Ajahn Ganha speech, translation by Ajahn Tilo (28 Dec 23) (Translated by Ajahn Tilo, transcribed by Gladia, emphasis by PJ. All mistakes made are PJ’s.)

  1. Everybody has to practice Dhamma by himself. Give everything you have for the practice. Because external things going their own way according to their nature, according to Dhamma. Everything in your mind is going its way according to their nature, according to Dhamma.

  2. The majority of people who have no right view, right understanding, they don’t develop their mind, they don’t develop their heart together with their body and the material things. It’s a great loss. It’s a great damage. We should be full of happiness when we are working. Because work is for happiness. Happiness is work. The work outside is to develop the material world, is to develop our business. The work inside is our mind. It is to have right view, right understanding (to understand things as they are, not as we want them to be), and as right practice.

  3. Internally we have to find our happiness in observing precepts and being virtuous. Because virtue, observing precepts, this is the vehicle, the vehicle which brings us out of samsara. This vehicle brings us out of suffering. That’s why everybody has to find his happiness in observing precepts. Everybody should be so happy to be virtuous. You should have the most happiness to be able to practice the Noble Eightfold Path.

  4. Everybody has to develop mindfulness, sati. Everybody has to develop sampajañña, so that the Buddha in us, can progress. To develop Sati sampajañña, mindfulness and wisdom, is an ongoing process you cannot stop.

  5. Suffering cannot arise for one who has right view, right understanding (understand things as they truly are and not as you want them to be), and the one who practice according to this right view. Suffering for such a person cannot arise.

  6. But until now, we don’t really understand. We don’t have any happiness when we are working. We don’t really enjoy to practice with Dhamma. Why is this? Because we are attached, we are addicted to the sense of self, we are addicted to our ego, we are addicted to laziness. But don’t be interested in this. Don’t be interested in having an ego. Don’t be interested in being lazy. Don’t feed avijja. Don’t feed delusion. Stop giving food to delusion. You stop feeding them if you adjust yourself to the Dhamma and if you adjust yourself to the time. Sila (virtue), samadhi (stillness, peacefulness), and (wisdom), pañña, they have to go together at all the time. But for the most people, sila, samadhi, and pañña, they don’t get developed together.

  7. Everybody has to focus on their own practice. Everybody has to develop themselves. The days and the nights pass by. The present moment pass by. And all of us, getting older, coming closer to sickness, coming closer to old age, and coming closer to lose everything we like, everything we love. We let the time pass by, because we are lost in carelessness. Everybody has to find back to Sati sampajañña, to mindfulness and wisdom.

  8. Everybody has to develop Anapanasati, the mindfulness on breathing, to know when you’re breathing in and to know when you are breathing out. But you develop anapanasati not only when you are sitting. You can focus your attention on your breath, to know if you’re breathing in or if you’re breathing out, in every single posture. Because this is the way, how you develop mindfulness. This is the way, how you find back to yourself, and not get lost in your surroundings and in the external world. Anapanasati is Stilling (Samatha, tranquility) is vipassana (insight); It’s peacefulness and its wisdom. All of you, don’t allow yourself to be subdued. Don’t allow yourself to be subdued by delusion, (avijja); Subdued by laziness. Don’t be subdued by sleepiness, by mental sluggishness. Being subdued by avijja, by delusion, was not the correct way to live your life.

  9. The practice of Dhamma in our daily life has to be complete, has to be comprehensive. This is called Satipatthana, which means you have a focus point for your awareness, not outside, but inside. But we have to practice continuously. Our Satipatthana has to be continuously. There is not one single minute in our life where we cannot practice the Dhamma. We have to practice it all the time. We cannot skip one single second.

  10. The day and the night, they are there for us to practice Dhamma. They are there for us to work. The practice at night is that we allow ourselves to have sleep at least for six hours at the night. So that our brain can rest for six hours, so that our brain is able to let our body functioning well, and is able to organize the work outside.

  11. In the 18 hours when we awake, we have to find our happiness in work. We have to enjoy work. We have to find our happiness in practicing Dhamma. We have to enjoy practicing Dhamma.

  12. Everybody of you who is ordained, you really have to understand. You have to practice Dhamma to the fullest. Don’t hold anything back. Everybody who is in a position to be ordained, he is on the best place to be selfless, to be giving, to be serving, to be renouncing; To have only right view (Samma ditthi), to have only Dhamma and Vinaya. These may all of you understand: Take the Buddha as principle and guideline in your life: The Buddha is Dhamma. The Buddha is Vinaya.

