Throughout the year 2024 that has passed,
We have been training our minds appropriately.
And the mind is that which has the kilesas,
The mental defilements that cover over it.
We have greed,
Anger and delusion.
And this is normal.
Those who are born in this world still have varying levels of greed,
Anger,
Delusion.
The Buddha taught that if greed arises,
Never mind,
But just to know it in time.
But we don't follow greed which harms others,
On the level of which will make others lose their money and wealth.
So may we know moderation in the means how we will live our life,
Sufficient that we can get by.
We can earn a lot of wealth,
But we don't harm others.
And it's not breaking any sila,
Moral conduct.
And may we contemplate about nature,
The nature around us.
Each person is born having a status,
Be it a child of a farmer,
In agriculture,
A son of a rich person,
A business owner,
Or in various family lineages.
But we all have a right to have a breath.
Wherever we go,
We can have oxygen to breathe.
It's not owned by anyone.
Be it in Thailand,
In whatever province,
Or overseas,
There is no one that can stop you from breathing.
Even animals are free and are able to use this natural resource that is there to their needs.
But if we lose our breath just for a short span of time,
Every life won't be able to live on.
Or if the heart stops beating,
And there is no breath,
Then the life can't go on.
So can we see that this breath has immense value.
It makes our body to keep on living.
So we contemplate that since it's like this,
Then we should share with others.
The Buddha taught of giving dāna,
Which is sharing with others,
Appropriate to our means.
We know of the wealthy merchant Anattapindika and Lady Wisaka.
Their actions were examples since the time of the Buddha,
Along with other laymen and laywomen in the Buddha's time.
And coming to this era,
There are those who are making bhāramī,
Spiritual accumulations,
And who have sacrificed for others' benefits.
And it's not just giving donations.
The Buddha praised of building public benefit.
The Buddha taught to give up the stinginess we have.
And those who train in this often,
Then we can say that greed can't control our minds to have greed arise.
And the Buddha taught us further to bhāvanā,
To cultivate this mind.
We will gain knowing,
Awakening,
And be inwardly joyous by coming to look at the mind.
What is troubling our mind?
And each mind has natural tendencies.
It has jealousy and envy.
Our mind,
When we don't like something which we have experienced or felt,
Then we are bound up by anger,
Ill will,
And wishing to harm.
This is normal for when the defilements cover over the mind.
So we need to train our minds.
Those who have trained the mind well,
Will have happiness.
They will have peace of the mind.
So we have to train in it often,
Do it often,
Do it a lot,
And do it consistently.
In the beginning,
We come to respect the Buddha,
Dhamma,
Sangha as our refuge,
As an object of our heart.
It is the supreme refuge in our life.
And through the whole year that has passed,
We have been sincere in this.
But sometimes the defilements will have more strength than our goodness,
Than our sila,
Samādhi,
Paññā,
The morality,
Concentration,
And wisdom.
The defilements win over us.
But if we walk in the supreme ways of Dhamma practice,
That is sila,
Samādhi,
Paññā,
Then it will have more strength,
And then we can win over the defilements.
So in our heart is a fight,
Between the magga,
The noble path,
And the defilements,
Of who will be held as the owner of this heart.
But since birth,
It has mostly been the defilements covering over it.
So we need to make an effort,
Fight and win over that which covers over our minds.
And the quality of forbearance is our foundation that we need to train in.
And we need to uphold the principle that this forbearance is so that we will learn and study.
For children,
They study,
They're able to read and write,
They have forbearance,
To not go play about,
To play games,
And to not indulge in pleasures in other things.
Because learning subjects and knowledges is to get an occupation,
So that we can get a livelihood,
In order to support this body.
So then we won't have to always depend on our parents to look after us.
Because our parents won't be with us forever.
We need to be able to earn a livelihood by ourselves.
One's self is one's own refuge.
The parents are ones who promote and support the children to have knowledge and wisdom,
So that they're able to help themselves.
And the Dhamma practitioner is the same.
The Krupa Ajhons,
The enlightened teachers tell us,
Venerable Ajahn Chah teaches us,
For us to practice.
But he can't make us good.
The Buddha is simply the one who teaches.
The Krupa Ajhons are those who teach and tell.
So we practice,
And we train our minds.
He teaches us to endure,
So we endure.
We bear with it.
We train in developing sati,
Mindfulness,
And samadhi,
Concentration,
Until we can have samadhi arise.
There is a small amount of samadhi,
Which we call khanika,
Momentary peace.
Then the samadhi that is better will arise.
But we have to put down doubts first.
The doubts that we have are normal,
And we put it down.
We follow him first.
When we follow and develop mindfulness and meditation like this,
We mentally repeat the meditation words,
Or it can be,
And then the mind is peaceful and still.
This is samadhi arising.
We will see with wisdom,
And we can see the truth.
Why would we have greed,
Anger,
Delusion for this body?
The in-breath arises,
Persists,
And then there is the out-breath,
And this life would end.
But we want to add more oxygen in to continue life on,
So we can see life continues on like this.
But whenever the in-breath stops,
Then instantly all that we have in this world all crumbles and falls apart.
We can be someone who has lots of wealth,
Lots of status,
Lots of praise and pleasures,
But it will all fall apart instantly just with this tiny breath.
So we see this,
And are not careless.
We're not heedless.
Like someone with a heart condition,
Three of their heart vessels are blocked,
And they walk and are already tired.
