How To Not Waste Time | Online Retreat Oct 2024

Ajahn Anan emphasizes that this life is a rare and valuable opportunity to practice the Dharma, an opportunity often wasted on sensory pleasures and modern distractions. The core of the practice is the dedicated cultivation of mindfulness (sati) and collectedness (samadhi). To achieve this, one must:

- Reduce Input: Limit unnecessary sense impressions and media consumption, such as Facebook, which steals time and agitates the mind.
- Watch the Mind: Diligently observe the mind—is it liking or disliking? Chasing after or running away from a feeling?
- Contemplate Impermanence: Use wisdom to reflect on the unstable nature of defilements (greed, anger, doubt) and see the body and the world as merely conditioned formations (earth, air, fire, water).

The talk urges continuous effort, applied with sincerity but a balanced intensity to avoid stress. By persevering in this way, one can reduce suffering and eventually realize the truth, leading to a mind that is peaceful, empty, and radiant.

Transcript

So now we have the opportunity to listen to the Dhamma,

To learn about the path of practice.

We need to have mindfulness and wisdom to see the drawbacks and the cycle of the birth and death,

To contemplate,

To see that in this life,

Having been born into this lifetime,

We have a very good opportunity,

Which means we have merit,

We have a lot of merit and parami.

We have this time here where the Buddha's dispensation is here.

There's the Sangha practicing the Vinaya,

The discipline,

Practicing the Buddha's teachings,

All the way from the time of the Buddha to the recent masters like Venerable Ajahn Chah.

And we can read the texts,

The history,

The biographies about the mother-father great masters.

We can have faith arise,

For instance,

In Venerable Ajahn Mun and a great many senior monks,

Great elder monks,

Like Venerable Ajahn Chah,

Venerable Ajahn Mahabhua,

For example,

And practiced according to the Vinaya,

The monastic discipline,

Practiced the teachings,

And practiced the teachings of Venerable Ajahn Mun as well,

And succeeded to realize full awakening or arhantship.

So these are great masters that we have faith in.

So we see that in this life,

We have this great opportunity.

So we have effort and perseverance and striving,

And we strive according to the power of our faith or strength of our faith.

So we have faith arise and grow through study,

Through contemplation,

To see the value of Dhamma practice,

To see the drawbacks and not practicing.

So we have this faith already,

But the faith to strive,

To apply oneself and to practice is even more.

And this is important,

Because all these things in the world,

We get lost in them,

Lost in the pleasure of them,

Lost in the pleasure of sights,

Sounds,

Taste,

Smell,

Touch,

Mind,

Objects.

We get lost in them to a very high degree.

We get lost in them a lot,

And ends up wasting a lot of time.

We see that the world has developed a lot in the present day,

So we need to use wisdom to get value and benefit from this development,

From this worldly progress.

So we contemplate,

We gather in Dhamma retreats online like we are now.

And 50 years ago,

This didn't exist like this.

It was very difficult to find the chance to listen to Dhamma.

Even finding a Dhamma book to read was not easy.

But now it's a lot easier.

But other things are also easier.

In a single day,

We can receive a lot of news,

A lot of information,

And we receive a lot of unnecessary information,

A lot of unnecessary things.

And so that wastes our time,

Wastes our opportunity,

And it wastes our time that we could otherwise use to watch over the mind,

To train the mind,

To bring the mind to peace and collectedness.

So we receive a lot of these sense impressions and moods,

But the mindfulness and wisdom is not very much.

It's just a little.

And so the mind becomes agitated and unpeaceful,

And it's all lost in conventionality.

Everything it's lost in,

It's all convention or Samuti.

We receive these sights,

Sound,

Taste,

Smell,

Touch,

Mind objects,

We read,

We listen.

And it's all about the self,

All about me,

Mine,

You and yours.

And so the self arises,

That I'm listening,

I'm reading,

I'm listening or I'm reading about this or that,

And you and yours,

Me and mine.

And so it's all the sense of self right there.

So we need to be careful not to get lost in this,

Not to get lost in all these various things,

Like lost in kamatanha,

Craving for sense pleasures.

We can look at one example like movies.

In the past it was only highly developed countries that would have movies.

Then they would bring cars and projectors into a field to project a movie onto a screen in a field temporarily.

And then there became movie theaters in the bigger cities,

And then theaters in the smaller cities.

So it becomes easier and easier like this to get the pleasure of a movie.

And nowadays there's movies on phones that people have,

And so they can watch anything they wish,

Anywhere they go.

So it becomes a lot easier like this.

And even things that we haven't thought to seek out,

Or we didn't think that we were interested in,

People might send to us to watch.

Or there's also the AI,

Artificial intelligence,

Will suggest things for us to watch.

We open one thing to watch,

We might like it,

And then the program advises other things to watch.

And we didn't try to seek it out,

But it pops up.

And sometimes we're not able to stop ourselves,

And so we end up wasting a lot of time.

Our time is gone.

And so we understand that this is something that's deceiving us.

It's stealing our time.

This quality of liking or attraction,

It steals our time.

