. Then, it will make you be able to keep
— 139 —
the sīla because when you help other people, you don’t want to
hurt them. So, when you don’t want to hurt them, you automatically
have sīla. You don’t want to kill. You don’t want to steal. You don’t
want to cheat or lie. You don’t want to drink, to make yourself drunk.
Thus, you need first to be able to give to charity. Once you can give
to charity, you have mettā. When you have mettā, you can keep the
sīla. Once you can keep the sīla, your mind will become happier,
more stable. So, you will be able to keep the eight precepts, the
aṭṭha-sīla. You need to keep the aṭṭha-sīla if you want to meditate
because you have to have time. If you don’t keep the aṭṭha-sīla,
keeping just the pañca-sīla will still allow you to do other things.
You can still sleep with your wife, your husband. You can still go
out to parties, movies and do all sorts of entertainment. But if you
keep the aṭṭha-sīla, then you cannot do these things. So, when you
don’t do these things, you will have time to meditate. You will have
time to stay in the temple. You need a quiet place to meditate. If you
live at home, there are many people and not everybody keeps the
eight precepts or practises meditation. So, their activities will disturb
your practice. Thus, if you want to practice meditation (bhāvanā),
you have to isolate yourself. You need a quiet environment.
Usually, a monastery is a good place to go but you have to go to

a monastery where they only do meditation, not other activities. If
you go to the monastery that has other activities, then it can disturb
your meditation. And if you can find a quiet monastery to meditate,
you’ll find more happiness. The happiness you get from charity is
less than the happiness you get from keeping the five precepts.
The happiness that you get from keeping the five precepts is less
than the happiness you get from keeping the eight precepts. The
happiness that you get from keeping the eight precepts is less
than the happiness you get from samādhi. And the happiness you
get from samādhi is less than the happiness you get from wisdom
or paññā because paññā will liberate your mind, stop all forms of
— 140 —
suffering, all forms of sadness, and send you to Nibbāna. You don’t
have to come back and be born to get sick, to get old, and to die
again. If you haven’t got to Nibbāna yet, you will still have to come
back and to be born, to get old, to get sick, to die, and to separate
from your loved ones.
So, you should follow the Buddha’s teaching. Try to practice it, try
to move up the levels of practice from dāna to sīla, from sīla to
bhāvanā. You can do it with bhāvanā, maybe once a week when you
first start on your day you don’t have to go to work. Keep the eight
precepts and maybe find a quiet place somewhere. If you can’t find
a monastery, maybe if you can have a room in your house where
you can be alone and no one can disturb you. Lock yourself up, put
yourself in prison for one day: no TV, and no nothing, just meditate
to keep your mind calm. If you can meditate and keep your mind
calm, you’ll find the best kind of happiness. So, this is basically
the knowledge that the Buddha discovered that enlightened him.
He discovered the path to happiness, the path to the cessation of
all kinds of sadness. Thus, if you follow his teaching, you will get
the same result as he did.
Right now, today you are making dāna, OK. Try to keep the five
precepts as well. You can keep the five precepts when you travel,
when you do anything. But if you keep the eight precepts, then you
cannot travel. You cannot go shopping or go sightseeing. This is for
the (sake of) higher kind of happiness. For the lower kind, you can
still go sightseeing. You can go to entertainment, to places. You can
keep the five precepts and you can give to charity. You can give
dāna. But if you want to move up higher, then you have to keep
the eight precepts and you have to stop going sightseeing, going
here and there, and lock yourself up in a quiet place to meditate.
You can do walking and sitting meditation.
— 141 —
The first step before you can sit and meditate is you have to have
sati or mindfulness. So, you have to develop sati by focusing your
mind on one object, like ‘buddho, buddho’, or you can focus on
your body activities, watch your body, every movement of your
body. Whatever you’re doing, stay with that body activity. Don’t go
thinking about other things. Then, your mind will have mindfulness
to keep the mind fixed, stationary, not running around with your
thought. And when you sit and meditate your mind can become
peaceful and calm very quickly and you’ll find that the happiness
that you achieve from meditation is far better than any other kind
of happiness. Then, you can let go of everything. You do not feel
sad if you lose anything because you don’t have to rely on them
to make you happy anymore since you have the happiness that
you can create by meditating. So, this is basically what Buddhists
should do, alright? Do you have any questions?
Layperson: Actually, I studied another book and I cannot see any

difference between bhāvanā and sati.
Than Ajahn: Sati is part of the bhāvanā practice. Bhāvanā has

two levels: samatha bhāvanā and vipassanā bhāvanā. Samatha
bhāvanā is to keep, make your mind peaceful and calm. Vipassanā
is to make your mind enlightened but the first step before you can
have samatha bhāvanā, you must have mindfulness. You need
to have sati to control your thought because if you cannot stop
your thinking, your mind cannot become peaceful. So, you have
to develop sati all day long, from the time you get up to the time
you go to sleep. When you open up your eyes in the morning,
when you get up, keep reciting ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’. And do
whatever you do but keep reciting ‘buddho, buddho’ to prevent your
mind from thinking about other things. But if you have to think of
something important, you can stop ‘buddho’ temporarily and think
of the things that you have to do today. Once you know what you
have to do and you have to prepare yourself to go to do that, then
— 142 —
you come back to ‘buddho, buddho’. While you go about taking a

shower, getting dressed, eating, travelling, and going to your work
place, keep on ‘buddho, buddho’. And when you work, then you
can stop ‘buddho’. You think about the work that you do and when
you have time and you don’t have anything to do, you can sit down
and meditate, close your eyes, ‘buddho, buddho’. Then, you will
have samatha when the mind becomes peaceful and calm. This
is samatha.
After you have samatha, then you will have the strength to look at
the truth, the truth of anicca. The Buddha said, ‘Everything is anicca.
Nothing lasts forever. Everything exists briefly.’ Like our body, our
body is anicca. It only exists for maybe 80 years, 90 years or 100
years. After that it will have to break down. So, you have to teach
your mind not to cling to the body because if you cling to the body,
it will make you unhappy. This is vipassanā. You have to re-educate
your mind. Your mind doesn’t like to think about death, doesn’t like
to think about getting sick, doesn’t like to think about getting old
and when you don’t think, you forget. You think the body will last
forever. So, when the body gets old, gets sick or dies, you become
disturbed. But if you constantly remind yourself, that your body will
get old, get sick, and die, then you don’t forget. So, you prepare
your mind for the situation. When you get sick, you say, ‘Oh, this is
normal. I know I will get sick.’ When you get old, you say, ‘I know
I will get old.’ When you are dying, you say, ‘I know I will die.’
But, actually, what dies is not yourself anyway. The body is not your
‘self.’ You and the body come into union at the time of conception,
the time when the mother develops a body in her womb. You are
the spirit or the mind that has no body. You need a body. So, when
there is a body in the womb, you go and attach yourself to that
body. Thus, you and the body are two separate entities. But, due
to the lack of education, lack of right knowledge, we think that the
body is our ‘self.’ So, when anything happens to the body, we think
— 143 —
it happens to us. But, in fact, it only happens to the body. Because

the mind does not get sick, get old, and die with the body. So, this
is the knowledge you have to develop: to teach the mind that the
mind doesn’t get sick, get old, or die. It’s only the body that gets
old, gets sick, and dies. The mind keeps changing the body. This
is number one hundred million bodies that you have acquired and
you will lose every ‘body’ that you acquire. So, if you don’t want to
come to face with losing your body, then you should not get a new
body. When you die, and if you don’t have any desire to use the
body, then you don’t come back and get the new body. You have to
get rid of your desire to use the body to bring you happiness. Right
now, you rely on the body. You have to have this body to come
to Thailand but if you meditate and you have happiness of mind,
then you don’t need the body. You don’t need to come to Thailand
because you’re happy where you are. So, this is what you should
do: meditate to make your mind happy. When your mind becomes
happy, your mind doesn’t need the body. When you don’t need
the body, then you don’t have to come back and be born to get
sick, get old, and die again. So, this is what meditation, samatha
and vipassanā bhāvanā will do for your mind. OK, anything else?
Layperson: Some questions. I do meditation, ānāpānasati, I just

look at breathing in, breathing out, sometimes I cannot feel…
Than Ajahn: The breath.
Layperson: Oh, yes.
Than Ajahn: Just be aware that there is no breath for you to feel.
Just remain watchful, just keep watching.
Layperson: What should I watch?
Than Ajahn: Watch emptiness.
— 144 —
Layperson: Watch emptiness?
Than Ajahn: Watch your mind whether it’s thinking or not. When
it’s thinking, stop it from thinking. The purpose of watching your
breath is to stop you from thinking. So, if there is no breath to watch,
then watch your thinking instead. Watch whether you’re thinking
or not. If you think, stop thinking. Don’t think and then your mind
will eventually stop thinking totally. And your mind will become
peaceful, totally peaceful.
Layperson: Sometimes I’m breathing and I say, ‘buddho, buddho,

buddho.’ Is it the same thing as ‘buddho’ meditation?
Than Ajahn: Yes, the same thing.
Layperson: The same thing.
Than Ajahn: To prevent you from thinking.
Layperson: I see.
Than Ajahn: Because if you keep thinking, your mind will not be
calm. You want to stop your mind, you want to make your mind
become still. So, you need something to tie the mind, either your
breathing or your ‘buddho, buddho’. You can do that. If your mind
stops thinking, it will stop like falling into a well and then it will stop
thinking. You cannot force it to happen. You should keep ‘buddho,
buddho’, and when it happens, it will happen suddenly without your
notice. It won’t give you any notice, so you don’t anticipate. Just
keep focusing on your meditation, ‘buddho’, or your breath until
your mind falls into a well. You feel falling from a high place and it
will stop and everything will become peaceful and calm, and happy.
Layperson: And just keep your calm as much as possible.
— 145 —
Than Ajahn: Yes, once you’re there, you don’t need to do

anything. Just let it be until it withdraws from that state. It will
withdraw after a while, depending on the strength of your
mindfulness. The stronger the mindfulness you have, the longer
it will stay there. Once it withdraws, it will start to think. Then, you
can direct your thinking towards the contemplation of vipassanā.
Direct it to the contemplation on the nature of the body, anicca:
ageing, sickness, and death; anattā, the body is only made up of
the four elements. There’s no ‘you’ inside the body. ‘You’ is in the
mind. You are the mind. You use the body as your servant to take
you anywhere you want to go. But you have to lose this servant
one day because your servant will get sick, get old, and die. So,
you have to prepare yourself to give up the servant. If you’re
prepared, you’re ready, then, you won’t be sad. If you are not
prepared, you’ll be sad because you don’t want your servant to
leave you. If you don’t let go, you only make yourself sad. If you
let go, it will make you happy. So, if you don’t want to be sad, you
have to let go. And there is no other way because whether you let
go or not, it’s going to leave you anyway. But if you let go, then it
leaves you happy. If you don’t let go, it leaves you sad. Ok, alright.
I’ll give the anumodanā and I can then talk to the people in Thai.
End of Discussion.
— 146 —
Laypeople from Virginia
14
July 11th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Where are you from?
Layperson: United States. In Virginia.
Than Ajahn: Do you know Ajahn Dick, Ajahn Dick Sīlaratano?
Layperson: Yes, he told me about you. I brought my Mom here

to see you today.
Than Ajahn: I see. Is there any particular reason or purpose?
Layperson: I have to translate, she can’t speak English. She came

here to ask how to best practice. She mainly chants and she’s
wondering whether chanting can lead to …., what’s the word?
Than Ajahn: To samādhi, peace of mind?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: Yes, to a certain extent but not completely. If she

wants to have more calm, she should sit down, close her eyes and
— 147 —
focus on her breathing. If she cannot yet focus on her breathing,

she can use the chanting first. After chanting for a while, she might
feel peaceful and calm, and then might be able to watch her breath.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) What kind of chanting?
Than Ajahn: Whatever she chants, any kind of chanting is ok.

Anything is ok; yes, anything.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.)
Than Ajahn: Chanting is a ploy, a method of trying to get your mind

from thinking about other things. But she has to chant for a long
time before the mind can become calm. When the mind feels calm
and doesn’t want to chant, then she can just watch the breathing
instead. Tell her to sit down comfortably. She doesn’t have to make
herself uncomfortable kneeling. OK.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) She said that when she

tried to meditate in her younger years, she saw a vision of an old
man sitting across from her and she got scared. What is the karmic
cause?
Than Ajahn: Whatever you see in your vision, you just ignore it.
It is not real. It is not important.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) ‘Can I continue to

meditate?’ she asks
Than Ajahn: Well, we are talking about meditation. See, when

she saw that vision, it means she’s already been meditating, right?
Layperson: Yes.
— 148 —
14 | Laypeople from Virginia, July 11th, 2016
Than Ajahn: So, keep on meditating. Just focus on her chanting

or focus on her breathing.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) ‘What kind of chanting is

good? I’m sorry. I’m just translating.
Than Ajahn: Any kind of chanting that she can remember. I have
my autobiography translated into Chinese and she may be able to
understand more about the practice because in my autobiography
I would relate how I started in my practice.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) Her question is, ‘If I chant,

can I break the saṁsāra and go to what the Mahayana tradition
believes, the western paradise?
Than Ajahn: To Nibbāna. Yes, this is the beginning of the breaking

of the cycle of saṁsāra. But she has other Dhamma to develop
besides meditation.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) What is it?
Than Ajahn: She has to develop wisdom. She has to see that
everything in this world is painful. Not good for her mind. They all
hurt the mind. So, when you see that everything is hurtful, you will
then abandon them, relinquish them.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) She’s asking. She started

a Buddhist Dhamma center in Virginia in the 80s and she has been
running it for 30 some years and she’s asking whether or not you can
give her permission to stop managing the Dhamma center (temple).
Than Ajahn: To stop?
Layperson: Yes.
— 149 —
Than Ajahn: Why does she want to stop?
Layperson: Wait a minute, I’ll ask her. She feels that there are too
many people that come to the Dhamma centre (temple) and she
wants to be secluded so as to focus on her practice now.
Than Ajahn: Is there any commitment or anything that she has to

stick to? If she stops, will there be any problem? Then, it’s up to her
if she wants to stop. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it might
be nice if she can find someone else to take over.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) Should she give it to

somebody who is a layperson as herself or a monk?
Than Ajahn: Anybody that she feels that he can carry on what
she had been doing.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) She said that she had

asked several very high level monks in the Mahayana, including
other Tibetan lamas and they indicated to her that she cannot close
the Dhamma center (temple).
Than Ajahn: They said that she cannot close her temple? I see. But
if she feels that maintaining the temple can become an impairment
to her practice, then she should just close it down.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) She’s afraid that she will

get negative kamma by doing such action.
Than Ajahn: No, she will get positive kamma because then she
will have the time to develop her Dhamma practice. To discontinue
doing the Dhamma center is not a bad action. It’s just stopping
a good action, that’s all. But she needs the time to do a better
action. That’s what she’s doing right now.
— 150 —
14 | Laypeople from Virginia, July 11th, 2016
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) She said, ‘There are a

number of monks who are currently living at the Dhamma center,
and if she throws them out, will she get the negative kamma as
the result?
Than Ajahn: No, you have to think that things have to come to
an end one day, if not today, maybe tomorrow. When she dies,
the monks will get thrown out anyway. So, it’s not her fault for the
monks to get thrown out. Because she does not do it intentionally
to get rid of them, but she just cannot go on with maintaining the
center anymore.
Layperson: (Translating into Chinese.) Thank you very much.
Than Ajahn: I’ll give you the anumodanā. I’ll give you the blessings.
Layperson: Thank you so much.
End of Discussion.
— 151 —
15
Q&A
July 14th, 2016
Question: Since a couple of weeks ago, I was practicing the

meditation on the 32 parts. May you give me some advice about
how to practice it, in order to get the most benefit possible? (France)
Than Ajahn: You can use it for samatha or vipassanā. Samatha

is to make your mind peaceful and calm. Instead of repeating
‘buddho’, you can repeat the 32 parts: hair of the head, hair of the
body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, bones, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys,
etc. You just memorise it and repeat it. If you keep reciting these
32 parts, your mind can become peaceful and calm and you will
have samādhi. This is one method.
The second method is for vipassanā, to see the true nature of

the body. When we see the body, we normally only see five parts
of the body and they are the hair of the head, hair of the body,
nails, teeth and skin. That’s all we see and we might think that the
body is only made up of these five parts, so we are deceived into
looking at the body as beautiful or attractive. This causes us to
desire and be attached to the body, thus creating dukkha for the
mind. Because when you want a body, you have to go and acquire
it and when you cannot acquire it, you will become sad. Even after
— 153 —
you have acquired your body or spouse, you will one day lose it or
him or her and you will feel sad again. If you see the body as the
32 parts then you will not become attracted to the body and you
will not have any sexual desire towards that body, and this is one
way of getting rid of sexual desire.
When you see the complete picture of the body, you will then see
that the body is not attractive. The parts under the skin are not
attractive, such as the lungs, the heart, the intestine, stomach, liver,
kidneys and all the dirty stuffs that come out of the body. Once you
see the body in its entirety, you can get rid of your sexual desire.
This is one level.
Another level is to see that the entire body has no person in it. The
entire body only consists of 32 parts; for example, the hair is not
you or me, the nails, teeth, skin are not you or me; they are just
the parts of the body, so in this whole body there is no you or me
in it. The whole body is just a composition of the 32 parts and it is
not permanent; it is temporary, it is not lasting. One day it has to
break up and when it breaks up it will return to the four elements:
the liquid parts belong to water element, the heat in the body that
makes your body warmth belongs to fire element, the parts that
flow belong to the air element and the part that is solid belongs
to earth element. So this body is just a composition of the four
elements. There is no person in that body: no father, no mother, no
brother, no sister. The father or mother is in the mind and the mind
doesn’t die with the body. The mind has to go to the next life when
the mind still has desire or craving and it will be reborn according
to kamma that it had performed. If it did good kamma, it will go to
higher realm where there is more happiness than suffering, but if
it did bad kamma, it will have to go to lower realm where there is
more suffering than happiness such as the realm of animals, realm
of hell (creatures), so this is the contemplation of the 32 parts of
the body.
— 154 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
Question: I am practising meditation on asubha kammaṭṭhāna,

visualising parts of my body. Can this meditation based on
mindfulness of asubha lead to jhāna or to insight that can result
in Sotāpanna?
Than Ajahn: It can be both. It can give you samatha and it can
also give you insight.
Question: Can repeating the 32 parts of the body, lead one to

jhāna?
Than Ajahn: Yes. When you use logic or rationality to convince the
mind that the body is not beautiful, that the body is not yourself,
then you are using vipassanā. If you contemplate the nature of the
body as aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā, or as asubha then it becomes
vipassanā. If you just focus on any parts of the body and look at
the parts without using any rationality, then it just makes the mind
peaceful and calm, and it leads to jhāna.
Question: I have been meditating for almost 13 years. I have

some heaviness with some vibrating feeling on the forehead. It’s
there all the time and sometimes it is difficult to bear. Do you think
it would be better if I practice for instance white kasina instead of
meditation on the breath? I have read that it might be dangerous
to do it alone without an instructor. What would be your advice?
Than Ajahn: You can try different methods. Maybe this method is
not suitable for you. You can try to recite mantra ‘buddho, buddho’, or
chant some verses to lessen the mental activity because when you
still have strong mental activity it is difficult to focus on something.
Your mind still wants to think. Instead of letting your mind think, you
can do some chanting or recite a mantra which will slow down your
thoughts until it comes to the point where you are comfortable and
then you can observe your breath. Kasina meditation method is
— 155 —
the same thing as the breath. It is just a different object, that’s all.
You can either use the breath or white kasina; they are the same
things and it is not dangerous to do it without any instructor.
Question: I am afraid of pain. When I actually experience it, I don’t

like it, but what is even worse than the actual pain is the fear of
pain. For example, when I was trying to meditate outside in the
yard, there were lots of squirrels running around and I was afraid
one of the squirrels would run on me or bite my neck. So, I ran
away and practised in the house. How can I overcome the fear of
pain? (Toronto, Canada)
Than Ajahn: By not thinking about it. Try to use something to hold
on to your thoughts so that you cannot think about the pain. Like
if you experience pain, you recite a mantra: repeating ‘buddho,
buddho’ or keep chanting some verses and don’t let your mind
think about the pain, then the fear of the pain will not arise. The
pain only arises when you think about it, so try to prevent your mind
from thinking about the pain by thinking about something else, like
chanting verses or reciting mantra. If you stick to your mantra or
your chant, you will not think about the pain, and when you don’t
think about the pain then the fear of the pain will disappear and
your mind will become calm. Once your mind becomes calm, then
you know that the fear is just an illusion; it is not real.
Question: I am a teacher of an elementary school and I usually

teach music, singing and other instruments. Is it better to teach
mathematics and language rather than music, in order to help to
reduce my craving for entertaining subjects? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: Your teaching subject doesn’t change much on your

craving. The only way to change your craving is to resist it and the
only way to resist it is to have something to stop your mind from
thinking about it. If you keep thinking about music, you will have
— 156 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
craving for music. You have to stop thinking about it and you can
use a mantra to stop your mind from thinking about things. You
should recite a mantra and do it all day long, not only when you
meditate. You repeat the mantra all day long from the time you
get up, except when you really have to think about things that you
have to do, other than that you should have a mantra to restrain
your mind about entertainment or music. Once you can control your
thoughts, then you can stop your craving for music or entertainment.
Question: I am not good at cleaning but my husband collects

too many things and I am not allowed to throw the stuff we don’t
need away. I spend hours every day picking up after the kids and
have no energy at the end of the day to practice meditation. How
much time should I spend cleaning the house instead of practising
meditation? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: It is up to you how clean you want the house to be.
If you want it cleaned then you have to spend a lot of time. If you
do just enough, then you can have time for your meditation. It
depends on what you want to do. If you want to meditate then
spend more time on meditation and forget about cleaning the
house. Maybe you do it once a week instead of doing it every day.
Question: Would Ajahn please explain the path moment and the
fruit of Sotãpatti? (California)
Than Ajahn: The path is the investigation into the nature of the
body that is aniccāṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. Once you see aniccāṁ,
dukkhaṁ, anattā, you can stop your craving and attachment towards
the body. Once you let go of the body, you achieve the result; your
mind becomes detached, free from the body, which means you will
no longer be affected by the body whether it gets sick, gets old, or
dies. It will not cause the mind to be sad or unhappy because the
mind has seen through it that the body is not itself and the body
— 157 —
is impermanent and it will get sick, get old and die. Once it lets go
then it no longer has any feeling towards the body.
Question: Does it happen during meditation?
Than Ajahn: It happens when you are practising which also means
you are in meditation. When you practise vipassanā, you don’t sit
and close your eyes, but you use your mind to study the nature of
the body until you see clearly the nature of the body, and see that
clinging to the body will cause you to have sadness and if you can
let go of the body then you will have no sadness or unhappiness.
Question: In a few suttas, the Buddha states that there are people
who are not enlightened now but these people also cannot die
before they become a Sotāpanna in this very life. Can Ajahn, please,
clarify what qualities and understanding should these ordinary
people possess? (Australia).
Than Ajahn: They understand the nature of the body that it is going
to get sick, get old and die, but they don’t have the strength to be
detached from the body, so once they develop samādhi, they will
then have the strength to let go of the body, so they are half way
there. They see the truth of the body that it will get sick, get old and
die but they don’t have the strength to let go of the body yet, and
to have the strength to do this is to have samādhi. Once the mind
becomes calm then the mind will let go of the body.
Question: How can one recognise he has effectively entered the

path when he has not got the fruit yet? Does something special
happen to him at that moment of entering the path to Sotāpanna?
(France).
Than Ajahn: When one sees that the body will get sick, get old
and die and the suffering that arises in the body is the cause of
— 158 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
his suffering then he enters into the path and what he has to do
now is to let go of the body. In order to let go, the mind has to have
the strength and you can get the strength from sitting in samādhi.
Once you have entered into calm then you can let go of the body.
When you go to funeral service and you see that ‘oh, my God!
I will also die’, then you start to see the truth but you still cannot let
go of the body yet. You are still afraid of death. But if you practise
meditation and once your mind is calm, you can look at the truth
of the body and say to yourself, “ok no problem.” When the body
dies, if the mind is peaceful, it doesn’t matter.
Question: Ajahn Mun said that in the future, it is in the west that we
will find Arahants. Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro also said, in the future
the true Dhamma will be found in the west. With all the counterfeit
Dhamma teachings in the west, I am very surprised to hear about
that. Could Ajahn comment on it?
Than Ajahn: I have no comments on what the Ajahns said

because I wasn’t there so I don’t know what kind of situation
prompted them to say that. But I can say that maybe the Ajahns saw
that there are quite a lot of interest in the West now as compared
to in Thailand. Now, in Thailand, people are more interested in
the ritual parts of Buddhism and not in the study or in the practice
parts of Buddhism. The Ajahns saw that foreigners who come to
Thailand are [there] to study and to practise so this might be the
cause for them to say that, and eventually there will be Arahants in
the West because Arahants arise from studying and practising the
Buddha’s teachings, not by rituals. In Thailand, most people are
now attached to the rituals rather than the study and the practice.
Question: Ajahn Suwat said that in the future it is not worthwhile

to wish to be reborn as human being as conditions are going to be
very hard to a point where it will be difficult to practice the Dhamma
— 159 —
and it will be better to be reborn in the deva realms to practise from

there. Will you advise the same?
Than Ajahn: I will advise that if you are born as a human being
now, you should practise now. Don’t worry about your future lives
because you cannot guarantee where you are going to be reborn.
You are a human being now and there is a Buddha’s teaching now,
so now is the best time to practise.
Question: What conditions can we set up to have a chance for a

“perfect one” to contact us in the deva realm to instruct us further,
as the Buddha did with his mother?
Than Ajahn: You have to be a Buddha’s mother or an Arahant’s

mother and so the Arahant will seek for his mother because he
feels that he still has to pay back the debt he owes to his mother.
Other than that, you have to be a deva who is interested in the
study and the practice of Buddhism, so whenever there is a Buddha
or an Arahant who can contact the devas and teach them, you will
be one of the devas who go to listen to the Buddha or the Arah-
ant’s teaching. If you are not interested in the study or practice of
Buddhism, you are more interested in going for holidays or
vacationing, when you hear the news that there is a Buddha who
is teaching the Dhamma, you will not be interested in going, you
would rather enjoy your holidays and vacation.
Question: Does the perfect one have to be on earth to teach those

devas or can he also do it from other realms?
Than Ajahn: I think he has to be in a human realm because his

mental activity still exists. Once he dies, his mental activity will
stop and he has no body to contact and there is no cause for
him to teach anymore and he has no desire to go and search for
anybody for him to teach. It is only his mother that he wants to teach,
— 160 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
but after he dies, the sankhāra stops thinking because there is

nothing that makes him think, so there is no mental activity to contact
other beings. So, most likely, once the Buddha dies he will have
no contact with other beings, except for some practitioners whose
mental capacity is capable of contacting the Buddha, like Ajahn
Mun who could contact the past Buddhas and Arahants. Then they
can still communicate. To be able to contact the past Buddhas or
the Arahants, you must have some special capacity.
Question: When someone is diagnosed with psychosis, as in

schizophrenia disease, and seriously bothered by obsession or
being possessed and he is going under treatment, can he still
meditate? Can he meditate on samatha, concentrating his mind
on one point or can he do vipassanā without any danger? (France)
Than Ajahn: To meditate you need to have mindfulness. People

with mental illness don’t have mindfulness. They are like drunken
people. A drunken person has no mindfulness, so it is very hard
for him to control his thoughts. A drunken person is similar to a
person with mental illness. The reason why he becomes mentally
ill is he lacks the ability to control his emotion and his thoughts.
His emotions and his thoughts multiply to the point where he can
no longer handle them. If, somehow, he can regain mindfulness,
then he can cure his mental illness, and he doesn’t need to go to
see any doctor, go for therapy or take any medicine because this
is purely mental illness; it has nothing to do with the body.
Question: Does he (a person with mental illness) have to stop

meditation?
Than Ajahn: If he can develop mindfulness, he should try to do it

because the stronger the mindfulness he has, the stronger his ability
to meditate will be and he can cure his mental illness at the same
time. So, he should recite a mantra: ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’,
— 161 —
or focus on his body, stick his mind to the body only. Don’t let
the mind think about other things. If he can do it, then he can cure
his mental illness, and he also can enter into jhāna and after that
he can develop vipassanā. It all starts with mindfulness.
Question: Can the mind of a well-trained person, say, someone

with samādhi, go senile due to aging? Is mindfulness enough to
keep one away from these problems related to memory loss or
other intellectual abilities?
Than Ajahn: If you have mindfulness, you don’t forget, you can
remember things. LuangTa was 98 years old but he remembered
everything. There were things that he forgot like he forgot what he
had just said, but there were things that he didn’t forget.
Question: How do we know we are in first jhāna, second jhāna,

third jhāna and fourth jhāna? Can Ajahn please describe when
people enter each jhāna level? (Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: You don’t need to know which level you are in; you
just need to be mindful of your meditation object. When the mind
becomes fully absorbed, it enters into fourth jhāna. That’s all you
have to know. The other three levels, the first, second and third
level of jhāna, are not important. Just keep focusing on your
meditation object until your mind becomes totally rested, peaceful
and calm, and then you enter into the fourth jhāna where you have
equanimity. So, don’t worry about the first, second or third jhāna;
it is not important to know.
Question: Is it good for a layperson, man or woman who wants

to leave his or her family to be ordained as a monk or a nun,
although he or she is already married and has children? (Indonesia)
— 162 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
Than Ajahn: He just has to make arrangement with his family and
get their agreement so that the family can live happily without him.
Then he can go and leave the family. If the family is still dependent
on him, then he will find it difficult to leave the family. Should he
leave the family, he will still worry about them and the family will
also keep coming back to him and ask him to disrobe. We have an
example here. A Thai man who has a family, was ordained here,
and his family kept visiting him every weekend. So, after staying
for two or three years he decided that he had to go back to his
family. So, if you have a family, you have to make arrangement
such that your family will not be hurt by your ordination. When you
are ordained, you may also want to go far away from your family
so they don’t know where to contact you because if they can still
contact you, they can still come and bother you. When they need
help, they will still come to you.
Question: In the practice of sati to develop samādhi, if one does

a mental kind of job such as working in an engineering project or
studying without thinking of other things except the work at hand,
is it equal to focusing on ‘buddho’ while doing a manual job like
cleaning?
Than Ajahn: No, they are not equal. If you are doing a manual job
like cleaning or sweeping, you don’t use much mental activity or
thinking about different things except ‘buddho’, so when you sit,
you can have samādhi very quickly. If you still have to think like
an engineer who has to think in different ways to solve problems,
then when you sit in meditation, your mind might still be thinking
about the problems, and it will be more difficult to sit and meditate
because your work involves a lot of mental activity. If your work
does not involve a lot of mental activity like working as a janitor,
whose job is just to clean up the place and doesn’t need much
thinking, then when you sit and meditate, your mind can become
calm more easily.
— 163 —
Question: If we share the merit of our meditation with our parents

who have passed away, can this help them?
Than Ajahn: No. The merits arising from practising meditation is

only for the individual who practises it, and this cannot be shared.
You cannot share your samādhi with other people. If the Buddha
can share his Nibbāna with all of us then we don’t have to practise;
we just sit here and wait to receive Nibbāna.
Question: If one wishes to be reborn in a place where there are

true Dhamma and living Ariyas without specifying the exact place,
will one succeed in that in the case he has enough kamma for it?
Than Ajahn: It is not possible to direct your mind to go to a certain

place because there are many factors involved. You can point it to
the general directions like going up or going down. If you do good
kamma, you will go up, but who knows where, so you can only point
it to a general direction but not to a particular destination, except
that if you practise vipassanā then you can point it towards Nibbāna.
You can do this in this life time, not necessarily in your future lives.
Question: I have been listening to Luangphor’s talk in the past

two weeks via your website. There is so much Dhamma teaching
and I wish I could understand Thai language but unfortunately I
can’t. It will be great if all your videos are translated into English.
Than Ajahn: I have my videos in English; you just go to the English

page. It is better that you come and learn the Thai language (if you
want all the videos to be translated).
Question: While reading Luangphor’s Autobiography, I am

interested in Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna sutta. Any audio or video chanting
of Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna sutta by Thai monks in Youtube, so that I can
learn the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna chanting intonation?
— 164 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
Than Ajahn: You can search in Youtube and search for Mahāsati-
paṭṭhāna sutta or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. If there is
any video about it, it will show up, but it is better to chant it in the
language that you understand because you can understand the
meaning at the same time.
When I recited the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta, I recited the English version,

so I could understand what the Buddha instructed us to do. You
will gain both samatha and vipassanā using this way. When you
recite it, you get samatha and when you understand his teaching
you get vipassanā. It is not necessary to chant the Pali version. It
is better to chant in the language that you understand because it
is a teaching. When the Buddha gave this discourse, he gave it to
the monks who could understand their language so they can apply
it into their practice and, if they could apply it correctly, they could
become enlightened in seven days, seven months or seven years.
Question: These days, I tend to become disinterested in whatever

is happening around. Reflecting on the Dhamma, I see no substance
in them and choose to act and react with neutrality. However, I am
also not sure if it is due to aversion to the anxieties going through
life and observing what others are going through. As aversion is
also a defilement, can I seek Ajahn’s advice?
Than Ajahn: If you don’t have any bad feelings or good feelings
towards anything then you are neutral and this is okay. If you have
either good or bad feelings, it means you still have defilements.
You should have no feeling towards everything either good or bad
feelings.
Question: I want to be a forest monk. Please show me the way in.
Than Ajahn: Go to a forest monastery and apply for ordination.

After one year, they will decide whether you are qualified for
ordination or not.
— 165 —
Question: Next week is Asadha Puja, can Luangphor give advice

about Asadha Puja on how it can inspire us to practice and what
is the significance of Asadha Puja?
Than Ajahn: Asadha Puja is the day when the Buddha gave his
first sermon, so it was the day when the Dhamma became known to
the world. This is similar to the rising of the sun. Before that, there
was no sunlight. We were all living in the dark and we could not see
anything clearly but once there is a sun, we can see everything.
It is the same way with the Dhamma teaching. Once the Lord
Buddha gave his teaching, which is the Four Noble Truths, he gave
the light to the world. Before the sermon, we didn’t know that our
suffering is caused by our desire and we didn’t know how to get
rid of our suffering, but now he told us the way to get rid of our
suffering, that is by practising dāna, sīla and bhāvanā.
Once we have developed dāna, sīla and bhāvanā we will have

the strength to get rid of our cravings and once there are no
cravings then there will be no suffering in the mind. So, this is
basically the significance of Asadha Puja day, to commemorate
the day the Buddha gave his first sermon to the world. Once he
finished this sermon, one of the five ascetics who listened to this
sermon became enlightened. He became a Sotāpanna because
he could understand that his suffering was due to his attachment
to living things. He didn’t want them to die and he would become
sad when they died. So, if he wants to be free from sadness, he
has to accept that everything will die and nobody can stop it from
dying. Once he accepts the truth about death, the truth of dissolution
and impermanence, then he can get rid of his desire for things to
be permanent, and when there is no desire for permanence, there
is no suffering.
— 166 —
15 | Q&A, July 14th, 2016
Khao phansa is the day the Lord Buddha told monks to stay in one
place for three months because it is a planting season. In the old
days, monks would travel on foot and tend to cross the field and
this hurt the farmer’s plants in the field, so the farmers came and
complained to the Lord Buddha and asked why the monks didn’t
stay in one place during the rainy season. How come they kept
travelling back and forth and walking across the field and destroyed
the crop that they planted? So, the Lord Buddha said that from now
on during the rainy season, the planting season, monks should
stay in one place for three months. This is the reason why monks
have to stay in one place for three months; monks don’t hurt the
farmers. This is also to give monks the opportunity to stay with a
teacher to study and practice.
End of Q&A
— 167 —
16
Answers and advice to a newly
ordained monk
July 28th, 2016
Question 1: How did you divide your time whilst you were in your
early years of monkhood?
Than Ajahn: I set aside one hour each day reading dhamma books
such as those transcribed Luangta Maha Boowa dhamma talks.
I also trained myself to memorise and chant the patimokha briefly.
The rest of the time was for walking and sitting meditations.
Daily reading of the dhamma and vinaya books served as a constant

reminder of my road map. Memorising and chanting of patimokha
help to develop one’s samādhi and it is also a duty of a new monk.
Question 2: Is there a quality or group of qualities that you think

are especially important in the early years but for whatever reason,
aren’t given enough attention nowadays?
Than Ajaan: A new monk should be committed to stay and be

trained under his teacher for 5 years and not go anywhere.
Other short teachings given on the same day:
— 169 —
Earth: A monk should train himself to be humble like earth. Earth

can accept anything without exceptions and does not retaliate. Be
like a rag.
Two Aspects of Truth in Existence: There are two aspects of

