Overcoming Suffering Through Effort | 3 May 2024

Ajahn Anan stresses the importance of effort and perseverance on the spiritual path and in personal growth. He teaches that success on the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, leading to freedom from suffering, depends on sincere effort, not just external support. People face varying challenges—some lack resources, while others are distracted by comfort—but true success comes from inner qualities like determination and spiritual virtues.

Through stories of resilient individuals, Ajahn Anan illustrates how enduring hardship leads to growth. He advises cultivating goodwill to overcome inner obstacles like anger and doubt, likening persistence to rubbing sticks to create fire; sustained effort ultimately yields results.

Ajahn Anan concludes that in both worldly and spiritual pursuits, continuous effort leads to peace, understanding, and liberation from suffering.

Transcript

We are determined to have effort and perseverance in training our minds to be better.

In this effort,

Perseverance is important.

The Buddha taught that one will become free from suffering because of effort.

And the Buddha said that the Noble Eightfold Path is the Supreme Path.

Everyone is able to walk this path,

Towards the Buddha,

To awakening,

To Amata,

The deathless,

Towards peace and coolness.

And when people have right view and practice the Noble Eightfold Path,

Then this world will not be free of Arahants,

Enlightened beings.

So the important thing is having effort and determination on this Supreme Path.

In this we're talking about practicing the Dhamma.

Generally speaking,

For children,

They won't be able to practice Dhamma to the level of going to Nibbana.

Being a child,

We need to study and get an education.

Being a young novice monk,

We need to start out by studying.

We people are born and have different levels of spiritual development and merit.

We people who are born and have parents and siblings,

Who are fully prepared to support their child to study and get the best education,

The parents and siblings are devoted to that.

But there are children who don't have much going for them in many aspects.

They don't have many people to support them,

But they are determined to study to the best they can.

But there are many who don't have determination like that,

And get discouraged already and lose hope.

They are discouraged because of their old karma,

And their mindfulness and wisdom is lacking.

Their efforts in past lives and in the present are too little,

And they don't get to their goal.

There also may be a child who has completeness,

Who has everything going for them,

Has good supports,

But they lose themselves in enjoyment,

Indulge in what they have,

In happiness and comfort.

So they lose the chance to study and to learn better.

There are many like this who don't finish their studies.

So we can see that those who succeed in their education do not have to be born in a status and family that has everything.

They also need to have merit and baromi,

Spiritual accumulations from the past.

This is having effort and perseverance.

And if people like this also have completeness and people's support,

And they themselves have effort and perseverance,

Then they will go even higher.

But however it is,

Those who don't have anything supporting them are going for them.

But because of having a high level of effort,

Greater than others' ordinary effort,

Then they will determine to get to the goal and will gain success.

And for a child sometimes they may get discouraged.

Their effort is still small.

So we have to see how if we have effort and perseverance and gain success,

Then what benefit will we get?

We will get a good job and income that can support ourselves,

Support our family and help our parents.

But if we don't see this benefit and don't see the blame of not having it,

If we don't make an effort,

We'll have to work hard in low-paid jobs.

Then it's difficult to help oneself and one's family,

And even more difficult to help our parents.

So we need to see the blame of not having effort and perseverance,

The blame of not having kanti,

Patience and forbearance.

And we see the benefit in having that effort and forbearance.

Though sometimes we may get discouraged,

We don't retreat.

If we do it like this,

Then we won't lose out on the good opportunity to gain success.

Sometimes we will get discouraged,

But we will bear with it.

We will endure and not stop in our efforts.

Our efforts don't stop.

We must keep doing it without stopping.

We can get to the end of the path.

But sometimes we are really discouraged and we're about to give up.

Then we need to learn about those who have succeeded in life,

In studies.

What are they like?

What did they do in their different fields of work?

We can learn from the story of the Sammasambuddha,

The perfectly self-awakened Buddha's various past lives,

On how he put forth effort.

We then may gain more motivation and inspiration to get to the end of the goal that we have set.

Like for a child,

A student,

A young novice,

They look and see that there are some young novices,

Not yet ten years old,

And they can already chant the Patimokkha.

This Patimokkha is the 227 rules of a monk.

For the monks to learn this,

It may take three or four months.

One who has good mindfulness and wisdom may only take them 28 days.

But a young novice who has effort and diligence,

At the age of eight or nine years old,

Can chant it.

This is the effort,

Perseverance and determination added to mindfulness and wisdom,

And then they can gain success.

And there are those who learn Pali,

Which is the language the Buddha used in his teachings.

One may be determined to learn the teachings in the Pali language,

Studying the pre-established course set up.

In Thailand,

There are Pali exams for the first to the ninth levels.

There was one senior monk who couldn't pass the ninth and final levels of Pali,

And it took him 50 years to pass it.

He failed for 50 years,

But he didn't stop.

He had effort and forbearance,

And he was determined to get it.

His goal was to pass it.

Usually,

If one fails for five years,

They will give up.

But he was determined to be able to do it.

And ultimately,

He really could pass it,

And completed the ninth level.

He could pass,

And he got a special prize.

This is important.

The king saw that he had effort and determination like that,

That he had taken the ninth level exams for 50 years and couldn't pass.

And the king gave him an ecclesiastical title so that he would have motivation.