And so it becomes harder to sit and walk meditation,

To chant,

To meditate.

This becomes harder,

Because the mind keeps getting lost in these pleasures,

Lost in these things,

Like Facebook or Instagram and so on.

There was one disciple who was saying that we're all familiar with the five precepts,

And this precept about not drinking alcohol,

This disciple was saying that they don't drink often,

They don't drink a lot,

They don't get very intoxicated.

But this Facebook they look at every day,

And they get very drunk on it every day.

And so this disciple determined or undertook the extra precept not to look at Facebook.

So we can do that,

For instance,

For the period of the rains retreat,

To undertake not to look at Facebook as part of the fifth precept,

For instance,

Because it uses up a lot of our time.

Then we can use that time that we would otherwise be lost in Facebook or other websites,

To cultivate wisdom and contemplate.

Because we see that these things,

That they lack value,

They lack usefulness.

They don't help us to overcome suffering or decrease suffering.

So that which is important does have value.

This is cultivation of mindfulness and samadhi.

So we have effort and perseverance.

So we train in this way.

Because otherwise,

Getting lost in these things,

The opportunity to understand the Dhamma becomes more difficult.

Because the mind keeps getting lost and deluded in all these pleasures,

All these sense impressions.

The peacefulness and collectedness of mind reduces.

Then when we do come to sit in meditation,

The mind is very busy and distracted.

So we practice to receive less sense impressions,

Less moods and information,

To try to reduce it to only what's necessary.

In this way we have the time to listen to Dhamma,

Study Dhamma,

Contemplate Dhamma,

Discuss Dhamma.

Like all of you gathered online here,

You come to study the Dhamma,

To listen to Dhamma.

So this is a very good opportunity.

So we study to understand the Dhamma.

We need to have effort and perseverance,

The effort to abandon the unwholesome,

To have mindfulness.

We have various feelings,

Various impressions arise about this or that.

And we strive to let them go,

To put them aside.

And if we have this feeling like we want to go watch something or look at something,

Some kind of media,

Then we try to limit it to only certain periods of the day or certain times.

It's not that we just go watch something as soon as we feel like it.

But instead we watch the mind.

We keep a look after the mind.

We recollect to observe the mind.

We take a look at the mind.

Is it liking or disliking?

Is it chasing after or running away from anything?

Is it not chasing after or not running away?

And so we train like this.

And this is the way to see the Dhamma.

There was one occasion where I was practicing.

My body and mind felt very light and at ease.

There was rapture for a whole month long.

In every posture,

Sitting,

Standing,

Walking,

Lying down,

The mind had peace and collectedness.

And the mind felt like it was able to escape from the defilements,

Felt like Nibbana was close.

And so I was practicing and I was thinking that I could attain to the Dhamma.

It was close.

It was walking meditation,

Thinking in this way.

And after that walking meditation period,

I went to go listen to a talk from Venerable Ajahn Chah.

And usually in a talk,

He would talk about other things first.

But in this talk,

It was a very straight talk.

He immediately started talking about the path of not liking,

Not disliking,

Not chasing after,

Not running away from.

So teaching straight like that.

And I felt very touched deep in my heart,

Felt this great happiness and fullness in my heart hearing this teaching.

So we think and contemplate that in this life,

We have a very good opportunity.

We have the teachings of the great masters.

We have this opportunity to reach the end of suffering in this lifetime.

We can think,

Well,

How many lifetimes have we had without this opportunity?

Being born and dying without meeting liberating teachings or meeting great masters.

It's a very long time.

So in this life,

We have this great opportunity to study the Dhamma.

So may you do it with sincerity.

May you really apply yourself.

May you study with sincerity.

May you apply yourself to study.

You apply yourself to work,

And apply yourself to practice.

But don't be too intent.

Don't apply yourself too hard,

Because then you feel stressed and tight.

But apply yourself in just the right amount.

So in some societies outside of Thailand,

If people are too intent,

Or apply themselves too much,

Then problems arise,

Like feeling stressed,

Or rushed,

Or too uptight.

For instance,

In other countries,

There's this wanting to be on time,

Or doing things with a lot of sincerity,

Or the giving it one's all.

There's one story about this.

There was one monk at Wat Nong Pah Pong,

Venerable Ajahn Chah's monastery,

And the teacher said,

Well,

After eating,

Everyone hurry up and go gather in the meditation hall.

And he had this doubt arise.

Well,

They don't say to hurry every day.

So why did the teacher say to hurry today?

Is there some kind of danger?

Is there some kind of urgent or important business?

But really,

The meaning of what the teacher said on that occasion was not to waste time,

Not to get lost in doing unnecessary things,

Or not lost in talking with the other monks.

So the meaning of this was to apply oneself,

Or to have just the right amount of intention.

So in the Dhamma practice,

It's the same.

We apply ourselves just the right amount.

We have intent just the right amount.

We let go just right.

So we have effort not to chase after things,

Not to run away,

Not to get lost in attraction or aversion.

Whatever sense impressions arise,

We put them down.

We let them go.