Truth in our existence. The truth of conventional labelling and the
truth of anicca (impermanence), dukkha (discontentment) and
anattā (not-self). We should understand both aspects so that we
do not go into extreme. For instance, if we have a watch, we can
use it in the conventional world but if it is damaged or stolen, we
are not upset because it is anicca, dukkha and anattā. The same
applies to our body. It has a name James but it is also subjected
to the three characteristics of nature.
Samadhi: With the right view, we will also need samādhi as a

support to overcome all latent desires (subtle and gross) that arise
until all are gone.
Asubha: Asubha contemplation is an important practice for monks.
End
— 170 —
Q&A
17
August 2nd, 2016
Question: I have had a problem in my meditation for many years

with energy building up in my head. It builds up into a giant ball of
pressure, and a very negative emotion starts to arise in that area
as a result of it. It connects to a channel that travels down the right
side of my body through my right lung and liver. There are problems
in those areas too. I was doing a technique where I would just
watch the emotions in the head rising and falling, but then my heart
started to hurt to a point where I was afraid I was going to have a
heart attack. I also talked to Bhikkhu Thanissaro about this. He told
me to drain the energy down into the chest. I was a bit successful
with this once, but when the energy came down into the chest, it
seemed to have moved over into the heart and started causing
problems there. Any advice? (Florida, United States)
Than Ajahn: If it happens during meditation, it means the mind

reacts to the process of meditation because the defilements
generally don’t like to stop and be put to still. The defilements like
to be in actions, so when you control the action of the defilements,
they will react strongly and cause all these experiences. When you
meditate you should ignore all experiences, and just focus on your
meditation object. If you use breathing (as your object of meditation),
— 171 —
then just focus on your breathing and don’t worry about all these
things that are happening to the body. When your mind becomes
fully concentrated, all these experiences will disappear. The mind
cannot do anything to these experiences, so just disregard them.
If you are going to have a heart attack, you cannot stop it too.
If there is anything that is going to happen to the body, there is
nothing the mind can do about it. When you meditate your goal is
to make your mind calm and your mind can only be calmed if your
mind disregards the body.
Question: Is it harmful to meditate on the sublime attitudes if

you already practice body contemplation through ‘buddho’ and
Kammaṭṭhāna meditation? (Kentucky, United States)
Than Ajahn: When you meditate for calm, you need to have
one meditation object. You can use a mantra such as reciting the
name of the Buddha: ‘buddho, buddho’, or you can focus on your
breathing. Just focus on one object, then your mind will enter
into calm. You can choose the object of meditation that you like,
whatever is suitable and will bear result. If you use the sublime state
and it makes your mind peaceful and calm, then use it. If you use
the breathing and it makes your mind calm, then use your breath.
If you recite a mantra and it makes your mind calm, then use the
mantra, but just use one object.
Question: I’ve heard to stick with one form of meditation. Does

this mean only use body contemplation?
Than Ajahn: No. Contemplation is different from concentration. To

achieve concentration, you need the mind to be one pointed, to
be concentrated, so you need something to concentrate the mind
like using your breathing or reciting a mantra. Then you will get
your concentration.
— 172 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
For contemplation, you want to contemplate on a thing that you are

attached to, such as your body. Right now, you don’t see the true
nature of the body, so you have to contemplate according to the
truth that the Buddha has discovered, that the body is impermanent;
it rises and ceases; it gets born and it will get old, get sick and die.
This is body contemplation: the understanding of the nature of the
body. You can then eventually get rid of your attachment to it which
is due to your delusion: not seeing the true nature of the body.
Our delusion will make us think that the body will live on and on,
that it will not get sick, get old or die. So, we have to get rid of this
delusion by continuously contemplating on the true nature of the
body that it is constantly dying; it is moving closer to death every
day and there is nothing you can do to stop it from dying. The only
thing that you can do is to just leave it alone if you want to be free
and do not want to be hurt by the dissolution of the body. This is
the purpose of body contemplation so that with understanding you
will not be hurt by the sickness and dissolution of the body.
If you don’t contemplate, your delusion will take over and you will
have the desire to keep the body for as long as possible even
though it is not possible to do so. When you have to lose the body,
you will be hurt. You will feel terrible because you are not willing
to let it happen. But if you know ahead of time that this is going
to happen, and you make preparation for that eventuality, when it
happens it will not hurt you.
Question: What does the Dhamma say about pharmaceutical

medication? I am forced to take antipsychotics, and the medication
makes me tired and sluggish for a while. It also clouds my mind. I
try to detox all the time. How do I combat the tiredness? Is taking
the medication against the 5th precept about intoxication? (Ontario,
Canada)
— 173 —
Than Ajahn: Medication is only to cure the body. If the body is

sick and it needs medication to make it well, then you take it, no
problem. However, as far as the mind is concerned, it doesn’t need
any medication. What the minds need is calm. The only way to
make the mind calm is to meditate and concentrate the mind on
one object so that it can become peaceful and calm. When you are
able to make the mind settle down to calmness, then on coming
out of that state of calm, you should use contemplation to teach
the mind to let go of the body, so that whatever happens to the
body will not hurt the mind. This is the goal of Buddhist meditation,
to free the mind from being hurt by the body illness or dissolution.
If the medication is the cause of your tiredness, and if you want to

get rid of your tiredness then you have to get rid of your medication,
as simple as that.
Question: Is it wrong to say that there is “no self”, because one

can experience an identifiable self. There is no permanent entity
called self. What is experienced as self is only an impermanent
ever-changing entity. Can Ajahn comment on that, please? (Los
Angeles, United States)
Than Ajahn: The concept of self is based on two parts: on the

body and on the mind. We have a body which we call it ‘self’, i.e.
ourselves and we also have a ‘self’ in the mind. Both of these
‘selves’ are delusional. It is created by the thought itself. It thinks the
body is you, so the body becomes you and if you think the mind is
you then the mind becomes you. If you study the body then you will
find that the body is just a composition of the 32 parts; it is made up
of the four elements. When the body dissolves, it will turn back to
these elements, so there is no ‘self’ in the body, no ‘self’ in the 32
parts, no ‘self’ in the four elements. So, this is one way to destroy
the perception of ‘self’ in the body.
— 174 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
To destroy the perception of the ‘self’ in the mind, you have to

meditate until the mind becomes totally peaceful. When the mind
stops thinking then the notion of the ‘self’ will disappear and all that
is left is just the knower. That’s the true self, but this is not the ‘self’,
it is the knower, the mind. The mind is the knower, the one who
knows, and then you will understand that truly there is no ‘self’ in
the mind. All that is in the mind is the knowing and all that is in the
body is just the 32 parts or the four elements. So, this is the way
you contemplate: you study the nature of the body and the mind
to see that there is no ‘self’ in both of these places.
The ‘self’ comes from the thought, the delusion. The delusion cre-
ates the notion that there is the ‘self’ and due to lack of wisdom, it
falls into the belief that there is a ‘self’ from the notion. When you
calm the mind and it is rid of the notion of self or it disappears, then
you know that the notion is just a temporary thing. The thing that
is always there is the knower — that’s the real thing.
Question: So, is the knower the permanent one?
Than Ajahn: Yes.
Question: When I experience anger or happiness, who is the one

that gets angry or happy, if there is no I, me or myself?
Than Ajahn: The delusional knower. The non-delusional knower

will just know. The delusional knower will think that it itself is the one
who experiences the anger and the pain. The knower just knows:
knows there is anger, knows there is pain. The knower doesn’t
react to anger and pain.
Question: Venerable Ajahn, practicing as a layman, how realistic

is it to expect Sotāpanna level and is there any minimum level of
samādhi to reach that stage? (Melbourne, Australia)
— 175 —
Than Ajahn: Everybody is entitled to become a Sotāpanna, if he

has the right quality for it. He has to have sīla, samādhi and paññā.
So one just has to develop sīla, samādhi and paññā. To be more
precise, he has to be able to develop paññā in order for him to be
able to see that the body is just the composition of the 32 parts or
the four elements, and that there is no body in the ‘self’; there is
no ‘self’ in the body.
The body is just a body. It is like a car whose driver is not the car
itself. The one who drives the body is the mind and the mind is
not the body but due to the delusion, the mind thinks that it is the
body itself and it becomes attached to the body and when anything
happens to the body, like when the body gets sick or dies, the mind
gets hurt.
A Sotāpanna can eliminate this hurtfulness because he sees that

the body is not him. It is like seeing someone else’s body. When
someone else’s body die we don’t cry, we don’t feel anything
because we know that they are not us. In the same way, when we
look at our own body, we should look at the body as if it were not
us, not ours, not ourselves. If the body is going to die: let it die. If it
is going to get sick or painful: let it be. If you can do this, you can
become a Sotāpanna.
To be able to withstand the pain, try to sit down and see whether
you can remain still and let the pain arise and cease by itself. If
you can do that it means you have enough samādhi, because you
need samādhi to let go of the pain, to leave the pain alone, to leave
death alone. When you face death, you should still be calm as if
nothing has happened. So you need that kind of samādhi and then
you can let go of the body. Try to sit and let it become painful and
don’t move your body.
— 176 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
Question: May I know how can reciting ‘buddho’ repeatedly tame

the mind? (Penang, Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: When you recite ‘buddho’, you prevent your mind
from thinking about other things and when you are not thinking
about other things, your mind becomes calm. It can become still.
Question: When doing walking meditation, should one be focusing

only on the mental repetition of ‘buddho’ or the sensations of the
feet and at the same time on ‘buddho, buddho’? (Madeira, Portugal)
Than Ajahn: To prevent you from thinking about other things is the
goal of meditation. To calm the mind, you have to stop thinking.
So, whichever method you use that can prevent you from thinking
about other things is the right method that you can use. You can
just repeat a mantra, or you can focus on the body while walking.
Like looking at the feet: left foot, right foot, and just concentrate on
that only so that you don’t go thinking about other things. When
you don’t think, then your mind can become empty, peaceful and
happy and when you sit, your mind can become fully still. When
you walk, your mind cannot become fully still because the mind
has to control the body — it has work to do. If you want the mind
to become totally still you have to sit down and close your eyes.
Then the mind can become still because there is nothing for the
mind to do: it doesn’t have to control the body.
Question: Can Tan Ajahn talk about upacāra samādhi? And is it

possible for one to enter upacāra samādhi while doing walking
meditation?
Than Ajahn: I think what you meant is appanā-samādhi, not

upacāra-samādhi. Full concentration is called appanā-samādhi,
while upacāra-samādhi is another kind of samādhi. Upacāra-
samādhi is a kind of samādhi in which you go and experience all
— 177 —
kinds of visions. Appanā-samādhi is when the mind becomes fully

rested, fully still, no thoughts, no-thing, emptiness, only peace and
happiness.
Just like what I said in the previous question that you need to sit
down because the body has to be still before the mind can be still.
If the body still moves then the mind cannot be still except on a
very exceptional circumstance like when you walk and you run
into a tiger and you might suddenly stop because you know you
cannot move the body, then the mind can become fully absorbed.
Otherwise, if the body moves the mind has to do work; it has to
control the body; it has to direct the movement, so it cannot be fully
absorbed. If you want to be fully absorbed, you have to sit down.
If you want to be fully absorbed while you are walking, you have
to walk in the jungle and hope to run into a tiger. Like one of
Luangpuu Mun’s disciples: he liked to walk at night and he used
a lantern while walking. One night he ran into a tiger and his mind
suddenly just stopped and it went into absorption right away. You
need something to scare the mind, to get the mind inside. He didn’t
know for how long he stood there. When he came out of absorption,
the lantern that was lit with the candle had been all burnt out and
he still stood there at the same position just like before he went
into full absorption. The body remained like a statue and the tiger
didn’t know that it was a body and the tiger just left the body alone
because it didn’t move. When the body doesn’t move, it is just
like a tree and the tiger doesn’t attack a tree. A tiger only attacks
something which runs. So he was safe because the tiger didn’t
know that he was there; he stood there like a tree, like a statue.
Question: I have noticed several times that I seek praise and

have a fear for blame. How can I lose this desire which makes life
suffering? (France)
— 178 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
Than Ajahn: First of all, you should accept that this is your
weakness: expecting for praise and denying the criticism. Secondly,
after you accept this weakness, then you should switch your attitude.
You should be ready to listen to criticism, and should not seek for
praises. Right now, you have wrong attitude (expecting praises
and denying criticism) which is the cause of your unhappiness. If
you want to be happy, then you should switch your attitude: you
should seek for criticism and deny praises. You can practise a lot
of meditation until your mind becomes neutral. When your mind
becomes peaceful and calm, it doesn’t have any expectation for
praises or denial for criticism: it just remains neutral. This is the real
way of correcting the problem. First, you need to make the mind
calm, and second, you have to switch your attitude. You cannot
control praises or criticism. It comes and goes, so be ready to face
any one of them whenever it comes.
Question: When one is a Sotāpanna or Anāgāmī, is he able to be

free from praise and blame because the sense of self is weakened
or cut down?
Than Ajahn: You need a strong mindfulness to be able to control

your reactions. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Sotāpanna or
not. What you need is a strong mindfulness. If you can control your
reaction by having strong mindfulness then everything is solved.
The problem is that we cannot control our reactions because we
don’t have strong mindfulness, so try to develop a lot of mindfulness
to become strong, to keep the mind away from reacting to praises
or criticism; you just acknowledge it.
When someone praises you, just acknowledge someone is praising

you and when someone criticizes you, just acknowledge there is
criticism. If you have strong mindfulness then you can do that. If
you don’t have strong mindfulness, then your defilements will take
over. So, when there are praises, they will make you feel good
— 179 —
and when there is criticism then it makes you feel bad because
you cannot control your defilements. You are lacking mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the tool to contain your defilements, your kilesas,
your lobha, your dosa.
Just don’t react when someone says something, so if you have

mindfulness you just listen, let him say anything he wants. If they
he wants to scold you, let him scold you. If he wants to praise you,
let him praise you; you just listen. If you have strong mindfulness,
you can keep the mind from reacting, but if you don’t have strong
mindfulness, you will react right away.
Question: When a person has managed to decrease their ill will

and sensual desire to a certain extent, what does this person have
to do in order to put an absolute end to ill will and sensual desire?
(Toronto, Canada)
Than Ajahn: Just keep on practicing, keep on eliminating ill will

and sensual desire by developing strong mindfulness. When you
have strong mindfulness, you can get rid of everything.
Question: How can I practise vitakka and vicara in meditation? And

is it possible to practise vitakka and vicara in daily life? (Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: Vitakka, vicara are automatic. When you focus on

your breathing and you are aware of your breathing, these are
vitakka and vicara. So, they are automatic when you are with your
breath. When you know that you are breathing in, that is vitakka
and vicara already or when you repeat a mantra, ‘buddho, buddho’,
and you know you are repeating it, it means you already have
vitakka and vicara.
Just keep on repeating the mantra when applying it for daily life
because watching your breath may not be possible when you have
to do other things.
— 180 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
Question: I’ve some homosexual friends. May I ask, what is the

view of Buddhism on homosexuality — is it allowed? Is it good or
bad? How should we see homosexuality?
Than Ajahn: Homosexuality is just another sex, that’s all. You

have female, you have male and you have something in between.
As far as Buddhism is concerned, there is no problem, you can
be anything.
The only exception is when you want to become a monk, if you

are a homosexual, if you are attached to male, you can break the
precept because monks are all males and if you are ordained and
live with monks who are all males then you might have some sexual
activity with other monks. When we live together with the same
sex it is okay because we don’t have attraction with the same sex,
so when all males stay together there are no sexual activities. But
if you are a homosexual, a person who is a male in the physical
appearance but a female in the mental part, you will be attracted
to the other male and if you live close to each other, you can break
the precept. This is the reason that we don’t allow a homosexual
to be ordained.
Question: How about same sex marriages, is it okay in Buddhism?
Than Ajahn: Yes, it doesn’t matter as long as you are faithful. The
third precept only deals with faithfulness or fidelity. You should
be faithful to your partner then you will not cause any problem to
yourself and also to your partner. The reason why you get married is
that you want to be happy, right? One of the things that makes you
happy is to be faithful to each other. That’s the reason why the third
precept is given to lay people, to prevent problems in the marriages,
to protect marriages and to keep people in the marriages happy.
Question: What is Buddhism view on abortion?
— 181 —
Than Ajahn: All forms of killing are wrong.
Question: I know people around me who are troubled by spiritual

beings, for example a medium who lives in a place where many
people had been killed and as a result this medium is losing all his
vital energy and losing his spiritual abilities. Another friend of mine
went to Africa to help his family who passed away. He was a nice
young adult with good moral conduct and no physical illnesses,
but when he came back he was possessed by hungry ghosts (in a
form of his mother and other women), and these ghosts want him
to commit bad actions such as abusing young children and also
want him to commit suicide. Practising metta and meditation are
quite efficient to prevent such things so one is not getting into the
situation, but what should be done when one is already caught in
it? (France)
Than Ajahn: One should develop mindfulness to stop the mind

from reacting to all the things that are happening inside the mind.
If the mind has strong mindfulness, it can ignore everything that
tells the mind or directs the mind to do. The reason why people do
things (mentioned above) is they don’t have mindfulness to resist,
the mind doesn’t have the resistance. The resistance in the mind
is mindfulness. If you have mindfulness then you can remain still
in the face of all kinds of enticements, commands or forces, but
if you don’t have mindfulness, then the mind becomes weak and
it will follow what it is told to do. So, try to revitalise and re-energise
your mind by developing mindfulness, by maintaining
concentration on one thing. Reciting a mantra is a very good way to
develop mindfulness; just keep reciting a mantra or a short phrase,
such as Buddhaṁ saranaṁ gacchami; just keep repeating this
and your mind will become still and strong and it can resist
everything that comes and bothers the mind.
— 182 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
Question: I have a friend. One of his ancestors killed gypsies

following the order given by the government, and as a result
those gypsies sent maledictions or curse on to all the family and
descendants, and for generations they have become crazy and
wanted to kill themselves. My friend also hears voices, insults etc
that take away all his energy. He has no interest in charity work
etc. Meditation and reciting mantra can help him to the point that
he does not commit suicide but he is living in hell and has little
strength left to live. Where and how can they find help in a way of
Dhamma when they need it instead of going to see people who
practice spiritism or exorcism which can help efficiently address-
ing their encounters, but they may have the wrong view? Is there
a way to get help from people practising the right view?
Than Ajahn: If you want to find the right view in Buddhism, you
have to seek advice from meditation monks. They will tell you how
to deal with your mental situation. But usually what you need is:
first, mindfulness; second, wisdom. If you have these two things
you can deal with all mental problems.
Mindfulness will stop your mind from reacting and wisdom will
tell you that everything is phenomenon. All the experiences are
phenomena. They rise and cease; they are beyond your control
and you cannot tell them to go away or to stay but you can leave
them alone. Once you leave them alone, eventually they all will
dissipate and disappear. So this is basically what you need to
have to deal with your mental situation. You need mindfulness to
stop your mind from reacting and you need wisdom to teach the
mind that everything that you react to is just something that you
don’t have to react to. You can leave it alone and the best way to
deal with every mental situation is to leave it alone, don’t pay any
attention to it.
Question: When someone is weak, can other energy influence him?
— 183 —
Than Ajahn: It is your defilements. The other energy is your own

defilements; it is your delusion that creates all these problems.
Question: Can a psychotic or schizophrenic have any chance to

be a monk?
Than Ajahn: He has to have enough mindfulness to keep the

precepts and perform his duty as a monk, but usually a person
with psychosis or psychiatric problems does not have enough
mindfulness to be able to direct the mind to perform the duties.
Question: How do we know as a human being, the difference

between living a life in moderation (working towards financial goal,
promotion) and greed? Is it wrong to work and to save for financial
comfort? (Australia)
Than Ajahn: The Buddha taught us that there is a better kind

of comfort other than the physical kind. Right now you seek the
physical comfort and you think that the more you have, the more
comfortable you are, but in fact the more you have the more
uncomfortable you will be mentally, because there is stress
involved when you have to seek for more and more. Once you
have it (the physical comfort) then you will cling to it and this will
create stress in the mind. So, you might have the physical comfort
but you are creating a lot of suffering in the mind.
The Buddha said that you should reverse the process: instead of
seeking the physical comfort, you should seek for mental comfort.
Mental comfort means that you should just have the minimum
physical comfort to maintain the body, to provide it only with the
necessary requisites like food, shelter, clothing and medicine. You
don’t have to have a lot of them, just have enough to keep the body
going, then you don’t have the stress to seek for other things to
make the body happy and you will have time to create the mental
comfort.
— 184 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
To create the mental comfort is to develop mindfulness through

meditation and also to develop wisdom, to see that the men-
tal comfort is in the mind not in the body. The physical comfort
is temporary. No matter how much you have, one day you are
going to lose it all, because one day, the body will die. At the same
time when you seek for a lot of physical comfort you are creating
a lot of mental stress, mental discomfort. Besides minimising the
physical comfort, you also need to enhance your mental comfort
by practising meditation, by developing mindfulness and wisdom.
You can only do this if you have time and you can only have time
if you reduce spending time you have in creating things to satisfy
your physical comfort.
So, try to provide your body comfort only at the minimum

requirements then you will have more time to develop your mental
comfort which is more important and more lasting, it is forever.
The physical comfort is only good while you are living, when the
body lives, whilst the mind lives forever. Once you have created
comfort for the mind, it will stay forever.
Question: Your teaching is to let go, how can we let go if we still

have dependants or other responsibilities?
Than Ajahn: Give them up to other people or find some other

people to take over then you can go.
Question: How do we know we are still in the right path and do

not go towards greediness that cannot be satisfied?
Than Ajahn: If you have more than what you need then it means
that you are greedy. You should only have enough for what you
need, like clothing, if you have more than four or five sets of clothes
you are having too many of them already.
— 185 —
Question: May I know if it is okay to offer meat and cooked eggs as

dāna, or is it wrong to do so- i.e. should one offer only vegetarian
food? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: No, monks are beggars. We cannot tell people what
to give us but there are things that people should not give, like raw
meats or raw eggs. These foods should be cooked. Meat should
be well-cooked, no blood in the meat; eggs should be well-cooked,
dry (not runny, not in a fluid form). This is due mainly to health
reasons because if you offer raw meat or raw eggs, there could be
some bacteria that can cause sickness. This is what the Buddha
indicated as far as food is concerned; it should be well-cooked,
but it can be anything.
If it is meat, it should not be the meat that you kill yourself. If you
have dead meat then it is okay, but if you have to kill a chicken
to offer it to a monk and you tell the monk: “I kill this chicken just
specially for you”, then the monk cannot accept it. If you buy the
meat in the market where the chicken was already killed, then it is
okay. You should not kill it yourself or ask other people to do it for
you. You should not go to the butcher and tell him that you need
a chicken tomorrow, because that also means you go and tell him
to kill a chicken for you tomorrow, and you cannot do this. But if
you go to the butcher and buy whatever available on sale then it
is okay; you are not committing any sin by buying dead meat. If
you tell the butcher you want him to kill a chicken for you so that
you can have it tomorrow, this can be considered as an offense.
Whether you do it yourself or tell others to do it for you is the same
thing. It is an offense.
Question: May I know if it is okay for laypeople to eat meat and

eggs, or is it wrong?
Than Ajahn: It is okay as long as you don’t kill them.
— 186 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
Question: I was concerned that the energy-highs feeling from

drinking coffee and the subsequent energy-drops or effect of
caffeine wears out may mimic the effects of alcohol in some ways
and thus is the breaking of the 5th precept. Does drinking caffeinated
drinks such as coffee result in breaking the 5th precept?
Than Ajahn: I think the precept was given during the time when
there was no coffee so we should use common sense and study
as to why the fifth precept is produced. The reason for keeping the
fifth precept is to protect you from hurting yourself, that’s all. If you
drink alcohol then you may hurt yourself because when you are
drunk you may go and hurt other people; you cannot control your
thoughts and your actions, and then you can commit some bad
actions which can hurt both you and other people. So as long as
whatever you consume does not hurt yourself and others, then it
is all right. Cigarette is not prohibited, and chewing betel nut is not
prohibited, because you can still control your thoughts and you don’t
go about hurting other people, except for some excessive smoking
which can harm yourself, but if you smoke moderately like one or
two cigarettes a day this is okay, no problem.
Question: Can we throw away Buddhist books? Many Buddhist

centres and monasteries do not accept old books, so the Buddhist
books have been accumulating in my shelf and I know that I am
no longer reading them. (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: Buddhist books are useful books because someone

can become enlightened by reading these books. If you cannot find
a place to dispose, then you should keep them at home or find a
place where you can store them. Maybe, someday somebody might
discover them and they can be very useful for that person. I find
that books are very useful because the thing that got me to come
all this way was I received a book from a friend and by reading
it, it kind of enlightened my view about the world; it made me see
things that I have not seen before, see a different path to happiness.
— 187 —
Dhamma books are very precious, you should look at them like
gold or diamonds. You should keep them or wait until you find some
place where old books are accepted but don’t burn or throw them
away because it is like throwing something precious.
If you can keep your clothes, why can’t you keep Buddhist books?
Your clothes are much more worthless than Buddhist books, so if
you want to throw away Buddhist books, you should throw away your
clothes that you don’t wear anymore to make room for the books.
Question: Is there any difference between heart and mind? If yes,

can you please teach me?
Than Ajahn: They are about the same things. They are parts
which are not physical. In ourselves we have two parts and the
non-physical part is called heart or the mind.
The mind or the heart is just a terminology to describe the non-

physical thing. Sometimes this non-physical aspect is divided into
two parts: the emotional and the intellectual. Usually the mind
belongs to the intellectual part and the heart belongs to the
emotional part, but they refer to the same thing, to the same
non-physical part. It is similar to ourselves; we have two persons
in us, the physical person and the non-physical person. The non-
physical person has two attributes: the emotion and the intellect.
We call the “intellect” mind and the emotion “heart”.
It is also similar to the body which comprises the 32 parts like the
eyes, ears, nose and tongue, so does this heart or mind, which is
just the composition of the non-physical part. Sometimes when we
refer to the intellectual attribute, we call it mind. Sometimes when
we refer to the emotion attribute, we call it heart; for example, the
phrase ‘broken hearted’ refers to emotional aspect. When you think
about something, it refers to the intellect aspect, but it is of the
— 188 —
17 | Q&A, August 2nd, 2016
same non-physical parts. Just like our body, sometimes we refer

to different parts: the ears, the eyes; they are all parts of the body.
Question: To resist desires is prevention. However, karmic debts

need to be settled. After being trapped in desires, how can we end
the mental sufferings of emotions attributed to greed, aversion and
delusion thereafter when the mind itself is suffering? (Brunei)
Than Ajahn: You just have to meditate. When you meditate you
stop the mind from thinking and all forms of mental activities
will cease, and then you use wisdom to prevent them from
returning. The thing that keeps the mind from returning to these
activities is your desire, so if you have the wisdom, you can get rid
of your desire because you know that by following your desire, it
is the path to disaster, not the path to peace. You need two things:
wisdom and mindfulness. These are the Dhamma pairs that will
protect and heal the mind; it will make the mind well.
This is the time for us to say goodbye. May all beings be well and
happy.
End of Q&A
— 189 —
Laypeople from Malaysia
18
August 3rd, 2016
Than Ajahn: OK. What do you want to know, any particular

subject?
Layperson: The practice.
Than Ajahn: See, what Buddhism can do for you is to liberate

you from all forms of emotional and mental stress, sadness,
depression, worry, anxiety, these sorts of things, you know, the
bad feeling that has nothing to do with the body. Sometimes we
have the perfect body and the body is in perfect health. We have
everything provided for the body but we’re still not happy. This is
the thing that we deal with: the mental or the emotional part of our
lives because this kind of unhappiness or sadness arises from
our ignorance, not knowing how to control our emotion. Instead of
creating peace and happiness, we tend to create anxiety, worry,
and unhappiness. That’s because we don’t know the cause of our
anxiety and unhappiness. They all arise from our greed, hate, and
delusion or our desire, our craving for things. When we crave for
things, we tend to be uneasy until we can get what we want, then
we feel good. But when we want something and cannot get it, we
feel bad. So, in order to get rid of our bad feeling, we have to get
— 191 —
rid of our craving. Just be contented with nothing. That’s the best
thing for the mind, if you have nothing. But we don’t know how to
keep our mind (away) from craving.
The Lord Buddha found the way and that is in the practice of
meditation. Our craving arises from our thought. When we think
of something, we tend to have craving for those things or desire
for those things. We want things to be like this and like that. We
want to have this and have that because we thought that having
these things will make us happy but truly, they are the false kind
of happiness. They make us happy briefly. When we get what
we want we feel good. But then that good feeling will disappear.
Then, there will be another desire, another craving, and we will
have another bad feeling to get rid of. And the way to get rid of
our bad feeling is to do what our craving wants us to do. We want
something and we feel bad if we don’t get it, so we have to go and
get it. Once we get it, we feel good but then after a while, another
craving will arise. So, it keeps going on like this until you get to the
point where you cannot be satisfied or cannot feed your craving.
Then, you feel very bad.
Usually, when people get older, when their bodies cannot do what
the craving asks them to do, they will feel depressed, they will
feel bad. So, if the depression or the bad feeling gets to the point
they cannot cope with, they think of suicide. They think of killing
themselves because they thought by killing the bodies will get
rid of their depression. This is another form of doing what your
craving asks you to do. OK, you kill yourself and your depression
will disappear but then it will come back. You’ll have another craving
coming up again because your mind doesn’t die with your body,
you see. The one that craves doesn’t die with the body. Once the
body dies, the mind will come back and have a new body. That’s
what we call, ‘rebirth’. When we’re reborn, we come back and do
the same old things as we did, just like in the previous lives when
— 192 —
18 | Laypeople from Malaysia, August 3rd, 2016
we face the same problem. So, this is basically the problem that
Buddhism tackles; it is to get rid of all depression and these bad
feelings by eliminating the causes of these bad feelings which the
Buddha discovered that they all come from our cravings.
There are three types of cravings that we have to get rid of. One
is the craving for sensual gratifications such as seeing, hearing,
to enjoy things through your body because they are like addiction
to drugs or alcohol. Once you become addicted, you have to keep
acquiring them. And no matter how much you can acquire them,
they will never make you satisfied or contented. You will always
be craving for more and more. So, the Buddha said, ‘You have to
resist these cravings.’ Give up these cravings when you want to
do something that you don’t really have to do, don’t do it. Like you
want to see a movie, don’t watch it. You want to listen to the music,
don’t do it. Go to meditate instead to calm your mind, stop your
cravings. The way to stop your craving is to meditate. Once your
mind becomes calm, your craving will disappear temporarily and
you’ll find peace and happiness or contentment but it’s temporary
because it only happens when you meditate.
Once you return to your ‘normal’ state of mind, your craving will
return again. And you have to use another form of remedy which
will permanently eliminate your cravings. And that is to see [that]
the problem arises from doing what you want to do. You might get
some relief or some form of brief happiness but then again you will
have another craving arising. If you keep satisfying your craving,
your craving will keep coming back for more. The only way to get
rid of your craving is to see that this is a vicious cycle that you are
going through. Whatever you get will eventually make you feel bad
when you lose it.
So, when you want to have something and you get it, you feel
good but when you lose it, you feel bad. So, it’s better not to have
anything because everything is temporary. Nothing lasts forever.
— 193 —
Thus, you have to see that what you crave, what you desire, is
temporary. It can only give you temporary happiness and when it
disappears, it makes you feel bad because you’re attached to it.
You cling to it. You rely on it to make you happy. So, you must not
rely on anything such as your senses from what you see, what you
hear, what you smell, what you taste and what you touch to make
you happy. They are all temporary. They come and go. When they
come, they make you happy but when they go, they make you sad.
So, you have to use this as a way of countering your craving.

Everything that you crave for, you just have to tell yourself, ‘This
is bad for you. Don’t do it.’ Like when you want to smoke, don’t
do it because once you smoke, you’re going to have to keep on
smoking. If you want to drink, don’t drink. Make this truly your last
drink, not the previous drink as your last drink. If you can stop your
craving, then the next craving will not be as strong as your first one.
And the cravings will become less intense and eventually they will
have no effect on your mind. Then, you will be free from cravings
that way. But you need to meditate when you feel bad from your
cravings. Instead of going after your cravings, you go to meditate
instead. So, you have to learn how to meditate. Once you know
how to meditate, then when you are attacked by your craving, you
can tell yourself, ‘Doing what your craving asks you to do is hurting
yourself more than helping yourself.’ This is the logic you have to
have in the back of your mind that by following your craving and
doing what craving asks you to do is like being addicted to drugs
or alcohol or smoking.
Therefore, you have to resist it. The thing that will help you resist
and make you not feel that bad is to meditate because when you
meditate, your mind becomes calm and your craving will then stop.
So, you keep doing this every time you have craving. You meditate;
you resist; you don’t do what your craving asks you to do. And if
you can do this, eventually all your cravings will disappear. And
— 194 —
when there is no craving, you’re free. You will have nothing to make
you feel sad or depressed. Compare yourself to someone who is
addicted to smoking, for instance, one who smokes and one who
doesn’t smoke, who is better off? One who drinks and one who
doesn’t drink, who is better off? One who is addicted to drugs and
one who is not, who is better off? So, that’s what we have to do.
We have to use this fact to teach ourselves not to be addicted to
anything. Right now, we are addicted to the five senses: what we
see, what we hear, what we taste, what we smell, and what we
touch. Thus, we have to resist these cravings.
And then there are two more cravings that we have to get rid of or
to resist: the desire to be and the desire not to be. Sometimes we
want to be something or want to have something. We must get rid
of these desires, like the desire to be rich, the desire to be big, to
be famous, or to be someone important. This will only lead you to
have more desire. So, it will never make you happy because once
you have it, you want to keep it and if you cannot have it or you
cannot keep it, you feel sad. And when you lose it, you will feel
sad again. And the third desire is the desire not to be. We don’t
want to be old. We don’t want to be sick. We don’t want to die. You
have to get rid of this desire because when you get old, you will
become sad if you don’t want to get old. When you get sick and
you don’t want to get sick, you will become sad. And if you don’t
want to die when you have to die, you feel sad, feel bad. But if you
don’t have this desire, you won’t feel anything because you are
not the one who dies. The one who dies isn’t you. You never die.
The mind never dies.
The body is the one who dies but the body doesn’t know that it
dies. And you cannot stop the body from dying anyway. So, why
do you feel sad? Why are you disturbed by the dying of the body
when it’s not you who is dying? You are the mind, you see. You
are the possessor of the body but the body cannot be with you all
— 195 —
the time. The body is temporary. It only lasts for maybe 100 years.
After that it’s going to say goodbye to you, whether you like it or
not. Most people don’t like it. That’s why most people are sad when
they have to lose their bodies. But for people who know that the
sadness arises from not wanting the bodies to die, so all they have
to do is just to stop this desire. Just let the body be. If the body
wants to die, let it die. You don’t die with the body. Then, you will not
be sad or be depressed. You will feel normal just like you are now.
Living or dying is the same because you have wisdom, you see.
You can separate yourself from the body. You can look at your body
as if you were looking at somebody else’s body. When you look
at somebody else’s body that you don’t know, you don’t care what
happens to them, right? They get sick, get old, or die; that’s their
problems, right? It’s not yours. So, you should look at this body as
somebody else’s body, not your body. Then you will not be hurt
when something happens to the body. In order to be aloof, to be
distant from the body, you have to meditate. When you meditate,
the mind temporarily detaches itself from the body. So, whenever
you feel bad towards the body, meditate. When you meditate, your
mind will detach from the body. Then, whatever happens to the
body will not affect you, your mind.
So, this is basically what you have to do; to practice, to relinquish

and to let go all the things that you think belong to you. You have
to relinquish your attachment to your body by leaving it alone. You
can look after it or take care of it as much as you can. Give it food.
When it gets sick, take it to the hospital. But when it cannot be cured,
you just have to leave it alone because if you have the desire for
the body to be well and it isn’t, then you’ll be sad all the time. And
it’s the same with everything else that you have, besides your body:
your possession, your relatives, your father, your mother, your sister,
your wife or your husband. We will all have to be separated from
everything, our possessions, our money. That’s why the Buddha
— 196 —
teaches us to do charity. This is the practice run to see whether

we can let go of our attachment to our money. Just keep the
money that you need. Give away the money that you don’t need
because this will make you happier. That’s because eventually
you’re going to give up everything, all the money that you have.
If you know how to give up, then you will not be sad when you have
to give it up. So, right now you’re just practicing giving up your
money by giving it to charity, giving it to other people. You can give
it to anybody. You don’t have to give it to the temple if you don’t
like to. You can give it to the hospital, the school, university. Give
it to your father, your mother, or your friends, whoever you want to
but don’t keep it for yourself. Only keep what you need and don’t
spend money on your craving because that will generate more
sadness and unhappiness.
This is basically what the Buddha teaches us to do. That is to

relinquish and abandon everything that belongs to us because
they only belong to us temporarily. One day we have to lose them
all. And if we’re willing to lose them, we will not be sad. If we’re not
willing to lose them, we will be sad. That’s the problem. We don’t
want to lose things because we lack the wisdom of the Buddha
who saw that everything will have to disappear from us, have to
be separated from us. So, this is what we have to do, to constantly
remind ourselves to let go of everything. And in order to be able
to let go, we have to have something to make us happy and that
‘something’ is the result from meditation. If you can meditate to the
point where you can become happy, then you don’t need to have
anything to make you happy, you see. Right now, you don’t have
that kind of happiness. So, you need some other kinds of happiness
to make you happy. You need a girlfriend or a wife or a boyfriend.
You need things to make you happy. But once you can meditate
and make yourself happy, then you don’t need to have anything.
Then, you can give up everything. So, you have to meditate a lot
to generate a new kind of happiness.
— 197 —
Once you have this new kind of happiness, then you don’t have to
rely on other things to make you happy. Then, you can abandon,
you can let go of everything. If you should lose anything or if it goes
away, you’ll say, ‘So what? It doesn’t matter.’ This is because you
don’t need them anymore. Once you can meditate and have a new
kind of happiness, then you don’t need anything. So, this is the
purpose of meditation, to generate a new kind of happiness, the
kind of happiness that will stick with you wherever you are, wherever
you go. And you don’t need anything to make you happy this way.
All you need is self-control. You have to have the ability to stop
your thinking. And the way to build up this ability is to concentrate,
focus on one object, like you can use a mantra, reciting the name of
the Buddha. Just keep reciting and it will prevent you from thinking
about other things. Then, when you sit and recite, your mind can
be totally still from your reciting of the name of the Buddha. But you
have to do this before you sit. If you don’t do it before you sit, your
mind will keep running away, keep thinking about other things. So,
you have to rein in your mind before you meditate.
This is what we call, ‘developing mindfulness.’ You can develop

mindfulness from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep.
When you open up your eyes in the morning, just start reciting
‘buddho, buddho, buddho’. When you get up and do your chores,
taking a bath, washing your face, shaving, brushing your teeth,
dressing, eating, whatever you do, just keep reciting the name of
the Buddha. It will prevent you from thinking about other things.
So, this is how you stop your thinking, you see. Even when you
meditate, you just keep reciting. When you get to the point where
your thinking stops, then your mind will become peaceful, calm and
happy. Once you know how to generate this kind of happiness, then
you don’t need any other kinds of happiness, because this kind
of happiness far surpasses other kinds of happiness. This kind of
happiness is better than all other kinds of happiness. So, this is
what you have to do with the time that you have left.
— 198 —
Once you have created this new kind of happiness, then you can
relinquish, you can let go of everything which you will have to let
go one day. When you get sick, when you get old, when you die,
you cannot have anything. You cannot take anything with you. And
if you don’t need anything, then you don’t want to come back and
be reborn again. This is the process of stopping this rebirth cycle.
This is the way of stopping your rebirth cycle. Your endless rebirths
will come to an end when you have finally got rid of your cravings
through your discovery of a new kind of happiness that arises
from stopping your mind from thinking and craving. Once you can
accomplish this, then you will have realized Nibbāna. Nibbāna is
not a place. It’s just your state of mind, the mind that is free from
all kinds of addiction. Like when you’re free from being attached
to smoking, you’ve reached one level of Nibbāna already. When
you’re free from drinking, you’ve reached another level of Nibbāna
already. When you have freed yourself from every form of addiction,
then you’re fully realized Nibbāna. So, this is what I can tell you for
today. Is there anything you’d like to ask?
Layperson: Not yet.
Than Ajahn: Has your family got my book in English? Can they
read English?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: They already have the book. OK, alright, then. How
about your husband, does he want to engage in any conversation?
Layperson: I would like to ask you what’s going on when you

said, ‘The body dies and the spirit leaves or goes to the next life.’
What do you think about Alzheimer, when the spirit dies but the
body’s still alive?
— 199 —
Than Ajahn: No, the spirit’s still alive but it cannot function.
That’s all. It needs a body to function, you see. Alzheimer is not a
mental disease. It’s a physical disease but scientists haven’t yet
discovered that. A disease that is created by the lack of mindfulness
and the lack of ability to control the mind from creating all forms of
depression and emotional feelings, bad feelings, you see. The mind
never dies. It cannot die. It’s something that always exists and it
exists with a body because it needs the body to get what it wants.
The mind wants to see, so it needs the body that has eyes. One
wants to hear so he needs the body with ears to listen to things.
But once you have no desire to see, to hear, to feel, or to touch,
then you don’t need to have a body. But it doesn’t mean the mind
disappears by not having rebirth. The mind still exists. The mind
of the Buddha still exists right now but he doesn’t have to have a
body to show his existence like us. We have our bodies to show
our existence, you see.
But our bodies are not our real self. It’s just our proxies that we use
to communicate with each other. I use my body to communicate
with you. See, I think. The one who thinks is not the body, and the
one who listens, who knows what I say is not the body. The body
is just the medium. It just takes the sound into the ears and then
it sends the sound to the mind. The mind is the one who knows,
knows the sound and knows the picture that the body sends to
it. Then, the mind plays with the sound and the picture by having
like and dislike. When you like a picture, then you want to possess
it. You want to acquire it. You have craving for it. When you don’t
like it, you have another kind of craving, the craving to get rid of it.
So, you’re always engaged (involved) in the thing that you come
into contact with. And then you get good or bad feelings from this
engagement. This is how we live. We try to navigate through our
engagement (of things that we come into contact with). We want to
have positive, happy engagement but sometimes we cannot and
we end up running into bad or negative engagement. Sometimes
— 200 —
we cannot get away, so we feel depressed, we feel bad. We feel

like being driven into a corner and there is nothing we can do about
it. Sometimes people think of dying, killing themselves to get away
from that situation.
But the real culprit is your desire. You don’t want to be in that
position. But if you can just stop that desire from not wanting to
be in that position, just accept it. You see, it’s not bad. If you can
stop that desire, then you can remain in that situation without being
disturbed. What disturbs you is not the situation but your desire
for not wanting to be under that situation. So, this is basically
our problem, our craving to be or not to be. When we get that, we
don’t like that, we don’t want to be there. We want to go away,
run away, you see. This is craving for not to be. And when we like
something, we crave to be in it and we don’t want it to disappear.
And when it disappears, we feel bad again. But if you have neutral
attitude towards everything, we just merely accept, acknowledge
the situation, then it’s nothing; you won’t feel anything, you see.
You feel peaceful and calm, unaffected by the situation that you
are in. And this is what meditation will do to your mind. It will be
calm, neutral and non-reactive. Just merely acknowledge it, and
you can face all forms, all kinds of situations. Is this all clear to
you? You have to make it clear to yourself, right? This is all mental,
not physical.
So, what we need to do is to train the mind to become neutral,

non-reactive, just to be acknowledging. Whatever we see, just
acknowledge it. Don’t react with ‘like’ or ‘dislike’. When you have
‘like’, you have the craving to possess it, and when you have
‘dislike’ you have the craving to disengage or dispossess. But if
you don’t have ‘like’ or ‘dislike,’ then you’re just normal. You don’t
react. You just acknowledge it. Sometimes we can acknowledge
things, because we don’t have ‘like’ or ‘dislike’. But when we
have ‘like’, we cannot remain (still by merely) acknowledging. We
— 201 —
start to want to engage in what we like or what we dislike. But if

you meditate, your mind will become nonreactive, non-engaging.
It will just merely know and you know this is the best position for
the mind to be because that’s the best feeling you can get. You
have to try to meditate until you get to that point; then, you will
understand why you have to be in that position because it’s the
best position to be in, the best form of happiness. It’s to have the
mind calm and contented, not reacting, not engaging, not desiring,
not acquiring, and not craving for anything. You can do this.
The mind is like maybe the transmission of the automobile. We
cannot find the neutral gear. That’s the problem. We keep using
the forward or the reverse gear. When we like something, we push
the forward gear. When we dislike something, we use the reverse
gear. We never use the neutral gear. So, when we meditate, we want
to put the mind in neutral, to be non-engaging, non-craving. OK,
anything else? Then, maybe I switch into the Thai language. OK.
End of Discussion.
— 202 —
Layperson from UK.
19
August 19th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Michael, do you want to ask something? Yes, you

had a heart attack. How was it?
Layperson: Do you know the electrical system to the heart? And

it’s all about the electrical system. The valve was not working prop-
erly according to requirement…and once I reached the hospital,
it stopped altogether…I was resuscitated .. I am not bothered if I
die. What I’m trying to say is that it’s better to come back and let
you explain so I can get more Dhamma…I don’t know about the
next life, …so I want to get more Dhamma. Maybe I’ll come back
again as a human.
Than Ajahn: I see. We cannot predict what we will be exactly

but we can generally predict which kind of existence that we will
have. But as a human being living in the time when the Buddha’s
teaching is still extent, it is the best opportunity because you need
a human life and the teaching of the Buddha together to make
Nibbāna happen. If you come back next time as a human being,
maybe there won’t be Buddhism left in the world. That’s because
we don’t know how long we’re going to be away before we come
back. We may end up in other (planes of) existences before you
— 203 —
can return as a human being. And to come back as a human being

without the teaching of the Buddha would be just useless. In terms
of achieving Nibbāna, you need the teaching of the Buddha to
guide you to Nibbāna. Without the teaching of the Buddha, you’ll
be like the Buddha during his time when he quested for Nibbāna
without a teacher. People who tried to quest for Nibbāna without
the teaching of the Buddha could only get to the Brahma level. They
could never get to the Nibbāna level. You need a Buddha to guide
you or his teachings or his noble disciples to do that.
So, in your case, you asked whether or not you should just die
and not come back if you still desire Nibbāna. I would say that
coming back is a better choice because you are coming back to the
Buddha’s teaching. As a human being, you can continue on with
your quest for Nibbāna. But if you go, you might have to pay for your
kamma first, be it good or bad kamma. With good kamma, you go
on to different realms of heaven; if bad kamma, then you have to
go on to the animal level. So, this will take some time before your
good or bad kamma expires and you are allowed to come back
to be born as a human being. And you don’t know where you’re
going to be born, which country? Which planet? Maybe there’s
another planet with human beings. But the point is if you return as
a human being without Buddhism in existence, then you’ll be like
a blind person looking for a needle in a haystack without someone
guiding you. So, this is what the scenario will be like.
(A lady mentioned in Thai that Michael was indifferent to his dying

condition when he was in the hospital)
You see, death is different to each individual. It depends on each

individual reaction to death. If the person reacts adversely, it can
be painful. If the person does not react at all, he will not be painful.
He simply just lets go; thus, part of the training here is to train the
mind to let go of the body, not to resist. When death happens, just
— 204 —
19 | Layperson from UK, August 19th, 2016
let it happen without clinging to the body. Just beware that death
is happening and let it happen.
(A lady enquires if he should make a lot of merits)
She asked whether you should make any merit. I said you’re
making merit right now. The highest merit is by listening to the
Dhamma talk because it will give you the wisdom to penetrate the
delusion of your mind so you can see things clearly as they are.
For example, the body is just a body. There is no ‘self’ — no ‘you’
or ‘me’ — in that body. The body is just the composition of the four
elements and it is transient. It rises and ceases. All you have to do
is to acknowledge the truth and let it be. The problem with people
is they have delusion clouding their minds, so they cannot see the
bodies as the composition of the four elements. They see the bodies
as themselves, so they cling to the bodies and have the desire to
have the bodies to be with them all the time. So, when the bodies
have to be separated from them, they will not let go. And clinging
and not letting the bodies go will make them very painful.
That’s the difference between someone who knows and someone

who doesn’t know. So, someone who knows the truth will let go
of the body. Someone who doesn’t know the truth will cling to the
body. And when he clings, it can cause him pain because he has
the desire to maintain the body in his possession which he cannot
do anyway. So, she just now asked me whether you should do more
charity, contribution, or donation. You can do that if you like but the
highest form of merit is the listening to the dhamma talk and then
applying it in your mind. Teach your mind to see things clearly as
they are, and then let go of everything because everything doesn’t
belong to you. One day everything will have to go their separate
ways. So, that pretty much answered your question, I guess. Is
there anything else you want to ask?
— 205 —
Layperson: Do you know the morning and evening chanting?