And because of his forbearance and effort,

Which no one else had done,

And ultimately,

He could pass the ninth level.

So in our learning and education,

We need to be careful.

The obstacle to it is being lost in enjoyment of all the sense pleasures,

Like those of a child.

And even having everything going for them,

They may lose the chance to succeed because of the kilesas,

The mental defilements that have come to interfere in the middle of the way.

There are some people who experience a lot of hardships and have few of the basic requisites.

They don't have enough food to eat and have little opportunities.

So then they need to have more effort than others.

This is important.

This Barami is not ordinary.

It is Wiriyat Barami and Kanti Barami,

The spiritual perfections of effort and forbearance.

They then are able to succeed and can study and get into a good school or university.

They have made their opportunity put in their time,

Which is about their merit and Barami.

So we need to exert ourselves and persevere.

Being a child,

You need to exert yourself in study and education.

In doing work,

You need to exert yourselves in learning and working.

In training and sati,

Mindfulness,

You need to exert yourselves and persevere.

No matter how hard and troublesome it is or how many years it takes,

You need to be able to do it.

We have restless,

Disturbed,

Distressed states of mind.

There are various states of the five hindrances that come up in the mind.

Being attached to forms,

Sounds and tastes.

Having anger and ill will.

Having a scattered mind.

Dullness.

Having doubt and worries.

And some people really doubt.

Or some get angry,

Really angry.

Like there was one Westerner who said to me that they were so angry at their friend.

In one day they could be angry for two hours.

There was an issue that was deep in their heart.

So I asked them,

Now you are angry at your friend.

This is because of the thing called ignorance,

Which forces your heart to be angry like that.

To have ill will like that.

As for your friend that did something bad,

It is because they also have ignorance and craving that controls them.

Each of you have your own minds,

But it has been taken control over by that which has authority over it.

So should we really be getting angry at the other?

Should we have ill will to them?

We should instead fight against our own anger and ill will first.

We won't be able to win over the other person's ignorance.

So we fight our own ignorance.

So they asked,

How do I do it?

Develop metta bhavana,

The meditation on goodwill,

Which is appropriate for your mind.

Chant,

May I be well and happy.

So fight against the mood,

Mind state in your own mind.

If you win over your own mind,

Then your heart will have coolness.

So we need to make an effort and persevere.

How to make an effort?

The akusala,

The unskillful,

Bad qualities and actions can arise in anyone.

Knowing what they are,

Then we let them go.

We need to make an effort and try to put them down.

We bring up that eagerness to let go of the bad states of mind.

The unskillful bad states that have arisen,

We let go of.

The ones that haven't yet arisen,

We don't let it arise.

And we have effort and perseverance to bring up eagerness to nurture our mind,

To be established in moods and mind states of goodness.

And we have the effort to maintain those skillful states of mind.

They said effort is like taking two sticks of wood and rubbing them together.

We have heard that those who want to start a fire have to rub these sticks together.

So we rub them together and the heat arises to one level,

But there's no smoke yet.

And we are discouraged that we didn't succeed.

We think that there won't be any fire coming up from this.

It's not possible.

Laziness has come up.

We get discouraged and want to give up.

We don't really want to do it.

And then we miss out on the chance to have fire arise according to what we want.

The sticks get cold and then we put effort in again.

We rub the sticks together again.

It gets hot,

But then our effort runs out again,

And we put the sticks down.

Doing it like this,

We don't get fire like we wanted.

We miss out on the good opportunity.

So when it starts to get hot,

We can't stop.

We keep going.

We do it continuously.

There's a little bit of smoke,

And we can keep our motivation going.

We keep rubbing it continuously.

The smoke gets more and more and more.

Ultimately,

The fire catches.

We have the fire to light up the tinder,

And then we have fire.

Then we can use the fire for our benefit.

We can use it to cook,

For warmth,

And so on.

So we people that are not yet free from suffering,

It's because of lacking effort and perseverance,

Both in the world and in the Dhamma.

The Sama Sambuddha,

In his supreme past life,

Which was the life that he was training in effort and diligence,

He was in the sea swimming to get to the shore.

For seven days and seven nights,

He couldn't see the shore.

But he wouldn't stop his efforts.

He wouldn't just lie down and die.

He wouldn't have it.

He would do it to his utmost ability.

And finally,

His merit and barami came to him.

In the text it says,

The Deva Manimekhala picked him up and put him on the shore.

He did it to the point that the Deva was moved.

So we should do it.

We try to do it.

We are determined to practice,

And we train ourselves.

We will become free from suffering because of this effort.

We have a goal now,

So we will train in samadhi concentration.

We practice walking meditation and sitting meditation.

We have effort and perseverance.

Our practice needs to get to the end goal that we aspire for.

We have to get there.

We will succeed.

For children,

They will finish their studies in education.

In work,

One will gain success in it.

In training the mind,

We will attain to correct understanding.

When we put in effort without stopping,

We will be able to free our minds from ignorance,

In part,

Which is understanding Dhamma,

Coming to the Dhamma or seeing the Dhamma.

So this effort is important.

We must see the drawbacks of not having effort,

Seeing the benefit of having effort.

We are determined.

We have such a truthfulness that we will practice Dhamma and won't have anything come to damage our efforts.

You will then get to the goal that you have set,

And you grow in blessings.

Reviews

Thx 🙏🏾 you.