Ajahn Suchart
Question: Is it jhāna when the breath appears to
stop?
Than Ajahn: No, it only means that your mind is
watching the breath. It becomes jhāna when the mind enters calm where you no
longer pay attention to the breath. You go deeper and become calmer. You get to
the fourth jhāna when the mind stops paying attention to the body. The mind
becomes still and happy by itself. Sometimes it can still hear sounds or feel
the body, but the mind is not disturbed by what it hears or what it feels. This
is the fourth jhāna.
If you want to go deeper, you have to concentrate the
mind further. Then, you will go into the arūpa-jhāna. However, it is not
necessary to go to that deeper level. If you want to develop the mind to reach
enlightenment, you only need the fourth jhāna. After you withdraw from the
fourth jhāna, when you go back to the normal state of mind, you teach your mind
that everything that the mind craves for is impermanent. Everything will cause
you to suffer because it will change or it will one day disappear.
So, when your mind wants to have anything, it knows
that it’s going to end up in suffering. Then, you will not want to have
anything. You can stop your desires or your cravings for things and people.
Once you have no cravings and desires, there will be no mental agitation,
restlessness, anguish or suffering left in the mind.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 27, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
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[6:55 am, 01/04/2020] 💙 Angeline:
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