  13. Everybody has to stop himself, has to stop the ego, has to stop the sense of self. Give it up, let it go. Make the ego and the sense of self empty. Empty yourself out of a sense of self and an ego. Replace it through Sati sampajañña: Mindfulness and wisdom, focused within, knowing what you are up to, knowing what is the right thing to do in the present moment. In this way, you will find happiness in working. You will find happiness in practicing Dhamma.

  14. Our daily life, we are developing towards mindfulness, we are developing towards peacefulness and inner stillness. We develop towards Dhamma, Vinaya. And it will move away from being a separate entity. From being a self. From being an ego.

  15. Everybody of you here who is ordained, you are in the best place. To be Dhamma. To be Vinaya. To be a real monk. A true monk. A genuine monk. Not a self. Not a separate entity. Everybody has to renounce their sense of self. Everybody has to renounce. Give up the ego, give up the selfishness, renounce it. The Sassana, the teachings of the Buddha, Buddhism, is Dhamma. Dhamma is the Sassana.

  16. Don’t be a separate entity, which is trying to find a place to stay, find some food, making a living, the ones who ordained in Buddhist religion. 99.9% have this view that being ordained in the Buddhist religion, this is a special opportunity, because our education and our position in life didn’t give us the possibility to make a living properly. So they think it’s better to be ordained. All of us, we cannot think in this way. Buddhism or being ordained as a Buddhist monk is not the way out of poverty. It’s not the way out for people who just lost their job and are jobless, (or) for the ones who are just addicted to alcohol, to drugs, addicted to gambling. Buddhism is about… Samma Ditthi, Right view and Right understanding, and Right practice and finding happiness to develop with mindfulness, to developing Sati Sampajanna.

  17. We are developing Sati Sampajanna for Dhamma and for Vinaya, and we are developing Sati Sampacanya through seeing the danger in Samsara: if you be a city monk a forest monk a Theravada monk a Mahayana monk, Dhammayut monk, and so on., everybody can practice in the same way. Nobody is excepted. Everybody can practice in this way. We all have to renounce sakya-ditti, the view that the body is who we are. “This body is me, is mine or is myself.” We have to renounce the sense of self: We have to renounce the ego.

  18. That’s why the Buddha wanted us not to be absorbed and immersed in the sense of self, to be absorbed and immersed in our ego, where the whole world just turns around us, just about me and mine.

  19. The Buddha wanted us not to be absorbed and immersed in delusion. And what is delusion? Sensuality. We cannot allow ourselves to be absorbed and immersed in sensuality, In sensual pleasures. Everybody of you has to become Dhamma. Everybody has to become Vinaya.

  20. Really, you don’t need a sense of self. You don’t need the ego. Adjust yourself to the time, and adjust yourself to the Dhamma. Adjust yourself to be a monk who is really practicing. Once you’re doing this, then you’ll be a monk in the right position. You’ll be a real monk. You’ll be a monk who is Dhamma and Vinaya. Nothing else. Not a me. not a mine, not a self.

  21. 99.9% of the monks ordained in Thailand, they are damaging the country, they are damaging the public, they are damaging Buddhism, until their wrongdoing becomes a democracy, where everybody agrees to, until the whole country agrees to, until the whole world agrees to do the wrong thing. But these people, they have nothing to do with Buddhism. This is not the religion. This is not Dhamma. This is not Vinaya.

  22. The position as a monk, the position as an ordained person, this is the place where you’ll be selfless, where you’ll be giving, where you’ll be serving. This is the place where you renounce. You renounce the ego and the sense of self. How can we renounce it? Once you’ll be in the position to be the Sangharaja, to be the king;To be a Chao Kun, to be the abbot, this is the place where you have to be selfless, where you have to renounce, where you have to be giving and serving. The same for the politicians, the same for the government officers. This is the place where you have to renounce, where you have to be selfless, giving and serving. These positions are not the spot, the place where you can just take and want. This is just the place where you are renounced, where you are giving and serving, and where you be selfless. Everybody should know the position we love, the position we want to have, is the position where we can be selfless, giving, serving, renouncing. This is the position we love, once you get your education, starting from the kindergarten up to the highest degree, to the PhD or even many PhDs. These are the spots where you can develop right view, right understanding, Samma Ditthi.