They break out in a sweat,
And the body can lose its life.
They can't handle it,
And are worried,
And have to quickly go see a doctor.
They need the doctor to help them.
Their heart vessels are almost 100% blocked.
Then we will see that death is just in a small blood vessel.
It's a tiny thing.
And we won't know that in this body what illnesses are already there.
So we can't be careless.
We need to be quick.
And sometimes there are those who practice and train.
They want to meditate,
But they may have something in their heart that comes up to obstruct them first.
Or it can be death as an obstruction.
It can be the gilesa mara,
The defilements that obstructs one.
But those who are determined to practice sincerely,
It shows they have merit in Barami already.
So all through the year that has passed,
We've been able to survive with our lives.
So it shows that we have merit in Barami,
That our life hasn't yet ended.
We have the breath and a strong body.
And some who have had illnesses can cure it.
Some people have severe illnesses,
But they can treat it and can be cured of it from their merit in Barami.
So we have to not be careless anymore.
Because in this new year that is coming up in 2025,
We have to be resolute.
We have hopes and wishes that we want new things for ourselves.
And the body wants new things as well.
The breath goes in,
The breath goes out.
And we want a new breath for oxygen to be added all the time.
And we want new things in our life for it to be better.
New clothes,
A house,
A bedroom that is clean.
And even if it was built many years ago,
It's cleaned and can be like new as before.
As for the moods and mind states of the mind,
We have to have a new mind.
A mind that has value.
A mind that is better.
We need to have good mindfulness and wisdom.
We need to train ourselves to know and to be able to get to the heart of the Dhamma.
The Buddha taught that for us to gain wisdom,
To contemplate into aniccaṃ dukkhaṃ anatta,
Impermanence,
Unsatisfactoriness and not-self,
This is wisdom.
Venerable Ajahn Chah taught that whatever moods and mind state arises and we have liking or disliking,
Then to have impermanence,
Unsatisfactoriness and not-self there.
Let our minds be in the present moment,
In seeing arising and ceasing in the present moment.
We will have mindfulness and wisdom arise.
Then our minds will be newer.
But if we don't do this,
And we just leave the mind and follow the moods and desires,
And we don't practice at all,
Then in our life,
In the morning the sun will rise and we'll be following our moods and desires every day.
The sun sets.
There is day and night.
There is darkness and light.
But life doesn't change at all.
In the heart there is no change at all.
We should think that,
All right,
I have enough already.
Some people are wealthy and rich,
They have everything already,
And they still drink alcohol.
They can drink anything they want because they have money.
Someone asked me,
What should I do?
I can quit alcohol if I want.
I thought of the words of Venerable Ajahn Chah's teaching,
That he taught,
Okay,
When you're still drinking alcohol,
Then drink less.
Drink less.
Say,
If in one week you drink seven days,
You reduce it to six days,
And within each day reduce the amount more and more,
And contemplate the drawbacks of drinking alcohol.
Contemplate the benefits of not drinking alcohol.
You can then train in samadhi,
And make the mind be firmly concentrated.
Because if our mind is not concentrated at all,
And the intoxicating drinks come in,
Then it is chaotic.
The mind won't be able to be well concentrated.
And it is the cause of chaotic things to be in our day to day life,
Because alcohol is a major cause of it.
So when you do still drink alcohol,
You need to use contemplation,
So that your minds become newer.
If you can give it up,
Then you gradually give it up and quit it.
Some people make excuses that,
I have no time to practice.
Ajahn Chah asked,
Well,
Do you have time to breathe?
If we have time to breathe,
Then we have time to practice.
This is to have mindfulness to know things as they arise,
And to make the mind be more firmly concentrated.
So in the new year 2025 that is coming,
May your hearts be determined,
And resolve that the old year is passing,
And in the upcoming new year,
We will train our minds to be better.
We have had greed,
Anger,
Delusion arise,
But we will make it come up less and less,
So that we can get a new mind.
A mind that has more purity.
This will be through us having mindfulness and wisdom,
To contemplate that mood,
Mind state,
And see it as impermanent,
Unsatisfactory,
And not self.
Being a child,
Be diligent in your studies.
All those obstacles to your studies,
Try to give them up.
Try to know and associate with people who have mindfulness and wisdom.
This is important.
This is associating with wise people,
And not with fools.
And give Puja,
Homage to those worthy of homage.
This is the blessing of our life.
Whatever is a blessing contained within the 38 highest blessings,
And we will do it a lot.
That is,
We will cultivate our minds a lot.
And this will have benefit to our life,
In this very life.
Because the days and nights are passing by,
Passing by.
And it's not just that the days and nights are passing,
But it's swallowing up our lives along with it.
May you all set up in your minds and hearts that this day is the last day of 2024,
And shortly we will enter 2025.
And it's the day to start building goodness,
Virtue,
And inner beauty.
To build our merit and barami.
So may you be determined to do it.
Being a child,
Then be diligent to study.
Being an adult,
Then be diligent to do work and all your duties.
And be diligent in training your minds to be better.
To meet with brightness.
To have the dhamma arise.
To have jhāna,
Insight.
To have jhāna,
Meditative absorptions arise.
The Buddha said,
Insight arose in me.
Light arose in me.
So we practice to have the inner Buddha arise in our hearts.
So may you all meet with happiness and prosperity.
May you have good health and strength of body.
In all your aspirations that are within the boundaries of sila dhamma.
May you achieve them all.