I don’t understand it because the words are not in English, you
know, just the words. So, I wonder whether there’s any book in
English that I can read and understand the words. There are books
in English but I can’t pronounce the words properly, so I just wonder
if there’s a book that I can get or anything on the Internet.
Than Ajahn: Just search for Pāli translation or Pāli reading, P-A-L-I.
It will explain to you how each word is supposed to be pronounced,
just Pāli , P-A-L-I. That’s a new language and it has instructions
to tell you how to pronounce each word. I think if you search it in
the Internet, you’ll find it. Just type Pāli , P-A-L-I, how to read Pāli
, how to pronounce Pāli and the search engine will lead you to the
Pāli lesson. But the purpose of chanting is twofold: First, it is a
form of meditation that gets your mind away from the worldly stuff
such as thinking about money, travelling, vacationing and so forth.
The second purpose is that words of the chant are actually the
teaching of Lord Buddha, so you can learn the teaching at the same
time. So, the benefit is twofold. It’s a form of meditation to calm
your mind and if you understand the chant, you will understand
the teaching of the Lord Buddha. For people who could not yet
meditate formally, chanting is the precursor to that practice.
End of Discussion.
— 206 —
20Q&A
August 30th, 2016
In my meditation practice, when bliss arises due to concentration,

should I ignore it and stay with my meditation object? (Florida,
United States)
Than Ajahn: Yes, just ignore it because you want to go deeper

as long as you still can concentrate on your breathing. You
concentrate until your mind eventually drops into emptiness when
bliss disappears and what you are left with is equanimity. That’s
the final result that you want; the mind that is peaceful, at ease and
neutral. It has no likes or dislikes, no hate or love (greed).
If you are using your breathing, just keep concentrating on your

breathing and ignore the bliss that happens. You will pass that stage
and go into deeper level until the mind becomes totally blank, empty
and happy. This is better than the bliss you have.
Question: When Luangphor said blank, is it blank from the

breathing?
Than Ajahn: Everything disappears even the breath disappears.

The mind is like floating in space; the mind is by itself. All you see
is the one who knows, the knower.
— 207 —
Question: When I was meditating and concentrating on my

breathing in and breathing out, after a while I had to swallow the
saliva and then I lost my concentration (because of the swallowing).
Can Ajahn give advice? (Belgium)
Than Ajahn: Try not to worry about the saliva, forget about it and just
concentrate on the breathing. If you feel that the saliva will overflow
out of your mouth, just let it be. Don’t think about it because the
more you think about it, the more saliva you will be creating. So,
to overcome this is to ignore the feeling that you have to swallow
the saliva. Just keep concentrating and leave the saliva alone, and
then it will not bother you and you will not lose your concentration.
If you cannot go beyond this point, then you will be stuck with your
saliva. Just keep concentrating on your breathing, be aware that
you are breathing in, you are breathing out and forget about the
saliva. If you feel that the saliva flows out of your mouth, just let it
be; you can wipe it out later on. But it doesn’t really happen, you
are just imagining it. Just keep on concentrating (on your object
of meditation).
It is the same thing with itch. Don’t try to go scratch it, leave it
alone and eventually everything will disappear. It is the same thing
with coughing too. Let the body do it naturally. If the body wants
to cough let it cough by itself, but don’t force the cough. You just
have to concentrate on the breathing.
Question: A layperson has to deal with a lot of problems in life,

like paying rent, supporting wife and kids, finding work etc. I visited
many temples and I saw some monks actually doing nothing, and
now the monks have latest iPhone, laptop, and some monks travel
a lot etc... Is the life of a monk more difficult than a layperson? For
me life as a layperson seems more difficult.
— 208 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
Than Ajahn: It depends on what kind of monks you see. A monk

who strives for Nibbāna doesn’t have iphone, doesn’t travel around.
He goes wandering in the forest, living in the harsh condition and
scarcity. So this is the life of a real monk. The monks you see are
fake monks; they live in comfort and their goal is not attaining
enlightenment. Their goal is to have a comfortable life, and they
use the religion as the means of making themselves comfortable.
If a monk strives for Nibbāna, he will live in a harsh and bad
condition, live in scarcity, eat once a day, eat in the bowl, eat the
food he collects from the alms-round, live in the forest, stay in a
small hut with no electricity, no running water, no amenities, this
is the real monk. The fake monks nowadays live in air-condition,
live in condominium, travel on jet plane, have iphone and have
everything. If you only look at this kind of (fake) monks, you will
think that monks have easier way of life than lay people.
Question: I used to have panic attacks a few years ago and I

was afraid all the time to lose control and lose consciousness so I
used to stay alert and present all the time but in a bad way like in
anguish (extremely distress). So when I did meditation practice, I
reproduced that feeling of wrong awareness and when I finished
the meditation session I have this overwhelming feeling of darkness
and hopelessness. When I focused on the breath or movement of
the stomach, even though I tried to relax and did not control it, I
ended up controlling my breath and it became broken and my chest
and mind felt so heavy and dark. Can Ajahn advise please? (Italy)
Than Ajahn: That means you didn’t have enough strong concen-
tration yet, so you cannot concentrate on your breath, so what
you need is to work on some other kinds of practice first, such as
reciting a sutra to occupy your mind with until your mind becomes
calm. Once your mind becomes less resistant, you can then direct
the mind to concentrate on your breathing.
— 209 —
Question: I realize that upon sitting, reciting and counting ‘buddho’

for about an hour and ten minutes, my mind starts to drift away
more often. In order to build the strength of my mindfulness, should
I just keep continuing in this position or should I start walking
meditation. (Thailand)
Than Ajahn: You can maintain mindfulness in all four postures.

You can walk or you can sit. Whatever you do you should maintain
mindfulness because if you rely on maintaining mindfulness only
when you are in sitting meditation, your mindfulness will not be
strong enough. So right from the time you get up, you have to
develop mindfulness by using a meditation subject to keep your
mind away from thinking. You can recite using a mantra like ‘buddho,
buddho’ or you can focus on your body activities. Whatever your
body is doing, just focus on that activity only. If you are washing
your face, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, dressing, just be
with that activity only. Don’t let your mind go thinking about other
things, then you are developing and maintaining mindfulness. If you
can do this, by the time you sit, you will have a strong mindfulness.
Then you can sit and just concentrate, or you can recite a mantra
and your mind can become calm and peaceful very quickly.
Question: How can I develop contentment in my life? I have lots

of samvega, but instead of feeling inner peace, I can only feel
discontentment towards the samsara and an urge to be free from
it. Because of this, my mind can’t settle down during meditations.
It’s ever getting lost in thoughts and getting distracted and I think
it’s because I’m lacking contentment. However, no matter how hard
I try to feel content, for example, trying to feel thankful for being
alive and stuff like that, I still can’t settle down because I can only
see the impermanence and futility around me. Do you have some
ideas of what I should do in order to develop contentment in my
life? (Brazil)
— 210 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Real contentment comes from peace of mind; it

comes from a settled mind. In order to build a settled mind, you
need mindfulness, so you have to develop a lot of mindfulness, from
the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. When you have
time to sit and meditate, your mind can become calm and settled.
Then you will have real contentment. You don’t have to use force to
have contentment. Contentment cannot be forced upon or cannot
be thought about. Contentment depends on your ability to settle
your mind, to make your mind peaceful and calm. To achieve this,
you need a strong and continuous mindfulness. So, try to develop
mindfulness all the time regardless of whether you are sitting or
not. Then, this mindfulness will become very strong and it will then
cause the mind to settle down into calm.
Question: How about strong longing desire to renounce the worldly

life with motivation to practice to full enlightenment?
Than Ajahn: There are two types of desires, the desire that creates
suffering or dukkha and the desire that causes the suffering to stop.
The desire to renounce the worldly life and to take up a holy life,
to become a monk, are good desires because these desires will
lead to cessation of suffering, so you have to know which desire
is good and which one is bad. The desire to follow the Buddha’s
teaching is a good desire and the desire to go against the Buddha’s
teaching is a bad desire.
Question: How to deal with a meditation stage where there’s

white light coming, only to disappear shortly and there’s no more
improvement after that. Can Ajahn advise me on this please?
(Singapore)
Than Ajahn: Just ignore what happened, keep concentrating on

your meditation object, keep on meditating until your mind goes
deeper and everything disappears; then all there is left is emptiness.
— 211 —
Question: I’ve heard from other people that after parinibāna, the
minds of the Buddha and other Arahants no longer exist, like a
flame extinguished. However in your talks you said that the minds
of the Buddha and other Arahants still exist after parinibāna and
some people are able to communicate with them. Can Ajahn explain
please? (Perth, Australia)
Than Ajahn: The mind of every being whether enlightened or

not enlightened is indestructible. It cannot disappear. The minds
of an enlightened person and unenlightened person differ only in
their level of defilements. An enlightened person has gotten rid of
his defilements so his mind is pure, whilst the mind of an
unenlightened person still has defilements and these defilements
causes him to take up more births, but both the mind of an
enlightened and unenlightened person exist all the time; they never
disappear.
Let me give you an example: when the clothing that you wear gets
dirty, you put it in the washing machine to wash dirt out of your
clothes. Once you have finished washing, do your clothes disappear
together with their dirtiness?
It is the same way with meditation. When you are enlightened and
attain parinibbāna, you have a clean mind, that’s all. This cleaned
mind is different from a mind that has not been washed, that has
not practiced, not been enlightened and the mind that is still dirty
with defilements. The mind with dirtiness (defilements) causes the
mind to take up new birth.
When you take up a new birth, you think that the mind is still in
existence but when the mind does not take up a new birth, you
think the mind no longer exists. This is because you only look at
existence as the body and you cannot see the invisible mind. There
were people who said that once the Buddha passed away, his
— 212 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
body disappeared and so did his mind. They are like blind persons
describing an elephant. When one blind person touches the tusk of
an elephant, this blind man thinks that an elephant is like a spear.
Another blind person touches the tail of an elephant, this man said,
“Oh! No, an elephant is like a rope’, so this is the same way with
people who do not practice and have not yet been enlightened,
they assumed that when the Buddha passed away, his mind also
passed away with his body.
Question: Is it okay to spay/neuter animals or is it better to leave

their reproductive cycles alone? (Toronto, Canada)
Than Ajahn: It depends on what you want. If you want to control

the birth of the animals then you can neuter them. It is not consid-
ered to be a harmful act and it doesn’t break the precept (sīla). So
it depends on what you want. If you want to control their birth then
you have to practice birth control. If you don’t want birth control
then you leave it naturally and suffer the consequence of many
puppies or many babies. Neutering is not considered as breaking
the sīla; it is not an act of killing.
Question: Is there a difference between Jhāna and ñana (16 stages

of insight knowledge)? If so, what is the difference?
Than Ajahn: Jhāna is absorption where the mind is absorbed in

peace, and there are nine levels of jhāna: four rūpa-jhāna levels,
four arūpa-jhāna levels and the last level is the complete cessation
of the vedāna, sañña, so these are jhānas which mean absorption
in peace. While ñana means knowledge or enlightenment and
there are 16 levels of knowledge that you can acquire from your
practice, so the two words don’t mean the same thing. Jhāna
means samādhi, while ñana means vipassanā or wisdom.
— 213 —
Question: Do we need to go to jhāna level 9 first before we can

develop wisdom?
Than Ajahn: No, all you need is attaining the fourth jhāna and from
there you can practise vipassanā.
Question: I was thinking to come and do a one-week retreat at

your monastery, but do you think if it is just as good to practise at
a quiet location near the place where I live?
Than Ajahn: Yes, anywhere is good if you can be alone and are
not disturbed by your surroundings. So it is better for you to find a
place where it is most convenient for you to practice and it is not
necessary to come to stay here at the temple because nowadays
you can listen to Dhamma talks from the internet, facebook or
youtube and you also can read books from the internet as well.
If you have any questions you can send them over, so there is
really no need to be physically close to a teacher but you need a
physically quiet environment to practise. You can even stay and
practice in your own condominium if you live alone and nobody
comes to disturb you.
Question: Is it possible for a homosexual to be ordained as a monk

if he is able to suppress his desires for other man, maybe through
the practice of asubha on the various parts of the body and also
on the idea that nothing is permanent and eventually all the men
will age, get sick, die and return to the 4 elements. You said in the
last Q&A that homosexuals have desires for other males, and that
is why we don’t accept homosexuals to be ordained because they
might have sexual activities with other monks. Is this rule fixed or
strictly enforced? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: I guess nowadays there are a lot of homosexuals

being ordained. As long as you don’t declare yourself a homosexual
— 214 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
when you apply for ordination, no one would know about it and
no one will ask you whether you are a homosexual or not. If
you tell them that you are a homosexual then it becomes not
appropriate to ordain you. Because when you like the same sex,
there are times that you are so close to each other. Then your desire
may happen to arise and you cannot control it. This is especially
troubling for you because once you commit an inappropriate act,
you will be permanently barred from ordaining again in the future.
As long as you think you can control your sexual desire, you are not
asked whether you are a homosexual or not, then you don’t have
to declare yourself to be one. I see monks who are homosexuals
but they seem to be okay, just like other normal monks and other
normal heterosexual men. These heterosexual men also have
desire but they manage to control their desire.
Question: Under what situation should we practice asubha? Is it

recommended for layperson to do asubha because it can be quite
gory and it makes someone sick and weak or even unable to eat
a meal after the practice?
Than Ajahn: Asubha is for those people who want to practise the
eight precepts or more because you want to stop using the body
as your way of having happiness. If you want to keep the eight
precepts then you have to avoid this sexual activity and asubha
practice will become handy when you have sexual desire. If you
think of asubha, you think of the unsavoury nature of the body, then
you can suppress or stop your sexual desire and thereby maintain
your precepts. This is for people who want to practice meditation
more intensely. As for lay person who only practises meditation
occasionally, he doesn’t need asubha practice because he still
needs to have sexual activity with his spouse or partner.
If you find that the asubha practice is very bad for you emotionally,
it means that you are not ready for this kind of practice yet and you
— 215 —
just have to maintain the five precepts and live as a good lay person
with a family life. However, sometimes this asubha practice can
be useful if your mind starts to go astray. For instance, if you find
it difficult to keep the third precept to stay faithful to your partner,
then by contemplating asubha on the person whom you want to
have sexual activity with, you may stop your sexual desire. This
is only applicable on a case by case basis. However, if you don’t
want to control your sexual desire with your partner then asubha
practice is not good for you.
Question: How do people practice asubha? Do people have to see

rotting corpse? Can they use the Internet to search for the gory
and bloody pictures of the corpse and the various parts of the body
and then proceed to visualize them repeatedly when meditating?
Than Ajahn: Firstly, you don’t have to look at the gory part if you
cannot handle it. You can choose to look at something more benign
like looking at the anatomy of the body or looking at the graphic
picture of the body. The point is for you to see the unattractive side
of the body. Usually we only see the attractive part of the body,
which drives our sexual desire. If you want to get rid of sexual
desire then you have to look at the unattractive side of the body and
to do this you have to look inside the body or look at the corpse.
It is the other side of the body that we don’t see often and that’s
why we forget that people with attractive bodies can also be very
unattractive. So, it depends on what you want. If you want to curb
or get rid of your sexual desire as you find it more burdensome
than useful, then you need to contemplate on the unattractive
side of the body. You can choose the intensity or the level of the
unattractiveness of the body.
You have to repeat it (asubha practice) all the time whether or not
you are in meditation because you want to have it all the time at
the back of your mind, and whenever sexual desire arises, you can
bring up asubha to stop your sexual desire.
— 216 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
Question: Please kindly explain in simple layman terms ‘anattā’,

the last of the Ti-lakkhaṇa”. (Penang, Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: Anattā means natural processes. There is no person

or someone who can direct these natural processes. Just as the
wind, the sun and the rain are natural processes, so is the body. Our
delusion makes us separate our body from its natural processes.
We think that the body is within our control but we can only
control it to a certain extent and not all the time because you
cannot control sickness, old age and death, so these are also
anattā. Our delusion makes us think that our body is atta (self),
something controllable, but in fact our body is just the same as the
rain, the wind and the sun.
Question: Is the knower anattā?
Than Ajahn: No, the knower is just the knower; someone who
knows but this knowing is under delusion and it causes itself to
have attachment and suffering. So, you need an enlightened person
to tell you to leave everything alone because everything is natural
process; you cannot control it. Then you will let go and you will not
suffer because of it.
Question: How to bring vitakka and vicara to jhāna? (Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: Vitakka and vicara are parts of jhāna. The first jhāna
has vitakka and vicara because when you watch your own breath-
ing, you are doing vitakka and vicara. I know I am breathing in and
I know I am breathing out, this is vitakka and vicara. When you
do it continuously, you get rapture and bliss from doing it. If you
go deeper all the rapture and bliss disappear and all that is left is
emptiness and upekkhā. Just keep focusing on your breathing.
— 217 —
Question: How do I fix my anger to someone who has caused me

harm in the past? I do not desire him to be any different to how he
is exactly, but the memory of the pain he caused in the past makes
me angry now.
Than Ajahn: Just try not to think of the past. The reason you
keep thinking about the past is because you don’t have the ability
to bring your mind to the present, so you need to develop
mindfulness. If you have mindfulness then you can bring your
mind to stay in the present and whatever happened in the past will
disappear from your mind. What you need now is to develop
mindfulness by continually focusing on some object so that your
mind cannot go to the past or go to the future. You may recite a
mantra repeatedly when you start thinking of the past. If you can
keep on reciting it for a while, you will then forget about the past
event that you have been thinking about. To forget is to forgive,
to forgive is to forget. So, you have to stay in the present and
you need mindfulness to bring your mind back into the present.
Without mindfulness, your mind will like to go to the past or future.
You need mindfulness to bring it back to the present. Use something
or meditation object to anchor your mind to stay in the present, like
using a mantra, or watching what your body is doing all the time.
Question: I could not let go of my desire to care for and love

someone whom I once thought we could have a fruitful relationship.
This desire created both hatred and love in me. Please suggest
the right Dhamma to (remove) my desires to care for and love
someone. (Brunei)
Than Ajahn: You need mindfulness and wisdom to solve all your
problems. Everybody’s problem is the same, which is the inability
to control our own thoughts. When you think about good things you
are happy, but when you think about bad things you feel unhappy.
You cannot stop this feeling of unhappiness because you cannot
— 218 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
stop your thinking. So first, what you have to do is to develop

mindfulness to stop thinking when the thinking is bad. Once you can
do that, the next thing is to direct your thinking to think positively;
think of anicca. Life is short. Sooner or later you are going to lose
everything anyway, so why bother to have anything if you are just
going to lose it. If you can do these two things then you will be able
to keep your mind in good track.
Question: It is commonly said that a Sotāpanna never breaks the

precepts. The Buddha himself was in a situation where one of his
Sotāpanna disciples was regularly drinking alcohol and in quite a
quantity, breaking the 5th precept. The Lord Buddha in this case
confirmed that this disciple was a Sotāpanna without any doubts
about it. How then can we understand that a Sotāpanna never
breaks the precepts? (France)
Than Ajahn: The real precepts are the other four precepts but
not the fifth precept. The fifth precept is just a bad habit to avoid
because when you drink alcohol, you can become drunk and you
will not be able to control your mind to keep the other four precepts.
With a Sotāpanna, he will never break the other four precepts
so when he drinks alcohol, he will not do anything to hurt other
people or hurt himself. He goes to sleep after drinking. But for some
other people, once they have gotten drunk, they have no ability to
control themselves and they might break other four precepts easily
like killing, stealing others’ property, committing adultery or lying.
For a Sotāpanna he definitely will not break the other four precepts.
The fifth precept is not considered as a precept, for example an
Arahant still smokes or chews betel nuts but he doesn’t chew it
like normal people do. Normal people usually chew or drink alcohol
with desire but an Arahant just chews betel nut with no emotional
attachment involved. An Arahant can have it (betel nut) or leave it
anytime and it doesn’t bother his mind.
— 219 —
Question: In our time we are sometimes faced with the fact that
this disciple was doing it (breaking the precept) and we do not have
Lord Buddha to state about his attainment. Can we then deny his
Sotāpanna attainment?
Than Ajahn: You cannot deny the truth. If he is a Sotāpanna,

then he is, but it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t make you a
Sotāpanna or not. If he is a Sotāpanna, let him be a Sotāpanna.
It is similar to if someone is a Frenchman, then he is one, so it is
not a big deal. That’s all.
Question: Can someone who is on celestial realms have some

possibilities to meet the noble ones or Ariyas on his loka (world)
and be taught by them?
Than Ajahn: It depends on the noble person whether he has the

ability to connect with the celestial beings or not. Like Ajahn Mun
or the Buddha, they have the ability to connect so when they are
around usually there will be celestial beings who would go and
listen to the Dhamma talks. Right now, there might be some monks
who can connect with the celestial beings and these celestial
beings might go and listen to his Dhamma talks. So, the person
must have the ability to connect with the celestial beings and he
must be an Arahant to be useful and so he can teach, but if he
is just a normal person then he will not be able to teach. Some
people might be able to connect with celestial beings although
they are not enlightened because it doesn’t mean one has to be
enlightened to enable him to connect with celestial beings. It only
means that one has the ability to concentrate his mind to the level
that he can connect with these beings, which is at samādhi level
or jhāna level. There are people who can connect with spirits but
they cannot teach Dhamma if they are not enlightened.
— 220 —
20 | Q&A, August 30th, 2016
Question: To have the ability to connect with these beings, can

we be trained to do it or does it come naturally?
Than Ajahn: It is part of your past lives that you might have been
trained to have this ability before in your past lives so when you
meditate, when your mind becomes calm, you will automatically
be able to connect with spiritual beings. If you have not learnt this
process then you will not be able to connect.
Question: What is the best method of meditation?
Than Ajahn: The method that suits you best. If you like watching
your breathing, then you watch your breath. If you like reciting
mantra, then you repeat a mantra like ‘buddho, buddho’. The
important thing is not the method but mindfulness. Even if you have
the right method but if you don’t have mindfulness, you will not
succeed anyway. So, you need to develop mindfulness and then
find the right method that is suitable for you. The suitable method
doesn’t guarantee success, but mindfulness will always guarantee
success. So, you need to develop strong mindfulness before you sit
and meditate. If you don’t have strong mindfulness, you can sit but
you will not succeed because your mind will go all over the place,
so first you have to curb your mind from running around by using
mindfulness in your daily activity. Whatever you do you have to
curb your mind from thinking, either using a mantra or by focusing
on your activity then you will have mindfulness, and when you sit
in meditation, your mind can become peaceful and calm.
Hope these answers will help clarify some of your doubts and
assist you on you path towards enlightenment. Good luck to you all!
End of Q&A
— 221 —
21
Q&A
September 20th, 2016
Question: Please accept my deep respect. The Buddhist

community and I would like to invite Ajahn to come to Indonesia for
half a day Dhamma talk and three days retreat. After that we will
arrange a visit to Borobudur and Mendut Temple where the relics
of the late Supreme Patriarch His Holiness Somdej Nyanasanvara
are placed. We will fit the program to suit Ajahn’s schedule. We
hope to have this invaluable chance and are looking forward to the
good news, so we can make the preparation. (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: I am sorry that I cannot accept the invitation because I

am an undocumented person; I have no legal (traveling) document,
so if I have to travel I have to get the traveling documents done
which is a lot of work for me and I prefer not to travel anymore. I
can only give Dhamma talk via social media such as Youtube or
facebook and you have to listen to my Dhamma talk in this way.
Question: Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo mentioned that we should

fix our concentration at the tip of our nose, and yet also maintain
a broad awareness of the feeling of breath in our body. Does this
mean that we should focus our attention on two objects, which are
(a) the breath at the tip of the nose and (b) the broad awareness
of breath within the body? (Singapore)
— 223 —
Than Ajahn: I think you should focus only on one thing, preferably
at the tip of the nose. This is because you want to unify the mind to
becoming one. If you let the mind go to separate location then the
mind will not be unified, and the mind will not come to a complete
calm state.
Question: Can you comment on the simile of the following

meditation method (a) Is it like a magnifying glass where we focus
exclusively on the breath and alternate with awareness of breath
in the body; or (b) is it like driving a car, where we focus our sight
on the road in front of us, and occasionally glancing at the rear/
side mirrors to steer the car?
Than Ajahn: In order for the mind to become totally concentrated,

you don’t want to go away from the breath at all, you want to be with
the breath all the time. If the mind comes and goes, it will not be
concentrated into one. So you need to be fixed only at one place,
at the tip of the nose. Just watch the breath at the tip of the nose
and don’t let the mind go somewhere else.
Question: By switching the meditation object between the nose

tip and broad awareness of the body, can our mind fall into a state
of single pointedness?
Than Ajahn: If you fix (your concentration) at one place you can
fall into a state of single pointedness, but if you go to two different
locations it will not become one-pointedness.
Question: With the exception of form, I always get mixed up and

confused with the other four aggregates. Will Venerable Ajahn be
able to explain the 5 aggregates, and their subtle differences and
share an example of how to differentiate them?
— 224 —
21 | Q&A, September 20th, 2016
Than Ajahn: The five aggregates are composed of two separate

parts: the body and the mind. Form aggregate means the body.
This body is made up of four elements and is impermanent; it
rises and ceases. Once it is born it will get sick, get old and die.
The other four aggregates (nama-khandhas): vedāna, sañña,
sankhāra and viññāṇa, are parts of the mind. The mind is the one
who knows. Besides being the one who knows, the mind also has
feelings, perception, thinking and awareness. So, they are part of
the mind. When the body dies, the other four aggregates still stay
with the mind and go with the mind to a new body. These four nama-
khandas do not die or disappear with the dissolution of the body.
The body returns to the four elements while the four nama-khandas:
vedāna, sañña, sankhāra and viññāṇa are parts of the mind and
they go with the mind to a new existence.
Question: How is consciousness in the five aggregates different

from citta (the one who knows)? If they are the same consciousness,
what is the differentiating factor between them?
Than Ajahn: The ‘one who knows’ knows all the time while the
consciousness is consciousness through the senses, which means
when the eyes see the form-objects, the consciousness arises
and it is being conscious of that form that it saw. When you see
a person, the consciousness arises. The consciousness receives
the picture of the person from the eyes and transports it to the citta
(mind) and thereafter the perception comes into play and it starts
to go into your memory bank to find out who this person that you
saw is, whether you know him or not.
Subsequently, vedāna (feeling) arises. If you know this person then

you have a certain feeling towards him. If he was good to you in
the past, you have good feeling. If he was bad to you, then you
have bad feeling towards him.
— 225 —
After you have good or bad feeling, the sankhāra comes into play
and it will determine whether you should go and see him or avoid
him. If he was good to you in the past, then you will go and see
him, but if he was bad to you then you will avoid him. This is how
the four nama-khandhas work.
First the consciousness transports information from the senses:

the eyes, ears, nose and tongue, to the mind. This is the function
of viññāṇa; it transports the information that the body sends to the
mind. When the eyes see a picture, the eyes send this picture to
the mind through consciousness. It is this viññāṇa that picks up this
picture. Thereafter, it sends to perception (sañña), which will check
the old memory bank whether you have this picture in the memory
bank. If the picture is in the memory bank, you know whether he
is good or bad. If he is good, then you have good feeling. If he is
bad then you have bad feeling.
First you have viññāṇa and then sañña arises, then vedāna arises,
then sankhāra arises. When you recognise that this person was
good to you, you have good feeling, and when you have good
feeling, the sankhāra will direct you to go and talk to him, but if you
know he was bad or he hurt you in the past, then the sankhāra will
decide to stay away from him.
These four nama-khandhas work as a team and they work very

fast. What I explained was just a microscopic picture of the
process but in real life, they all work instantaneously. When you
hear something, all nama-khandhas take place to play right away.
What I explained was just a dissection of how nama-khandhas
work. First the viññāṇa picks up the information from the body
(the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body) and send it to the mind. Once
the information is received, the perception (sañña) will investigate
what kind of information available it is. Whether it is good or bad,
once identified, the feeling will arise. If the information is good then
— 226 —
you have good feeling. If the information is bad then you have
bad feeling. If it is neutral then you have neutral feeling. Once you
experience the feeling, the sankhāra arises: what should I do with
this? Should I run away or should I welcome it?
So this is how the five khandhas work together and they need
the body to be the receptor to pick up the information, just like
a camera picks up the picture or a microphone picks up the
sound and sends the information to the mind to be processed.
If the picture is something you have never seen before then you
don’t have the perception whether it is good or bad, so there is
only neutral feeling arising and after that you will decide whether
you should go after it or leave it alone.
The citta is the one that knows everything. There is one more
thing about the citta itself. When it recognises something it likes,
the lobha (greed), the desire comes into play. When you see
something you like, you tell sankhāra to go and get it and this is
lobha. If you see something you don’t like, you tell sankhāra to get
rid of it; this is dosa (hatred), the opposite of lobha. This is the work
of the kilesas and this is what you want to get rid of, the lobha, dosa
and moha. You cannot get rid of the nama-khandhas. The Buddha
still had the nama-khandhas after he became enlightened. He still
had the body, but he did not have the lobha, dosa and moha to
direct the khandhas because the khandhas will work according to
its rationality.
Question: I have been practicing mindful prostration, walking

meditation and sitting meditation with touching points. This
technique does not emphasize jhāna or absorption meditation.
Is it possible to access insight directly through mindfulness, or is
absorption meditation necessary? (Ontario, Canada)
— 227 —
Than Ajahn: Before you can go to insight meditation you need

a clear and clean mind, a mind that is peaceful, so you need to
have samādhi or absorption first. If your mind is not calm, your
defilements can disturb you. When you have a calm mind, it means
that the strength of your defilement is cut down and it doesn’t have
the strength to influence your investigation to see the truth, to see
that things are aniccā, dukkha, anattā.
If your mind is not calm, your defilements will lead you to think that
everything is good; the defilement will argue with you. If you have
samādhi, this argument will not be there. When you see aniccā,
you will see aniccā, when you see dukkha, you will see dukkha.
So first you need to subjugate your defilements by having samādhi
or absorption. When you have samādhi then you can see things
as they are but not as what your kilesas want to see. Your defile-
ment wants to see that everything is nice and good but the truth is
everything is not nice and good. For example, you may think that
it is nice to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend and you want to have
one, but when you really have one and run into argument or conflict,
then you may think that having a boyfriend or a girlfriend is after
all not so good anymore. So it is better to subjugate the defilement
first before you can develop insight meditation.
That is the reason why the Buddha gave two types of meditation:
samatha bhāvanā and vipassanā bhāvanā. Samatha is calm or
absorption meditation and vipassanā is insight meditation. So, you
first need to subdue your defilement, and when you have subdued
it then you can see things as they really are.
Question: Can mindful prostration lead to absorption?
Than Ajahn: You can develop mindfulness without having to

prostrate. You develop mindfulness using daily activities, like
when you are walking you be mindful of your walking. When you
— 228 —
are eating you be mindful of your eating. When you are washing
you be mindful of your washing, so you be mindful of the normal
activities. Don’t try to do something abnormal. When you walk
three steps and you prostrate and you walk another three steps
and you prostrate, this is not natural.
The Buddha taught the natural way. In the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta, the
Buddha taught us to just be aware of your body activities. Whatever
you are doing, just be mindful of the activity you are doing, like
when you are looking to the left, just know that you are looking to
the left, and when you are looking to the right, just know that you
are looking to the right, but not looking to the right and think about
what you just saw on the left.
To be mindful means that you are with the body activity and if you
are with the body activity, it means that you can control your mind;
you don’t let the mind go here and there. Once you can control
your mind, when you sit down, you can go into absorption. First
you need to have mindfulness, but if you think you can be mindful
by doing mindful prostration, it is okay. Eventually you will have
to sit down and meditate using anapanasati, watch your breath,
fix your attention at one point because this is the only way for
the mind to become totally absorbed, to become one.
Question: Is a blackout while meditation (that means it feels as

though there were time missing in meditation without recollection
of anything happening and when coming out of that state there
is a feeling of wellbeing but also confusion with what happened)
the same thing as jhāna?
Than Ajahn: When you enter into jhāna, you disconnect from
the body and when you disconnect with the body, you disconnect
from the world, you disconnect from time and you don’t know what
time it is. You are like floating in space. After you withdraw from
— 229 —
jhāna state, you come back to the world of the body and you come
back to the world and when you look at the clock, gee! It was two
hours already. There is no reason why you should be confused.
It is the same like when you go to sleep and you go into spiritual
world, and when you get up you come back to the world. It is also
the same with meditation, when you meditate you go into spiritual
world and when you are out of meditation you come back to the
physical world.
The difference between meditation and sleeping is when you sleep,

you don’t have any happiness like what you will get when you
get into absorption. When you sleep your mind can still think and
sometimes when you think bad you get bad dreams and when you
get up you perspire and you are exhausted. Dreams can be good
dreams or bad dreams but if you meditate, they will always be good.
Question: I’m wondering about a meditation state where it felt like

sleeping with vague awareness but my back was straight and so I
was not really sleeping. Is this jhāna or something else?
Than Ajahn: If your mind is not yet totally concentrated and stops
thinking then it is not in (fourth) jhāna. There are four stages of
jhāna, so you may experience one of the jhāna stages, but what I
was referring to is the fourth jhāna when the mind becomes totally
disconnected from the khandhas; there is no thinking, no perception,
there is only the mind by itself. That’s the fourth jhāna.
Question: Does an Arahant still have unpleasant thoughts or are

all memories neutral?
Than Ajahn: An Arahant can have good or bad thoughts but

he is not attached to these thoughts and he is not affected by
the thoughts. When he sees people die, or people being abused,
his mind is not disturbed by it and his mind is not disturbed by
— 230 —
whatever thoughts that arise. Usually the Arahant will not think of
bad thoughts, so I would say an Arahant doesn’t have bad thoughts.
He has only good thoughts because it is how he became an
Arahant. He became an Arahant because he has gotten rid of
the bad thoughts and thinks only the good thoughts.
Question: I use ānāpānasati as my meditation object and can

quickly get my mind very quiet as I focus on my nose tips. I have
noticed that mindfulness cuts off thinking quickly but now I have
reached a stage where mindfulness appears to start cutting off even
perception. And so at times I don’t know if the breath is coming in
or going out or even if there’s any breathing. Is this right or should I
back off on the mindfulness so that I can be more with the breath?
(United States)
Than Ajahn: It is not the perception that you lose, it is the

mindfulness that you lose. If you don’t know whether you are
breathing in or breathing out that means you have no mindfulness
of your breath.
Mindfulness has to go with the breath in order to be aware of the

breath. So just be aware of the breath whether you are breathing
in or breathing out. Just stay there, don’t go anywhere else and
don’t think about anything else but just keep watching your breath.
Question: Is there a Dhamma teacher in celestial realms who can

teach another devas in their realms? (France)
Than Ajahn: In order for a person to be able to teach other beings

in other realms, he first has to have the ability to connect with them.
Some people have the ability to do it and some people don’t. It
doesn’t mean that everyone who has attained enlightenment can
connect with beings in other realms; some can and some can’t. It
depends on his own past experiences. If in the past he has learnt
— 231 —
how to connect with other beings so when he meditates, he can

connect with them.
You don’t have to be a Sotāpanna or an Arahant to be able to

connect with other beings. All you need is to have jhāna. Once you
have jhāna and you know how to connect with other beings, you
can connect with them, but if you don’t know how to connect with
them, then you won’t be able to connect with them. It is the same
like if you have a phone and you don’t know the number of another
person you want to call, then you cannot reach him. You have to
find the person’s phone number before you can contact him.
I don’t know (whether a deva can teach or connect with other devas).
I don’t want to speculate because I am not a deva.
Question: Is it possible when we get to jhāna but we don’t know

that we enter state of jhāna? (Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: You might not know the name of the stage of jhāna
you achieved, but you should know that you feel better because
your mind becomes calmer and more peaceful and happier. You
might not know whether this is first jhāna, second jhāna or third
jhāna, and if you want to know which stage you were in, you have
to compare it to the text.
It is similar to driving on the road. You might not know which position
you are at because there is no sign showing where you are, but if
you have a GPS or a map then you can use it to point out where
you exactly are, and you know, “Oh! I am right here at this position
or at that position.” This is the same as practicing meditation where
you might not know the stage you attained and if you want to know
which stage it is, you might have to go open the text to find it out
because the text then will indicate to you whether you are at first
jhāna, second jhāna or third jhāna.
— 232 —
Question: To attain to Sotāpanna, do we need all four jhānas? Is

it possible to attain Sotāpanna without jhāna?
Than Ajahn: It is hard to attain Sotāpanna or any level of

enlightenment without the support of jhāna because you need
jhāna to help your enlightenment. That is why the Buddha taught
attaining jhāna before developing insight meditation. First you
develop jhāna, and once you have jhāna then you can devel-
op insight, and when you have insight then you can become
enlightened, become a Sotāpanna or an Arahant.
Question: Can Ajahn guide me in your way of meditation?

