Remembering Ajaan Suwat

Today is Ajaan Suwat’s birthday. If he were still alive, he’d be 105 years old. He’s the founder of this monastery. So every day we’re in his debt as we practice. If we don’t practice, we’re really in his debt, because he really went way out of his way to found this place.

He was in his 70s when we started this projeft. He already had some comfortable monasteries, but he wanted a place where, as he said, people from all languages and all nations could come and practice in an environment that was conducive to the practice. Up to that point, during his time here in America, he’d stayed in places that were not all that conducive. They were comfortable but not really good places to meditate because they were in the city. So he put up with the discomfort of coming out and staying in a little tiny, tiny trailer as the place got off the ground. So we’re in his debt.

And it’s good to think of his teachings. One of the teachings that he stressed over and over again was restraint, particularly restraint of the mouth. As he said, if something comes into your mind, it’s not a good idea to have it come right out your mouth. It should be checked beforehand. You should think about what the consequences would be.

His description of someone who’s stupid was someone who has an idea, and it comes right out his mouth. You’ve got to stop and think: “Is this worth saying? What would be the consequences?” In other words, you use your discernment to think about the long term. In this way, you don’t have to think about what you said afterwards.

So exercise some restraint. If something comes out your mouth, then it’s your karma by that point. If something comes into your mind, that’s not karma yet. The karma is in what you do with it. He made a lot of the point that the Buddha talks about how things are not-self—your body, feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness are all not-self—but then we chant every day, “I’m the owner of my actions. They are mine.”

Once you decide to do something, it does become your karma. It becomes yours. So be very careful about what you choose to take as yours or not yours. You have the choice. If you didn’t have the choice, there’d be no point in even having a place like this. Everybody would just have to do what they had to do, what they were forced to do, by past conditions or other things beyond their control. But we do have this freedom of choice. So make the most of it.

We can choose to act, speak, think in skillful ways, and we can benefit a lot from it. And the people around us can benefit, too. We can act, think, and speak in harmless ways, ways that are conducive to peace, ways that are conducive to all kinds of good things. So we have this power within us, but the problem is we have the power in the other direction as well. So we have to be very careful. We have to be heedful.

So as you think about what you’re going to say, give it a test. The Buddha’s test was to ask if it was true. And then if it was true, then the next test was, is it beneficial? And then the next test, is this the right time? That’s three checkpoints right there. They should help slow down any impulse to just speak whatever comes into your mind. In that way, you can save yourself a lot of grief.

So we think about the teachings of those who come before us, who passed the teachings on to us. We want to pass the teachings on intact. We do that by practicing them. We see the value of the teachings because we see the results in our lives, and the people around us will begin to see the results, too. As Ajaan Suwat once said, “We’re not here to get anyone else. We’re here to get ourselves. But if other people see that this is a good practice, we’re happy to welcome them.”

So here you are.