The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart
Fri, 3 June 2022
Question: When someone is diagnosed with
psychosis as in schizophrenia disease can he still meditate?
Than Ajahn: To meditate, you need to have
mindfulness. When people have mental illness, it means they 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 drunker is similar to a
person with mental illness. The reason why he becomes mentally ill is because
he lacks the ability to control his emotions 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 pure mental illness, it has nothing to do with the body.
…….
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. Is taking the medication
against the 5th precept about intoxication?
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. But as far as for the mind, you don’t need medication. What you
need for the mind is calmness. The only way to make the mind calm is to
meditate, to concentrate the mind on one object and make it to become peaceful
and calm. After you have the ability to calm the mind, when you come out of
that state, you should use contemplation to teach the mind to let go of the
body, and so when anything happens to the body, it will not hurt the mind. This
is the goal of Buddhist meditation, to free the mind from being hurt by the
body illnesses or its dissolution.
By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
Youtube: Dhamma in English
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g
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