(Penang, Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: First you have to start with mindfulness; be mindful

from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep by focusing
on one thing only. Don’t think. You think only when you have to,
because as a lay person you still have to work but you want to
eliminate other things that you don’t have to think about, like when
you get up, concentrate on your body by focusing on your body
and follow every activity of your body. Don’t send your mind to think
about some other things. Just watch your body. If you are washing
your face, just watch it. When you are taking a shower, just watch
it. When you are dressing up, just watch it. Don’t do two things
at the same time, such as while you are washing, you also think
about what you should do today, etc. If you have to think or plan,
you should then stop your body activity mindfully, whether you are
sitting or standing, then you may think about the things you have
to think about. After you are finished with thinking, you stop your
thoughts and go back to watching your body activity again. Keep
doing this and your mind will not go here and there.
When you meditate you want your mind to be mindfully fixed on

one point. The way to do it is by sitting meditation posture and
— 233 —
watching your breath. You will only watch your breath and do not
think about other things, and when you can do this, your mind can
become calm and become absorbed very quickly, and you will find
peace and happiness from this absorption. After that you can use
wisdom to eliminate your desire because you had experienced
something (absorption) which is better than what your desire can
provide you. If you have the happiness from absorption, you can
get rid of everything else, you don’t need anything else. Right
now, you need things because you are not happy, your mind is not
absorbed, but once your mind is absorbed then you don’t want to
have anything because when you have to go and get some things,
it is problematic. When you have it, you have to take care of it and
when you lose it then you become sad again. So you will see the
problem that comes with having things or doing things according
to your desire. You can stop your desire by seeing that it is more
hurtful than helpful to have or to do what your desire tells you to
do. If you don’t have happiness from absorption, then you have to
rely on other things to make you happy and you will always end
up unhappy because whatever you have will change or disappear
from you.
Question: When I use the word ‘buddho’ as the object of meditation,

do I have to follow ‘buddho’ with my in breath and the out breath?
Than Ajahn: No, just use the word itself and forget about the breath.
You have to use one or the other. If you use the breath then don’t
use ‘buddho’. If you use ‘buddho’ then don’t use the breath. Just
focus on one thing, reciting ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’, but if you
want to use the breath, then you have to focus on the tip of the nose.
Question: I am writing about a point recorded on page 88 of

“Dhamma for the Asking” under chapter 4 titled “Twins”. It refers
to the state of mind upon the passing away of an Arahant. I would
appreciate it very much if you could explain how the mind of an
— 234 —
Arahant after his passing away can exist and in what form it can
exist? (Colombo, Sri lanka)
Than Ajahn: Everybody has two parts, physical and spiritual. We

call it mind or the heart for the spiritual form and we call it the body
for the physical form. It is the spiritual form that directs the body to
do things, so the body is just a servant to the spiritual part of us.
The spiritual part of us never dies, never extinguishes but it has no
form of itself, that’s all. So it uses the body as its representative.
But once you become enlightened, you realise that having a body
is hurtful to the mind, so an Arahant stops the desire to get a new
body and once the old body dies, the Arahants still exist in the
spiritual form, but have no physical body.
Question: I understand that Ajahn Maha Boowa stated that the

Arahants who had passed away can manifest themselves in the
same form that they had taken in their last birth in order for a living
Arahant to identify. Is it possible for such mind to manifest in a form
discernible to another Arahant?
Than Ajahn: Yes, but they only connect spiritually. A person who
receives the connection with Arahants who have passed away has
to have the ability to connect with them in the spiritual world like
Ajahn Mun. When Ajahn Mun meditated, he can connect with the
spiritual world and an Arahant who lived in the spiritual world can
connect with him. He can manifest in whatever form he wants; it
is just a matter of thinking about it. If he wants to think the Arahant
to be Rock Hudson or the Beatles, he can think and he becomes
that right away, it is imagination.
Question: Would it be possible for Arahants who have passed

away to interact with one another.
— 235 —
Than Ajahn: Yes, it is possible for an Arahant to interact with one

another but usually they don’t. They don’t want to bother each
other. An Arahant has enough of everything already and he leaves
everybody alone, lets everybody find his own path.
Question: I have a teacher here, Ven. Utamo who is the disciple

of late Than Ajahn Tate, but I also want to learn from Than
Ajahn Suchart. My problem is, I want to find the right teacher for
developing my Dhamma practice and at the same time I am taking
care of my mum who is 91 years old and also I have to work to
survive and support my mum and myself. (Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: You just have to divide your time accordingly. You
give some time to provide for yourself, to look after your mother
and for your own practice; you just have to know how to divide
your time properly.
Question: I was told that my house fengshui & the aura are not
good. I will lose whatever I earn and however well I perform at
work, I never get acknowledgment. I need this job to support myself
and my mum. I did a lot of dāna and also brought my mum to do
Sangha-dāna and I also worked hard in Dhamma work like sharing
Dhamma etc. I am very stressed and depressed. I cannot stand
this anymore. I don’t have money and I don’t get treated fairly in
my work, yet I need the job to survive. Can Ajahn give me Dhamma
advice on how I can face this struggle in life, both mentally and
materially? (Indonesia)
Than Ajahn: Materially you have to be thrifty, only use what you
have and forget about the things that you don’t need to have, then
you don’t have to be stressful if you live this way. What makes you
stressful is your desire to have more than what you need, so all
you have to do is just to have what you need then you will be less
stressful. You also have to accept your kamma. This may be your
— 236 —
kamma to have to go through this experience and if you can accept

your kamma then your mind will become peaceful and not stressful.
Question: I do not want to move out of my house because it will

mean that I am defeated by the bad fengshui. Are good kamma,
bad kamma and fengshui all interconnected? Will I be able to break
this bad fengshui with my good deeds?
Than Ajahn: No, the fengshui has nothing to do with you; it is

just a belief. The things that have to do with you are your good
and bad kamma, that’s all, and this is something that you cannot
eliminate. Once you have the bad kamma, you have to face the
consequence of your bad kamma like what you are facing now. So,
all you have to do is face it with a calm mind and with acceptance,
then you will not be stressful. You can be happy even though you
are facing bad kamma.
Question: Hello Ajahn, last time you told me to focus on the breath
until I can’t focus on it anymore. Do I have to do that no matter what
meditation object I’m using? (Florida, United States)
Than Ajahn: No, you do this only when you are using only the breath
as your meditation object. If you use other meditation objects then
you have to use other meditation objects, like if you use a mantra
then you have to focus on your mantra only, if you use the skeleton
as your object of meditation, then you have to just use the skeleton
only. What you want to do is to make the mind still and not thinking.
So you have to fix it with one object which can be anything you like
such as reciting a mantra, or if you like the word Jesus, you can
recite ‘Jesus, Jesus,’ and if you like the word Buddha, you recite
‘Buddha, Buddha, Buddha.’ If you like focusing on skeleton, just
focus on the skeleton. If you like to use the breath, just focus on
your breath. Just one thing at a time.
— 237 —
Question: Do I focus on the object until everything disappears and

all that’s left is the one who knows?
Than Ajahn: Right, if you have it, then it means that your mind
has become absorbed and become one and you have achieved
the goal of your meditation practice.
May you all be well and happy.
End of Q&A
— 238 —
Laypeople from USA
22
and Indonesia
September 23rd, 2016
Layperson: Somebody gave me this book one day. Can you sign
it for me? It’s in Indonesian. It’s translated.
Than Ajahn: I’m sorry I cannot sign it for you. If I sign for you, I
will have to sign for others and I don’t have the time. My picture is
in there already.
Layperson: OK.
Than Ajahn: Do you find it useful?
Layperson: Yes, actually, it’s very…, especially you’re talking

about the desires which I want to get clarified because I think we
need desires sometimes in this world; otherwise, we won’t work
for our jobs or work for a degree, so how do we stop the desire?
How could we have the right desire?
Than Ajahn: Well, you have two paths to choose: you can choose
the path that normal people choose or the path that the Buddha
chose. If you want to take the path to the cessation of suffering,
then you have to choose the path of the Buddha. Your goal is
— 239 —
becoming a monk and then you give up your worldly life. But if you
still want to live the worldly life, then you just have to curb your
desire so it doesn’t become overly oppressive. Just do what you
can. Be thankful for what you have, be thankful for what you get.
Don’t let greed take over. Just have enough to eat, to exist and to
be happy. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be famous.
Then, you can have some similarity of happiness but you still have
to suffer because when you get old, get sick, or die, no matter how
much money you have, this money cannot help you with it. But if
you don’t want to suffer when you have to get sick, get old, and
die, then, you have to curb your desire. Get rid of all your desires,
especially your desire to live. Your desire to live makes you suffer
when you cannot live.
So, it’s a matter of choices that you can continue living your way
of life and try to curb your desire in a manageable way. Don’t let it
get out of hand. If you cannot do what your desire asks you to do,
then just stop your desire. Don’t let it push you to the point that you
might go and commit a crime, and break sīla. If you want to have
desire and live a happy life, you have to have the five precepts,
the pancasīla to curb your desire so that it doesn’t push you to go
do things that can hurt you. Then, you can be happy and you can
still have your desire. But you can become unhappy or sad when
you lose what you have because your desire will want you to have
everything, keep everything that you have. But when you lose them,
then you become sad and then are not happy.
But if you take the path of the Buddha, which leads to the total
cessation of all forms of desire, then if you lose anything, you won’t
be sad. If you should lose your body, if you should die, you won’t
be sad because you have no desire to have the body, to keep the
body. You have no desire to keep your possession. You have no
desire to keep your wife, your husband, your family, your son, your
daughter. When you lose them, you would not be sad. So, you
— 240 —
22 | Laypeople from USA and Indonesia, September 23rd, 2016
have to look at the negative side of life. Whatever you have, one
day, sooner or later, you will have to lose them. What would you
do then? You will still be happy when you lose your possession,
lose your family, lose your life. If you want to be happy and do
not want to be sad while using all these things, then you have to
stop all your desires. Get rid of all the desires and meditate, and
live without any desire. Then, you will not be sad when you lose
anything because you don’t have any desire for them. You can live
without having anything if you have no desire. You can be happy
without having any possession, no family, or no friends. You can
live alone. You can live without the body.
When your body dies, you don’t have to come [be] reborn to have a
new body because every time you’re reborn, you have to get sick,
get old, and die again. And that is not good because you don’t want
to get sick, get old and die. Because we have desire, it makes us
get a new body when we lose this body. We have desire, so we
have to go get a new body, to use the body to support our desire, to
go see things, hear things, to have money, to have family, to have
children and so forth. You need a body. So, if you have desire, you
continue on with your rounds of rebirth. You will keep coming: born,
getting sick, getting old and die, and then come back again, born
again, get sick, get old, and die again forever. But if you follow the
path of the Buddha, then you stop the cycle of rebirth. Once your
body dies, you don’t come back anymore because you have no
desire to need to have the body, to do what your desire wants it to
do. So, there are two paths in the world: the path to the cessation
of rebirth or the path that continues on with rebirth in which you
can have some happiness but in the end it will have sadness
when you will have to lose everything.
Layperson: And what does meditation relate to this?
— 241 —
Than Ajahn: Meditation is to stop your desire. See, when you

meditate, you don’t use the body, right? You don’t see; you don’t
eat; you don’t drink; you don’t do anything, and you can be happy
without doing all these things. When you meditate and you succeed
in your meditation, your mind will be content, peaceful and calm,
and full. You don’t feel hungry, don’t want anything, and have no
desire for anything. Once you can get to that stage, then you don’t
have to have anything. You can die and it doesn’t bother you. If you
should die now, today, it doesn’t matter because you don’t need
anything. You can be happy without having the body. See, the mind
and the body are two separate entities. They are not one of the
same things. When the body dies, the mind doesn’t die with the
body. When the mind is content, happy, then it doesn’t go and take
a new body. But if the mind is not content, still desiring, then when
the body dies, it goes and takes a new body. That’s the difference
between the mind that has meditation and the mind that doesn’t
have meditation. If you can meditate and make the mind content,
then you don’t have to have a new body. You don’t have to go to
work because you don’t spend money. You can become a monk
for the rest of your life.
Layperson: So, is this the way to see your ‘self’ from sitting
meditation?
Than Ajahn: Yes.
Layperson: Can you give advice on how to meditate?
Than Ajahn: Well, the Buddha said ānāpānasati, the mindfulness

of breathing. When you sit down, close your eyes and focus your
attention on your breathing, at the tip of your nose. When your
breath comes in and out, just watch your breath. Just know that
you’re breathing in, breathing out and don’t think about anything.
If you focus on your breathing, then you cannot go thinking about
— 242 —
other things. If you go thinking about other things, then you cannot
focus on your breathing. And if you’re not focusing on your
breathing, your mind will not become calm. It will not become still.
And when it’s not still, your desire is still working. And then, you will
not be able to sit for long because your desire will ask you to get up
and do something else. So, you have to control your thought and
your desire by focusing only on the breath. Before you can have
the ability to focus, you have to develop this ability first.
Before you come and sit and meditate, you first have to develop
this ability to focus on one thing at a time. And this is what we call,
‘mindfulness.’ You can use a mantra to help you focus on one thing.
You can repeat the word, ‘buddho, buddho’ mentally all the time,
from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Just keep
on reciting, ‘buddho, buddho.’ Then, you don’t have to think about
other things. Or you can use your body as point of focus, point of
attention. Watch every movement of your body, whether you’re
walking, sitting, standing. Whatever you do, just keep watching
your body. If you’re eating, just watch your body eating. If you’re
taking a shower, getting dressed, whatever you do with the body,
just focus your mind on that. Be with the body all the time. Don’t
let the mind go think about other things, you see.
The point is to stop thinking endlessly. You can think if you have
to think of something important but don’t think aimlessly or remain
fantasizing about this and that. If you have this ability to focus
on one thing, when you meditate, your mind can become
concentrated and become still. When your mind becomes still and
calm, your desire disappears, and you have peace, contentment,
and happiness. Then, you know that you don’t need anything to
make you happy because you know how to make yourself happy.
And it’s the best kind of happiness because it does not rely on other
things or people to make you happy. For other kinds of happiness,
you need to have other things or people to make you happy. And
— 243 —
when you cannot get them, you become sad. But this, you can
have it, once you know how to do it. You can always have this kind
of happiness. Read my book and you probably get more details
from reading it, OK?
Layperson: But I think you don’t need to repeat ‘buddho’ to gain

mindfulness, right?
Than Ajahn: Sometimes, you do if you find that watching your

body is not possible. If your mind keeps thinking about things, then
you can use a mantra to help you. Keep repeating the mantra as
you go about doing your things. If your mind wants to go thinking
about other things and you cannot focus on your body, then use
the mantra to help.
Layperson: But that’s not meditation. It’s just like regulation.
Than Ajahn: Yes, regulation. When you sit, then you just use one
thing. Watch your breath or you can use the mantra.
Layperson: I see. Why are some practitioners advised to watch

the breath on the stomach, instead of the tip of the nose?
Than Ajahn: It’s just the point of focus, that’s all. Some people find
it hard to focus on the tip of the nose. They can feel more clearly
on the stomach. When you breathe in, the stomach comes out and
when you breathe out, your stomach falls in. So, they say, ‘Watch
the stomach instead.’ But for people who have strong mindfulness,
they can feel the breath at the tip of the nose.
Layperson: So, we can choose.
Than Ajahn: Yes, you can choose. Just stay on one point. Don’t
move around.
— 244 —
Layperson: Lastly, is it necessary to recite verbally in conjunction

with the in breath and the out breath? Some people, they do like….
Than Ajahn: Not necessary, unless you find it useful because

sometimes your mind wants to go and think about other things.
So, you use the verbal labeling to stop the mind from thinking.
Layperson: Oh, I see, to maintain the mindfulness.
Than Ajahn: Anything else?
Layperson: Just one more thing before, you go talking in Thai,

I wonder one word, ‘sabai’ relaxing, what were you referring to?
What’s relaxing?
Than Ajahn: Same thing, talking about curbing your desire by

forcing yourself to sit, to stay in one place for six hours. Sit on a
chair, sit down, and don’t do anything for six hours, and fight with
your desire. You can use anything to fight. You can use a mantra.
You can meditate but don’t do anything. But you don’t sit in the
way that makes you painful. You can sit comfortably and if you feel
you want to get up and stand up to relief your body, you can stand
up but you cannot move around. The only place you can go is the
toilet, if you want to release yourself. And if you want to drink water,
just have a bottle of water next to you. This is a sort of curbing your
desire and developing your mindfulness at the same time. And you
can also meditate during these six hours. There is nothing fixed.
You can do anything you want but you have to be sitting there and
doing nothing. You can meditate. You can use a mantra. You can
just sit down and try not to think about anything. If you can do this,
you have strong mind to resist your desire.
Layperson: And not become restless.
— 245 —
Than Ajahn: Yes, and eventually you’ll find that you can be happy
without having to do anything. What’s so bad with sitting and doing
nothing? It’s the best thing in the world.
Layperson: OK.
Than Ajahn: It’s your desire that makes you uncomfortable. But if
you can resist your desire, it will eventually disappear. When your
desire disappears, then you’ll find the sitting, doing nothing is the
best thing, comfortable, ‘sabai.’ The whole purpose of practice is to
overcome your desire, get rid of your desire. Once there is no desire,
then there is no problem because you can sit still. You don’t have
to do anything. The reason why you do all these things is because
of your desire. You want to see, you want to hear. You have to find
money to pay for what you see, for what you hear. So, you have to
go running around. No matter how much you see, no matter how
much you hear, once you’ve seen it or heard it, it disappears and
you have to see it again. Your desire will never make you fulfilled.
It will keep you hungry for more, not contented.
Layperson: So, how does worry relate to desire?
Than Ajahn: Worry because you’re afraid that you might not be
able to do what you want to do, you see, because your body is
going to get old, get sick, and die, so you worry. But no matter how
much you’re worried, the body is going to get sick, get old, and
die anyway. The way to get rid of your worry is not to rely on your
body. Don’t use your body. The way not to use your body is not to
have any desire. When you don’t have any desire, you don’t have
to use the body. And when you don’t have to use the body, you
don’t have to worry about the body, right?
Layperson: So, the way to stop our worry is to control our desire.
— 246 —
Than Ajahn: Yes, the way to stop every form of stress, worry,
anxiety, restlessness is to control desire. It all comes from desire,
to be able to do things that you want to do. But you have to rely
on things to be able to do it. And the things that you rely on are
not dependable, they are not reliable. Sometimes you can and
sometimes you cannot rely on them. When you cannot rely on
them, you’re hurt, you feel bad.
Layperson: Oh, do you mean like if we have expectation and it

does not turn out the way we want?
Than Ajahn: Yes, but if you have no expectation, then you don’t
have to worry about whether it’s going to turn out the way you
want it or not.
Layperson: Right.
Than Ajahn: So, all of your mental problems, your bad feelings,
anxiety, all arise from your desire. If you have no desire, then there
is nothing to worry about, no disappointment if you don’t have any
desire. If you don’t expect anything, so how can you be disappointed?
You’re disappointed because you want something and you don’t
get it, right? You want it because you have desire for it.
Layperson: What about the desire to attain enlightenment. I know

people who meditate every day to get enlightenment?
Than Ajahn: This is a good desire. This is the desire that you
should have, desire to become enlightened, desire to leave your
family, desire to become a monk, desire to keep the precepts.
These are good desires. This is the desire that will end all desires.
But the desires to be rich, to be famous, to be happy with people or
things, are bad desires because eventually you will not be able to
have them since you will lose everything that you desire one day.
— 247 —
Layperson: So, does this desire come from the defilements…..?
Than Ajahn: Yes, from your delusion, your lack of the right view
i.e. what is the good desire? What is the bad desire? But when
you come across Buddhism and you read the teaching of the
Buddha, then it will tell you what is good and what is bad. What is
good desire? Which desires are good desires and which are bad
desires? It says the bad desires are the desires to see, to hear,
to have happiness from the sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile
objects. You should abandon these desires: the desire to be rich,
to be famous, and to be powerful. These are bad because they are
temporary. Once you have achieved them, one day you will lose
them. When you lose it, you’ll become sad. So, you should desire
to have things that you will never lose. And the only thing that you
will never lose is your mind and the peace of mind that you develop
through your meditation practice. Once you have achieved this
peace of mind, contentment, you’ll never lose it. You always have
it, you see, regardless of whatever happens to your body.
Layperson: So, the desires are the ones that are related to the
senses, right?
Than Ajahn: Yes, through the senses and through all the things
that exist in this world: money, wealth, fame, people and things. All
of these things are temporary. They come and go. You either have
to leave them one day or they leave you one day. Sooner or later
you have to be separated from them. When you die, your body
dies. Everything that you have will be all gone. OK.
Than Ajahn: Are you from the States, from which state? (Ajahn
speaks to another layperson)
Layperson: Wisconsin.
— 248 —
Than Ajahn: Wisconsin. How long have you been in Thailand?
Layperson: A few days.
Than Ajahn: Just a few days and are you on vacation?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: I see, and she said that you’re interested in

Buddhism, in meditation?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: What sort of information would you like to know?

Have you meditated before?
Layperson: since 1984.
Than Ajahn: What kind of meditation did you do?
Layperson: TM (Transcendental Meditation).
Than Ajahn: You used a mantra? What do you use as your object
of concentration?
Layperson: A word, one word.
Than Ajahn: And have you achieved any result from your
meditation?
Layperson: What kind?
Than Ajahn: Like peace and happiness.
— 249 —
Layperson: Sometimes.
Than Ajahn: That’s the goal of meditation, to find peace and

happiness within yourself, not having to rely on other things to
make you happy.
Layperson: So, my wife of 35 years and…wants to get a divorce.

So, I need meditation now.
Than Ajahn: Yes, if you can meditate, then divorce will be no

problem. It will be a blessing instead of a curse because then
you’ll be free to pursue your meditation more and the result from
meditation will always be with you, no matter where you are, where
you go. You can always have this result within yourself but the
result from your marriage only exist while you are married. But once
you get a divorce, the result of your marriage goes, disappears.
The happiness that you have from your marriage will disappear.
So, it’s better to be alone and meditate because you can be happy
being alone if you know how to meditate. If you meditate, you don’t
need to have things or people to make you happy. You can make
yourself happy by concentrating your mind, to stop your mind from
thinking, you see. And when you stop thinking, you just stop your
craving and your desire. And when there are no desires, no cravings,
your mind becomes peaceful and content. That’s the purpose of
Buddhist meditation anyway. That’s to stop the mind from thinking
and desiring. Then, peace and contentment will arise in the mind.
Then, you can live alone and be happy by yourself.
Layperson: So, what if I want her to be happy and she doesn’t

meditate?
Than Ajahn: It’s impossible. She has to be happy herself. If she

wants to be happy, she can choose the two kinds of happiness:
the happiness that relies on things and people to make her happy
— 250 —
and she has remarried if she wants to divorce you; if you want
her to be happy, ask her to get a new husband and she will be
happy, you see. Or she can meditate. There are two possibilities,
two kinds of happiness. But the desire for people or things to be
the way you want will not make you happy because sometimes
you cannot achieve what you desire. So, the Buddha said, ‘Never
desire for anything if you don’t want to hurt yourself.’ You have to
leave everything alone. Leave people alone. Let them find their
own way for their happiness. The only thing you can help is if they
need food or clothing, if you can afford to help them, help them.
But as far as the mind is concerned, there is nothing you can do

for them. They have to find their own happiness and there are
two ways; by relying on people or things to make them happy or
relying on meditation. For them there are two ways and the best
way is meditation because this is the permanent way. You won’t
have to rely on people or things. If you rely on people or things,
people come and go. When they go, then you become sad. But if
you rely on your meditation, you will always be able to meditate,
always be able to generate this kind of happiness, regardless of
your physical condition. You can be sick. You can be old, yet you
can still generate this kind of happiness. You can meditate in bed.
You can meditate while you are old, so it’s better. You don’t have
to rely on your body or other people or things to make you happy.
So, if you know how to meditate, I encourage you to do more. Do
all day long. Do nothing else. Stop watching television; stop going
out. No more music, no more movies, nothing. Just meditate.
Therefore, the Buddha teaches the monks that from the time they
get up to the time they go to sleep, they should meditate or control
their thoughts, emotions and desires by stopping their thinking.
Don’t think endlessly. Don’t dream. Don’t fantasize. Just watch
what you’re doing, concentrate or focus on what you’re doing at the
moment. Forget the past. Forget the future. Be here and now, be
— 251 —
in the present by not thinking. When you think you usually think of
the past, or of the future. And when you think you become restless,
agitated because you have desire to do this or to do that, to have
this or to have that. Then, you cannot remain still and have to go
look after what you desire. And once you get it, it disappears. You
will have a brief happiness from achieving what you want but after
a while, you have a new desire, so you have to go chasing after
another desire but it’s actually going after your own shadow. Your
shadow always casts one step ahead of you. When you move
towards the shadow, your shadow moves forward. It’s the same
thing with your desire. If you desire something and you go after it,
once you have it, a new desire will come up. So, you keep going
after your desire endlessly. Thus, the best way is to stop, not to
go after your desire. Don’t generate any desire. When there is no
desire, then you can be calm, you can sit still and be happy.
Than Ajahn: I have a couple of books in English. I can give them to

you. This is my autobiography and this is my teaching. Take a look.
Does anybody else wants one? I used to work in LA and I went to
college in Fresno. Alright, do you have anything you want to ask?
Layperson: No, not yet.
Than Ajahn: You worry because you rely on the things that are not
reliable, you see. Every thing that we rely upon is not reliable. They
tend to break down. They tend to leave you, separate from you
because the Buddha said, ‘Everything in this world is impermanent.’
And if you rely on things that are impermanent, you’re bound to
become worried and your mind will become sad because sooner
or later you and they will have to be separated. But you can rely
on one thing, that is, the ability to meditate. Once you know how to
meditate, you can generate that kind of happiness that doesn’t have
to rely on other things or people. Then, you won’t have any worry
or anxiety. But if you rely on money, on people and things, you will
— 252 —
be always worried because these things come and go, right? So,
try to meditate. This is something you can learn. Once you master
it, you can always generate happiness within yourself. OK
End of Discussion.
— 253 —
Layperson from
23
Vancouver Canada
October 10th, 2016
Than Ajahn: What do you know about Buddhism so far?
Layperson: So far, it’s a free religion.
Than Ajahn: What do you mean by free, not paying money?
Layperson: It’s a very open religion. Very peaceful.
Than Ajahn: Buddhism doesn’t force you to do things; it doesn’t

force you to believe. It’s just like a school that gives you information.
It’s up to you whether you want to use it or not.
You can take it or you don’t have to. It’s because Buddhism teaches
the law of kamma, what you do is what you’ll get. Buddhism just
tells you how to do good kamma and to prevent bad kamma. But
you are the one who has to decide whether you want to do it or not.
A good kamma is like being charitable, kind, and nice to people

and other living beings like animals. When you are kind, nice, and
charitable, you feel good. It makes you happy. If you are mean,
unkind, and hurt other people, then you are also hurting yourself,
— 255 —
because you are making yourself unhappy. So, Buddhism teaches

you to do good things and avoid doing bad things.
The bad things that Buddhism teaches us not to do are killing,

stealing, and having sexual misconduct. If you have to have sex,
you should have it with your spouse—your husband or your wife. In
Buddhism, sexual misconduct means to have sex outside of your
marriage. If you want to have sex, you should have it with your
partner, your husband, or your wife.
Also, you have to avoid speaking falsehood, or lying. If you want to

say something, say the truth. If you cannot say the truth, just shut
up. Just keep your mouth shut. Then you won’t be lying. If you find
that you will be lying, just say that you cannot say it. If somebody
asks you something and if you would be lying, then you just say: I
cannot say it. That’s all. Then you won’t be lying. Lying is not good
because it will discredit you. Nobody will believe you again once
you start to lie. So if you want to be credible, you should speak
only the truth.
When you don’t hurt other people, then you won’t feel bad. If you
kill, you will feel bad. If you steal, you will feel bad. If you commit
adultery, you will feel bad. So the Buddha said, you should avoid
doing these things to prevent you from hurting yourself and other
people.
By doing good, we only make people happy, and also make yourself
happy. Like helping people when they are in need, it makes both
them and you happy.
So this is the good and the bad kamma that we should do and
should avoid. If you want to be happy and trouble free, and in order
to be able to do good kamma and avoid doing bad kamma, you
also must not take drugs or drink alcohol. It’s because when you
— 256 —
23 | Layperson from Vancouver Canada, October 10th, 2016
drink, you’ll get drunk and then you will not be able to control your
kamma—your action. So this is basically the Buddha’s teaching.
He also taught about a higher kind of happiness—the happiness

that you can have within yourself. You don’t need to have money
to make you happy. You don’t need to have things to make you
happy if you know how to meditate.
When you meditate, your mind becomes calm and peaceful, and
you will have another kind of happiness. This kind of happiness
is better than the other kind of happiness. It’s because you don’t
have to rely on other things and other people to make you happy.
Things that you rely on are not dependable—not always reliable.
One day, sooner or later, they will not be able to let you depend on
them. This is because everything, sooner or later, will have to end.
Everything will have to break up. People die; things become

useless after a while. So, if you rely on people or things, when
they cannot be reliable and when you cannot rely on them, then it
makes you feel sad. But you can always rely on your meditation
practice. Once you know how to meditate, you can always
meditate. You can always make your mind peaceful, calm, and
happy.
In Buddhism, we refer to the meditation practice as a cultivation

of mindfulness. You have to be mindful of something in order to
prevent you from thinking about other things. It’s because when you
think your mind becomes restless and agitated. Your mind starts
to crave for things that you think of.
So if you don’t think about anything, you mind can become empty,
blank, peaceful, calm, and happy. So in order to make your mind
peaceful and happy, you need to be mindful of one thing only and
not to let your mind think about other things.
— 257 —
Like when you meditate — when you sit down and be mindful of
your breathing — just watch your breath: your in and out breath.
Be mindful of your breath. If you concentrate on just watching your
breath, then you cannot think about other things.
If you think about other things, it means you are not mindful of your
breath. If you are not mindful of your breath and keep thinking,
you will not succeed in your meditation. Your mind will not be calm
and happy. But if you can concentrate on your breath—mindful of
your breath without thinking about other things, then your mind will
become calm, peaceful and happy.
So this is the way to make yourself happy without having to rely on

money, people, or things. Whenever you feel sad, just sit down and
meditate. When you stop thinking about the things that make you
feel sad, then your sadness will disappear and happiness will return.
So this is basically what the Buddha taught. So, if you want to be

happy and do not want to hurt yourself or other people, then you
should follow the Buddha’s teaching. Do good things, avoid doing
bad things and meditate. Do you think you can do these three
things?
Layperson: I will try.
Than Ajahn: What is so hard about it? Doing good things is easy—
sharing things. If you have something, share it with your brother.
If you have more than you can use, share it with someone who
doesn’t have it.
In order to have things to share, you must not use them too much.
The Buddha said just use things sparingly—just enough for what
you need. Don’t use more than what you need, then you will have
something left to share with other people. If you use more than what
you need, then you won’t have anything to share with other people.
— 258 —
Like money, if you spent more than what you need to spend, then
you’d spend it all. But if you only spend on what you need to spend,
you might have something left to share with other people. It is better
to share because you will feel happier than spending money on
yourself. Spending money on other people makes you feel better
than spending money on yourself.
Do you believe that? Try it. Instead of buying something that you
don’t need for yourself, buy it for someone who does. Then you can
feel the happiness that arises from your sacrifice and generosity.
So this is basically the formula to make you happy and to prevent
you from being sad.
If you have sadness, you can get rid of your sadness. When you
are sad, it is simply because your mind wants something and you
cannot get what you want, so you become sad. All you have to do
is stop your wanting — stop your mind from thinking and wanting.
When you meditate, you stop thinking, stop wanting, then your
sadness will disappear. You don’t need to have money. If you want
things, you have to have money. And when you don’t have money,
you become sad because you cannot buy things you want to buy.
So when you cannot buy things, just go meditate instead.
When your mind becomes peaceful and calm, then you don’t need
anything, you don’t want anything. So you should learn to be mindful
because if you are not mindful, you cannot meditate. When you sit
and you are not mindful, your mind will wander off—thinking about
everything. So you should learn to be mindful in your daily life. From
the time you get up, you should be mindful of something, one thing.
You can be mindful of your body. Watch every movement of your

body. Whatever you do, just be mindful of your body. Watch it, like
when you are brushing your teeth, just be mindful of brushing your
— 259 —
teeth. Don’t let your mind think about other things. If you focus on
your brushing your teeth, then you cannot think about other things.
Just concentrate or focus on what your body is doing at that moment,
then you will have mindfulness. Then when you don’t have to do
anything, you can sit down, close your eyes, and watch your breath.
When you sit down, your body becomes still. When your body
becomes still, it will help to make the mind become still. In order to
make the mind become still, you have to make the body become
still first. If your body moves around, then the mind cannot become
still. This is because your mind is the one who tells the body what
to do. If the body is the servant, the mind is the master. Everything
that the body does has to take command from the mind.
Before you can come here, the mind has to think first. It has to
think that I am going to come to this place. Before you can get up,
the mind has to think first that I want to get up. Before you can
walk, the mind has to think first. So, the mind is the one who tells
the body what to do. And if you want the mind to be still, you first
must let the body be still.
So, you have to sit down. When you meditate, you have to sit still
and do not move around. Then you focus your attention on your
breath in order to keep your mind from thinking. And if you can per-
severe, if you can control your thoughts — stop your thinking — then
your mind will become still. And when the mind becomes still, the
happiness of the mind will arise. And this kind of happiness is much
better than other kinds of happiness—more profound and intense.
Once you have this kind of happiness, then you don’t need to have
any other kinds of happiness. You don’t need to have a boyfriend.
You don’t need to have a husband. When you have a boyfriend,
you are going to have trouble with your boyfriend. You are going
to quarrel. You are going to worry about him and you are going to
— 260 —
be unhappy when you don’t see him. So instead of being happy

with having a boyfriend, you become more unhappy.
So it is better not to have anything because everything is unreliable.

Everything can disappear from you anytime. And the happiness
that you get from those things will also disappear and, in place,
there will be sadness. But if you can meditate and make yourself
happy, then you don’t need to have anybody or anything. So,
I would recommend to you to try to meditate.
Before you can meditate you have to be mindful first. You have to
have strong mindfulness to be able to stop your mind from thinking.
If you don’t have strong mindfulness, you mind will keep thinking
and thinking, and then your mind will not become calm or still.
Then you will not be happy. You will become restless and agitated.
You want to get up and go do something, just because the nature

of the mind is not calm; it keeps on desiring things and to do things.
It cannot be happy not doing things. But no matter what you do,
it will only bring you a brief happiness. And then that happiness
will disappear and it will make you do more things to make you
happy again.
But then, one day, your body will not be able to do what your mind
tells it to do. When your body gets sick, gets old, then you won’t
be able to use the body to make you happy. Then you will be sad
and depressed. So, it is better not to rely on the body to make you
happy. It is better to rely on meditation to make you happy because
you can meditate regardless of what happens to the body.
The body can be sick, get old, and you can still meditate. It’s
because when you meditate, you don’t use the body. You use
mindfulness. So, try to develop mindfulness as much as possible.
From the time you get up to the time you go to sleep you can develop
— 261 —
mindfulness. Just be mindful of your body. Whatever the body is

doing, just be with that action. Don’t go elsewhere. Don’t let your
mind and body separate. Let them do things together.
Nowadays, people think that you should multi-task. Let the body
do one thing and let the mind think of doing something else. This
is wrong. It will make your mind become restless, agitated and not
happy. No matter how much you can achieve, you won’t feel any
happier. So try to be mindful and focus on only one thing.
If you use the body, just watch your body. Or you can use a man-
tra. You can repeat the name of the Buddha by mentally reciting
‘Buddha, Buddha’ or ‘buddho, buddho’. If you recite, then you cannot
think about other things. And when you don’t think, then you don’t
create any emotions.
Your emotions arise from your thinking. If you don’t think about
anything, then there will be no emotion. Your mind will be calm and
rational, rather than emotional.
So try to do it. Do it one day just to see what it’s like. If you can
do it, I think you will find something that you have never had
before—something good, something that you will like. It will be your
refuge in time of stress, of sadness, and of loneliness. You can use
meditation to get rid of all the sadness and loneliness. You can be
happy being alone.
Buddhism is really a system of teaching, a set of instructions on

how to lead your life in a way that will make you happy and not
have to rely on anything.
Layperson 2: I just like the peace.
— 262 —
Than Ajahn: Once you have peace, then you don’t need to have
anything. It doesn’t matter what condition your body might be in
because you don’t need to use the body. Just try to calm your mind.
Stop thinking. Then you will find peace and happiness.
You know that besides what you heard today, there are things that
you might not have heard or might not even believe: life does not
end with the death of your body. Your life continues because the
mind does not die with the body. The mind will go seek for a new
body. We call this ‘rebirth.’
Therefore, this is something that the Buddha had discovered, that

as long as you are reborn, then you would have to go through the
same problem that you are going through right now. Once you are
born, then you will have to get sick, get old, and die. The Buddha
said that if you do not want to be reborn, you have to stop the cause
of your rebirth. And the cause of your rebirth is your desire—your
desire to see, to hear, to feel, to touch things, or your desire to be
something or not to be something, or desire to be, desire not to be.
If you still have this desire within your mind when your body dies,
this desire will push your mind to go look for a new body. If you still
want to see, to hear, like if you want to watch movies and listen to
music. When you do not have this body, then you will have to go
look for a new body.
It is like when you have to use the phone. If you lose your phone
but still want to use it, then you will go buy a new phone, right?
You cannot say, “Ok, no more phone.” It is because you have the
desire to use the phone, so you have to get a new phone. If you
have the desire to use a car, when your old car breaks down or
you lose the old car, then you go buy a new car.
— 263 —
In the same way, the body is just like a car to the mind. The mind
wants to see, so it needs a body with eyes, ears, nose, and tongue
so that it can enjoy things it sees with the eyes or it hears with the
ears. This is what keeps you coming back to be reborn.
Being reborn is a little good but most of the time it’s bad. It’s because
when you are born you have to struggle to make a living. You also
have to struggle or go through the ageing process, sickness, and
death again—which is not something we like to do but we cannot
escape them. The only way to escape them, as the Buddha had
said, is not to be reborn. And the only way not to be reborn is to
get rid of your desire. And the way to get rid of your desire is to
become a monk. Then you can have all the time to stop your desire
by meditating.
When you meditate, you stop your desire. Then you don’t have to
come back and be born again. Rebirth is not good because there
is suffering associated with it; there is ageing, sickness, and death,
and separation from the things and people that you love. This will
always happen every time you are born.
Every time you are born, you will have to get old, get sick, and die,
and be separated from your loved ones. So if you don’t want to
have these things then you must not be reborn, and not come back.
The Buddha didn’t come back. But he is still alive, without a body.
The mind exists regardless of whether there is a body or not. So

this is another thing that you can think about. When you feel bad,
when you have to get sick, get old, and die, then there is a way
out. You can escape from ageing, sickness and death. You can
be happy while you are sick, while you are old, and while you die
if you have no desire.
— 264 —
Your desire is what makes you unhappy. Your desire not to get old
will make you unhappy when you get old. Your desire not to get
sick will make you unhappy when you get sick. Your desire not to
die will make you unhappy when you have to die. However, if you
can stop this desire then you will not be unhappy.
And the only way to stop these desires is to meditate. When you
meditate, you stop your thinking. When your thinking stops, your
desires also stop, and your sadness and unhappiness also
disappear.
So, meditation has many benefits: you don’t have to go to work to

make money, to buy things, to go on vacation, and to go to places.
No matter how much you do, how many places you’ve been to, after
you have been there, it doesn’t mean anything. You are still back
in the same place, not happy. You still want to have something to
do. No matter how much you have done, you will still want more.
So you should stop your want, your desires, by meditating. Once

you can stop your desire, then you don’t have to do anything.
You will be happier than going to places or doing things that you
want to do. Then you don’t have to go to work. When you have no
salary, you don’t have to pay taxes.
It’s good to be poor, you know. But we want to be rich. But we also
don’t want to pay taxes. That is what monks are: they are poor,
but they are happy. The Buddha used to be rich; he was a prince.
He found that he wasn’t happy when he was a prince. But when
he became a monk, he was happy because there was nothing for
him to worry [about].
When you have nothing, then you have nothing to lose. When you
have things, then you will lose everything that you have. If you have
ten million, you will lose it one day. When you die, you cannot take
— 265 —
it with you. It will go to somebody else. So you worry because you

don’t want to lose it.
Instead of being happy with having ten million, you become

unhappy. It’s because you have this ten million that you don’t want
to lose but have to lose. So it’s better to be poor—intentionally poor.
In order to be intentionally poor, you have to stop your desire to
become rich. Then you meditate.
When you meditate, you stop your desire to become rich. You be-
come happy because there is no desire to drive you crazy. It’s your
desire that keeps you going crazy. Nothing else. People are crazy
today because of their desire. They want to get this, they want to
get that, and no matter how much they get, it’s not enough—they
want more. So this drives them crazy.
So, try to be mindful and try to meditate. This will stop the world’s
problem. If everybody knows how to meditate, then nobody will
have to seek after anything. There is plenty of things to go around
but all we need is just food, shelter, clothing, and medicine to exist.
You don’t need anything more than that.
So, this is what Buddhism is about. It’s like you say “It’s free, it’s
open, and it’s up to you.” Whatever you do, you will have to pay
the consequence of your own action. If you do good, you will get
happiness. If you do bad, if you keep desiring, you will be unhappy—
you will never find happiness. So, do good, don’t hurt other people,
and stop your desire, then you will be happy all the time—without
having to have anything to make you happy. This is because you
have the peace of mind to make you happy.
End of Discussion.
— 266 —
24
October 21st, 2016
Than Ajahn: Do you have anything you want to ask me, about
Buddhism?
Layperson: Ajahn, I practiced so many years but sometimes my

mind is jumping like a monkey. Sometimes I focus on my breath,
in and out, sometimes it’s very difficult to concentrate. Do I have
to change my object, from my breath to others?
Than Ajahn: No, it’s not the object. It’s the mindfulness that you
don’t have. See, you need to have mindfulness. You must have,
‘sati,’ this is the word. Sati is like a rope. Your mind is like a monkey,
right? So, you need a strong rope to tie the monkey. But if you have
a very weak rope, the monkey can break the rope easily. So, right
now your rope is very weak, very small like a thread, you know.
It can be broken easily. So, you have to develop more sati, more
mindfulness. And to develop it, you have to be mindful all day long,
not just the time when you come to sit and meditate. You have to
start when you open your eyes when you get up in the morning. You
have to repeat, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ Regardless of what you
do, just keep repeating, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ While you’re
taking a shower, brushing your teeth, washing your face, getting
— 267 —
dressed, you have to keep, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ Don’t let

the mind go think about this and that. If you want to think about
something important, then you have to stop what you are doing and
then focus on your thinking. Don’t do two things at the same time.
Layperson: Sometimes I did that but as I went around, I ended

up doing too many things.
Than Ajahn: I know. So, you have to reprogram your life. You
have to slow down. Don’t do too many things at the same time.
Try to do one thing at one time. If you want to think, then stop
doing whatever you’re doing and think. Think of what you have
to do. Once you have finished thinking, then you come back and
do what you were doing, and keep, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ If
you have to think while you work such as doing a calculation, then
you stop ‘buddho’. If you have to do something, then you can stop
‘buddho’ while you’re working and concentrate on your work. Try to
do only one thing at one time, not two or three things at the same
time. Normally, while working, you tend to start thinking. “What
am I going to do? What will I do next?” This is not good because
it makes your mind run like a monkey. You want to tie the monkey
down or to make it sit still. So, you have to do one thing at a time.
Your mind and your body should be together.
Layperson: Sometimes it’s painful on my knees.
Than Ajahn: That’s normal. Don’t worry. When you sit and
meditate, you feel painful. That’s because your mind is not calm, you
see. So, if you have mindfulness, you can keep the mind repeating,
‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’ Then the pain will not bother you.
So, when you feel painful, just recite, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho.’
Don’t think about the pain even though it’s painful. It will not bother
you because if you have ‘buddho’, then your mind becomes
concentrated and then it doesn’t go and experience the pain.
— 268 —
24 | Laypeople from Indonesia, October 21st, 2016
Layperson: Sometimes I have the pain and it breaks my

concentration.
Than Ajahn: Because you don’t have strong mindfulness, not

enough mindfulness, sati, not strong enough. So, you have to try
to build it in your daily life. While you’re doing other things, you can
develop mindfulness all the time. But you just don’t know how to do
it, so you let your mind go here and there, running around all over
the place. So, from now on you say, ‘From now on, the mind will
have to be with ‘buddho’ or with the body. Whatever I am doing,
I will just be with the body. If I want to think about something, I’ll
stop the body and I’ll think about what I want to do. When I finish,
I’ll come back and do what I want to do.’ Try to do one thing at one
time. Focus. The mind should focus on what the body is doing
only and not two separate things. Normally, we let the body do
something and then the mind goes to do something else and only
comes back and forth.
Layperson: Sometimes we do so many things at the same time,

so that is why...
Than Ajahn: You have to convince yourself that whatever you

do in this world is not worth what you get from developing sati or
mindfulness. Mindfulness is more important than anything that you
do because whatever you do, when you die, you don’t take it with
you. But, if you develop mindfulness, you can take it with you. If you
have mindfulness or sati, you can control the mind and then you
can stop your mind from going around the cycle of rebirth. So, try to
prioritize your work. If you want to work, work only just to maintain
your body. Just work enough so you have enough food, enough
clothing, enough medicine, and enough place to live. That’s enough.
Don’t do any more work than that because it’s better to spend your
time meditating, developing mindfulness. That is because if you
have mindfulness, you can meditate and you’re building ‘Nibbāna’
— 269 —
inside your mind which is better than anything else since Nibbāna
will always be with you. You can always have it wherever you go.
But when your body dies, you cannot take anything with you. All
the money that you have earned, everything that you have bought
will go to somebody else. You cannot take anything with you. But
if you develop mindfulness, you can take mindfulness with you.
If you meditate and you have samādhi, you can take samādhi
with you. If you contemplate and you get wisdom, you can take
wisdom with you. And this will take you to Nibbāna, you see. So, try
to minimize your other (worldly) kind of work, try to maximize the
Dhamma work: more Dhamma and less other (worldly) work. That’s
the only way to go forward, to advance in the Dhamma practice.
If you’re still doing whatever you are used to doing and just give,
maybe one hour a day or half an hour a day in meditation, then you
will not move anywhere. You just do not go any farther than that.
Layperson: I do meditation every morning when I wake up, around