If greed or ill will,

Anger,

Delusion,

Doubt arise,

We reflect.

It's unsure.

It's unstable.

We keep a watch over the mind like this,

And we keep teaching the mind like this.

If the mind doesn't listen,

Then we keep explaining again.

If there's anger,

Who are you angry with?

Who is the one that's angry?

Is this body really mine,

Really me,

Really you or yours?

Who is the one who's greedy?

Who's angry?

Who's doubting?

Who's sleepy?

Who's restless?

Or what am I angry at?

What am I greedy for?

So we see that it's really just these four elements,

The thing that we're angry with in truth.

It's really just a heap of earth,

Air,

Fire,

And water.

So we think a hundred years ago,

That person didn't exist.

In a hundred more years,

They won't exist.

So who is one loving?

Who is one hating?

Who is one getting all tied up in knots about?

And we see that it's really just earth,

Air,

Fire,

And water.

These natural elements arising,

Staying for a little while,

And ceasing,

Disintegrating.

So this is one example.

So we have wisdom,

We have effort.

And some people have effort ever since they're small children.

Like a relative of Venerable Sariputta,

At the age of seven years old,

His family wanted him to get married straight away at that young age,

Because Venerable Sariputta and his other relatives had already gone off to ordain.

But about this marriage,

This one person was giving a blessing to this young child,

And that person was quite elderly.

And so that seven-year-old relative of Venerable Sariputta,

He saw this elderly person giving the blessing,

And he saw that all conditioned formations really are of the nature to degrade and pass away.

They're all unstable.

So wisdom arose,

And he thought,

I can't live like this.

These sankaras,

These conditioned formations,

They're no good.

And so he ran away,

Ordained,

And had the mindfulness and wisdom to realize arahantship,

Full awakening.

So he had wisdom already.

So for all of you gathered here online,

You're building your spiritual virtues.

You're building your parami.

May you have a lot of effort in this.

May you patiently endure.

Sometimes you're peaceful,

Sometimes you're not.

But have patient endurance.

Sometimes,

Or don't have fear,

Don't have worry.

Sometimes it feels very torturous or very painful in this practice,

But don't worry about it.

This is just kilesa arising,

Defilement arising,

To make us feel hot and agitated.

So just keep a watch over that.

Have patient endurance.

Don't give up.

Don't stop in your practice.

Just like Venerable Ajahn Chah taught,

If you can keep practicing without ceasing,

You'll reach the goal all the same.

If you doubt a lot,

Just keep practicing without stopping,

You'll reach the goal all the same.

So we have this faith in the great masters,

And we follow their teachings,

And they taught us to have effort.

And for myself,

I had a great amount of doubt.

A lot of doubts every day.

Doubts were very thick,

And I felt very weary of this habit of mine,

This habit of doubt.

Just like those that are prone to anger,

They feel weary of their own anger,

Or those who are likely to feel greed.

They feel weary of their own greed,

Because they feel like they can't succeed against their defilement.

It makes the mind trouble and agitated,

And they can't find the way out.

But whichever way it is,

Have effort.

Don't give up.

Don't stop practicing.

Because whatever it is,

Whether it's greed,

Aversion,

Delusion,

Doubt,

Wishing to harm,

And so on,

They all arise,

Stay for a while,

And cease.

So if you really look at these defilements,

You see that there's nothing there.

It's just that much.

And sometimes we may doubt about the practice,

Thinking that,

Oh,

There's just so simple.

The kilesas say,

Why is it just this much?

The kilesas don't see the value in it.

But in truth,

It's of incredible value.

So watch over the mind.

Have effort.

Abandon the unwholesome.

Make effort to have the unwholesome not arise.

And cultivate the mind.

Have generosity,

Virtue,

And meditation.

Cultivate merit and goodness.

Have a lot of effort and perseverance.

So may you do this continuously.

Make your practice connected,

Even and continuous.

So you have faith already.

You have effort already.

So watch over the mind to give rise to wisdom.

Give rise to knowing.

To see the truth of condition formations.

In this way,

Suffering reduces,

Or suffering ends,

Or doubts end.

We know the path of practice.

So this is an important point.

We understand the teachings of the Buddha.

And we're practicing the Four Noble Truths of suffering,

Its cause,

Cessation,

The path leading to that cessation.

Venerable Ajahn Chah didn't teach a lot of different things.

But he took the monks to practice,

Took his disciples to practice,

To sit meditation,

Walk meditation,

To cultivate the mind.

And to keep cultivating mindfulness and wisdom in order to see conventionality clearly,

To see samuthi.

Then with this,

The mind can abandon kilesa temporarily,

With what we call a tatanga nibbana,

Temporary nibbana.

Seeing convention,

Seeing liberation,

Seeing the dhamma,

The mind becomes empty and spacious.

At this point,

The mind is joyful and radiant.

So may you all have effort in this.

May you all strive and set your hearts on this.

May you grow in dhamma and grow in blessings.

Reviews

Thank you for sharing last year’s retreat dhamma talks. So very inspiring and instructive! I will listen to this again.

🙏🏾 2025