Dhamma with Ajahn Sujin

(Excerpt from a Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin Boriharnwanaket on Zoom on Sat Nov 19th 2022.) 00:00 - Is there now? [A. Sujin] I think that we shouldn't forget that a newcomer is a newcomer, no idea at all about the truth about life about any moment. That’s why if we just give her or that person many many things, many many words not familiar to that person at all, what would that be? That's why I think that the question or food for thought for considering is most important for anyone's own understanding even it seems... sometimes one may think like it's too easy, or crazy or not suitable at all, but in truth, can there be the answer to: is there now? Just very simple [question], is there now? Newcomer, can someone stand for the newcomer? For the newcomer, what's that "is there now?". What is "now"? What is the meaning of "is there now?" Is it true or not true? Beginning to consider the truth, what is the answer for this...

(Excerpt from the EN-CN Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin on Zoom on Sun Nov 6th 2022. Reflections on the Bhudda's Teachings in Magandiya Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya #75 of the Pali Tipitaka.) [Vincent] Ajahn, would you like to comment (about Pal's lost and found/new cat). [A. Sujin] Yes, just talk about the truth, to understand what one takes for something: I or things like cat or I. Isn't now everyone sick? What's the answer? The truth is the answer. [Pal] Yes, we are sick. [A. Sujin] So, would you like to see the doctor, to get the medicine for the disease or sickness? [Yes] Okay, that's why, in order to go to the doctor, if one doesn't know that one is sick, would one go to see the doctor? [No] So the truth is that no one realizes that one is always sick of a different kind of disease, [not] covid or cancer or anything, but the symptoms are not strong enough to be known. In the old days at the time of the previous Buddha, He talked about si...

(Excerpt from the Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin on Zoom on Sat Nov 5th 2022.) [A. Sujin] I think that we'd better understand what vinaya means, what is vinaya? Without any understanding of the danger of akusala, to live a more pure life than the lay life, can there be a monk, the follower of the Buddha? That's why those who have confidence in the truth of the Teachings about reality understand their own accumulations, how much ignorance, attachment and all kinds of akusala have been accumulated on and on and more and more and more when there is no understanding. So vinaya is for those who understand the truth: that is so very very difficult to live the lay life, to understand that there can be the way to live like the Buddha, away from lay people's life. That's why those who have confidence in the Teachings can be monk or lay people, not only monks because pañña, right understanding, can be developed at any time or in any place, everywhere. That's...

(Excerpt from the EN-VN Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin on Zoom on Sun Oct 16th 2022.) [A. Sujin] Today we've heard about the progress of understanding the path leading to the letting go of the very deep attachment and ignorance of whatever is there now and anytime. The understanding of the truth of what is there now is not lost at all, it is gradually enrooted, the firm confidence of the truth that nothing can be done. Why not? It's already there, by conditions. So, before there can be thinking of changing it, trying not to make it [to be] this way or that way... it's there already, by conditions. Considering carefully, even it's just a little word, it can be enrooted, to develop on and on together with other understanding at any other moment. So pañña has to be with another reality like effort and patience, to develop, to understand the truth which is deeply down there arising and falling away. The most important thing is not to underestimate the very ve...