20-30 minutes but on the weekend I can meditate one and a half
hour, sometimes two hours.
Than Ajahn: Yes, on the weekend you should keep the eight
precepts and then practice all day, not just one or two hours.
Give up everything, entertainment, anything of that sort, and then
you will have the time to do more meditation, sitting and walking
meditation. After you sit and you feel tired, you get up and you
walk. When you walk, you have to be mindful. You have to
meditate while you walk. Do not just walk and think about everything.
When you walk, you should either focus on your walking or focus
on your ‘buddho, buddho’. After you walk and you feel tired from
walking, you come back and sit. Try to do this a lot. Then, you will
advance in your practice.
Layperson: Yes, Ajahn.
— 270 —
Than Ajahn: Or if you cannot practice by yourself, then you might

have to go to a meditation retreat. Have you heard of Goenka
meditation retreat? When you go there for 10 days, they force you
to meditate all day long. You have to be forced because if you are
not forced, then you don’t want to do it. You have to force yourself
to do something good because after you force yourself, then
eventually it will become easy and natural for you. Right now,
it’s hard. It’s not easy, it’s not natural because you’re not used to
it, see? So, when you start, you have to force yourself. To learn
anything, you have to force yourself. When you were young, your
parents forced you to go to school, right? You didn’t want to go
to school. If your parents didn’t force you to go to school, you
probably didn’t go to school. You wouldn’t learn anything. So, in
order to do something new, you have to force yourself to do it. If
you don’t force yourself, then you will not be able to do it. But after
you force yourself, eventually it will become easy and natural.
Then, you don’t have to force yourself. You’ll do it willingly, happily,
because you see the good result from what you do.
It’s the same thing with meditation. In the beginning, you have
to force yourself and after you have forced yourself and have
done it a few times, and you start to see the result, then you will
appreciate it, and will begin to like what you do. Then, you don’t have
to force yourself once you can see what you get from meditation.
So, when you don’t yet get the result, you have to force yourself.
You have to keep doing, doing until you see the result and [then]
you’ll be enthusiastic. Then, you want to do more. Like working.
If you’re working and you haven’t been paid any salary, you don’t
feel like working, right? But if you’re paid the salary after you work
for one month, the next month you don’t have to force yourself to
go to work. You want to go to work. It’s the same way.
Thus, when you start meditating, you have to force yourself to

develop mindfulness. Be mindful all the time, all day long. Whatever
— 271 —
you do, be mindful: either repeat ‘buddho’ or watch what you

do. Concentrate on what you do. Focus on what you do. Then,
don’t let your mind go someplace else. If you’re eating, just keep
focusing on your eating. If you’re writing something, just focus on
your writing only, not writing and thinking about some other things
at the same time. OK? Then, when you sit, you have samādhi
because you will sit and keep watching on your breathing only; it
will not go anywhere. If you keep watching on breathing only for
maybe five to ten minutes your mind will become calm. So, right
now what you lack is mindfulness, sati, not the meditation object.
Meditation objects are not important.
Layperson: So the problem is not the meditation object?
Than Ajahn: It’s your mindfulness. You can change all objects
and you still don’t achieve anything if you don’t have mindfulness
because your mind still keeps running here and there. So, you have
to stop it from going all over the place by focusing on what you do
or focusing on ‘buddho, buddho’, reciting ‘buddho, buddho’. Then,
your mind will be fixed, stationary. It will become still when you sit
and watch your breathing. OK, alright.
Layperson: Thank you, Ajahn.
Than Ajahn: Do you have anything else you want to ask?
Layperson: When I meditate, sometimes I feel uncomfortable

with my breathing.
Than Ajahn: Don’t react, just be aware. Just know that if your
breath is short, just know that it’s short. If your breath is long, just
know that it’s long. When your breath stops, just know that it stops.
Nothing will happen to you. You won’t die, you know.
Layperson: It’s very difficult to breathe.
— 272 —
Than Ajahn: If you’re not accustomed to breathing, maybe use a

mantra instead. Use ‘buddho’ instead. If you feel uncomfortable
with breathing, then you use ‘buddho’, just ‘buddho, buddho,
buddho, buddho’ and forget about the breath. Don’t worry about
the breath. Just keep repeating ‘buddho, buddho’. That’s what I
mean by the object, you see. Sometimes breathing is not suitable
for you, so you change to something more suitable. You can use
‘buddho’ instead of breathing.
Layperson: Sometimes when focusing on breathing, it’s like my

mind is ordering the breath to breathe in and out instead of just
watching (feeling) the in and out breath.
Than Ajahn: You should not force your breathing. Like right now
you’re not forcing your breathing, right? But when you watch your
breathing, you start to force it. You shouldn’t force it, just watch. If
you cannot watch, then you use a mantra, ‘buddho, buddho’ instead
because your mind is still active, perhaps too active; maybe, only
part of the time watching due to lacking in mindfulness. When you
have mindfulness, you’re watching, you see. Now, try to learn to
watch, watch your body from the time you get up, when you open
up your eyes, watch your body, watch what the body is doing
now. It’s lying down. It’s getting up. It’s walking. It’s going to take
a shower. It’s doing anything, just watch your body. This is what
we call, ‘mindfulness of the body.’ Once you know how to watch,
then when you sit down you can watch your breathing, but if you
cannot watch, then you have to use a mantra, use ‘buddho’. Try
it. Try ‘buddho, buddho’. If you cannot ‘buddho’, use chanting first.
Do you know how to chant, ‘Arahaṅ sammā, savākkhāto’? Chant
that first. Chanting for a while until your mind becomes calm. Then,
see if you can just ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’ or you can watch
your breathing. Sometimes when your mind becomes calm, then
you can watch your breathing.
— 273 —
Layperson: She said that she is afraid of ghosts and when she
thinks of ghosts while she’s alone practicing, she becomes afraid.
She cannot just forget it and refocus on her meditation again.
Than Ajahn: Well, you either have strong mindfulness to bring your
mind back or just keep repeating ‘buddho, buddho’ when you feel
afraid. Don’t think about what makes you feel afraid. Just stick with
‘buddho, buddho, buddho’. Don’t let your mind think about other
things. Then, your fear will disappear. Keep reciting ‘buddho’ when
you’re afraid of something. Just say, ‘buddho, buddho, buddho,
buddho.’ Or you can use what we call, ‘Vipassanā.’ Vipassanā says
whatever you do, one day you’re going to die anyway. So, if you’re
going to die now, nothing can stop it. So, OK, let it happen. When
you accept that, then you will not be afraid. Right now, you cannot
accept that yet. You don’t want to die, you see. But you have to die
one day anyway. We all have to die. This is the nature of the body.
This is paññā. You have to use paññā or vipassanā, which is: the
body is ‘rupaṅ’ and it is ‘anicca.’ ‘Anicca’ means impermanence.
It rises and ceases. The body will one day have to cease from
existence. If you can accept this truth, then you will not be afraid
of anything. If you cannot, then you have to use ‘buddho, buddho,
buddho, buddho’. Don’t think about anything. Just keep ‘buddho,
buddho, buddho’. OK?
Layperson: We’re afraid of ghosts.
Than Ajahn: Ghosts, yes. We are living ghosts. When these bodies
die, then we become ghosts ourselves, so nothing to be afraid of.
We are ghosts. When this body dies, then everybody is afraid of
you, you see. Anymore question?
Layperson: Ajahn, they want to ask about meditation. ‘When I

meditate, then my mind focuses on the breathing but sometimes
I know that I am out of breath or something like that. And then,
I feel uncomfortable for that. According to you, I should change
— 274 —
the meditation object. Because sometimes when I am breathing

normally like this, I can suddenly be out of breath.
Than Ajahn: Yes, because you still want to control your

breathing, you see. So, you should forget about your breathing
and use ‘buddho’ instead. Yes, the object of meditation. Just keep
reciting ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’ and don’t worry about the
breathing. Don’t pay attention to your breathing. Just concentrate
only on ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’.
Layperson: But actually Ajahn, in the past I used this breathing

object and then it was suitable for me, actually in the past, but now
sometimes I find it difficult to use this breathing object.
Than Ajahn: Well, just try ‘buddho’ instead. When you feel difficult,
find it’s not comfortable, then switch to ‘buddho’.
Layperson: And then switch to the breathing?
Than Ajahn: OK, after a while you feel comfortable enough,

come back to breathing. Then, you can come back to it again. You
can replace each other. It’s the same. You can make your mind
calm either way. Try it. Just try it. It’s no harm in trying, you know.
Everything is trial and error. You have to try it. If this way is not
good, then try another way. Try chanting if you cannot use ‘buddho’.
Then, try chanting for half an hour. Keep chanting, chanting. And
something will work for you, I think. OK? I’ll give you the anumodanā
one more time then.
Layperson: Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.
Than Ajahn: Have a safe journey home. OK.
End of Discussion.
— 275 —
Layperson from Australia
25
October 25th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Where are you from?
Layperson: Australia. I was at Wat Boonyawad for one month and

I come to stay at Wat Yan for one week.
Than Ajahn: I see. So how long have you been a Mae Chee?
Layperson: I am not a Mae Chee. I just have this dress. I have a

lot to learn.
Than Ajahn: Have you been ordained? You just want to put on
a dress and shave off your head. It doesn’t matter what you are
called. This is just the shell. The real thing is inside you—in your
thoughts, in your behavior, and in your understanding. So. Have
you found any peace from your practice?
Layperson: I am not sure. It seems like sometimes yes and other

times no.
Than Ajahn: Still up and down.
— 277 —
Layperson: Up and down. It goes between sometimes being very

peaceful and other times I feel frustrated.
Than Ajahn: Have you noticed what made you peaceful and what
made you restless?
Layperson: The mind.
Than Ajahn: I know it’s the mind that is peaceful or restless. But
what makes it peaceful or restless?
Layperson: When it comes into contact with things and thoughts.

When it has aversion or something, it reacts.
Than Ajahn: The mind is like a dog. It behaves well if you have a
leash on. If you let the leash off, then the dog would just misbehave.
Layperson: It doesn’t want to be on the leash.
Than Ajahn: And do you know what the leash is, the leash of the
mind? We call it mindfulness, sati. If you have mindfulness, then
you put the leash on the dog, on the mind. And if you have the leash
on, then the mind will become peaceful. Although sometimes it will
fight—it will resist your leash, your control. This is when it is difficult
because it is like a tug of war between two parties. The mind wants
to go the way of the kilesas and you want to bring your mind into
the way of Dhamma. So this is when the stress arises from the
practice. But if you persevere, if you endure, and eventually you
conquer the kilesas, then the mind will become peaceful.
Layperson: It is very difficult for me as a westerner because I

have a lot of thoughts that I should be doing something. Like it is
very counter-cultural to do nothing, to sit and recite, and I find that
very difficult.
— 278 —
25 | Layperson from Australia, October 25th, 2016
Than Ajahn: But you have to use reason to teach your mind that
to do things is to create problems. Doing nothing is to get rid of
problems. I mean problem here inside, not outside. The problem,
the stress, the restlessness, the agitation, and the constant craving
and desiring for things are harmful to your mind. It makes your mind
feel discontent—never really happy. Whatever you do can give you
only a temporary satisfaction. But then another, new craving will
arise and then you will become restless and agitated again.
So, the goal of Buddhist practice is to counter your craving, your

desire to do things, to be somebody or something. To acquire, to
seek happiness from the external things like sounds and sights
through your sense doors—like your eyes, ears, nose, tongue,
and body—these are all temporary happiness. And it becomes
addictive—you have to keep having them. When you cannot have
them, then you become sad or dissatisfied.
So, these are the things that you have to eliminate: your desire—
your craving for things outside of your mind. We do this by using
mindfulness, meditation, and the right knowledge, or what we call
wisdom—to see things as they really are. To see that everything
that we seek—everything we think will make us happy—is really
the opposite. Everything that makes us happy and is good for us
usually turns out to be bad and makes us sad, because everything
comes and goes. They don’t stay with us all the time. When we
have them, we are happy. But when we lose them, we become
sad. So, this is what you have to teach your mind and restrain your
mind from going after things outside of your mind.
Layperson: Do you think it’s possible to live a working life and

practice?
Than Ajahn: It is possible but it is just like doing two opposite

things at the same time. Working, you are seeking things outside
— 279 —
as your refuge. But when you meditate, you seek inside for your
refuge. So you will be going in and out, back and forth, so you are
not really moving forward one way or the other.
If you work, it means you are depending on things outside of yourself

for comfort—for happiness. When you meditate, you are seeking
something inside, not outside. So you are pulling back and forth,
in and out. When you go to work, you send your mind outward.
When you meditate, you are pulling your mind inside. So then you
will never really go anywhere—just go out and come back in.
But if you stop working and dedicate all your time to the meditation
practice, then you are pulling your mind inside all the time. And if
you succeed and can overcome your desire to pull outside, then
your mind will become peaceful and happy. Then you really don’t
need to work. The reason why people work is twofold really. One
is to maintain life—keeping the body going. The other is to find
happiness from the resources that you have acquired, like money.
When you have money, then you can buy things or go to places
that will make you happy temporarily. But you have to keep buying
things and going to places in order to maintain this kind of
happiness. And one day you will have to run into difficulties, because
your body that you used to acquire this kind of happiness will not
be able to do what you used it to do. When you get old or when
you get sick, then you will not be able to acquire the happiness that
you used to acquire. Or if you run out of resources like money, you
cannot acquire the happiness.
So, there is a downside to this kind of happiness. But if you choose

the other kind of happiness, the happiness that you get from
meditating, calming the mind, stopping the mind from desiring or
craving, then you can always have it with you, and you don’t need
to have anything to make it happen.
— 280 —
You don’t need the body to make it happen. You don’t need money.
You don’t need things, people, or places to make you happy. You can
be happy anywhere, anytime, all the time, even if the body becomes
incapacitated or sick or dies. Your mind can still be peaceful and
happy, because the mind and the body are two separate entities.
Due to the mind’s delusion, it relies on the body as a means to

bring happiness, which the body can only provide temporarily.
When the body comes to the point where it can no longer serve
you, then you have no happiness. So, you have to choose what
kind of happiness you want—the physical kind or the mental kind. If
you want the mental kind, then you should dedicate you time to its
development. If you are kind of still torn between two things, then
you just have to go back and forth. You might not achieve much
from your meditation practice because you keep sending your mind
towards the body and things that the body can acquire for you.
That is why, if you do this, you will not advance in your practice. It is
like walking three steps forward and walking three steps backward,
so you are more or less in the same place. You have to turn your
back on one thing and face the other thing and keep moving. Look
at the Buddha as an example, and all his noble disciples; they all
abandoned or relinquished the physical kind of happiness.
The Buddha used to be a prince surrounded by all forms of physical

happiness. But he knew that it was not lasting. When he went
outside of the palace and he saw an old person, a sick person,
a dead person, and a monk, he saw the future of his body. If
he remained in the palace, eventually his body will become old,
become sick, and die. And then he will not be able to gain any more
happiness through the body.
But then he saw a monk who sought the other kind of happiness,
so he had a choice to make. And one night he decided that he was
— 281 —
to try the other kind of happiness—the happiness from meditating,

from renunciation of his physical kind of happiness. And after he
struggled for six years, he became enlightened. He found the secret
of what caused him to be forever restless and craving. And it was
his desire, which had been embedded in the mind for a very long
time. This was the thing that he had to get rid of in order to have
peace of mind permanently.
At first, he knew how to have peace of mind temporarily. Like when

you meditate and your mind becomes still and stops thinking, your
desire also stops. And then you experience a peaceful feeling. But
after he came out of meditation, his mind started to think, and he
started to see and hear things. His desire came up again, especially
the desire not to get sick, get old, and die. This caused him to be
unhappy, and he didn’t know how to solve this problem.
He sought advice from different teachers and nobody knew what

the cause of this unhappiness was. Then eventually, through some
trial and error, he discovered that his bad feeling—his sadness or
unhappiness—arose when he thought about himself getting old,
getting sick, and dying. It was because of his desire not to get
sick, get old, and die. So he abandoned that desire and accepted
the truth about the body. The body is going to get old, going to get
sick, and die. If you resist this—if you don’t want to accept this
truth—you will always be unhappy because you have this desire
not to get old, get sick and die. That is what makes you unhappy,
makes you sad. But when he stopped this desire not to get sick,
get old, or die, his mind became peaceful and at ease, because
he saw the truth about the body—that it was temporary, it rose
and ceased. If you only want it to rise and not cease, then you will
become sad and unhappy.
So, he discovered the Four Noble Truths. The causes that make
the mind unhappy are the three desires or cravings: the desire for
— 282 —
sensual gratification, the desire to become, and the desire not to

become. These are the causes of his mental suffering or
unhappiness.
And he also discovered that it is possible to get rid of this stress

or suffering by using the truth. And the truth that he discovered is
that everything that he clings to or possesses or wants to have
with him, cannot be with him all the time. Everything is
impermanent. Everything will come and then it will go, it will rise
and cease, such as the body. The body, once it is born, will have
to get old, get sick, and die.
There is nobody who can stop this process. If you resist and don’t
accept this truth—you want the body to keep going on and on
without ever getting old, getting sick, or dying—then you will be
disappointed and very unhappy. But if you accept the truth that
this is the way of the body, and you let it get old, get sick, and die
naturally, then your mind becomes detached from the body. And it
will not be affected by the process of the body.
So, you have to teach your mind that whatever the mind has
right now, such as your body, possessions, and people—your
father, your mother, your friend, your relatives—anything that you
have that you consider to be your possession is not your real
possession, because one day you will have to lose them all. And if
you are not willing to lose them, you will be sad. But if you are willing
to let them go, then you will not be sad. And the reason whether you
can let them go or not is whether you have the strength to let go.
The strength that will make you let go is mindfulness. You have to
have mindfulness to stop your mind from clinging to, from thinking
about things. Because when you think, your desire comes up
with your thinking. If you stop thinking then your mind will stop
desiring—stop craving. So you need the strength to let go and
— 283 —
the right knowledge to teach the mind to see the cost and benefit
from your clinging or from your letting go. If you cling, you pay
the price—you suffer. If you let go, you become peaceful and
undisturbed by what you have to lose.
So, this is the process of training the mind: to stop being attached
and to stop clinging to things. Because when you cling or become
attached to things, it causes you suffering. It causes you mental
pain. But if you can let go—because things will have to go, they will
not be with you all the time—then you will not be sad or unhappy.
You have to train your mind to be still and face things in a calm way.
Just know that things come. Just know that things go. If you have no
clinging, no attachment, then there is no emotional feeling involved.
Your mind will just become calm as if nothing has happened. Like
with people you don’t know: if they should die, it doesn’t bother you
because you don’t cling to them. But with people you know, you
cling to them. When something happens to them, you become sad.
So, our sadness or our mental suffering arises from our attachment
or our desire to have things that we are attached to, to always
be with us and to always be good and well. We want things to go
according to our desire, not to their nature. But the nature of things
is that everything will rise and cease. Everything comes and goes,
so you have to always remind yourself of this. Teach your mind all
the time not to cling to anything, because when you cling to them
and when they have to leave you, you will become sad. But if you
know ahead of time that they are going to leave you and you don’t
cling to them, when they leave you, you won’t feel sad.
That is the goal of our Buddhist practice. It is to teach the mind, to

train the mind to exist without clinging and hanging on to things. In
order not to cling to them, you must not rely on them to make you
happy. The reason why we cling to them is they make us happy.
— 284 —
And we don’t have another kind of happiness. If we have the new

kind of happiness, the one we can acquire from our meditation
practice, then we don’t need to have the other kind of happiness—
the happiness that relies on other people and things to make us
happy.
This is the purpose of meditation. You meditate to calm your mind.

When your mind becomes calm and peaceful, you become happy.
And when you are happy, then you don’t need anything to make you
happy. But your mind still has this old habit of relying on other things
and other people to make you happy. So, when your mind desires
to cling to people or things, you have to use this right knowledge
to teach the mind that the things that you cling to and depend on
to make you happy are temporary. And you cannot always rely on
them. When you cannot rely on them, then your happiness will
disappear and your sadness will appear instead. But if you don’t
rely on them, you can rely on the happiness that you can acquire
from your meditation practice. Then you can let go of things and
people; when they go away, they leave you, you will not be hurt
by their departure.
So, you have to try to develop a lot of mindfulness, because

mindfulness is the key to your success in meditation. You want to
stop your mind from thinking. You want to concentrate your mind
on one object in order to prevent your mind from thinking, because
it agitates the mind, making it restless and unhappy. But when the
mind stops thinking, the mind will become peaceful and happy.
And the key to this is mindfulness. So, you should try to develop
mindfulness all the time, from the time you get up to the time you
go to sleep.
Don’t let the dog loose, always put a leash on the dog. Put a leash
on the mind. Don’t let the mind think aimlessly. Because when the
mind thinks, it starts to create desire and craving. And when there
— 285 —
is desire or craving, the mind becomes discontent. It feels like it

needs something to make it happy. But if you can stop the thinking,
then your desire or craving will stop and you will feel a sense of
contentment.
So, this is the first step to your practice—to constantly maintain

your mindfulness. Focus on one object. You can use your body as
your object of your mindfulness. Just watch every movement and
every action of your body. Don’t let your mind go elsewhere. Tie
your mind to the body. If you can do this, then your mind cannot
think about other things. It can only think about what the body is
doing at the moment. And this will make the mind still.
When you sit down and your body becomes still, you can focus
your mind on one object such as your breathing or your breath.
If you can keep focusing on your breath without thinking about
anything, your mind will eventually converge to become singular—
become one, become peaceful and still, and become very happy.
Then you know that this is what you want. This is what you want
to maintain—to keep this happiness after you withdraw from your
meditation practice, by continuing with your mindfulness or by using
wisdom or the right knowledge to teach your mind not to go after
things or people, because that will only agitate the mind, making
it discontent and you will not be truly happy.
You have to stop going back to your old ways of finding happiness
and try to stay on course, to stay with your mindfulness and your
meditation. You are using the right knowledge to teach your mind
not to go after your cravings because it will only create more
discontent and sadness.
This is basically what you have to do in your practice. In order

to be able to achieve complete success, you have to do it all
the time—from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep.
— 286 —
Because your desires also work 24 hours a day. When you get up,
your desire will start working. So, you have to fight and counter
your desire by developing mindfulness, by sitting in meditation,
and by constantly teaching your mind not to go after your desire
or your craving, because it will only make you more discontent and
unhappier. You might be happy just temporarily when you can get
what you want. But then after a while, you will have a new desire,
new craving, and you will have to go and get more—this will be
endless. And then one day, you will come to the time when you
cannot get what you want, then you will have just sadness. But, if
you can maintain mindfulness, still your mind, and make your mind
peaceful and calm, you can have happiness without having to have
anything to make you happy.
This is a better kind of happiness—the happiness with nothing. To

have nothing is to have real happiness. The real happiness is to be
without anything—to have nothing. To have things will make you
unhappy afterwards, because whatever you have will change. They
will make you unhappy because they either leave you or change.
They used to be nice and then they change to be bad, for instance.
So, it is not good to rely on other things or people to make you

happy because they are not reliable. The only thing that you can
rely on is your ability to control your thoughts and your ability to
control your cravings and your desire. Once you can do this, then
your mind will always be content and happy. And you don’t need
to depend on anything.
You don’t need to depend on your body to make you content and
happy. All you need is mindfulness, samādhi and paññā. These
are the three things that you need to develop in order to create
long lasting happiness. This is what the Buddha had, and he still
has it right now. His real self did not disappear. His mind still exists.
He can exist without having to have a body, unlike us. We have
— 287 —
to exist with a body because we need the body to go and acquire

things to make us happy. Because we don’t have any happiness
inside ourselves, we have to seek happiness outside of ourselves.
But the Buddha has established or developed the happiness
within himself, so he doesn’t need to have a body to go and acquire
happiness for him.
This is the only difference between us and the Buddha and his
noble disciples. We are still seeking happiness, and we will keep
seeking because the kind of happiness that we seek is temporary.
When the body dies, we lose everything. We lose all the happiness
that we have acquired in this lifetime Then we have to come back
and be reborn again in order to get new and more happiness. This
is what the rebirth process is about. It’s about coming back and
seeking more happiness. And Nibbāna is the opposite. It is the stop
of the mind from seeking happiness from outside by developing
the happiness within the mind itself.
Once the mind has happiness, then it doesn’t need to have the
body to go seek other kinds of happiness. So they don’t have to
have a body to make them happy. We still need to have the body
to make us happy, because we need the five internal organs to be
able to acquire things, to see and to hear things, in order to make
us happy.
So, if you rely on the body, then you have to keep coming back
and get a new body, because this body will only last for so many
years: not more than 100 years for most people. Then this body
will die and we have to come back and get another body. We have
been doing this for a very long time. The Buddha said [that] if we
collect the amount of tears that we shed in each life, it is more than
the water in the ocean. So you can just imagine how long we have
been coming back to be reborn. And we will still keep on going like
this until we come across the teaching of the Buddha that teaches
— 288 —
us to reverse the process—to come inside, not to go outside, by

meditating, by using mindfulness. When you have mindfulness,
you are pulling your mind inside. And when you sit still and use
mindfulness, your mind will become singular, become one, become
peaceful, and become very happy. Then you know where true
happiness is. Lasting happiness is in your mind; it’s in yourself by
meditating—by getting rid of your desire and your craving.
Have you read my books in English? I have a couple of books.
Layperson: I have a question about Bodhisattva.
Than Ajahn: Do you mean the future Buddha?
Actually. Bodhisattvas are those who develop the practice by

themselves because they happened to live in the time and place
where there was no teaching of the Buddha. Like our Buddha,
he had to develop his practice on his own because there was no
Buddha’s teaching around at that time. But once there is the
Buddha’s teaching, then it is pointless to become a bodhisattva
because you already have somebody telling you the way, which is
a lot easier than looking for the way yourself. Like many teachers,
from what I heard—even Ajahn Mun, I think he used to be a
Bodhisattva because there was nobody to teach him. But in this
lifetime, he came across the teachings of the Buddha. So he
said, ”What is the point of looking for the way yourself when there
is already somebody telling you how to get there?” So then he
embraced the teachings of the Buddha fully and then he became
a normal disciple
Layperson: Sometimes I feel guilty that this path is kind of not

helping others as much as it could be.
— 289 —
Than Ajahn: Helping others is just a part of the process of practice.

You want to have metta, goodwill toward other people in order to
develop other qualities that will make you become enlightened. If
you have goodwill, then you can practice charity. You can give and
share things, and you can practice silā. But if you have no goodwill,
no metta, then you don’t want to share things with other people.
And you want to hurt other people instead, then you cannot keep
the silā. So these are just the qualities that you need to develop.
But they are not the only qualities that you have to develop.
The most important quality in all these ten perfections is wisdom,

which, if you don’t have, it is not easy to get. It is a lot easier if
somebody else who has it gives it to you. Look at all the noble
disciples. There are many of them that without the teachings of
the Buddha, will still be a Bodhisattva looking for the Four Noble
Truths. Once the Buddha had found the Four Noble Truths and gave
it to these people who practiced, they became enlightened right
away. So it doesn’t matter which path leads you to enlightenment,
whether it is a bodhisattva path or whether it is a noble disciple
path—it leads you to the same destination. That is Nibbāna, the
cessation of all forms of suffering.
Let me give you an example. You have a choice: you can home
school or you can go to school. Which is better, which is easier? If
you home school and you have nobody to teach you, are you going
to learn everything that you can learn from school? So you go to
school. If you have to teach yourself or be taught by somebody
else, which is easier? So this is the difference between a noble
disciple and a bodhisattva, which is the same person who tries to
reach Nibbāna by whichever way possible.
If there is nobody to teach you, then you have to find the way
yourself. But once there is somebody who can tell you the way,
why bother looking for the way yourself? That’s it. It takes much
— 290 —
longer to look for the path yourself when there is already a path
established for you to walk. So, right now, in this lifetime, we
already have a path laid out for us. Why deny it and go look for a
path yourself? It is the same path, whether you find it yourself or
somebody else finds it for you. There is no difference. It takes you
to the same destination. The difference is only the time it takes to
find this path. If you have to find this path yourself, it is going to
take you another one million lifetimes, let’s put it that way. So do
you want to go through that one million lifetime before you find the
path yourself, or take the path that is already here and takes you
to the same place where you want to go?
See, it is the situation that forces you to become a bodhisattva or

a noble disciple. If you happen to be born in the time when there
is no teaching of the Buddha, then you have to be a Bodhisattva.
You have to look for the path yourself. But if you happen to be born
in the lifetime when there is a teaching of the Buddha, then you
don’t need to look for the path. The path is already there, waiting
for you. All you have to do is just walk on that path.
Maybe this is part of your defilements, or your kilesas. They try to

block you from entering that path by pointing you to go on a higher
noble path. People think that if they go the bodhisattva path, it is
much higher, nobler than going the noble disciple path. They are
the same path, and they take you to the same destination—to the
cessation of suffering and cessation of the rounds of rebirth. You
reach the same place.
So the Buddha guaranteed: if you practice according to what he

taught in the Satipatthāna sutta, you are guaranteed to become
enlightened either in seven days, seven months, or seven years.
So you have this already waiting for you! Either seven days, seven
months or seven years, you will become enlightened. Or you can
go seven million lifetimes. You can choose whichever path you
want to go.
— 291 —
Your defilement will make you feel that if you can achieve it
yourself, you are much better. But the result is the same, whether
you find the path yourself or you walk the path that someone already
has found for you. You get to the same destination. Like you can
choose between walking and getting on the bus. If you want to go
to Bangkok by yourself, you can walk or get on a bus, which will
take you to the same place. These are the two ways of getting to
Bangkok, same as two ways of getting to Nibbāna. Find the path
yourself or walk the path that has already been established for you.
Once you get there, once you become a noble disciple, you can
do a lot more than what a bodhisattva can do. A bodhisattva can
only help people physically, but he cannot help them mentally,
because he cannot even help and release himself from the mental
suffering. How could he help other people from the release of this
mental suffering? But once you have become enlightened through
the process of being a noble disciple, then you can still help people
much better than a bodhisattva can. You can help teach people
to become enlightened—to be liberated from the mental suffering.
Look at all the Ajahns, look at all the monasteries that we have
nowadays: they come from Ajahn Mun basically. Ajahn Mun is the
forerunner of all the other Ajahns living today. Most of them study
from the Ajahns who went to study with Ajahn Mun, including Ajahn
Chah. Even though he didn’t practice with Ajahn Mun, he followed
his instruction.
Once you become enlightened you can do a lot more than what a
bodhisattva can. So right now, forget about helping other people.
Concentrate on helping yourself. But your defilement, your kilesas
want to deflect you away from the path, so you can waste your
time. Understand? So right now, go and intensify your practice,
forget about everybody.
Layperson: Where shall I go?
— 292 —
Than Ajahn: Find a place somewhere. When there is a will, there

is a place. You will find one. Just keep searching. Just keep asking
people and go check the place. You need two things. You need a
good place and you need a good teacher to guide you.
Layperson: You are a good teacher.
Than Ajahn: Well, you can use me as a teacher but I don’t have a
place for you. So you might have to go look for a place. Nowadays,
people can connect through Facebook and all these multimedia
things. And you can read my books and if you have any doubt or
questions, you can always come to see me. So you don’t need to
live with me to be able to practice successfully.
So, right now, what you need is to find a quiet place that allows
you to do practice full time.
I was fortunate to find Luangta Mahā Boowa because he

encouraged monks to just meditate and not to do any other
extracurricular activities. He didn’t allow us to go take invitation to
go outside to people’s homes to chant, to eat, and this stuff. He
said it was a waste of time. He wanted us to maintain mindfulness,
sit in samādhi and develop wisdom.
So, try to find a place where they encourage you to do this sort of
activity. There are many Ajahns who studied with Luangta Mahā
Boowa, with Ajahn Chah, or other disciples of Ajahn Mun that you
can go look around for. Just keep asking and you will find a place
eventually. Have you heard of Ajahn Nippon?
Layperson: No
Than Ajahn: I heard Ajahn Nippon also has a few westerners

going to his monastery. His monastery is in Loei, near to the
— 293 —
Laotian border, next to Nongkhai. It is supposed to be quite quiet

and secluded. So, if you start looking around, I am pretty sure you
will eventually find a place. You need seclusion. You need the time
to do your practice. Keep all the external work to the minimum.
You have to do some work like sweeping, washing, and maybe
for the ladies do some cooking and things like that. But it is only
for a limited length of time, not all day long or anything like that.
Once you have finished your chores then you will have time to
practice. The problem is once you have the time, you don’t have
the energy to do it.
Layperson: I find sometimes my mind is drowsy, I just sit and I

don’t even know if I was awake or not.
Than Ajahn: Sometimes you need some drastic measures to

overcome this drowsiness. We were taught to use fasting as the
means. Sometimes you just have to skip the meal altogether, then
you will not be drowsy. Or otherwise you will have to go and stay
in a very scary place, like go sit in the cemetery or some places
like that, then you will become wide awake.
Layperson: And sometimes my mind just gets bored and restless.
Than Ajahn: You can use contemplation of death, for instance. It

will stop you from being bored or from being restless. You just ask
yourself, “What am I being restless for? You are restless to die?”
That’s your destination. So, when you start to think of death, it might
calm you down. And it might make you want to do more practice,
because you know that you have very little and limited amount of
time to practice—you don’t want to waste it. Or sometimes you
have to think of the Buddha when you have no energy to practice.
You have to think of the Buddha and his noble disciples—how they
practiced and how they fought with their difficulties, then you will
get the encouragement to follow the way that they did.
— 294 —
Layperson: What about talking to people?
Than Ajahn: Keep it to the minimum—not at all if possible. In the

forest temple where I stayed when the monks came together and
did chores, we were not allowed to talk to each other. We were
supposed to maintain mindfulness and only talked when it was
absolutely necessary. If it was not necessary, then we didn’t talk.
And we had Luangta to keep watch. When we started to talk, he
would come around. When we saw his face, we knew we had to
stop and dispersed. He didn’t want us to congregate. He wanted
us to disperse and to be in our place to practice. And if we do not
do this, he will ask us to leave his temple, his monastery. He will
say this is not the place for us, “If you want to come and socialize,
then this is not the place. This is the place to meditate, to seek
seclusion.”
Layperson: Is it normally very difficult?
Than Ajahn: It depends on each individual. If you have strong

mindfulness, then it is not difficult. If you have weak mindfulness,
your mind would tend to like to go out to talk and to do things. Then
it will be difficult because you cannot do what you want to do. But
if you are mindful and keep to yourself, then you will find that it is
very easy. In fact, it’s good, it’s helpful because nobody comes and
bothers you, because everybody is supposed to keep to themselves.
But if you don’t have a strict teacher and the teacher allows you
to go and congregate and socialize, then you are just wasting the
time talking, drinking tea, and eating chocolate or whatever. Then
you are not getting anywhere. So try to go find a quiet monastery
where there is not much activity going on except meditation.
Layperson: In a normal day-to-day life, I am doing things like

practicing body awareness or breath. Which should I practice, body
awareness or breath?
— 295 —
Than Ajahn: You can choose anything. It depends on the situation

also. If you are walking or doing something—an activity, then I think
body should be a better point to develop your mindfulness because
watching your breath would be very difficult.
Layperson: What about paññā? I think it’s quite superficial, when

I am doing things.
Than Ajahn: It is not effective. It is good but you are doing it at

the wrong time. Right now, you are in the level where you should
develop mindfulness and samādhi first, because without samādhi,
your paññā will be like a knife that hasn’t been sharpened.
Layperson: Even when I am sitting and meditating, should I just

do samādhi?
Than Ajahn: Right, try to keep it calm for as long as possible. Try
to stop your mental activity because this will give you the strength
to support your paññā. The goal is to stop the mind. Using paññā
will permanently stop your mind from craving and from desiring.
Samādhi can only stop your mind from craving and desiring
temporarily. Once it comes out, when it starts to think and see
things, your craving and desire will come up again. And if you want
to get rid of this permanently, then you need paññā to tell you that
by going after your craving, you are going after suffering—not going
after happiness. Once you realize with paññā, then you will stop
going after your craving and your desire.
Layperson: So, my mind has to be completely calm before I can

practice paññā?
Than Ajahn: Yes, if that is possible, because then you can use
this calm to resist your desire. If your mind is not calm, then your
desire becomes stronger and` stronger. Then eventually you might
— 296 —
not be able to contain it. And then you will end up going after your
desire—go to have coffee or tea or something like that. And after
having it, you will say, “Oh, I failed the test. My goal is not to rely
on anything to make me happy. My goal is not to rely on drinking
coffee, drinking tea or having something to bite, to nibble to make
me happy. My goal is to remain calm and peaceful and not desiring
or craving.” So wisdom, or paññā, will be useful after you have the
ability to resist your desire. If you don’t have the ability, then once
your desire comes up, you cannot stop it. You will fall into pieces.
So you need a calm mind to resist your desire.
Layperson: There was one time, in particular, when I came out of

my body and felt like I was going into different realms.
Than Ajahn: That is not good either. That is a wrong way of

meditating. The right way is to bring the mind inside to the “knower”,
to “just merely know”, and to be calm and have equanimity.
Layperson: How long do we stay in the “knowing”?
Than Ajahn: For as long as possible.
Layperson: And then once it comes out?
Than Ajahn: Try to maintain it. Try to maintain it with mindfulness

if you can. And when craving arises to disturb this state of mind, try
to use paññā to get rid of your craving by saying that the things you
crave for is harmful to your mind—like having a cup of coffee, or
going to watch a video or something like that. It is just a temporary
kind of happiness, which will make you become more addictive
to them. You don’t want to depend on these things to make you
happy. You want to get rid of your dependence on these things.
They are like alcohol or drugs. So you have to look at them like
alcohol or drugs. You should kick the habit—you should not rely on
— 297 —
them to make you happy. Once you see that it is like an addiction
then you can stop.
Layperson: I have a chocolate addiction. I also find it gives me

energy.
Than Ajahn: Well, you should use it like a medicine at the prop-
er time, not when you desire it. You set a time. Like in the forest
monastery, we have a [set] time for tea—once a day. So that is
the time for you to recharge your energy. You can have your sugar
drinks or whatever you want, but only once, not all the time. You can
drink this thing all day long; it is not against the rules. But it is still
not the right way to do it. The right way is, if you want to energize
your body, take it like a medicine. Take it at the proper time. Usually
we are allowed to have this once a day. We can have it after our
sweeping or before we sweep; we come and have our coffee, tea,
chocolate, or whatever that is available.
Layperson: What should I be mindful of when I am eating?
Than Ajahn: The main thing is whether you like it or not. If you
like it, then you should stop, because you are not taking it as a
medicine. You are taking it as pleasure to satisfy your desire and
your craving. But your kilesas will justify it by saying that it is for
your body. But in fact, it is not for your body because you don’t
really need it.
Actually, when I first went to Luangta Mahā Boowa, he didn’t have

any afternoon drinks. Once the meal, and that’s it. The rest of the
time, just drink water. It is ok. When there is nothing, then your
mind doesn’t crave for it. You don’t feel you need it. But when you
have it, every time you look at it you try to find the justification to
take it. The body will be your justification. “The body is weak. If I
take some chocolate, then I will be energized.” But it’s just a bar
— 298 —
of chocolate, what can it do for your body, really? But if you still
need it and you feel you cannot get rid of it then just try to contain
it. Try to have it just maybe once a day, and then see when you
don’t have any chocolate, how do you feel? You will feel terrible,
right? So then you have to go buy more chocolate.
The true way is to have chocolate when you have it. But when you
don’t have it, then you shouldn’t go buy it. Let this thing come by
way of charity. Today if the lady doesn’t bring it, then we don’t have
it. It is ok then, you are not craving for it. You take it because it is
available. But if it’s not available, so what? You should be able to
exist without it.
So the best way is to exist without it for now. Make it become a

habit, so that you can either take it or leave it. Right now, you cannot
take it or leave it. You always have to take it. Right?
Layperson: For the last month and a half in the rains, I had none.
Than Ajahn: Because there was none to have, right? So why

don’t you just continue on? You are free already. You are free from
chocolate. Why do you want to become shackled to chocolate?
You are fine. You will feel better without having to rely on
chocolate, because when you run out of chocolate, you will feel
bad. So every time you want some chocolate, go meditate instead.
Go sit down and concentrate on your breath and pretend you are
having chocolate. And when your mind becomes calm and you
forget about the chocolate, you’ll feel content and happy. Eventually
you don’t have to rely on having chocolate to make you feel good.
Layperson: When I have just one meal a day, I feel nauseous

in the evening. I like to do exercise every second day and I don’t
have the energy to do it.
— 299 —
Than Ajahn: Don’t worry so much about your physical part. Worry
more about your mental part because no matter how well you look
after your physical part, eventually it is going to collapse. It is going
to die anyway. But your mind doesn’t die. Your mind exists forever.
But right now it is very weak; you need to exercise the mind more
than exercise the body. And the way to exercise the mind is to
meditate. To meditate is the way to build energy and strength for
the mind. Try to sit as much as possible. If you cannot sit, get up
and walk, and continue on with your mindfulness. You walk until you
feel tired and then you come back and sit, and meditate some more.
Just keep on doing these two things, walking or sitting, if you don’t
have to do any other activities. But if you have to do other activities
then you should be mindful of your activity—mindful of your body.
Whatever you do just watch that activity. Don’t let your mind think
about chocolate or coffee or anything or people.
Layperson: Sometimes I have this kind of worry; it seems to be

that after I have been meditating in a monastery for a while, my
mind doesn’t pay too much attention to my wallet or keys. It is sort
of slow. It lacks mindfulness but I don’t know what that is.
Than Ajahn: Well, actually if you are mindful, I think you will be more
mindful of your possession. So it is not because of mindfulness. I
think it is more because of the lack of mindfulness that makes you
become not caring about what you have.
Layperson: I think it is because I am thinking too much, too early

paññā, sort of intellectualizing.
Than Ajahn: Try not to intellectualize right now. Try to stop your
thought first. Try to bring equanimity to your mind (foster it in
your mind). Once you have happiness then you can think about
things properly. Right now, you cannot think about things properly
— 300 —
because you don’t have happiness inside. So you want to rely

on the happiness outside. Even though the happiness outside is
harmful for your mind, you will still think it is not harmful. Then you
cannot let go of the happiness outside. But once you have the
happiness inside, then you will see that the happiness outside is
really harmful, because it is not permanent. When you can no longer
have it, then you become sad.
You can see this if you have a calm and happy mind. If your mind
is not calm and happy, then you’ll think that [happiness outside]
is better than to have nothing, even though the future might be
sad, but right now I want to be happy. That is why people grab at
things to make them happy and don’t want to think about the future,
because they know what the future will bring, and they don’t want
to think about it.
We deny the truth. But when the future comes, when you lose
someone you love, then you start to see the result of your
foolishness in going after something that makes you unhappy. So
it is better to be forewarned. You have to keep warning yourself—
don’t go that path. It will lead you to a sad ending, let’s put it that
way. It might be a happy start but it will always end up sad in the
end, because everything eventually will have to come to cessation.
There is a saying, the party doesn’t go on forever. Understand?

You can have as many parties as you want but then they will have
to end one day. And when the party ends, then all the happiness
that you have acquired from the party will all disappear. And what
comes into play is the sadness. So you have to keep reminding
yourself that’s not the path you want to go. You want to come inside.
You want to remain calm, peaceful, and happy. [By] not relying on
anything to make you happy, then you will never be sad.
— 301 —
So the first thing is: try to develop this inner peace—inner happiness.
Once you have this then you can use this as a bargaining chip. Every
time you want a chocolate, then you say “Meditating is better.” So
you come back and meditate instead of taking a chocolate. And if
you keep doing this then eventually your craving for chocolate will
disappear. It won’t mean anything to you.
Layperson: What if you have it (samādhi) and you lose it?
Than Ajahn: You can always bring it back once you know how
to have it. You lose this because you don’t maintain it. And when
you lose it, you are lazy to bring it back. That’s all. So you have to
force yourself— “Well, I know how to do it, so I will have to come
back and do it again.” If you force yourself to do it, then you will
get it back again.
So what you should do is that once you have something, you

should try to maintain it. Don’t stop meditating because once you
stop then the result of your meditation will gradually dissipate,
disappear. And then when you have nothing, you feel you want it
but you are too lazy to restart it. But if you keep maintaining, keep
meditating, every day, then it becomes a habit—it will be easy for
you to meditate. The more you meditate, the easier it will become.
Until it becomes second nature to you, you feel that you want to
meditate.
When there is nothing else to do. You meditate. Right now, you
still have to force your mind to meditate because you still have
craving for other things, so you have to be vigilant. Once you can
meditate you should not stop. You should keep meditating and try
to stop more of the other kind of activities. Bring the time that you
use for other activities for more meditation, until eventually you
will spend all your time meditating and nothing else. Then you will
always have this peace of mind and happiness all the time and
— 302 —
you can use paññā, or the wisdom, to teach your mind to stop
your cravings.
— 303 —
Laypeople from Australia
26
October 26th, 2016
Layperson: I would like to ask about making merit, when is it

appropriate to practice?
Than Ajahn: Making merit, you mean charity?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: Sharing the wealth with other people, you should
do it when you have too much money and you don’t know what to
do with it, then you give it to charity. Don’t spend it on your desire,
on your craving. That’s the purpose of charity, to get rid of the
money that you don’t need and prevent you from satisfying your
craving, which is like buying drugs, because you will be addicted in
spending money in this way. So, you don’t want to spend money
in that way. If you have lots of money and you don’t know what
to do with it, just give it to charity so that you don’t have to worry
about it. Also, giving it to charity makes you feel good and have
compassion for others. It will make it easy for you to keep the
precepts and free up your time for meditation. Thus, the purpose
of charity is to get yourself away from the business of making
money and spending money. You can then have the time to go and
— 305 —
meditate. This is the purpose of charity and you can do it

whichever way you want, however you want. Maybe it depends on
the situation. If you happen to be around with many people who
need your help, then you help them. If they need clothing or they
need medicine, you give them the things that they need. If they
already have plenty, you don’t have to do anything.
But if your purpose is to go into meditation practice, you suspend

your charity work because it can disturb your practice. So, when
you want to go into intensive practice, then forget about charity until
you come out of your intensive practice. And if you feel like doing
charity, then you can do [it]. But if you want to do it in a way that
will free you from doing charity all the time, give it all at one go.
Then, you don’t have to do any more charity, and then you have
all the time to do your practice. So, that’s the purpose of charity.
It’s to make good use of your money, both for the benefit of other
people and for yourself. You gain peace of mind and contentment,
and a sense of good feeling in that you have helped other people.
And you also let go of attachment to your material things such as
money. So, you don’t have to rely on this thing to make you happy.
You’d rather go and meditate, and rely on meditation to make you
happy because it’s a permanent type of happiness. If you rely
on material things to make you happy, you have to keep buying,
buying all the time. And no matter how much you buy, you’re still not
satisfied with your craving. The craving will still come up and it will
still want more and more. So, that’s the wrong way to find happiness.
Therefore, the best way, if you don’t know what to do with your
money, is to give it away and keep it enough for yourself. Save
it for whatever your need, then go and meditate. If you want to
become a monk, you can give it all up. Like the Buddha. When he
became a monk, he gave up all his possessions because it could
be a burden to his mind. With possessions, you will have to worry,
have to look after it, and have to manage it. But once you give it
— 306 —
26 | Laypeople from Australia, October 26th, 2016
away, you will have nothing to worry about. So, that’s the purpose
of charity or making merit. But people misunderstand. They think
that making merit will give you a better life in the future or make
you richer which is also true. But that’s not the purpose. It’s just the
by-product of giving to charity. It’s like putting money in the bank
for your future existence. So, when you’re reborn in the future, you
can withdraw the money that you save today. But you don’t want
to come back and be reborn. But in case you do not make it, when
you come back you still have the money waiting for you. That’s not
the main purpose. The main purpose is to let go of your attachment,
your dependence on money, so that you can have the time to go
and practice meditation instead. OK, alright.
I’ll give some people at home (Facebook) the opportunity to ask

questions but if you have some questions later on, you can ask.
Than Ajahn: You have more questions? OK.
Layperson: So, yesterday you said both samādhi and sati. So,
samādhi in my understanding is like when an image comes up
and you just ignore it. It’s just like you don’t seek to see things?
Than Ajahn: No, that’s upekkhā. Upekkhā is the quality that you
obtain from entering into jhāna or samādhi. Once you enter into this
state, you can then use it. You can nurture it and use it to cope with
difficulties or things that you face. Just be aware and acknowledge
it. Presently, you don’t know how to do that because you have the
defilements. And the defilements will always want to react, either
positively or negatively. But once you have jhāna, then the mind
will enter into a neutral phase which doesn’t react. It just remains
aloof, remains aware. And once you know how to be aware, and
not react, then you can use this quality in your life.
— 307 —
Layperson: So, that’s the quality that you try to develop?
Than Ajahn: Right, through samādhi or jhāna, through the

development of mindfulness.
Layperson: OK. And when sitting, it’s more like sometimes I feel a
little bit vague, drowsy….and I wonder should I be more like doing
something or be active…it is also a sort of a craving thing that I
want to go into a more pleasant state…. …?
Than Ajahn: Well, when you meditate, do you feel dreamlike or..?
Layperson: Can be. Yeah.
Than Ajahn: That means your mindfulness is not strong enough.

So, you start to go into a trance. So, you need to develop more
mindfulness before you come and sit down. Thus, you will be alert.
Be fully aware of what you’re doing. If you feel drowsy, maybe you
should get up and walk. Or you have to do some fasting to help
eliminate this drowsiness.
Layperson: So, if you allow me, tomorrow, I will be fasting. Another

question, usually in walking meditation, what should it be, what
should I be practicing during walking meditation?
Than Ajahn: Walking meditation is an alternate way of meditating

because you cannot sit all the time. After you sit for so long, you
feel tired and your body starts aching. Then, you want to relieve this
ache but you still want to continue your practice. So, you get up and
walk instead. And when you walk, you try to maintain mindfulness.
Layperson: Like mindfulness of the feet?
— 308 —
26 | Laypeople from Australia, October 26th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Right, mindfulness of the feet, a mantra, whichever

one you want.
Layperson: And I think this question was asked before, do you

focus on the change of sensation or…?
Than Ajahn: No, don’t focus on any other things. Just watch one
object to prevent you from thinking.
Layperson: OK, nothing about like …rising and ceasing…coming

and going?
Than Ajahn: That is a later stage, that’s vipassanā. Right now,

you are on the samādhi level. So, you don’t want to contemplate
on the rising and ceasing of things. You want to fix your mind on
one object so that you become still and enter into jhāna. Once you
have jhāna, then when you come out, you can contemplate on the
rising and ceasing of things to teach your mind to let go, not to
become attached to things because they come and go. If you are
attached to them, when they go, you feel sad.
Layperson: So, I don’t need to worry about that now?
Than Ajahn: Not now. For now, try to stop thinking.
Layperson: OK.
Than Ajahn: OK.
End of Discussion.
— 309 —
27
Q&A
October 27th, 2016
Question: The Buddha taught 40 meditation objects of meditation.

Does each of these objects of meditation act like a different medicine
for the varying defilements in our mind? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: Basically they are the meditation objects that you can
use to focus your mind, to establish mindfulness, because when
you have mindfulness you can stop your mind from thinking. When
you sit and meditate, your mind can enter into jhāna or samādhi.
So, you can use any one of these 40 objects of meditation. You
can choose the one you like, the one you find comfortable, the one
that gives you good result.
Question: Breath Meditation is more commonly taught by the forest

tradition. To use other meditation objects, normally, a teacher will
observe his students and prescribe a meditation object that best
suits student’s temperament. If breath meditation doesn’t work for
us, and we do not have the luxury of being in close proximity to
an Ajahn, how should we determine the meditation object to use
within the 40 objects of meditation? (Singapore)
— 311 —
Than Ajahn: Just do a trial and error. Try this one first and if it
doesn’t work, try another one. Just keep trying. It is like when you
go to a shop to buy clothes. You just try these clothes and see
whether you like them or not. If you don’t like them, try another
one, and you do it until you find the right ones for you.
Question: It’s described in the Sutta that attainment (enlightenment)

can be obtained by eradicating (1) Self Views, (2) Clinging to Rites
and Rituals, (3) Sceptical doubt in the Buddha/Dhamma. Will the
Venerable Ajahn be able to expound each of these 3 conditions,
and to what level of eradication before stream entry is attained?
Than Ajahn: Basically you first have to have jhāna or samādhi

because if you don’t have samādhi, you don’t have the strength
to eradicate your defilements. Without jhāna, the defilements will
be too strong for you, so first of all you need to have jhāna. Once
you have jhāna, you can contemplate so that you have the right
view, the right understanding of the nature of the body. The body
is such that it is impermanent, it is subjected to sickness, old age
and death and the body is not yourself. The body is just a
composition of the 32 parts and it is built from the four elements.
When the body stops functioning, it dies and disintegrates because
the four elements that built up the body will disintegrate and go their
separate ways. The fire element will go away; the water element
will go one way; the air element will go another way and the earth
element will go the other way.
If you contemplate and investigate the nature of the body, you will
see that the body is just made up of the four elements and it is not
you. You are the one who thinks, the one who knows this body, but
you are not the body. You want to separate yourself from the body.
Once you know that the body is not you, then you can let go of the
body and accept the truth about the body: that the body has to get
sick, get old and die. When you accept this truth, your mind will not
— 312 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
be hurt by the sickness, by the aging and by the death of the body.
If you can do this, it means that you have let go of your attachment
due to wrong view. With wrong view, you will think that the body is
me, the body is myself, the body will not get sick, will not get old,
will not die. When you have this wrong view, you cling to the body
and have the desire for the body not to get sick, get old and die,
and when the body gets sick, gets old and dies, you become sad
because you have the desire for it not to get sick, get old and die.
If you have the right view that this is the nature of the body, that it
is going to get sick, get old and die and it is not you, and you don’t
have to worry about it, you just let it be. You let the body get sick,
get old and die, then you will not be hurt by the body’s sickness
or death. You will also come to see that your suffering or stress
arises from your own desire, your desire for the body to last, not
to get sick, not to get old and die, but this is contrary to the truth.
If you want to get rid of your stress that arises from your desire
for the body not to get sick, get old and die, then you have to see
clearly and truly that the body will have to get old, get sick and die
and there is nothing you can do about it. The proper thing that you
can do is to accept this truth. Once you accept this truth, then you
eliminate the stress in your mind because you stop your desire for
the body not to get sick, get old and die.
Once you have seen the Four Noble Truths, then you have no doubt
in the Buddha because the Four Noble Truths was taught by the
Buddha, so if the teaching was taught by him, then he must be the
teacher, so there must be a Buddha. It is not something that people
created out of nothing. It is the truth that there was a Buddha and
this Buddha taught the Dhamma which is the Four Noble Truths.
The person who realised the Four Noble Truths was the noble
disciple; he was the one who can get rid of his wrong view, get rid
of his attachment to the body, get rid of the desire for the body not
to get sick, get old and die and he became enlightened on the first
— 313 —
level—on the level of the body and of the feeling. He can let go of
the five khandhas and he became a Sotapañña. Once he knows
that all the stress, all the problems arise from his own desire and
nothing else, then he will not have to use rites and rituals to cure
his problems.
Sometimes, when people have problems, they think they have to

go and do something to allay it with some forces or spirits to make
their problems disappear, but the problem arises from their desire.
Suffering arises from our desire to have things going according to
our way. Once things don’t go according to our way, we become
troubled and we try to fix the problems in some forms of rituals
like killing a sheep to make things better. Once you have seen
the Noble Truths, then you know that the problem is in your own
desire, the desire to be, the desire not to be or the desire for sensual
gratification. When you could not fulfil these desires, you can
become sad or unhappy so you want to cure this sadness by trying
to fix it which will still make you sad. You don’t know that these
problems are not the root of the problems. The root of the problems
is your desires that want them to be according to what you want
them to be and when things don’t go according to what you want
them to be, you become sad.
If you want to be happy then you just have to leave everything

alone and don’t have any desire for them, don’t depend on them
to make you happy, don’t depend on anything to make you happy
and when you don’t get it, you will not be sad because you do not
rely on it. This is basically what will happen once you contemplate
the nature of the body until you see that the stress in your mind is
arisen from your desire towards the body and towards other things,
and they cannot be according to your desire because the truth is
that everything will rise and cease, all things come and go, and
once they come, our desire wants them to be with us all the time.
We don’t want them to be separated from us. Once we see that
— 314 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
this is not possible then we stop our desire for them to last forever.
We accept the impermanence of them: that one day they are going
to have to dissolve, like the body. One day they are going to die.
Once you accept it then there will be no stress in your mind, you
will feel nothing towards the death of the body. This is basically the
practice on the contemplation of the body, on the five khandhas,
to let go of them, then you will be free from stress and suffering.
Question: After practicing ānāpānasati for a few years, focusing

my attention on relaxing the breath sensation. Now I find I’m
controlling my breath even when I’m not doing sitting meditation.
My breathing became unnatural and uncomfortable over these
years. How can I let go of this control and breathe comfortably
again? (Brazil)
Than Ajahn: Just don’t focus your attention on the breath but
focus on your body instead. Whatever your body does, just watch
your body.
Question: Ajahn mentioned that we should focus on one object

until the mind enters into absorption. Does it mean at the point of
absorption, mindfulness and focus will naturally shift from the object
to the absorption? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: When the mind is fully absorbed, then the mind lets
go of the object of the focus, like if you are watching your breath,
when the mind becomes totally absorbed, the breath will disappear
from the mind awareness. All that is left is just the knowing or the
emptiness.
Question: My object of meditation is the skeleton as it appears

quickly when I close my eyes while sitting. Should I focus on the
skeleton as a whole or scan through it part by part? (Malaysia)
— 315 —
Than Ajahn: You should fix [your focus] on one point, don’t scan
through it, don’t let the mind work, just let the mind watch. Just
watch the whole skeleton or any one part, just focus on that part.
You want to fix the mind, to still the mind, you don’t want to let the
mind move around, so you need to fix it on one part, whichever
part you want to fix with your attention.
Question: Sometimes I can bring a feeling of upekkha into my

heart when I want it. I would like to know that at the moment of my
death whether I should bring that feeling of upekkha and at the
same time recite mentally ‘buddho, buddho’, in order to help me
to have a good rebirth. (Portugal)
Than Ajahn: If you have upekkha, you don’t need to use ‘buddho’.
You use ‘buddho’ because you want to have upekkha. If you can
have upekkha, then you will have a good birth after you die.
Question: I am now following your instructions leaving my old

instructions. In the past I always worked on vipassanā all the time
and I can’t progress in my meditation. In the beginning I do some
chanting then I switch to ‘buddho’ then to my breath, is it the right
way of doing? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: If it gives you the result, then it is the right way.
You have to see the result. If it can let your mind enter into full
concentration, then yes, it is the right way. But basically those are
the steps. First, you chant, then you can use your mantra, and
then you can stop your mantra and watch your breath, and then
you just stay with the breath until the mind eventually enters into
concentration.
Question: When using any of those 3 methods, when thoughts

arise, I ignore all of them and go back to my meditation object, is
this the right way?
— 316 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
Than Ajahn: That’s right. You don’t want to follow your thoughts
because once you start following your thoughts, your mind will
become agitated and it will not become still, will not become
absorbed. Don’t follow the thoughts, stay fixed on your meditation
object.
Question: If I am using a mantra, reciting ‘buddho’ method, when

and how can I switch to in and out-breath method?
Than Ajahn: Anytime you want to. Sometimes people feel

uncomfortable watching the breath, so they first use the mantra
to calm the mind. Once the mind is calm enough and you feel like
stopping the mantra then you try to see whether you can just watch
your breath instead. It is pretty much a trial and error.
Question: When I focus on my nostril of the in and out breath I

can feel the in-breath very clearly but I cannot feel my out-breath,
why is this so?
Than Ajahn: Maybe your out-breath is not as clear as your

in-breath, so don’t worry. Just be aware that it is as such and
just keep on focusing on the breath.
Question: My parents disapprove of me dating my girlfriend

because she has a child from her previous relationship and my
parents said that by dating her I am creating a sin according to
Buddhism. Is that true? (United States)
Than Ajahn: No. In Buddhism we have the third precept, which

means to abstain from sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct
means to have sexual conduct outside marriage. If you want to
have sexual activity then you should get married, have a proper
partner. If you have different partners, keep changing partners or
sleeping with different partners then you are taking the nature of
— 317 —
the animals. If you want to maintain the nature of human being,

then you should stick to just one partner.
Question: Is it possible to gain any insight without jhāna or even

when one is not meditating? (Brazil)
Than Ajahn: It is possible but it is very hard and very rare. Some
people could see something and then become enlightened without
having any jhāna, but most of these cases may be questionable
because they may have jhāna, but they don’t know that they have
it. Some people might be calmed enough to be able to see things
clearly, so he doesn’t need to practise jhāna. Some people asked
questions to the Buddha and when the Buddha instructed them,
they became enlightened. These are exceptional cases. In most
cases, we need to have samādhi or jhāna before we can develop
pañña or wisdom.
Question: I am always not satisfied with whatever I’ve done in

the past, and that caused me to have a lot of regrets & guilt. May
Ajahn give advice on how to relate this to impermanence, suffering
& not-self so that I can tell the mind that this bad habit is not
the right thing to do? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: The Buddha said that everything on this earth is not
satisfactory. It can never bring contentment, never bring fulfilment.
The only thing that can bring fulfilment is meditation practice. So
don’t feel bad if what you did is not fulfilling or is not satisfactory
because everything in this world is like that. That’s why you keep
changing things, keep changing your clothes, changing your wife or
husband, changing your cars. You keep changing things because
whatever you get is never satisfying. The only thing that will satisfy
you is when you calm your mind and let go of your attachment, let
go of your desire.
— 318 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
If you feel guilty it is because you don’t follow the Buddha. If you
follow the Buddha, you don’t feel guilty.
Question: For animals that live in the forest, when they cannot
survive anymore they go to a secluded place and quietly wait for
death. But for human beings, if we are in the same situation where
we cannot survive anymore, can we ask for no support and choose
to stay in seclusion and meditate as long as we can? Are we allowed
to do so and would this action be considered as suicide? (France).
Than Ajahn: No, there are people in Thailand when they feel
that their death is near, they choose to live in the temple and use
meditation as a way of alleviating the suffering of the mind; this is
not suicide. This is just helping the mind to become peaceful and
calm, so that it can accept the truth of the body.
Question: In the case of memory loss after brain damage or loss of

body mobility coordination and speech coordination, will the mind
still be there when there is brain damage (in the body)? (Malaysia).
Than Ajahn: Yes, mind and brain are two separate things. The
brain is part of the body, whereas the mind is another person. If I
were to compare them, the body is like an automobile, the mind is
the driver and whatever happens to the automobile doesn’t affect
the driver. They are two separate things.
Question: When it comes to memory, is it the body or the mind

(consciousness) that stores the memory? (Colombo).
Than Ajahn: The memory is in the nama-khanda. In Thai, sañña is

the memory; it is not in the body, but it can forget things because
sañña is also not permanent; sañña rises and ceases.
— 319 —
Question: Does the mind become intermingled with this body by

taṇhā?
Than Ajahn: Taṇhā means desire or craving; it comes out from the
mind. This craving leads the mind to have contact with the body, to
possess the body. It needs the body to fulfil its craving, like if you
want to see a movie, you need to have a pair of eyes and in order
to have a pair of eyes, you need to have a body. If you haven’t
got a body, then you go and get reborn to have a body. Once you
have the body then you can use the body as the means to satisfy
your craving.
Question: Is it the same mind or consciousness that traverses

between bodies?
Than Ajahn: Yes, this mind doesn’t die with the body. When the old
body dies, this mind goes on looking for a new body. It keeps going
as long as there is desire; it keeps looking for a new body because it
is likened to an opium addict which keeps going after opium. When
this place has no opium, he goes to another place to find some
more opium. The body is like a tool or the means for the mind to
acquire the opium. The opium is the sight, sound, smell, taste and
tactile object and you need the body to enjoy these senses.
Question: Does the mind change when it goes from one body
to another?
Than Ajahn: No, it is the same mind, like you change your clothes.
It is the same person. Your old habits, your likes and dislikes are
still the same. Your ability to understand things, your wisdom, your
samādhi, whatever you had, is still there.
Question: When I was smart then, will I still be smart now?
— 320 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
Than Ajahn: Yes, you will still be smart (if you were smart in the
past). If you were stupid, you will still be stupid now, but you can
be taught (to become smart). You can improve or you can decline.
You can change from being smart to becoming stupid too.
Question: Could you tell me how to deal with envy and jealousy?
Because sometimes it overwhelms me and consumes my life and
I am unable to get it out of my mind.
Than Ajahn: Don’t compete with other people but compete with
yourself, then there will be no envy and jealousy. Try to compete
with yourself. What you have to compete with is your kilesas
(defilements), which is your greed, hatred and delusion. Don’t
compete with other people because some other people may be
smarter or better than you are and some people are worse off than
you. So when you want people to be like you but they happen to
be smarter than you are, then you can be envious.
If you have to compare with other people, then you should think
that we all have different kamma. We did different kamma in the
past and it makes some people smarter than us, some people
less smart than us. We just have to accept the truth of the kamma
that people are not the same. If they are better than us, we should
just accept it because this is the truth.
Question: If in the office environment where the boss favours

one colleague to another, do we handle it the same way like not
competing with others?
Than Ajahn: He must have something else to please the boss and
you did something to displease him. Just ignore it or fault yourself
and don’t fault other people. If you think you are not good enough,
you should improve yourself and work harder.
— 321 —
Question: Is it the correct way of life if we have hope (faith) on

only the practice of dāna, sīla and samādhi to win (be successful)
in the conventional world?
Than Ajahn: It is not hope. You have to practise dāna, sīla, samādhi
and pañña in order to transcend this world and not to rely on this
world to make you happy. If you can practise dāna, sīla, samādhi
and pañña, you will have another form of happiness which is far
better than the happiness that you can gain from this world, so you
can leave this world alone and don’t have to rely on this world for
your happiness.
Question: Sometimes after noticing (focusing on) in breath and out

breath, I went into uncomfortable experience of pain on the eyes.
Can Ajahn give advice?
Than Ajahn: Usually it is because your mindfulness becomes less

strong. Your mindfulness is not strong enough to fix your mind to
the breath so defilements start to create all forms of diversion.
What you should do if you cannot focus on your breath, is using the
mantra ‘buddho, buddho’, or chanting some verses to bring back
the mindfulness. When you feel that you can go back to watch your
breath, then you can return to your breath again.
Question: In the morning, there were dogs running towards me

and they were barking and jumping at me. I was wondering whether
I should just observe them.
Than Ajahn: Just observe them and be aware of them and let go
of them. Accept them for what they are. If you have dogs coming
towards you, just accept them and look at them as something that
will pass because now they are gone. When you are with them, just
try to maintain your serenity and calmness. Under all situations, do
not deal with the situation. The goal is to maintain your serenity,
— 322 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
maintain your calm by letting go of everything. As soon as you have

likes or dislikes, you will lose your serenity or your calmness, so
don’t try to like or hate the situations; just accept the situations as
they are by merely knowing. Just be aware like the way you are
aware of your breathing. Every situation is like a breath. Just be
aware, just watch, don’t react.
Question: I have been meditating for about 15 years. I have some

concentration and have found just enough wisdom to keep myself
free from relationship and sexual activity to maintain the precepts.
Could Ajahn explain the gradual steps to removing them?
Than Ajahn: You have to intensify your practice. You have to

intensify your test. You have different levels in testing your mind.
Right now you have come up to this level and if you want to move
up to the next level, you have to increase the intensity of the test,
which means you have to give up more things that you love like
giving up your body. Are you willing to give up your body? Are you
willing to give up the good physical feeling and endure the bad
physical feeling, like sitting for a long time without moving? Should
the body get painful, try to live with that pain and do not run away
from it. So this is what you have to do, which is to increase the
intensity of the test for your mind and to make the test harder.
Question: Do I have to sit for three hours or more?
Than Ajahn: It is not the length or hours but the pain which arises.
If you sit without pain then it doesn’t count because sometimes you
either fall asleep or you enter into calm quickly and you don’t feel
the pain. Try to sit without entering into samādhi; just be aware of
the body and eventually the pain will slowly build up, and when
the pain builds up, you teach your mind to accept the pain, not to
resist or run away from the pain; just remain calm as if there were
no pain. You have to learn to live with pain and to live with death.
— 323 —
You should go to a place where you feel scared, and when you
feel that you might be losing your life, see if you are willing to let
go of the body. If you can, then you will move up to a higher level
of achievement.
Question: I gave up everything and consider ordaining this year

but I have an obstacle which I haven’t overcome yet. Do you think
I can continue to progress if I go back to work and maintain the
eight precepts?
Than Ajahn: If you go back to work, you are going backward. It

is better to push forward, but if you are not ready yet, then maybe
you have to stay on first. If you are ready to move forward then
you go ahead.
Question: One of my obstacles is that I have epilepsy when I was

young, and during the course of my meditation fifteen years ago,
I was able to stop it and heal it through meditation and I have had
no symptoms ever since. But I have a doubt whether I will have
the problem when I am ordained so I keep my pension so that at
least I can have it ready when I need it.
Than Ajahn: That’s not a bad idea because you don’t know what’s
going to happen in the future. Should something bad happen in
the future, it will be better if you have something to fall back on.
You just try to practise at your current status, like keeping the
eight precepts, going to work although it won’t be as intensive as
when you stop working. At the end, for some people, once they are
ordained, they cannot force themselves to practise anyway, so it
will not make much difference. So first you have to know that you
can practise more and you want to practise more, then ordaining
is a good option. If you don’t think that you can practice more than
what you can do now, then ordaining doesn’t make any difference.
Sometimes after you are ordained, this obstacle makes you worry
— 324 —
27 | Q&A, October 27th, 2016
and it can be an impediment to your practice. If you are ordained,

you must be willing to accept the consequences of your
ordination. If I should die as a monk, I am willing to die as a monk
and I use death as a path to my enlightenment because a lot of
people become enlightened before they die. This is because they
see the truth. Right now we are just thinking about the truth, we
are not facing the truth yet, but when you know you are actually
going to die, then the mind will see the attachment arising from
the desire, and you want to get rid of this stress by letting go of the
body and be enlightened. He can become free from all stress that
is caused by the death of the body.
Question: When you say the mind never dies, how does that
square with the idea that Buddhism is not an eternalism? Could
you explain that?
Than Ajahn: Buddhism teaches two things, but most of the time
what we hear is about the impermanence and non-self (anattā). We
never hear about the eternal part. The mind is eternal; it is forever
and it never dies. Besides the mind, there are five other things that
are eternal. They are the four elements and space; they do not die
and will always remain as elements. The earth always remains solid
as earth; water always remains as water; fire always remains as
fire and wind always remains as wind. When they come together,
they create the trees and the body but eventually they will have to
disintegrate. The things that they build up become impermanent and
they will separate, but these four basic elements are forever and are
always there. The mind is the fifth element. The sixth element is the
space. All these six elements are always there, eternal. Wherever
you go, you always find these six elements in different shape and
form after they combine together, like your body is formed by the
five elements: the earth, water, fire, air and the mind. The space
element is always there; the space is eternal but we don’t see it
that way. We never look at it that way because we see the space as
— 325 —
empty so we don’t think the space as anything but it is something,

right? It is the space! It is something that the four elements have
to have in order for them to exist. If there is no space where are
you going to put the four elements?
The Buddha taught about impermanence because we cling to them

and they are the problem. We have to teach the mind to see the
truth of the things that we cling to. They are impermanent; they are
not-self and they are just nature. Everything that we have here,
even our body is part of nature and the building block of this nature
is the six elements. These building blocks of six elements are
permanent. They are the god; they are the creator of everything
and they are also the destroyer of everything. Really! Because
when they come together they create and when they separate they
destroy. The four elements in your body will eventually separate so
they destroy this body but when they come together they create
babies.
May you progress in your practice and become enlightened soon.

Goodbye.
End of Q&A
— 326 —
28
Q&A
November 24th, 2016
Question: How do we know when to switch to vipassanā

contemplation, or when we should go back to our meditation to
force the mind back into stillness? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: First of all you should practise samatha to make your
mind calm and happy. Once your mind is peaceful, calm and happy,
when you are not in sitting meditation, you can then contemplate
on the true nature of the body. This contemplation is vipassanā,
reminding yourself that your body will get sick, get old and die and
nothing can prevent it from happening. If you cannot accept this
truth, your mind will suffer and you will be sad, but if your mind can
accept this truth, your mind will not be sad and you will not suffer.
So first, you have to practise samatha to calm your mind. When

your mind is not calmed enough, it doesn’t want to contemplate
on the true nature of the body. The defilements want the mind to
think about other things like going on vacation or going shopping,
going finding things to make you happy and they make you forget
that you will get sick, get old and die, so when you get sick, get old
and die, you will become very unhappy. But if you keep reminding
yourself that this body will get sick, get old and die soon, you will
— 327 —
be ready to accept this truth. If you are not willing to accept the
truth, you will become unhappy, but if you can accept the truth
when it happens it will not make you unhappy.
You have to do both samatha and vipassanā. When your mind

is not calm, you have to first calm it. After your mind is calm and
comes out of meditation, you can then contemplate on vipassanā.
When you meditate for calm and your mind has just become
calmed, do not do anything but maintain the calmness as long as
possible until you can no longer stay in the meditation. When you
get out of it and start doing other things, then you can continue with
contemplating on the nature of your body and everything such as
your possessions. You will lose all things that you own one day.
They are anicca; they don’t really belong to you. If you are attached
to them you will become unhappy. However, if you know that they
will change and leave you, and when you are willing to accept the
change that happens, then it will not hurt you.
Question: Can we improve our wisdom by merely practicing

contemplation of the truth? (Malaysia).
Than Ajahn: If you constantly contemplate on the truth, it will

make you remember. You have to remind yourself all the time
about the truth of existence, like anicca, dukkha, anattā. When
you don’t remind yourself or contemplate on it, you will forget and
you will think that everything is permanent, everything is good and
everything belongs to you. So you have to constantly remind
yourself until you don’t forget.
Once you don’t forget about the truth, you don’t have to contemplate
anymore. Once you know that you will die and you are happy to
die, then you don’t have to contemplate anymore. Once you know
that one day you will lose everything and you are happy to lose
everything, then you don’t have to contemplate anymore.
— 328 —
28 | Q&A, November 24th, 2016
If you are still sad when you think about losing things or losing your
life, then you have to keep contemplating until your mind accepts
the truth. When the mind accepts the truth then your mind will be
happy.
Question: After finishing chanting for 20 minutes I focused on

‘buddho’ and felt the brightness in my forehead. I also noted that
there was no sensation on my palms but I can feel the tight tension
around the area. I ignored all those feelings and focused on my
breathing and also the rising and the falling of the abdomen. My
problem is that after about one hour of meditation I came out of it,
even though I tried to recite ‘buddho’ to go back to my mediation, it
seemed like something was pulling me away from my meditation.
Can Ajahn advise please? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: Your defilement is too strong. Your defilement wants

to pull you away from meditation. It wants to pull you to go and
watch TV, to drink coffee or to do things with your body, so you
have to keep developing mindfulness even after you stop your
meditation session. After coming out of meditation, you should
continue on with reciting the mantra, ‘buddho, buddho’, then this
will resist your defilement and it will become weaker. When your
mindfulness becomes stronger, your defilement becomes weaker.
If you don’t maintain your mindfulness, then your defilement will
become stronger and it will pull you away from your meditation.
Question: After a sitting meditation can we send merits to the

departed ones or any beings? Is this the correct way? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: Not really, because you haven’t yet achieved the
result from your meditation so there is nothing you can send.
When you finally attain jhāna, then you can send merits to the
deceased. The best way to send merits is to give dāna because
when you give dāna, you have peace and happiness from giving
— 329 —
dāna and then you can dedicate that peace and happiness to
the deceased. When you sit and meditate but your mind has yet
to reach a happy state, then you have nothing to dedicate to the
deceased. So usually people don’t use meditation as a form of
dedicating merits, people use dāna.
Question: How does the process of death and rebirth happens?

Is it true that during the moment of death one can become
enlightened? (Switzerland)
Than Ajahn: You can become enlightened anytime, once you see
the Four Noble Truths; when you see that your dukkha arises from
your desire. When you are about to die, you will have dukkha. When
you can see that the cause of your dukkha arises from your desire
not to die, your desire to live, and if you can get rid of your desire,
you can become enlightened.
Death is when the body stops breathing, like the automobile.

When the car doesn’t move anymore and when the driver cannot
start the engine, then the driver has to go and look for a new car,
the same way with the mind and the body. The body is like the
car; the mind is like the driver, and when the body doesn’t perform
anymore, the mind goes looking for a new body and gets reborn.
It is just changing to a new body, that’s all. Death and birth are the
changing of an old body to a new body.
Question: Just after I woke up, there was ‘someone’ talking to me.
The ‘someone’ was a thinking that had no greed, hatred or delusion
or maybe when the kilesas did not interfere. This inner voice with
wise talk had occurred two times before I came to Thailand and
because of this I cannot be a monk. Can Ajahn comment or advise
please? (Switzerland)
— 330 —
Than Ajahn: Disregard everything because the inner talks were

all just illusions; they come and go. You have to stick to reality but
not what happens in your mind. You have to look at the reality of
your life. If you want to be ordained and if you are qualified for
ordination, then you can be ordained. It doesn’t matter what your
inner voice told you, so disregard the inner voice, especially the
inner voice that there are no good reasons for you to believe in.
You stick to the inner voice that is beneficial like if the inner voice
tells you to be ordained then you should follow the inner voice, but
if your inner voice tells you not to be ordained, then you should
disregard it, because it is not beneficial to you.
Question: When I meditate focusing on the breath or reciting

mantra, I find myself always drifting into thoughts. Instead of using
breath or mantra to focus the mind, can I use the following to focus
my attention: (a) Listening (to sounds around us); (b) Feelings of
the body; (c) Thoughts? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: You can use anything, yet you will still keep thinking
because you don’t have enough mindfulness. So before you can
sit and meditate you must have a stronger mindfulness. You must
first develop mindfulness in your daily life by reciting a mantra all
the time, from the time you get up, you recite ‘buddho, buddho,
buddho’ all the time and don’t let your mind think. You only think
when you have to, but if you are fantasizing or dreaming, you have
to stop it and bring it back to ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’.
If you have stronger mindfulness, when you sit in meditation, it

doesn’t matter which method you use, your mind will not be thinking.
Your thinking has nothing to do with the method. The mind thinks
because you don’t have mindfulness to stop it. So you have to
develop mindfulness before you meditate. You can use any kind
of methods: you can watch the breath, recite a mantra, or watch
your thoughts. If you think and you can stop it, then you can keep
— 331 —
on stopping your thoughts. It doesn’t matter which methods.

What matters is your mindfulness, whether you have enough
mindfulness to stop your thinking or not. If you don’t have enough
mindfulness, then you should try to develop it as much as possible
before you can meditate successfully.
Question: I have anxiety and fear that people might laugh at or

think of me as weird when I try to practice giving and helping others.
Sometimes the feeling was so strong that I shied away from my
initial intention of helping others. How can we eliminate this social
anxiety? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: You can see that we are all the same. We all have 32
parts; we are all the same. We were born and we all will get sick,
get old and die, so try to look at the sameness in all of us. Then
you will not feel inferior or superior to other people. If you look at
other things, like the wealth of others or other people’s ability to
do things, then it can make you feel inferior or superior. So look at
the things that make us all equal; we have the same kind of body;
we have the 32 parts, we get old, get sick and die, and when we
can see that we are all the same, we won’t feel afraid of anybody.
Another reason why you might feel afraid is that you might have
done something wrong, so try to keep the five precepts. If you
can keep the five precepts then you won’t be afraid of anybody
because you don’t do anything wrong and therefore nobody can
criticize you or say anything bad about you, and even if they say
anything bad, it is not the truth and you don’t have to pay attention
to them as long as you know that you are doing good things and
are not doing anything bad. So, try to keep the five precepts and
try to look at the similarity in everybody; look at everybody as the
same – we have the mind that drives that body, and the body we
have is the same; that is, the 32 parts and the body will get old, get
sick and die, so there is no difference between us.
— 332 —
Giving dāna is good for you because making dāna will make you
feel good, so if you want to feel good, you have to make dāna.
Question: Ajahn mentioned that the memory is not in the body.

Does it mean that memory is part of the mind? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: Yes, sañña is part of nāma-khandas. The mind has

four-khandas: vedanā, sañña, sankhāra, viññaṇa. Vedanā is
feelings, sankhāra is thoughts, sañña is memories, and viññaṇa is
consciousness. These four-khandas stay with the mind; they don’t
die with the body. The mind may rely on the body function. Like
the brain, it sends messages to the mind, so when the brain stops
and cannot send messages to the mind, it then cannot remember
some of the things that the body sees or hears, because the brain
doesn’t tell the mind what it is seeing or hearing. The work of the
memory is depending on two parts, on the body and on the mind.
However, even without the body, you can still recollect what you
did in the past, like recollection of past lives, which does not need
the body to do the recollection.
You need a calm mind to be able to retrace back your past lives. If
you forget what you did yesterday, you may be able to retrace and
remember it by sitting in meditation, this is the function of the mind.
When you have to use the body to remember things and when the
body doesn’t remember then you cannot remember it. So this is
something physical and mental. If it is purely mental, then you can
still remember it.
If you have a strong memory, you can remember your past lives,
like the Lord Buddha. He can remember whether he was this person
or that person in his past lives, and he can remember when he did
certain things in his past lives, but not everyone who meditates
will have this ability. This depends on each individual’s ability to
recollect past lives. Some people don’t have that much ability, so
— 333 —
they cannot remember their past lives. Some people do, some
don’t, so this is considered to be a special ability. Remembering
past lives is not necessary for the practice for enlightenment,
because you don’t need to know what you were in your past lives
to become enlightened.
Question: How can we deal with the frequent negative thoughts

and the subtle feeling of fear (that comes from fear of sickness
and death) in our mind? How do we let go of this fear? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: First, you just recite a mantra, keep reciting a mantra,
‘buddho, buddho, buddho’. When you recite a mantra, you
cannot think about your fear. So try to develop this ability–reciting a
mantra–so that you can stop all your negative thoughts when they
come up. Once you can control or stop your negative thoughts,
the next thing you can do is to direct your mind to think truthfully.
Like, if you are afraid of death, you have to think that the body
will have to die, but the one who is afraid of the death doesn’t die,
that’s the mind. So you separate the body from the mind and you
know that you are not the body and therefore you will not be afraid
of the death of the body: this is thinking truthfully. But before you
can think truthfully, you first have to stop thinking falsely. All your
fear of death is false thoughts. First you have to stop the negative
thinking and once you can stop it then you can direct the mind to
think truthfully.
Question: By reciting ‘buddho, buddho’ sometimes I am able

to overcome feelings like greed and anger, but they come back
quickly. How can I use wisdom to permanently overcome desires
and negative mental states like greed and anger? (Malaysia).
Than Ajahn: You have to see that everything that you desire,
will lead you to suffering, not to happiness. When you desire
something, it will give you just a brief happiness. Like when you
— 334 —
want to get a wife or a husband. When you get a wife or a

husband, you become happy but after a few days when you start
quarrelling or start having problems then your happiness turns into
suffering. So, you have to see that everything that you desire is
impermanent; it is only a temporary kind of happiness and it will
turn bad in the end. Once you see that what you are desiring is
desiring for suffering, then you will stop desiring.
Question: Can we just see the desires as they are and let them
be? Is it possible that we don’t react?
Than Ajahn: If you can, you can just leave the desire alone, but
usually you can’t. Once your desire arises then you have to do
what your desire asks you to do. The only way to stop it is to use
wisdom, to see that what you are desiring for is bad for you. Like
if you want to smoke a cigarette, want to drink coffee, or want to
get a wife or husband, this is bad for you because it will lead you
to more suffering, not to less suffering.
Question: Recently, I got angry over a certain matter and flew into
a rage or panic attack for ten minutes. After this ten minutes, the
problem or the matter remained but when I thought about it again,
I was less angry. Why is the second wave of anger much lesser
than the first one?
Than Ajahn: Because you have no mindfulness when you were

having the first rage and your desire was so strong. The desire to
have things to go according to your way was so strong and when
it didn’t go according to your way, you burst into a rage. But after
the rage disappeared, you then regain your mindfulness, so you
become more rational and less emotional.
Question: Why do we stay peaceful sometimes despite having to

deal with the same problem?
— 335 —
Than Ajahn: Sometimes you let go, sometimes you don’t let go.
When you let go, you become peaceful. Sometimes you don’t let
go and you want things to go according to your way, then your
mind will not be peaceful.
Question: Whenever a defilement arises, I try searching for an

exact location within my body that I can pin down as “anger”, “lust”
etc, however, I cannot seem to find a singular point within my body
where the defilement resides. I understand that this is a way to
manage defilements but I also thought it may be a key towards
greater insight (vipassanā). Where do I go from here?
Than Ajahn: The defilements are not in the body, so don’t waste
your time looking for it in the body. The defilements are in your mind
and the only way to stop your defilements is either use mindfulness
or wisdom. Using wisdom is a lot harder because you don’t have
it, so it is easier to stop your defilements by using mindfulness.
Mindfulness can be developed by reciting a mantra, ‘buddho,

buddho’. When you start to have the defilement, you just keep
reciting a mantra then your defilement will disappear, but it will
come back as soon as you stop reciting the mantra. If you want
to get rid of your defilement permanently, you have to first look
at the kind of defilements you have. For example, if you want to
have more money, you have to look at the nature of money that
money is not permanent, it can give happiness, it can also give
you suffering because when you lose your money, you become
sad. So, if you can see that your desire for more money will lead
you to more suffering, not less suffering, then you can stop your
desire for money.
Question: As a layperson, the guide to moral behaviour would

be the five precepts, eight precepts or beyond. However, worldly
affairs are very much complicated and these teachings may not
— 336 —
cover every situation in life. How can we best make use of these
teachings to guide our actions? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: You have to do as much as you can. This teaching is

not for you to live in this society but it is for you to leave the society
because the society that you live in is a society of life of conflict,
life of disappointment, life of suffering. If you cannot see this, then
you will still want to remain in the society, but if you can see that
this society will only produce sadness, disappointment and all kinds
of worry and anxiety, you will then appreciate the teaching of the
Buddha and it will pull you away from the society and you can then
go live outside of the society and find peace and happiness without
having to live within the society. There is a better kind of happiness
outside of the society than the one you live in now.
Question: According to Ajahn’s Thanissaro’s book “Kamma of

Mindfulness”, the Buddha said, “It is not always the case that
our actions in this lifetime will yield their results in this lifetime.
Sometimes their results won’t even come in the next lifetime.” It
is also described that cause and effect is a complex system of
nonlinear feedback loops; and that we have free will to act in the
present. Wouldn’t the ripening of heavy karmic actions from the
past (e.g. if one is living in Syria now) influence present actions
towards unskilful ones? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: Yes, every result of your actions can become the cause
of your new actions. What you need to do is to control your mind
not to act in the wrong way but try to act in the right way by using
the teaching of the Buddha as your guide. The Buddha said avoid
doing evil at all costs even if someone tries to kill you, let him kill
you but don’t kill him. In this way, you will not produce bad actions
because bad actions will produce more bad results in the future.
So try to do only good things, avoid doing all kinds of evil. Do only
all kinds of good things and try to get rid of your defilements. This
— 337 —
is the right way to lead your life to liberation, to happiness, to the

end of suffering.
Question: Since kamma is so complicated, how can we attribute

our current situation to a single cause some point in time in the
past and can we micro-manage kamma?
Than Ajahn: There is no single cause that makes things the way
they are. There are multiple causes. For us, it is not necessary
to find out all these causes. We should only know that the one
cause that we can avoid and solve all our problems is the cause
that is causing us to get reborn again. The cause that makes us
to get reborn again is our desire, the three desires: kāma- taṇhā,
bhava- taṇhā and vibhava- taṇhā. We can get rid of these desires
by vipassanā and samatha-bhāvanā or by sīla, samādhi, pañña. So
try to develop sīla, samādhi, pañña, then we will have the means
to stop our desires. Then we will not be reborn again. Once we
are not reborn again then we will not have any problems that we
are having right now.
Question: Do people who leaves inheritance for their children after

their death gain merit from giving the gift, or do they have to give
the gift away while they are alive to receive the merit? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: They have to give them (the inheritance or gifts) when
they are still alive because when they die, they don’t know whether
their inheritance will go to these people or not. If they want to have
the merits, that is to have good feelings that arise from giving, they
have to give when they are still alive, so they know that they have
given these gifts away. It is the same thing with giving your organs
to people. If you want to receive the merits, you have to do it while
you are still alive, like sharing your kidney with someone or sharing
an eye with someone. When you know that the eye you donated
goes to another person, which makes the person happy, you will
— 338 —
then feel happy too. If you give when you are dead already, you
won’t know which organs will go to other persons or which organs
remain with you, and so this is not a merit anymore. If you want to
have merits, that is having good feelings from your giving, then you
have to do it while you are still alive. It is like giving blood, when
you donate blood, you have a good feeling from giving blood.
Question: What kamma from the parents causes a disabled child

to be born to them? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: The disability of a person has two causes: physically

and mentally. Physically means that the parents transferring the
disability to the children, but sometimes the disability is mental which
is caused by bad kamma in the past which can make the deformity
when the children are born, like when two children are born from
the same parents, the children can have different appearances, one
can be very handsome or beautiful, but the other one can be ugly,
so this is not due to physical, but mental. The two persons have
different kamma. One has good kamma, so he or she is born with
a good body and the other one has bad kamma and is born with a
bad body. If both of the children have the same deformity, then it is
probably inherited from their parents like if the parents also have
the same deformity so this deformity is passed on to the children.
So the cause can be either physical or mental.
Question: When I notice that I am craving for fame/popularity, what

is the best way to make myself stop the craving and to make myself
stop suffering from the mental pain of wanting to be liked? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: Everything is impermanent; you rise and fall. Fame

and fortune come and go. If you don’t want to be disappointed or
hurt by losing your fame and fortune then don’t desire them or don’t
wish for them. If they should come by themselves, then it doesn’t
matter but if you desire them you will become attached to them
— 339 —
and when they disappear, they will make you sad. If you have no
desire, then you won’t have any attachment. When they come, you
remain the same. When they go, you remain the same.
Question: I would also like some advice on how to deal with the
Principal of the school where I teach. She and the Vice Principal
barged regularly into my class while I was teaching and tried to
find something wrong. When she did it, she admonished me in
front of the children. Usually I just listened and tried to follow what
she said but it was a very annoying behaviour. Is there anything I
should do to encourage her to stop or should I just try to listen and
please her? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: If you can talk to her and ask her nicely then you talk
to her, but if she refuses to talk nicely then you just have to accept
it as the consequences of your kamma, that you have to meet
her and work with her. Maybe in the past you might have done
something bad to her, so now she is doing something bad to you.
Question: I have tried to talk to and encourage my parents into

Buddhism by giving them books to read and I also have tried to
get them to stop drinking alcohol but they are not interested. How
can I encourage my faithless parents to have faith in the Buddha’s
teachings?
Than Ajahn: You cannot force people to do what they don’t want
to do. The only thing that you can do is making the teaching of
the Buddha available for them and showing the good example of
following the teaching by your own practice. You should show them
the good example by following the teaching of the Buddha like
keeping the precepts, being nice, being kind and forgiving. Once
they see that you have changed to good from following the
teaching of the Buddha, they might become inspired and they
might want to do the same things like you do, but you cannot tell
— 340 —
people or encourage people by just telling them. You can only

inspire people by your good example. So try to be good and be
nice to them regardless of how bad or how cruel they might be
to you and one day they might be able to see the benefit of the
teaching of the Buddha and they would then become inspired to
follow his teaching.
Question: About offering dāna. If one makes offering or donates

for sāsana, is it viable to have his or her name left behind? What is
the effect of leaving and not leaving the name behind? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: There is no effect at all whether leaving or not leaving

the name when you make offering. Actually if you want your name
posted, you still have self-delusion; you are still attached to your
name, to yourself. You get less merit by leaving your name behind
than not doing so. You should make merit without any conditions,
then you will reap the full benefits of your merit. If you have condition
and when that condition is not met, then it can make you unhappy.
Question: What is the proper way of offering a complete dāna?
Than Ajahn: Just give the dāna away and forget about it. Don’t
worry about what they would do with what you gave away.
Question: Can Ajahn speak Chinese?
Than Ajahn: I used to when I was young, I used to be able to speak

some (teochew) dialect and some Mandarin. I went to Mandarin
school for three years, but after that I started to go to English school,
so I forgot all my Chinese. But I can still understand it if people say
something bad about me (laughs!), but I just cannot speak or reply.
End of Q&A
— 341 —
Laypeople from Singapore
29
December 2nd, 2016
Than Ajahn: Do only two of you come this time?
Layperson: Yes, husband and wife.
Than Ajahn: How many days do you stay here this time?
Layperson: Five days.
Than Ajahn: Five days. When are you going back?
Layperson: Tomorrow, essentially we just go to Wat Boonyawad

and here.
Than Ajahn: Just go to two temples. What did you do at Wat

Boonyawad?
Layperson: Dāna.
Than Ajahn: Dāna, and did you have a chance to talk with the
Ajahn?
— 343 —
Layperson: Oh, yes, Ajahn Dtun.
Than Ajahn: Did he have a translator for you?
Layperson: Yes, Ajahn Te.
Than Ajahn: Is he a Thai monk?
Layperson: No, he’s a Eurasian.
Than Ajahn: Ajahn Te, do you know how long he has been
ordained?
Layperson: 21 years.
Than Ajahn: 21 years. What nationality is he, European?
Layperson: I think he’s an American.
Than Ajahn: So, do you take it as an undertaking for you to come

once in a while?
Layperson: Yes, if time permits and we can take leave from work.
We would like to do it, if we can still do it.
Than Ajahn: So, is your main goal to make dāna?
Layperson: Yes, dāna.
Than Ajahn: And do you listen to Dhamma?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: Have you practiced?
— 344 —
29 | Laypeople from Singapore, December 2nd, 2016
Layperson: A little bit.
Than Ajahn: How much?
Layperson: Very little.
Than Ajahn: Keep the sīla, the pañca-sīla? No?
Layperson: It’s still a long way to go.
Than Ajahn: So, can you keep the five precepts regularly?
Layperson: Not yet.
Than Ajahn: You might be able to keep some.
Layperson: Three.
Than Ajahn: Three? Do you still have to drink? Do you drink

alcohol?
Layperson: No.
Than Ajahn: But you might say a little lie here and there. Do you
kill any things?
Layperson: Killing, no.
Than Ajahn: No killing. No small insects, ants, mosquito killing?
Layperson: Mosquitoes, no, ants sometimes.
Than Ajahn: Do you steal anybody’s money?
Layperson: Steal, no.
— 345 —
Than Ajahn: Do you commit adultery?
Layperson: No.
Than Ajahn: So, you have quite a lot of precepts. You don’t kill,
you don’t steal, don’t commit adultery. So, you might lie, just a little
bit here and there.
Layperson: Basic lies.
Than Ajahn: Just basic lies. You cannot tell the truth all the time.
Layperson: May I ask about this practice called, ‘animal

liberation.’
Than Ajahn: Animal liberation.
Layperson: Yes, I think at the time before Buddhism, it was not

a practice, right?
Than Ajahn: Liberate like letting the fish go into the water?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: It’s part of dāna practice, dāna, to give life, to give
freedom to those who are in captivity. Like the King of Thailand
will pardon people who are in jail, so this is part of dāna, to give
freedom.
Layperson: But what do you gain from it? You purchase to let go.
You buy from the seller to let go, is it ok?
Than Ajahn: Let go of what, to buy? Yes, the same thing. You go
to the market and you buy fish that is still alive, that will be killed if
you don’t buy them and liberate them.
— 346 —
Layperson: So, when you are practicing, let’s say, liberation of

fish, you don’t eat fish.
Than Ajahn: Not necessary, you can still eat dead fish as long as
you don’t kill it yourself or tell people to kill it for you. Like if you
go to the supermarket that has fish already been killed, packed in
the freezer or refrigerator. You can buy those and eat them. You
just must not kill the fish yourself or tell people to kill them for you.
Like if you go to the shop today and say, ‘I would like to have one
kilo of fish tomorrow,’ you cannot do this. Or now in restaurants,
sometimes they have live fish. You don’t go and point at that fish
and say, ‘I want that fish.’ But (it is alright) if you go and tell them,
‘Please give me fish that’s already dead. Don’t kill any fish for me.’
Layperson: So, is it the same when I order, let’s say, a hundred

kilos of live fish and then I go and liberate them, is it right?
Than Ajahn: Yes, it’s right.
Layperson: But when you order, you actually have the fishermen
who go out to catch it.
Than Ajahn: Oh, you don’t order. You go and buy the fish that is
already there.
Layperson: Already there, right?
Than Ajahn: In the market ready to be killed. You don’t go tell

them, ‘Get somebody to go and catch fish and then literate it.’ It’s
like when you go to a slaughter house, then you buy the cow that’s
going to be slaughtered, and you let that cow you bought live freely.
What happened to your friend?
Layperson: She’s busy but we will meet up again in two weeks.

We couldn’t get to meet often together.
— 347 —
Than Ajahn: Before, four or five people used to come with you.
Layperson: Yes, before, we had five.
Than Ajahn: Are the other couple, your friends?
Layperson: Yes, friends.
Than Ajahn: I think they came by themselves one time.
Layperson: Yes, yes, the doctor and her mother. She brought
her mother here to see what she’s been doing. I came first and I
brought him to see what I’ve been doing too.
Than Ajahn: So, you should do more. If you can, increase your
practice. Do more dāna. Do more sīla. If you can keep the five
precepts, maybe on your day off you should keep the eight
precepts. Add three more precepts to your list. Don’t eat after midday,
no entertainment, no watching TV, no going out to movies.
Layperson: Ajahn, what if I cannot eat before twelve due to health

problem.
Than Ajahn: If you can’t, then you can’t.
Layperson: If it’s due to health, can I eat after twelve?
Than Ajahn: You can eat any time but you just don’t keep that
precept. So, instead of keeping eight precepts, you keep seven
precepts. There is no excuse for not keeping the precept but if you
don’t want to keep the precept, it’s ok. Keeping the eight precepts
is good for you, good for your meditation practice because if you
don’t have to eat after midday, then you don’t have to worry about
eating. Then, you can concentrate your mind on your meditation
practice. But if you’re going to eat in the evening you won’t be able
— 348 —
to concentrate on your practice. It’s because you will be thinking

about ‘What am I going to eat this evening?’ And you keep waiting
for the time to eat instead of meditating. But if you don’t eat after
midday, then you don’t have to worry about eating, worry about
where to get the food or cook your food.
Layperson: But what if it’s for someone who has to do the cooking
for the family?
Than Ajahn: Well, you have to let someone else cook for them.
If you want to keep the precept, you just have to make a choice,
or you make an arrangement. Have someone replace you. Have
someone do the cooking for you. Like when you come here, what
happens to what you used to normally do back home?
Layperson: They have to eat out.
Than Ajahn: OK. So, they can but you tend to have the excuse
not to keep the precept because you have this or that engagement.
But when you want to go on a holiday, then you don’t use that
as an excuse for not going on the holiday. See, how clever your
defilements are? If you want to keep your precept, your defilement
says you cannot do that because you have engagement. You have
responsibility. But if you want to go on a holiday for two weeks, then
there is no problem. You can go. See what I mean?
OK. So, you should think like you are going on a holiday. When
you go on a holiday, you can forget about all your engagement or
your work, everything, right? Somebody will do it for you. So, it’s
the same way with keeping the precepts. Just think that you’re on
a holiday. You go on holidays, Buddhist holidays. We normally keep
the eight precepts on the Buddhist holidays. See, every week we
have one day for Buddhist holiday. They call it, ‘observance day’
when laypeople would stop working.
— 349 —
In Thailand, in the past, we used to follow the Thai calendar, the

lunar calendar, so people would stop working on observance days.
So, they can have time to go to the temple, to give dāna, to keep
the precepts, to listen to Dhamma talks, and to meditate. Some will
stay overnight at the temple. This is the instruction of the Buddha
that we should not forget the mind. We have two responsibilities:
one to the body and the other to the mind. We have six days that
is devoted to the responsibility of our body. We work for six days
to find food, to find shelter, to find medicine, to find clothing for the
body. So, on the seventh day we should work to find, what you
call, puññā for the mind.
Puññā is like the food for the mind, the clothing for the mind, like the
shelter for the mind, and medicine for the mind. Dāna is like food
for the mind. When you give dāna, you feel full, you feel fulfilled,
you feel good, you feel like you have eaten a meal.
And if you can keep the precepts, then it’s like you have good
clothing to put on because if you keep the precepts, then you look
good. Your mind looks good. You are beautiful inside because
people like people who keep the precepts, you see. If you have to
choose between people who keep the precepts and those who do
not keep the precepts, who would you choose to be your friends?
You would choose people who have the precepts because they
are beautiful people, like they have beautiful clothing. So, sīla is
comparable to clothing for the mind.
Dāna is like food for the mind and samādhi is like housing for
the mind because when you meditate, your mind becomes calm
then it’s protected from all kinds of dukkha. When you meditate,
your mind becomes calm. There is no worry, no anxiety, no
restlessness, no sadness. So, it’s like a protection from dukkha,
like the house to protect the body from all kinds of danger such
as the danger from the weather, the danger from bad people. You
— 350 —
need a house to protect your body. And when your body gets sick,
you need medicine. When your mind gets sick, you need wisdom
or paññā. When you are not happy and if you have paññā, you can
get rid of your unhappiness because your unhappiness is caused
by your own desire.”
Layperson: But a lot of mindfulness and practice are needed.
Than Ajahn: Of course, it takes time. It’s like it takes time to find
medicine to cure your body but we are fortunate. We have someone
who has already found the medicine for us. The Buddha found the
medicine. All we have to do is to apply the medicine by developing
mindfulness and listening to Dhamma talks. You know that you are
not happy because of your own desire. You are not happy with
your husband because you want him to do something for you and
he said, ‘No.’ He has to go and do something else. Then, you’re
not happy, you see. But if you switch your mind, you’ll say, ‘OK,
no problem. If you don’t want to do it, it’s alright. I can change my
desire. I can stop my desire.’ Then, you won’t feel unhappy. So, this
is what the Buddha wants us to do on our days off, not going on
a holiday, not going shopping, not going to entertainment venues
to have fun, to have enjoyment, which is a brief enjoyment, and
doesn’t help you when you’re sad or unhappy. But if you come to
the temple regularly and practice meditation, listen to Dhamma
talks, keep the precepts, and give dāna, you will have protection
for your mind. Your mind will not be affected by bad feelings, by
dukkha. So, this is what used to be in Thailand.
But nowadays the world has changed. Now instead of having the
days off on Buddhist observance days, we follow the international
holidays, Saturday and Sunday. So, the calendar is not the same.
On your days off, Saturday and Sunday, sometimes it’s not an
observance day. Like this week, we have the observance day on
Wednesday, I think, this coming Wednesday. So, it doesn’t fall on
— 351 —
Saturday or Sunday. And, people have to go to work on Wednesday.

So, they cannot come to the temple and practice Dhamma.
Therefore, their minds become neglected and they become
unhappy even though they have so much more than what their
parents and grandparents used to have. But what they have doesn’t
help the mind. They have more money. They have more things but
these things cannot help to make the mind happy or get rid of the
mind’s sadness or worry and anxiety.
In fact, these things create more worries and anxiety. The more
you have, the more you become attached to what you have and
the more worry you will get because you want to protect what you
have, to keep what you have, but you’re going to lose everything
that you have one day. But people don’t know that. They don’t
think about it. They keep thinking that they’re going to have these
things all the time. They cannot live without them, you know. So,
as soon as they lose something, they become very unhappy. But if
you come to the temple regularly, you will be told by the Dhamma
talks that you must not cling to anything because everything is
temporary. Everything comes and goes, and nothing remains the
same. Things can change all the time. So, if you know that, then
you try to adapt yourself to the changing circumstances. And when
you can adapt, then it will not cause you any problem. The problem
is we don’t want to adapt to the changing conditions.
Like when you lose your husband, you don’t want to adapt to the
new situation. Then, you’re single again. You don’t have a husband
anymore. Your mind seems to want to have a husband. Your mind
seems to want to have everything like it used to have. And when
you have this desire to have it, the way it used to be, you’ll become
sad. Every time you think of your husband who’s passed away, you’ll
become sad. But if you’ve been told that you have to be single again
one day, then you’ll try to get yourself prepared for that situation.
And when the situation comes up, you can adapt yourself easily.
— 352 —
So, that’s the benefit of coming to the temple regularly. Have you
ever been to Wat Palelai?
Layperson: Yes.
Than Ajahn: I heard that they still have chanting and Dhamma
talks.
Layperson: Yes, they have meditation classes.
Than Ajahn: Do they have meditation classes every evening or

just some evenings?
Layperson: I think they do have classes ongoing for children and

adults. So, it’s often for children.
Than Ajahn: So, do you have anything else you want to ask?
Layperson: No.
Than Ajahn: Do you want to continue sitting here or you want to

go home?
Layperson: We may have to go back to Bangkok.
Than Ajahn: Then, I’ll give you the anumodanā now. OK.
End of Discussion.
— 353 —
Laypeople from USA.
30
December 24th, 2016
Than Ajahn: If you have any questions you want to ask, go ahead.
Layperson: How is the state of consciousness of a fully enlightened

person different from an unenlightened person?
Than Ajahn: The consciousness of a fully enlightened person is

without defilements – without greed, hate and delusion. The con-
sciousness is the same. The consciousness can be compared to
the clothes we wear. Once you wash them, you get rid of all the
dirty stuffs from the clothes. Then you get cleaned clothes. They
are still the same clothes. The consciousness is still the same con-
sciousness, but without greed, hate and delusion; without desire:
kāma-taṇhā, bhava-tanhā, vibhava-tanhā. You need to use the
practice of sīla, samādhi and pañña for you to be able to get rid
of all these defilements.
Layperson: When the consciousness is fully purified in fully en-

lightened people, do they have access to the knowledge of the
universe that is not possible for unenlightened people?
Than Ajahn: They have more knowledge about the inner universe,
the spiritual world, but not so much about the physical world.
— 355 —
They know more about heaven and hell and the different levels of
existences.
Layperson: How much is that dependent on the condition, so if fully

enlightened people are put into a state of war/conflict, will they lose
their (enlightened state) ability to have that ‘sense of purification’
because a lot of it is dependent on the causes and conditions?
Than Ajahn: Once the mind is purified, it will remain purified,

regardless of the situation. It is because the process of the
purification and the arising of defilement are within the mind itself. It
is not dependent on the external conditions. Once you’ve eliminated
the cause that makes the mind defiled, then it will be always pure.
Layperson: What are the signs of a teacher who is an effective

teacher, a spiritual teacher? There are many spiritual teachers.
How do you identify the effective ones?
Than Ajahn: Well, one thing you can do is first, you have to study
the teaching of the Lord Buddha, and next is to study the way he
conducted himself, how he lived and what he taught. You use that
as a standard of measurement.
If a monk or a teacher lives up to the Buddha’s standard, then

you can be more or less confident that he is enlightened. But you
still don’t know (for sure). You will only know after you study with
him. If you apply his teachings to your practice, and if you become
enlightened following his teachings, then you can be quite certain
that he must be enlightened. Otherwise, he won’t be able to teach
you how to become enlightened.
Layperson: How does somebody who has reached the level of

enlightenment knows that he or she has reached it?
— 356 —
30 | Laypeople from USA, December 24th, 2016
Than Ajahn: It is like eating. Once you are full, you know you are
full. If you are still hungry, you are still hungry. You don’t have to
ask anybody. It is sandiṭṭhiko. It can be proven by yourself.
Once you’ve gotten rid of a certain amount of suffering, you will

know that you no longer have this kind of suffering anymore
because you have eliminated the cause of this suffering which is
your attachment to a particular thing, such as your body.
A Sotāpanna can let go of his body because he has seen the body
as not himself or herself. The mind and the body are two separate
things. The mind knows that the body will have to get sick get old
and die, regardless of what you do. So if you don’t want to suffer
from the aging and the sickness of the body, then you must not
cling to the body. You must not have the desire for the body not to
get old, get sick or die. Once you let this desire go away, you will
no longer be depressed by whatever happens to the body.
Layperson: There are magga and phala. Could you say a little
bit about the phala? Is there any different experience when the
enlightened being has had the fruition of the phala? Does he
experience a different type of consciousness?
Than Ajahn: No, it is just the experience. Like when you have an
acute fear, you can suddenly use the Dhamma to eliminate this
fear, and then you know there is a change in yourself. You are no
longer afraid of death.
So you have to expose yourself to some kind of fear first, to know

whether you can eliminate that fear or not. That is why a lot of
monks go into jungle, to the forest, to live alone and to expose
themselves to all sorts of danger. And when fear arises, they use
Dhamma to deal with it. If they can eliminate their fear, then they
know that they have experienced a state of enlightenment – when
the mind changes from extreme fear to a perfect peace and calm.
— 357 —
Layperson: It is said that Nibbāna is an unconditioned state, so it

means that everything we mentally have access to, is conditioned.
That is easy to understand when you study the Dhamma. But how is
the experience of Nibbāna, which is supposed to be unconditioned,
different from it? Is it a state of altered consciousness?
Than Ajahn: I am not sure whether you interpreted what you’ve

read correctly. Nibbāna is a state of mind in which the mind no
longer clings to any conditioned things. It does not cling to the
body. It does not cling to anything that arises and ceases. It knows
that if you cling to anything that rises and ceases, it will be unhappy
when thing disappears, when thing ceases.
So, the mind just understands the conditioned things and no longer
clings to them or relies on them to make it happy. Right now we
rely on conditioned things to make us happy; we rely on the body,
we rely on things that we see, we hear, to make us happy. But all
these things are conditioned things. They rise and cease. They
come and go. And our happiness and suffering rise and cease as
they come and go.
When we see this rising and ceasing with wisdom, we relinquish

our attachment or our desire for these things. Then we remain in
the state of not relying on the conditioned things. So Nibbāna is
unconditioned in that sense of the word.
Layperson No 1: You had said that a fully enlightened person has

access to the internal universe, so then is it possible for him to know
of his past lives and the karma that brought him to where he is?
Than Ajahn: This is a special gift that not everyone can have.
Some have and some don’t have. The Buddha had it. He could
recollect his past lives. Some teachers have it and some don’t. But
this is not the prerequisite for your attainment to enlightenment.
— 358 —
It is just like a bonus, a special gift that you have attained in your
previous life. You might have learnt how to recollect past lives in
your previous life.
Layperson: In Ajahn Mun’s biography, there was a talk by Luang-

ta Mahā Boowa about devas who came to listen to the Dhamma
Teaching. Is that something that was only possible for Ajahn Mun?
Than Ajahn: This is another special gift. Not everyone who has
become enlightened, has that gift. The Buddha had it. He taught
devas every night. At night after he had taught the monks, he would
teach devas. You have to have a special connector to connect with
spiritual beings. Some people have, some people don’t. But this
doesn’t make you enlightened or not enlightened. Enlightenment
requires you to see that everything is anicca, dukkha, anattā. And
that is wisdom, insight.
Layperson: How does one know if one has reached a level of

samādhi that is adequate to still the defilements so that
contemplation is possible?
Than Ajahn: When you’ve reached full samādhi, all your

defilements will stop functioning. You know it. Once you know you
can stop it, then you can stop it (again) later on.
Layperson: Some teachers talked about being able to see lights as

a sign that you have reached that, but that does not always happen.
Than Ajahn: No. When you reach full samādhi, everything

disappears. You sort of float in space. You are in emptiness. All
that is left is just the consciousness – the one who knows; and
the equanimity – a sense of peace and calm without any kind of
likes or dislikes within the mind. This is the state of purification – a
temporary one.
— 359 —
Once you come out of samādhi, your mind starts to come back
to the conditioned world, and then the mind starts to react again.
Then you need to use wisdom to teach the mind not to react to the
conditioned things, to leave them alone.
Layperson: After meditating using ānāpānasati for a certain

amount of time, my mindfulness prevents thoughts from arising
very quickly and so I can just be with the breath. But sometimes I
experienced a stage where the mindfulness was so strong that it
also prevented the perception of the breath coming or going. So
was that appropriate?
Than Ajahn: No. Mindfulness doesn’t prevent you from perceiving

what you are concentrating on. It keeps your sense of awareness
more heightened. You are more aware of what you are watching,
like your breath. Then this heightened awareness will prevent the
thoughts from coming in to disturb your concentration. If you have
strong mindfulness, your mind can become concentrated very
quickly. You become calm very quickly.
Question: So it is important to then stay with the breath for as long

as the breath can be felt?
Than Ajahn: Yes absolutely. Nothing else. Don’t let your mind
wander to other things. If the thought comes in, ignore it. If anything
comes in, like the light or a sound or anything, ignore it. Just watch
only the breath. Then your breath will take your mind into samādhi.
Question: What advice would you give to a layperson who is

seriously interested in the Dhamma, but his work doesn’t always
help him?
Than Ajahn: Well, first of all, you need to find time to practise. To
practise fruitfully you need a continuous length of time, not just
doing one hour a day or something like that. Maybe you should,
— 360 —
on your day off, like the day when you don’t have to work, devote
that day for the practice. And when you do that, the first thing you
want to do is to develop mindfulness. Try to maintain mindfulness,
to stop your mind from thinking, start from the time you get up. You
should start developing mindfulness right away from the time you
open your eyes.
Try to stop your mind from thinking about thing that is not important,
thing that you don’t have to think about at that time. Or to focus on
your body – mindfulness of your body. Just keep watching what
your body is doing. Be here and now. Don’t let the mind go to the
past or go to the future. And when you have time, sit down, close
your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Try to do it as much
as possible. If you do it, eventually when you have strong and
continuous mindfulness, your mind will become calm. Then you
will find another kind of happiness that is much better than any
other kind of happiness.
Once you’ve experienced this, you will be invigorated and

energized. You want to do more. You will start to relinquish or give
up other activities, so that you can have the time to devote to your
meditation practice.
You have to find some time to practise on a full-time basis, like

going to a retreat or something like that, for seven days, or two
weeks. If you can do it every month, that will be better. If you do it
once a year, maybe that is too long of a gap. But anyway, the goal
is to have a glimpse of what it is like when your mind is calm. Once
you’ve seen that, it will give you a lot of encouragement, give you
a strong sense of willingness to do more practice.
Question: We have been doing that for about fifteen years, and
we have had that experience that you were describing. It is like
we’ve developed the disenchantment, the samvega, but it will still
be difficult to make the next step.
— 361 —
Than Ajahn: You have to separate yourself. Maybe that is the

hindrances that keep you from not going anywhere. We call it
kāma-chanda, one of the hindrances. You are still attached to the
happiness of the body.
Question: I think it is more of the fear of leaving the lay life, and
entering something we are not familiar with.
Than Ajahn: That is because you haven’t experienced enough of

the result from your practice yet. If you’ve enough of it, it will make
you not afraid to leave everything behind. What you are going to
find is much better than what you have now. But you know that
you have to be serious, and you have to keep pushing yourself.
Anytime when you become lazy, you expose yourself to sadness
or suffering.
Than Ajahn: Do you want to ask any question? (Speaking to

another devotee)
Question: How do we distinguish between a wholesome desire

and an unwholesome desire?
Than Ajahn: The Buddha described the unwholesome desire as

the three taṇhās. First is the desire for sensual gratifications—
desire to see, to hear—in order to make you happy. This is like an
addiction that you have to get rid of because it’s harmful, it is not
useful to the mind. When you have this desire but you cannot get
what you desire, you become sad or depressed. This is sensual
gratification, kama-taṇhā.
Second is the desire to become somebody or something. We call it

bhava-taṇhā: the desire to be. And the third is the desire-not-to-be,
like not to get old, get sick or die. This is vibhava- taṇhā. These are
the three desires that are bad for the mind.
— 362 —
Wholesome desire is like the desire to meditate, the desire to give

dāna – to give money to charity, to keep the precepts. These are
good desires.
Question: In our daily life we are always challenged to make

decisions which are often based on desires. So there is a turning
point where we have to either move forward and push a bit more,
or take a step back and let things go as they arise.
Than Ajahn: Do you mean when you have a problem what you
should do with the problem? You can either take it or leave it. If
you leave it, your problem will disappear. If you still want to take
it, you will still have to solve the problem. And if you cannot solve
it, the problem will still be there. The problem will only disappear
when you get what you want. So, it is better not to get what you
want, because whatever you get, one day you are going to lose it
whatever you get—when you die.
Question: So, in that sense if there are a few people involved

whether in a work scenario or in a relationship scenario, when the
decision has to come from me, I could be seen as selfish or not
considerate to other people.
Than Ajahn: Well, it depends on how you define the word ‘selfish’.
If ‘selfish’ means ‘you do not have to suffer for other people’, then
you will rather be selfish, right? As long as you don’t hurt other
people, you just withdraw from them, I don’t think that is selfish. I
think that’s wise. That’s wisdom.
End of discussion.
— 363 —
Laypeople from USA.
31
December 25th, 2016
Layperson 1: Luang Poh, it is very precious to be able to be

in your presence to talk and get your wisdom, so thank you so
much for that. My question is related to what you had written and
said yesterday about experience in samādhi, in which the mind is
separated from the body. So, given the experience I have had in
samādhi, I noticed in my workplace that people’s consciousness
is very connected with their physical state and well-being. And so,
when somebody is physically ill or well, their mental state of mind
seems to go alone with it. And I know that could be because these
are people with defilement, so their mental state is very much
influenced by their body. It can be seen that even an accomplished
monk in the Sangha, when they get older, their mental faculties
perhaps diminish with their physical state. So, I guess, I do not
understand completely what is meant by separation. I know
intuitively that consciousness or mind transcends the physical state.
But from my observations of the people in my work place and all
around me, it seems the opposite is true.
Than Ajahn: That’s due to delusion. Delusion is the one that

directs the mind to become attached to the physical thing and to
— 365 —
take the physical thing as itself. The mind has no form. It doesn’t
know itself. It has the body and it uses the body to do everything
for it. It assumes that the body is itself, and everything else that is
connected with the body belongs to him or her. But in fact, they are
just physical things that the mind cannot possess forever, because
all physical things are transient, impermanent. Everything rises
and ceases. When you get what you want, you are happy. But
then when you lose what you want, you become unhappy, you
become sad.
The problem is how to live and have what you have, and lose what
you have, without sadness. If you have wisdom then you won’t be
sad. Like the Buddha, he became enlightened at the age of 35 and
the next 45 years he still used the body to give discourses, to give
talks to people. He used the body but he didn’t cling to the body.
He understood that one day his body will crumble, fall and die. His
mind was quite well prepared for that situation. Because he had
got rid of that delusion that caused his mind to cling to desire for
the body to last forever. When there is that desire in anybody’s
mind, that desire will bring suffering to that mind. But the Buddha
understood this problem so he got rid of the problem, got rid of
his delusion, understanding that he was the mind, he was not the
body and that the body is temporary; it is going to have to crumble,
fall and die one day. He has no attachment, no desire for it to be
otherwise. When there is no desire for things or for the body or
other things to be otherwise, then you won’t be sad when they
happen.
Layperson 1: One of the advice to a person who is dying, is to

keep his mind in a positive state, and to think of perhaps of the
dhamma or the Buddha’s qualities. It is often noticed at least in
my experience that when people are dying, they are in the state of
unconsciousness, so the volitional aspect of the mind is not active
anymore. When somebody is dying, how does one help? If they
— 366 —
don’t have volition, then they can’t actually purposely direct their
mind to a positive state, then how does that...
Than Ajahn: Well, they have to do that before they become

incapacitated. That is why you have to do it now when you are
still strong and healthy and you can still control your thoughts. So
you train your mind to think in the way that you will not cling to the
body. So whatever happens to the body, the mind will just leave
the body alone.
Layperson 1: If someone is not trained during their life, then it’s

too late in a way, right?
Than Ajahn: Yes
Layperson: There is nothing you can do to help.
Than Ajahn: ….
Layperson 1: What is the state of consciousness after death? I am

assuming that there is no volitional consciousness in the mind when
it is outside the body. Is it an instinctual kind of consciousness?
Than Ajahn: It is like falling into a dream when you go to sleep.

Your mind comes under the control of your kamma. Your past
kamma will take over. If you are still conscious, you can still use
mindfulness to control your mind. But once you fall asleep or you
die, you are like going to another different mode of existence. Then
it is the kamma that you have accumulated, which will then be
the one to decide how your mind will behave. If you have positive
kamma, good kamma, your mind will behave in a calm and
peaceful manner. If your mind has been driven by your bad kamma,
then it will be driven in an irrational, in a chaotic fashion.
— 367 —
Layperson 1: So is that the importance of silā or virtue, right?
Than Ajahn: Important for the whole thing, sīla, samādhi and
paññā. The goal is to be able to control your mind when you are still
alive and when you die, the mind will then be able to control itself
by virtue of the way by which we train it to behave. Like when you
go to sleep, you sometimes have good dreams and bad dreams.
Those are the results of the kamma that you have done. They are
the ones that will cause you to have either good dreams or bad
dreams.
Layperson 1: Luang por, one of the things that has been

mentioned and even Luangta Maha Bua had talked about is the
state of mahā-sati. Is it a volitional activity of the unenlightened
mind, that we have to be constantly working on to be mindful or
does it happen to be a new faculty that the mind develops after
enlightenment?
Than Ajahn: No, it is the level of mindfulness that you develop.

When you first develop your mindfulness, it still comes and goes,
not always there. But after you have developed it long enough,
then your mindfulness will become automatic. Mahā-sati means
automatic mindfulness. You don’t have to force it to come into being.
It is always there, constantly guiding your mind.
Layperson 1: Thank you
Layperson 2: I would just like to thank you very much for your
teachings, they have been very helpful. On some days, I can
enter jhāna fairly easily. But I am wondering, what is the process
of contemplation?
Than Ajahn: Contemplation is teaching the mind the truth that

the mind hasn’t yet grasped or understood, such as impermanence.
— 368 —
The mind has been trained [wrongly] to look at things as permanent.

It has been trained to look at things as conducive to happiness,
and it has been trained to think that anything that comes into its
possession belongs to it. But this is [contrary] to the truth. The truth
is everything is impermanent. Everything will bring you unhappiness
sooner or later. Everything doesn’t belong to you.
So, you have to reverse the process of the mind. The mind keeps
thinking about everything, wanting them to be permanent. Once you
are in a relationship, you think it is going to last forever; it is going
to give you happiness forever; the person that you have, belongs
to you forever. But that isn’t the case. So, you have to forewarn the
mind that this is not the case. It is a mistaken understanding that we
have to correct. Sooner or later things will fall apart. Relationships
will break up. A person you love might leave you or might die, might
go away or whatever will happen, or you might leave him. This is
something that people don’t think about.
So, you have to contemplate, to constantly remind your mind of the

truth. Once you are forewarned, when things happen, then you can
accept the truth. But if you are not forewarned, when things happen
you tend to deny (or turn to denial). You cannot accept them. And
when you deny the truth, you become sad.
Layperson 2: How would one start contemplation, contemplating

the body or contemplating the impermanence of relationships?
Than Ajahn: You have to contemplate that everything that you have
is all impermanent. You have to teach your mind that you shouldn’t
cling to anything because one day, sooner or later, either you or
they will have to go separate ways.
Layperson 2: I am just beginning a meditation retreat here in

Thailand. I am wondering if I do, let’s say a two-and-a-half-hour
meditation session, and I am working on developing strong
— 369 —
mindfulness, hopefully, how long should I stay in the state of

samādhi or jhāna before I begin on the contemplation?
Than Ajahn: As long as possible. First you want to develop a strong

jhāna because if you have strong jhāna, it will help you in your
contemplation. Because when your mind becomes peaceful, your
defilement becomes weakened. Your defilements won’t pull your
mind to go think about things that you shouldn’t be thinking about.
And then you can pull your mind to think about the things that you
should be thinking about. Think about impermanence, suffering
and not-self, rather than think about permanence and happiness
and belonging to yourself.
So this is a struggle between the two forces, the force of Dhamma

and the force of defilements. If your mind is not calm, then the
force of your defilement is very strong. But once you calm the
mind down, then the force of the defilement becomes weakened,
then you can instigate the force of Dhamma. Build up the force of
Dhamma by contemplating on the impermanent nature of things
that you possess, your body, your wealth, your friends and your
family, whatever you have. They are all the same, they are all
impermanent, subjected to change. They don’t belong to you, and
when you leave them or they leave you, you will become sad.
Layperson 2: How can one know the difference between

contemplation which is analytical thinking and true wisdom?
Than Ajahn: True wisdom can get rid of your suffering.
When you lose someone you love, your wisdom can cut your
suffering right away. But if you have just pure contemplation and
if you are still sad about your loss, then this is not true wisdom.
That is why I spoke today about the three levels of wisdom. The
first level is the beginning, you learn what wisdom is, like listening
— 370 —
to the Dhamma talk, so you find out what you have to know, to
understand, to have in your mind. You should have the Four Noble
Truths. You should have the three characteristics in your mind. This
is the tool that you can use to cut off your suffering. The next step
is to go contemplate about this, Four Noble Truths, about these
three characteristics until it becomes embedded in your mind, so
you don’t forget. When you have suffering then you can apply this
knowledge to get rid of your desire, your attachment. But if you
have no samādhi you might not be able to do it because the mind
is still stubborn. It is still strongly influenced by your defilements.
So that is why [you] must have samādhi first, because you will then
weaken the strength of the defilements. And then you can stop your
defilement, stop your desire by using wisdom. So, this is the third
level. The third level is the wisdom that can cut off your suffering,
destroy your desire, your cravings. You need to have samādhi first
to support this wisdom.
Layperson 2: So perhaps put aside the contemplation at this point.
Than Ajahn: You can do it when you are not in samādhi, when
you come out. You generally go and think about other things after
you come out of samādhi. You start thinking about where I should
go to eat, what I should drink, and so forth. Try to minimize those
thoughts and try to start contemplating impermanence of things
around you, impermanence of your body and impermanence of
things that you love. But it is not easy because your mind doesn’t
like to think in this manner. It likes to think about where I can have
something to eat, where I can go and walk around, release my
pressure inside, my desire to go see and hear things.
Layperson 2: Thank you so much.
Layperson: The question that I have is related to what Dawn just

asked about. Luangta talked about wisdom developing samādhi
— 371 —
too, which I notice that for me personally it is very helpful, with the
thoughts that may arise. The wisdom that comes with perception
of the three characteristics of all phenomena includes thoughts
and ideas and things like that, and that is really helping me with
my samādhi practice. But, then, how is this process where you use
the defiled, mental state to understand those three characteristics
and then let them go and enter into jhāna. How is [this] process
different from contemplating after coming out of jhāna? To me, it
sounds like the same thing, doesn’t it?
Than Ajahn: It is. It is the same thing.
For some persons they cannot attain jhāna by lulling the mind
with a preparatory method (parikamma). They cannot concentrate
on an object, like a mantra such as ‘buddho’ or use the breath to
bring the mind into jhāna, because the mind still worries about
something. Maybe you worry about the family, someone you love.
Maybe he or she is sick, and is going to die. So, when you try to
meditate you cannot keep your mind off that person. You can use
wisdom to pull your mind away from that person, by contemplating
the impermanent nature of that person. That person is impermanent
and is subjected to aging, sickness, and death. So, now he is in
the process of being subjected to that process and no one can do
anything about it. To worry about it, to wish that person will not be
sick, would not make it happen. Once you realize with wisdom that
he or she, that person, is impermanent, there is nothing you can
do about it, then your mind stops thinking about that person. Your
mind becomes calmer. It will enable you to focus on your breath
instead of thinking about that person.
Layperson: And then when you come out of jhāna you then do
the same process again, but now because your mind is clear with
samādhi, will the process result in other things?
— 372 —
Than Ajahn: Contemplation works in two modes, by doing the

homework, preparing yourself for the eventuality. The second one
is when you face the suffering right away. When you come out and
then somebody starts to attack you or causes you pain, and you
become very angry or very mad, and you have to use wisdom to
tell you that this is something that you cannot avoid, something that
happens. You should not get mad or get sad by this happening.
The reason why you get sad or mad is you don’t want it to happen
to you. That is desire. But the truth of anicca, dukkha, anattā is
the body is subjected to pain whichever way it may happen.
Once it happens, all you can do is to calm your mind and accept that
reality. That is the way we apply wisdom to get rid of our sadness,
our anger, or the bad feeling that arises from our desire.
Layperson: Is there a recommended sequence in which

contemplation is done? In some text, it says you should start after
coming out of jhāna to contemplate the body first rather than
contemplate mental states or sensation.
Than Ajahn: If you are not facing any problem right there and
then, then you contemplate the body first, to let go of your body, and
then you contemplate your feelings, especially the painful feelings
of the body, so that you can let go of that painful feeling and not be
affected by it. In order to really contemplate the painful feeling, you
have to wait for the pain to arise, otherwise it will be just theoretical
or it would be just imagining. But sometimes you have to prepare
yourself first that this is going to happen. One day you are going
to get sick. Your body is going to be painful. The way to cope with
this pain, is just to let it be: not to wish it to go away. Face it with
a calm mind, then there will be no suffering for you. But you won’t
know it until it really happens. If you want to test yourself before
that actually happens, then you sit and let the pain arise and don’t
move, and try to apply the theory to the practice. If you can calm
— 373 —
your mind and leave the pain alone, then your mind will not be
affected by the pain. You know that from there on your sickness
will not bother you. You can live with it.
Layperson: This is a very cognitive kind of analytical process.
Than Ajahn: First it is analytical, when things don’t happen.

But when things happen, it’s real. There are two modes, like I am
saying. The first one is like doing the homework. The second one
is taking the examination.
We are contemplating aging, sickness and death now. Just try to

do the homework, try to prepare the mind to accept this reality.
When the reality happens then you will find out whether you will
pass the test or not. If you just remain calm and not affected by
aging, sickness and death then you know you passed the test. No
one has to give you the score. You are the one to give the score.
You cannot cheat yourself. But if you haven’t faced the reality yet,
then you might cheat yourself. You might think “I am not afraid of
pain anymore”; “I am not afraid of death anymore.” This can be
delusional. Some people think they become enlightened by just
thinking about being not afraid of aging, sickness and death. But
in actuality, they haven’t yet met the real thing, but they just think
that they can do it. This is not true. You have to really face the real
situation, then you can be certain, be confident that you really have
passed the test. That’s why monks, like I told you, like to go into the
forest to where there are dangers and things that will start to scare
the mind, to make the mind fearful. If he can use the Dhamma to
control the mind, to keep the mind calm, then he knows that he
passed the test.
Layperson 3: Thank you Ajahn for taking time to answer our

questions again. Earlier you talked about dreams and kamma. If
one is to break sīla during a dream, is there any meaning to that?
— 374 —
Than Ajahn: That means you break your sīla when you are
conscious, so it repeats in your dreams. It is true because what
you do consciously will appear when you are asleep. It appears
unconsciously.
Layperson 3: Considering generosity, of course the feeling of

giving without expecting anything in return is a very good feeling,
great feeling....... When it comes to loaning money to relatives
or close friends or in a business agreement, and when we have
to unfortunately ask for that money back, it causes some conflict
and discomfort in the relationship. Do you have any suggestions
about that?
Than Ajahn: You should have collateral so you don’t expect to get
the money back. If you cannot get the collateral, then look at it as
dāna. You might get it back, you might not. If you don’t get it back,
you are making merit. You are helping your friends or your relative.
Layperson 3: In my house, there are ants’ infestation. How shall

I deal with that?
Than Ajahn: Can you leave them alone?
Layperson 3: I can but they are in the air conditioner and we are
not at the house often.
It is in Thailand here, so it causes a problem when it’s time to

use the apparatus. Should I clean or call someone to come and
exterminate them? I am trying to find a solution without causing
harming the ants.
Than Ajahn: Well, you live in the real world. Sometimes these
things happen. You can choose not to use the air conditioner. Live
like monks; monks don’t have air conditioners.
— 375 —
Layperson 1: Luang Poh, would mettā from a fully enlightened

being actually help another person with their kamma?
Than Ajahn: His mettā will reduce the cause of that person to do
more bad kamma. Like if someone tries to kill you and you don’t
react. You just let it happen, let it be, leave it alone. Then once that
person has done what he or she wants to do, then he will stop doing
the bad thing. But if you retaliate then you will instigate a new bad
kamma for that person to come about.
Layperson: So the mettā from the fully enlightened being can

reduce bad kamma from accumulating.
Than Ajahn: Future bad kamma, but not the past kamma that
he already committed. Like the Lord Buddha, his disciple, the
venerable Devadatta, tried to kill him three times. But every time
the Buddha did not retaliate. He didn’t instigate any new bad
kamma upon Devadatta. Once he realized that he could not kill
the Buddha, he became remorseful, and then changed from a bad
person to a good person, accepted that his way of doing things
was wrong, and asked for forgiveness. Due to the fact that he had
realized his bad action, the Buddha said, once he has paid his
debt, he will return and become enlightened as a Pacceka Buddha,
a “Silent Buddha”. But if he had not realized his bad action then
he would have come back and kept on doing the same thing again
with other people.
End of Discussion.
— 376 —
32
Q&A
December 27th, 2016
Question: While in meditation and contemplating on five

aggregates, I have only managed to scratch the surface, and it
didn’t allow me to penetrate deeper offering unreserved insight
into this truth. It always fell back into thinking that each of these
five aggregates is a part of an elephant that is taken apart, and
then put together, but it’s still me. Will Venerable Ajahn please
help us to elaborate and share skilful methods to help us develop
our contemplation of these five aggregates, to see that these five
aggregates are all anattā? (Singapore)
Than Ajahn: When we contemplate, it is just like doing homework.

First, we have to prepare ourselves to let go of the five aggregates
and before we can let go of these five aggregates, we have to know
why we have to let go. We study the five aggregates to see that
they are not ourselves; they don’t belong to us; we cannot keep
them. One day sooner or later they will have to leave and separate
from us. Right now, the separation is still not happening, so we are
preparing our mind for the examination that will come about when
we get sick or when we die.
— 377 —
When we contemplate on the five khandhas, we are merely

teaching the mind to know the truth of the body, the five
aggregates, and when the time comes for us to let go of them, we
can let them go because we understand why we have to let them
go. We understand that if we are attached to them, we will be sad;
if we let go, we will be peaceful and happy.
We have to wait for the time for us to relinquish the five aggregates.
We can do this in two ways. First, we let go of the body, then we
let go of the nāma-khandhas. These are two separate problems
that we have to solve. With the body you have to constantly look
at the body that it is going to get sick, get old and die and once you
know this, you have to let go of it because if you cling to it, your
mind will suffer due to your fear for the body to die. The desire not
to die is the cause of your suffering.
If you don’t want to suffer then you have to let go of your desire,
stop desiring for the body not to die because nothing can stop the
body from dying. When you see this truth, you will realise that if you
still have the desire for the body not to die, you will suffer deeply.
However, when you are contemplating, this is only at the level of
imagining the situation and you are preparing yourself to meet
the actual event, when something really happens to your body. If
you want to take the test, you have to find a place where you can
give up your body, like going to the forest and living with the wild
animals, which you might not know whether you are going to be
attacked by wild animals.
So, when you suddenly feel that you are about to be attacked, that
you’re going to die, then you will have to use this wisdom that you
have developed in your contemplation to teach the mind to let go
of the body, not to cling to the body, not to have the desire not to
die because when you have this desire not to die, you will suffer
but if you see that the body is going to die and you can do nothing,
— 378 —
32 | Q&A, December 27th, 2016
then you’re willing to let it go. Stop your desire from arising. When
there is no desire, then your mind becomes peaceful and calm.
And you might die but your mind is peaceful and happy. So, this
is the way how to abandon, to let go of the five aggregates. This
is the body part.
For the nāma-khandhas part, you have to deal with this painful
feeling which is dukkha-vedanā. For the other vedanās, there
are no problems. So, we have to deal with the one which is
problematic. The one that is problematic is dukkha-vedanā, painful
feeling.
First, when we get sick, we suffer and the reason why we suffer is
because we don’t want to get sick. We want to get well. This is the
cause of your suffering, not the sickness itself. But it’s your desire
not to get sick or desire to get well, so you have to use wisdom to
see that you cannot force the dukkha-vedanā to disappear. They
come and go by themselves. The only thing you can do when they
come is to just accommodate them: not to have the desire to get
rid of them, because when you have the desire to get rid of them,
you (will) have suffering. But if you have no desire, then you just
keep your mind calm and peaceful, and acknowledge the existence
of this painful feeling. Then, this painful feeling will not cause any
suffering. The cause of your suffering is your desire for the painful
feeling to disappear.
So, when you have painful feeling, teach your mind to remain calm,
accommodate the painful feeling, don’t deny it, don’t want to get
rid of it, then your mind will not suffer. Then, you can let go. This is
the way of letting go of your nāma-khandhas. The other khandhas
work in conjunction with the vedanā-khandha. So, you only have
to deal with vedanā-khandha. Saññā, saṅkhārā, viññāna are just
parts of the group. But dukkha-vedanā is the leader. If you can deal
with the leader, then the other three fall in line. So, you don’t have
to worry about saññā, saṅkhārā, viññāna. You’re actually ‘changing’
— 379 —
saññā, saṅkhārā, viññāna. Saññā tends to tell you that this

vedanā is controllable. You can change it but the truth is you cannot
change it. We change it by moving the body around. When we sit
and feel painful, we move the body. So, the pain disappears. So,
we think that we can manage the feeling. But there are times when
you get sick and there is nothing you can do, even with medicine.
Sometimes the medicine will not help either. You know that this is
something that you cannot change but you can live with it and it
cannot make you suffer if you have no desire for it to disappear.
So, the problem is your desire to have the painful feeling disappear.
So, if you can stop this desire and accept the painful feeling, then
you don’t have to do anything. When you get sick, you just remain
peaceful and calm, and then the sickness will come and go. The
painful feeling will come and go, and your mind will not be hurt
by the painful feeling.
Question: I read Luangpor Tate’s book where he states that

wisdom can be developed only in upācāra or neighbourhood
samādhi because jhāna is too deep and the mind is inactive or
passive in that state. Can Ajahn explain why jhāna, but not upācāra
samādhi, is required to gain insight or wisdom? (Melbourne)
Than Ajahn: The mind has two modes. The mind has the samādhi
mode and the vipassanā mode. First, you have to develop the
samādhi mode to strengthen the mind. Without samādhi, without
jhāna, the mind is weak. It cannot resist the desire. That’s why we
fall prey to our desires. Whenever we have the desires, we cannot
stop them: we have to do what our desires ask us to do. So, we
become slaves to our desires. But if we can develop jhāna, we can
build strength for the mind to resist our desires. But we sometimes
don’t know that our desires are the causes of our suffering. So, we
need to develop wisdom by understanding the Four Noble Truths
that the Buddha discovered: that our suffering arises from our
desires. This is what we have to do outside jhāna.
— 380 —
When we are in jhāna, the mind stops thinking, so we cannot

develop vipassanā. We have to come out of jhāna. Then, we can
use the mind to think and analyse the Four Noble Truths: ‘When I
suffer, it is because I have desire. And when I see that everything
is aniccaṅ, dukkhaṅ, anattā, then I can stop my desire. When I stop
my desire, my suffering disappears.’ So, you have to use this when
you come out of samādhi, when you face the problem. When you
are in samādhi, the problem cannot go into your samādhi. You have
to come out. When you come out and you meet someone, and he
starts to scold you and say bad things about you, then you start to
suffer. Then, you have to use vipassanā, ‘See, I’m suffering. Why?
It’s because I have the desire for him not to scold me.’ Right?
Usually, we have the desire for people to say nice things to us. We
don’t want people to say bad things about us. So, when they say
bad things about us, we feel bad. But we don’t have to feel bad if
we understand the nature of the way people say things. We cannot
control them. They are anattā. They can say anything they want but
we have to suffer if we can’t accept what they say. Do not reject!
Do not wish that they say something else.
So, this is how we solve our problems. We have to solve them

when things really happen. When you face suffering, use the Four
Noble Truths to stop your suffering. When you have suffering, you
can automatically presume that it’s your desire that causes you
to suffer. Like when someone says bad things about you and you
suffer. Why? It’s because you don’t want people to say bad things
about you. But you cannot stop them from not saying bad things.
You cannot stop them, right? So, what can you do, then? You
cannot stop them. You stop your desire instead. Let them talk. Let
them say anything they want. When you let them do anything they
want and you don’t react, then nothing happens to you. You don’t
feel bad or anything like that. You feel bad because you react. You
don’t want them to say bad things about you.
— 381 —
But they are like wind. Can you stop the wind from blowing? Do
you feel bad when the wind blows? Because you accept it, right?
You let the wind blow, right? You have no desire to wish the wind to
stop blowing, so you don’t feel bad when the wind blows. But when
the wind comes out of the mouth of people, you feel bad because
you want them to stop since you don’t like this kind of wind! You
don’t like this kind of sound.
So, you have to solve the problem inside yourself, not with other
people, with other things. People, [what] they say, you cannot control
them—cannot force them to do as you want them to do. But you can
stop your suffering by telling your mind to stop, having no desire
towards those people or things. Don’t have any desire for them to
do this and do that, to say that and say this; just let them be. That’s
the whole point. So, if you can let them be, then whatever they do
to you will not cause you any suffering.
Question: So, he said wisdom can be developed in upācāra

-samādhi?
Than Ajahn: Actually, not upacāra: in actual life. When you live day
to day, when you face the problem, then you have to use wisdom
to solve your problem. If you have wisdom, you solve it inside here.
You don’t solve it outside. But if you have no wisdom, you go solve
it outside. If you run out of money, you find more money. But with
wisdom, you say, ‘If you have no money, then don’t spend any
money.’ Stop spending it. Then, your problem is solved, alright?
Question: When I have ill will, I cannot enter into jhāna, but only
when I have jhāna then I can have a pure mettā and be free from
ill will. How can I break this cycle?
Than Ajahn: Well, when you are out of jhāna, then you have to
maintain your jhāna by maintaining your mindfulness. See, your
jhāna can be maintained once you come out of jhāna. The peace,
— 382 —
the feeling of goodwill still remains if you stop your mind from
thinking in the way of desire. As soon as you think in the way of
desire, then the goodwill will disappear because your desire will
take over it. You will do what your desire wants you to do. And,
you want to crush them whoever opposes against you. Then, your
goodwill will disappear and your ill will comes back. You have to
maintain mindfulness to prevent your desire from arising. Then,
you can maintain your goodwill. Or you can use wisdom when you
come out and try to use wisdom to crush your desire. Any time. If,
whenever you want to do something that will hurt other people, you
say, ‘This is not the right way to do it,’ then you can still maintain
goodwill. But if you cannot stop your desire, then you might start
to cause other people harm.
Question: When I was at the stage where my breath disappears,

the moment I think that I just want to go back to knowing, I lose
the concentration. What should I do when my breath disappears?
Where do I focus my attention on?
Than Ajahn: At the disappearance of the breath, at the emptiness,

don’t think. Just keep focusing. Just be aware that there is no longer
any breath; just be aware, pure awareness. Don’t think.
Question: I didn’t feel a quick ‘woop’ but a very slow feeling of falling
and together with it there was tension energy moving downwards.
I felt my head was dropping too. I have been stuck at this stage for
3months, what should I do to progress from here?
Than Ajahn: Can you explain again what he means? Is it from the
same person? Tell me whether he was sitting, in samādhi or what?
Anna: Yes, luangpor, he said that there is a feeling of the quick

‘woop’ like falling down into samādhi but he said that for him there
was no quick ‘woop’ but a slow falling down.
— 383 —
Than Ajahn: It can be either way, no problem.
Anna: and then his head was dropping and how can he progress…?
Than Ajahn: Just keep maintaining mindfulness. If you’re using

the breath, just keep focusing on the breath, and nothing else. As
long as your mind doesn’t think and your mind remains calm, then
it’s good enough for now. Maybe that’s all you can do because the
strength of your mindfulness is not strong enough to force it to go
deeper since you still work. You still use a lot of thought in your
work. So, you won’t be able to get the kind of result that a monk or
someone who is not working gets. This is because he has more
time to develop stronger mindfulness. And that can force or pull
the mind inside deeper. So, you should be happy with whatever
you have right now.
Question: Is it a slow falling down?
Than Ajahn: OK, as long as you don’t think and you feel good from
it; it’s ok if your mind is calm and peaceful.
Question: I have a question regarding meditation. Before starting

meditation with my object of meditation which is the breath, I will
perform scanning of my body starting from my head to toe. However,
sometimes I felt strong pulse or beat on my head. Was I doing it
correctly? If no, how can I get rid of this strong pulse?
Than Ajahn: If you want the mind to become concentrated and

calm, you have to focus only on one object, either your breath
or some other parts of the body and stay there. Don’t scan the
whole body. Just stay in one place like your breath or you can use
a mantra. You can recite ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’. Then, your
mind can become concentrated and calm. Otherwise, you will not
become calm because you move the mind around.
— 384 —
Question: And there was a strong pulse or beat on my head.
Than Ajahn: Just ignore it.
Question: May I know how I can stop myself from losing my temper
so easily when someone makes me angry? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: You don’t have mindfulness. If you have mindfulness,

when you get angry you know it right away. And you can stop it
right away by using the mantra or you can radiate mettā, loving-
kindness. Forgive the person. Don’t mind the person. Look at them
like children. They are like children, so they don’t know what they
do. Don’t mind them. But if you don’t have mindfulness, then you
become angry easily, react right away. And you cannot stop your
anger. So, you need to develop more mindfulness first. And if you
want to use wisdom, you have to treat the persons like a force of
nature. You cannot stop them from doing anything. If they want to
do something to hurt you, you cannot stop them. But you can stop
yourself from getting hurt by not getting angry: by accepting that
when you live in this world, there are things that you have to face,
you have to meet. And the only way to face them in a happy way
is to ignore them. Don’t mind them. Let them be. Don’t have any
desire for them to go away, to disappear or to change.
Question: After death there is no more breath or body to be mindful

of, so what type of mindfulness should there be when there is no
body? Can we still mentally recite ‘buddho’ after death? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: The mind then has to use the mindfulness that it has
developed at that point and the mindfulness will then be the one
that directs the mind. It’s like when you go to sleep. When you go
to sleep, then actually it’s not your mindfulness anymore that will
control your mind but your kamma. Your good and your bad kamma
will be the one that will control your mind. If your bad kamma is
— 385 —
strong, then it will create bad dreams for you. If your good kamma
is stronger, it will create good dreams. And when you have good
dreams without the body, it means you’re in heaven. If you have
bad dreams, it means you are in hell. So, once you die, then you
cannot control your mind. The kamma will take over.
Question: Can we still recite ‘buddho’ after that?
Than Ajahn: Try it. I don’t know. You don’t need to anymore, right?
Once you die, then the pain of the body will disappear. Then, it’s
like falling asleep. It goes into a different state.
Question: Can we still develop mindfulness when we’re not alive?
Than Ajahn: When you are alive, you cannot develop it. How do
you expect to develop it when you die?
Question: Do they still have vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā, viññāna

after death?
Than Ajahn: Yes, like when you have bad dreams, you have bad
vedanā. When you have good dreams, you have good vedanā, you
see. And your good dreams or bad dreams rely on your saññā and
saṅkhārā that you develop when you’re still alive. When you do
good kamma, you’re developing saññā and saṅkhārā to think in a
way of good kamma. And when you do bad kamma, your saññā
and saṅkhārā will think in a way of bad kamma. So, when you die,
then they will replay themselves, like the movie that you shoot with
your video camera. Then, when you play it back, you play it back
exactly the same thing that you did before.
Question: I was reviewing your instructions on the 10 ways of

making merits, and I was hoping you could elaborate on #7 which
was humility and modesty. I find that in the west, people are
encouraged to boast about their strengths and accomplishments
— 386 —
and modest people often get overlooked. What does this quality
look like and how does one develop it? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: Because humility makes you calm and peaceful. You
don’t have to prove anything to anybody. But once you boast how
strong you are, how good you are, you have to keep trying to show
that you really are and sometimes when you cannot show it, you feel
frustrated and angry. So, it’s better to be humble. Then, you don’t
have to do anything, to prove anything to anybody. The result is it
makes your mind calm and peaceful. But when you are not humble,
it causes your mind to be agitated, restless, and frustrated because
you want to show yourself how good you are and sometimes you
cannot show it or do it, you know. But if you do it, you want to better
yourself more of it, so it will just only hurt yourself more. You don’t
find peace and happiness from boasting or trying to be conceited.
But when you’re humble, it is so nice, so comfortable. You don’t
have to do anything. You don’t have to compete with anyone. If
you want to be number 1, go ahead. I’d rather be number 10, so
what? Number 1 and number 10 die anyway. And you don’t hurt
other people’s feelings also because if you are always number 1,
people will hate you for it, right? But if you are number 10, nobody
hates you. People will sympathize with you.
Question: Some people give gifts to their children’s schoolteachers

by saying that they made a donation to a charity in their honour. I
am under the impression that only departed relatives in the realm
of hungry ghosts can benefit from such gifts. I’m wondering if the
teacher can benefit from such a gift? (Canada)
Than Ajahn: When you give gifts, the persons who receive the
gifts will benefit first of all, right? If you give away something, the
person who receives the gift will be happy. And you, the giver also
feel happy. Then, you can share this happiness with the people
who have already died.
— 387 —
Question: May I ask how to help my daughter who always has

health problem and needs to go through pains. She is only 4 years
old this year but has gone through 2 surgeries. I know the duty
as laypeople is to follow five precepts closely daily. I also recite
Buddhaguna chant and make monthly donation. However, it seems
that it does not help my daughter much. Bhante, can you please
advise how to help my daughter?
Than Ajahn: Well, actually the problem is not your daughter. The
problem is you. Because you suffer when you see your daughter
suffer. So, you have to deal with your problem first. You must not
suffer because your daughter suffers. And in order for you not to
suffer, you have to look at kamma. The Buddha said, ‘People are
what they are because of their past kamma.’ So, if your daughter
is suffering, it’s due to her bad kamma in the past that causes her
to face its consequence and nothing you can do, except you can
send her to the doctor in the hospital but whether she suffers or not,
you don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t suffer. If she’s a Sotāpanna,
she doesn’t feel any pain. She won’t suffer. So, the problem is not
your daughter. The problem is you. You suffer because you see
your daughter suffer and you don’t want her to suffer.
If you want to get rid of your suffering, then you must not want her
not to suffer. You have to leave it to her own kamma. If she has good
kamma, maybe she only suffers the pain of the body but not the
mind. The mind might be peaceful and calm. But you cannot help
her because this is the consequence of her past kamma. But you
can solve your problem by accepting that it’s the work of kamma,
the consequence of kamma and there is nothing you can do about
it, except whatever you can do with the physical part, like sending
her to a doctor, to a hospital and whether she will get well or not,
is up to the doctor, up to the medicine. And whether she suffers or
not, you don’t know because her mind might not suffer. If she has
Dhamma, she might be able to let go of her painful feeling. So,
— 388 —
there is nothing you can do, regarding her. But what you can do is
regarding yourself. You don’t have to suffer with her by accepting
that this is her kamma, the consequence of her kamma. And try
just to do the best you can for her.
Question: So, the daily chanting and monthly donation is for

himself?
Than Ajahn: Yes, more for himself than for her.
Question: Maybe this question is asked many times. What is

actually the duty of a monk? When I see the monks here in Europe it
seems like they are only going for traveling; they like to visit as many
countries as possible. They go for opening of a new restaurant,
getting a new car, a new house etc. Some monks teach meditation,
but some are tricky in the way that you have to donate money and
so on. So, what is actually the duty of a monk and what should a
monk who stays abroad actually have to do? (Europe)
Than Ajahn: Well, the first duty of the monk is to study the Dhamma
teaching. Second, apply that teaching to his practice. Thirdly,
become enlightened from the practice. Once he becomes
enlightened, the fourth duty is to propagate the teachings to other
people, share this teaching, share this enlightenment to other
people.
But monks nowadays don’t follow this rule. Once they’re ordained,
they hardly study or practice and they wait for the opportunity just to
go and make money. They are waiting for invitation from laypeople
to invite them to their houses to chant on their birthdays or on any
anniversary or on whatever occasion. This is what they thought is
the duties of the monks nowadays. They don’t think about studying.
They don’t think about practice. They don’t think about becoming
enlightened. All they know is when they become monks they learn
— 389 —
how to chant because if they can chant, then they will be invited
to people’s houses. When they are invited to houses, they get
money in return. And once they have enough money, then they go
travel. They can go buy things and so forth. So, this is what most
monks do when they go abroad. They seek opportunity for them
to go overseas. And there is a market for them because once lay
Buddhists go abroad, they need spiritual support. So, they feel
that by inviting monks who stay in the same town, they can then
rely on the monks to bless them, and bless the houses or bless
their business. So, this is turning to be a commercialized type of
Buddhism, not the spiritual type of Buddhism.
If you want to look at the spiritual type, you have to follow the
forest tradition. Most monks who are in the forest tradition don’t
go out on invitation. They go live in the forest, practice with the
meditation teachers until they become enlightened. Once they
become enlightened, they then separate from the teachers and
develop a monastery and teach the people and monks how to
meditate and how to become enlightened. These are really the
duties of the monks. And this has been done since the time of the
Buddha.
The Buddha first studied. Then, he practiced. He became

enlightened. Then, he started to spread the Dhamma: to teach
other people about the Dhamma. That’s all he did. Every day
he had three sessions of teaching. In the afternoon he taught
laypeople. At night he taught the monks. After that he taught devas,
spiritual beings. That’s all he did. Just teach the Dhamma because
nothing is as good as the Dhamma. But, people nowadays have
been led astray, lost their way, because nobody pays attention to
the teaching. Nobody studies the teaching and so the tradition
gradually mutates from studying to becoming more like ritualistic
and now people think Buddhism is all ritual, about chanting, about
giving dāna. When you give dāna, monks chant for you and your
— 390 —
business will be prosperous. Your life will be long. You will live long.
All your sufferings will disappear. But that’s not it. That’s a sad truth
but that’s the way it is.
Question: Hope Ajahn can advise, as I would like to strive and

attain Sotāpanna in this very life. It is my aspiration to enter
the stream and become a stream enterer (Sotāpanna) in this
very existence. Some teachers say we can get Sotāpanna just by
listening to the Dhamma. Some say meditation is the only way to
achieve Sotāpanna. Can we enter the stream by listening to the
Dhamma, or must we also meditate? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: It depends on how much strength you have in your

mind. If you have a strong mind, you can let go of your desire. You
can attain it without sitting in samādhi. But if your mind is weak,
doesn’t have the strength to resist your desire, then you have to
meditate first: to calm your mind, to develop samādhi first. Once
you have samādhi, then you have to understand the nature of the
body that it is impermanent. It doesn’t belong to you and you have
to give it up one day. And if you can let it go, then you can become a
Sotāpanna. So, it depends on what you have developed. For some
people, they’ve already had samādhi. Like the Buddha, when he
first gave his sermon to the five ascetics, they’ve already had jhāna.
So, the Buddha said, ‘Let go of your body.’ They let go right away.
Like one of the five ascetics, the Venerable Aññā Koṇḍañña, he
saw ‘Whatever rises has to cease.’ He referred to the body. Once
the body is born, it’s going to die so don’t cling to it. When you cling
to it, you become sad. You suffer. If you let it go, you will not suffer.
But you don’t have the strength to let go, even though you know
that the body has to die, then you have to meditate to build up the
strength to let go, you see. Once you have the strength to let go,
then when it’s time for you to let go, you can let go.
— 391 —
Question: What is the intention behind frivolous speech? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: It’s a waste of time. When you say something, you just
say it and make it profitable, useful for the people who listen. Like
the Buddha, he only talked the Dhamma. He didn’t talk about the
weather, talk about politics and so forth because it’s a waste of time,
doesn’t benefit the mind. But when you talk about the Dhamma, then
the people who listen will benefit from that. Like here, almost two
hours, do we talk about politics? We talk only the Dhamma, right?
OK. So, don’t have frivolous talk, it’s a waste of time. But people
like to gossip. They like to gossip about that person, this person.
Oh! He’s richer than us. He’s better than us. He’s worse than us.
You know? What for? It doesn’t make us better or worse. OK.
Question: I am confused because nowadays people say they

practise vipassanā (insight) meditation such as rising and falling,
but the Buddha was enlightened by practising ānāpānasati. So
my question is if we practise ānāpānasati, is it just samatha or is
it also vipassanā? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: It is just samatha when you first do ānāpānasati. But

first, you have to calm your mind before you can teach your mind
vipassanā because a cloudy mind will not understand. You have
to have a clear mind. A clear mind has to be calm and peaceful.
So, you first have to prepare the mind for vipassanā. You have
to calm it first so you need ānāpānasati. When the mind is calm,
the Buddha can then contemplate on the impermanent nature of
everything. Everything comes and goes, rises and ceases, such
as the body, vedanā, and to cling to them will only cause you to
suffer. If you don’t want to suffer, then you have to leave them
alone. That’s vipassanā.
Question: Can Ajahn please define Non-self? (Malaysia)
— 392 —
Than Ajahn: Everybody has two parts, physical and spiritual. We

call it mind or the heart for the spiritual form and we call it body for
the physical form. It is the spiritual form that directs the body to do
things, so the body is Non-self, there is no-self in everything. The
notion of ‘self’ is created by the delusion of the mind. Everything is
part of nature. Even this body is part of nature. This body is made
up from the food that we eat. The food comes from the earth, from
the water, from the air, from the heat. So, there is nothing that is a
‘self.’ It’s just a notion created by the delusion of the mind. Once it’s
created, it comes out and sticks to the mind and causes the mind
to think that there is a ‘self’ in the mind, there’s a ‘self’ in the body.
And when you have a self, then you have attachment because
whatever is self, you think that it belongs to you and you have to
have it. If you don’t have it, then you suffer. So, you don’t want
to lose it. When you lose it, you suffer anyway. So, once you see
that everything is not ‘self,’ then you don’t cling to anything, like
we don’t cling to the wind. We don’t cling to the sun, the rain. We
leave them alone, right? They can come and they can go. They
can rise and cease, and that doesn’t bother us. But, with this body,
we claim to be ourselves, so when it rises, we’re happy, when it
ceases, we’re sad. We don’t have to be sad, if we look at the body
just like the wind, the water, and the rain. They come and go. They
rise and cease.
Question: I am a 36 years old male meditator and have been

meditating since 2015 using the mantra, ‘buddho’. For 10 years I
am stuck on the level of a Sotāpanna. Now this body is falling apart
(sicknesses). Can Ajahn give me advice?
Than Ajahn: Well, if you are a Sotāpanna, then you won’t be

affected by whatever happens to the body. You can let it be
because you know there is nothing else you can do. You cannot
stop it. You cannot prevent it from happening. If the body is going
to get sick, it’s going to get sick. If the body’s going to die, it’s going
— 393 —
to die. But you don’t have to suffer with it if you separate yourself
from the body. Look at your body like you look at other people’s
bodies. They are the same. When other people’s bodies get sick,
you are not hurt by them, right? But why should you be hurt by this
body? It’s the same thing. It doesn’t belong to you. It’s not you. It’s
a temporary possession. That’s all. So, you have to let it go when
it happens.
Question: I have always wanted to be a monk since I experienced

bhavaṅga when I was 16 (I’m now 20) but I still don’t know when
the right time for me to renounce is. I would like to ask when is the
best time to renounce? (Malaysia)
Than Ajahn: When you’re ready. You will know it yourself.

Everybody has to know when they are ready. When they are ready,
then they’ll become monks. When they’re not ready, they don’t
become monks.
Question: In my country, I saw a lot of teachers who teach

Dhamma in the wrong way. They said, they teach Dhamma based
on Tipiṭaka pāli books. Tipiṭaka is not wrong, but the way they teach
is wrong because all of them may not have experienced Dhamma
themselves. If they have experienced the Four Noble Truths, they
will have the Know-How to explain the Dhamma, so I think I must
help them, but the problem is that they reject me. I said that if they
hold on to the Tipiṭaka so tight, the result is that their ego gets
bigger and there is no wisdom in it. This is dangerous, so I wish
that they all were careful in their teaching. My question is: Dhamma
is not easy. It is different from worldly knowledge. What should I do?
Than Ajahn: You just practice on your part and don’t worry about
the people. Practice and become enlightened, and then you can
become a teacher yourself.
— 394 —
Question: (Showing a photo to Than Ajahn). The photo on the

right is a Thai Monk, Luang pho Sombat and on the left side is our
Buddhist teacher, Mr Corneles Wowor MA. Mr Wowor said Than
Ajahn and he stayed together side by side in Wat Bovorn, and
he was a monk for 7 vassas. He told us about Ajahn, so in last
October 2015, he and his wife went to see Ajahn. Does Than Ajahn
still remember Mr Corneles Wowor?
Than Ajahn: 40 years ago, in 1975. About 41 years ago, you know
people changed. Yes, I saw them for a few weeks and they were
monks. They shaved their heads. Now they are laypeople, 41 years
later. But if you listen to their talk, you can remember because
people’s speeches don’t change much like the bodies. They still
speak the same way. The other day I met a friend, way before I
became a monk and who I’ve never seen since then. When I saw
his face, I could not recognize him but when he started talking, ‘Oh,
yes. I know who you are.’
Question: Is it the same way we know someone from the past life?
Than Ajahn: Yes. It’s the patterns of their speeches, how they
talk. These things don’t change. Or the way they act with the body.
This habit comes with the mind, not with the body. That’s why when
you see people, sometimes you like them right away because
this is the way somebody you used to like behave or conduct and
so, you like them. It’s the same way with other people you don’t
like. When you see them you don’t like them. That’s because the
way they conduct themselves, not because of their faces or their
bodies. That is the mind. That is the manifestation of the mind.
Our actions are the manifestations of the mind. OK. That’s all the
questions for today?
Layperson: Thank you.
— 395 —
Than Ajahn: Thank you for all, for sending in the questions. If you
have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to send them in
and in about one month we’ll have another session like this. In the
meantime, may you all be well and happy.
Layperson: Sadhu, thank you Luangpor.
End of Discussion.
— 396 —
Biography
Phra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
P hra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto was born on 2 November 1947. His

father put him under the care of his grandmother, who was living
in Suphanburi, when he was two years old due to his father’s
demanding work schedule.
Phra Ajahn Suchart had an interest in the Dhamma since he was

in grade school at the Seventh Day Adventist Ekamai School
in Bangkok, which is now Ekamai International School. After
graduating high school, he went to study Civil Engineering at
California State University, Fresno (USA). He returned to Thailand
once he had completed his degree and was running an ice-cream
parlour for a short while.
An English Dhamma book on impermanence (anicca)— translated

by a foreign monk from the Buddhist Canon (Tipiṭaka)—inspired
him to search for a true happiness through ordination. Phra Ajahn
Suchart decided to become a monk when he was 27 years of age.
He was ordained at Wat Bovornives in Bangkok on 19 February
1975 with Somdet Phra Ñāṇasaṅvara—the late Supreme Patriarch
(Somdet Phra Saṅgharājā)—as his preceptor. His parents had
no objection to his ordination as it was his choice.
About six weeks after ordination, Phra Ajahn Suchart travelled to

Wat Pa Baan Taad to stay for the rains retreat with Luangta Mahā
Boowa Ñāṇasampanno in Udon Thani. He stayed there for nine
years from his first to his ninth rains retreat.
After his time at Wat Pa Baan Taad, Phra Ajahn Suchart returned to
Pattaya and stayed at Wat Bodhi Sampan, Chonburi, for one year.
He then moved to Wat Yansangwararam in 1984 and has resided
there until present. Phra Ajahn Suchart was conferred a monastic
title along with an emblematic fan on 5 December 1993.
— 399 —
Daily Schedule
6:00—7:30
Alms round at Baan Amphur
(approximate time depending on the season).
8:00—10:00
Morning meal and conversation with visitors
afterwards at the dining hall (except for Uposatha Days,
weekends, and national holidays).
14:00—16:00
Dhamma talk and conversation with visitors
at Chula-dhamma Sālā on Khao Chi-On.
Kindly visit Phra Ajahn within the scheduled time only.
— 400 —
Alms Route
— 401 —

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A collection of Dhamma talks in English

Phra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

A collection of Dhamma talks in English

Printed by Silpa Siam Packaging & Printing Co., Ltd.

‘Dhamma should not be sold like goods in the market place.’

Permission to reproduce the contents contained in this publication

This book is available for free download at:

Youtube Video Title Page

1. Layperson from USA, February 3rd, 2016 1

Than Ajahn: Do you have anything to say? Do you understand what

Thus, you don’t feel the pressure to have to contemplate on asubha

Than Ajahn: Yes, the Japanese monk. Ok. He was in close

Layperson: What about the practice of asubha, just to prepare

In order to let go, you have to constantly contemplate on aniccā

Layperson: I think I will still cling to my possessions.

Than Ajahn: What’s difficult?

Layperson: Yes, to a certain extent.

Than Ajahn: Maybe it is more on intellectual things that you desire

Layperson: Yes, and another kind of desire, to get there (meditation

You may have to go to the restroom, drink, eat or whatever. But

So, everything is like that. Everything will change or disappear. You

Layperson: A big mirage is a good analogy.

Than Ajahn: The Buddha said, ‘Everything is like bubbles.’ They

That’s what Lord Buddha called, ‘Nibbāna’, the permanent state of

Layperson: ’Buddho, buddho’ and then it goes the other way.

Than Ajahn: Bring it back to ‘buddho, buddho’. When you start

Layperson: I am less concentrated than I was, so my mind is

Than Ajahn: Because you’re not controlling it.

Layperson: Because I let the mind go (thinking without restraint).

Layperson: I just don’t want. Maybe it’s because of other things

Than Ajahn: It’s your desire, the desire to be free, to be able to

want to have more and more of something. They do it and then it

Layperson: Not worry about anything.

Question: Is upekkhā vedāna similar to Nibbāna? (Malaysia)

Than Ajahn: No, it is different. Upekkhā is a kind of feeling. There

Upekkhā is when the mind absorbed in jhāna. That’s the neutral

Question: What is the difference between Enlightenment and

Than Ajahn: Nibbāna is the result of the enlightenment. Once

Nibbāna is a state of mind; it is not a place. It is like purified water;

Question: After midnight, can I take some food as it is considered

Question: Please tell me the difference between dāna, puññā

When you do this, the result of dāna is puññā. Puññā means

Pāramī is the ten types of puññā that a person needs to develop

Question: How can I calm down the non-stop-wandering mind

Question: How can I meditate longer than 30 minutes?

Question: When I meditate for 30 minutes or an hour, should I

Question: Is the internal work of an upāsikā more important than

Question: When undergoing organ transplant, immediately after

Than Ajahn: Please ask the doctor as this is a medical question.

Question: My daughter is currently on medication for bi-polar

Than Ajahn: Kamma is complicated and is beyond our

Question: As I come from a Chinese Buddhist background, I am

Than Ajahn: Yes, you can.

May all of you be ever closer to the Dhamma goal.

Than Ajahn: It doesn’t matter where you are. What you do is

Sāmaṇera: My samādhi was good but I’ve lost it.

Than Ajahn: It is because you have stopped maintaining and

Sāmaṇera: It is not easy to stop thinking. When mindfulness

Sāmaṇera: In the beginning of my practice, it seemed like every

Sāmaṇera: I have the craving to go back to the peaceful state.

Sāmaṇera: How important is mettā in order to get samādhi?

Sāmaṇera: Is it better to stick to one kammaṭṭhāna or to develop

Than Ajahn: Basically, you have to develop the four protections