  23. When you have right view, Samma Ditthi, then you can develop the technologies for the benefit for ourselves and for the benefit of others. You study the Dhamma and the Vinaya and the Pali beginning from the first level up to the highest level. This is the spot, the place for Samma Ditthi, Right view, right understanding, not for Miccha-ditthi, for wrong view and wrong understanding. So that humankind can develop the technologies and their mind together.

  24. May all of you understand, in the last part of this year and welcoming the new year, that all of us need mindfulness and wisdom (Sati Sampajanna) so that you can consider why I got born: You got born to end, finally, your suffering. The suffering of the body and the suffering of the mind. And you end suffering through right view and right understanding. This is why you are born.

  25. Seriously, nobody needs to blame other people. Because all our problems are not caused by other people. All the problems in the external world, in your surroundings, they are there for you to practice in Dhamma. So may all of you have Sati Sampajanna: May all of you have mindfulness and wisdom.

  26. You cannot stay with your delusion. Sati Sampajanna, mindfulness and wisdom, has to be developed to the fullest, has to be complete, has to be comprehensive. Our mind need to have Kanika Samadhi. Our mind need Vitaka, Vichara, the ability to investigate with a clear, bright mind, which is Upacara Samadhi. So that we can know and understand the Four Noble Truths. Because for all of this, we need… right understanding, right view and right practice.

  27. Because there is nothing else than the Dhamma, the Dhamma of the present moment. There is nothing else than the present moment. The four Satipaṭṭhānas which are within us, if you stay, if you walk, if you sit or if you lay down, we have to practice in Dhamma. We have to find our happiness and joy in practicing the Dhamma. Because we have right view, right understanding and right practice.

  28. Everything that is not proper and not in line with Dhamma, we don’t need to think about it. We don’t need to consider it. We don’t need to proliferate it mentally. We don’t need to create stories in our head. In the present moment, we have to take the Buddha. We have to take victory over delusion. We have to get victory over our weak mind.

  29. But all of us are weak minded. We have been weak-minded all the time and we are still weak-minded. So we have to stop ourselves. We have to stop ourselves. Stop yourself through the precepts. Stop yourself through Vinaya: The small and the big rules. All of them! If your sati is not strong enough to stop yourself to doing the wrong thing, to stop yourself thinking about things you should not think, not be able to stop your thinking, and your restless mind; then just stop breathing. Stop breathing for as long as you possibly can. Once you’re short of breath, your mind will find back to your body, will find back to mindfulness. Do this many times so that you can have victory over your weak mind.

  30. The minor rules and the major rules in the Vinaya, they have only one purpose. And the purpose is to stop ourselves, not others. If we stop ourselves, this is how we pull us out of Samsara. We have to stop having sex with our thoughts, having sex with our mental proliferations, having sex with our emotions, our moods. You cannot allow yourself to have a wife or a husband in your head constantly and all the time. It can’t be. You really, everybody, you have to stop yourself. Stop thinking about it. Stop considering it. Stop mentally proliferating it. Stop the stories in your head. Stop all of them. Please have hiri otappa (this shame, this fear of wrongdoing), knowing the results will not be good. All of us, we have to enter the path of practice as a continuous task.

  31. So we say goodbye to the old year. To stop Sensuality. To stop bad karma. To stop samsara. This is how we say goodbye to the old year. And we stop it through Dhamma and Vinaya. Through all the rules, the minor and the big ones. In this way we are all developing the spiritual qualities in us.

  32. But all of you have a strong ego, a strong sense of self. We have a strong attachment to the sense of self. a strong attachment to our ego. This is our viciousness. This is a viciousness of people who are still welcoming birth, old age, sickness, pain and death. How can we blame other people for our misery? We are the one who have to see the danger in Samsara.

  33. The present moment is a fight for us. It’s a fight for everybody of us to practice in Dhamma to stop ourselves. Why we are depressed, why we are sad, why we have always negative mind states? Because we don’t know the four noble truths: We don’t understand them. We don’t know what is happiness. We don’t know what is suffering. We don’t know what is the cause of suffering. We don’t know how suffering ends. And we don’t know how to practice to end and finish suffering. We are the ones who getting constantly defeated.

  34. Being a loser is one who commits Parajika in his mind, not with his body, but in his mind. This cannot be. You cannot be such a monk.The mind of all of us, we have to emphasize on the practice of right view, right understanding and right practice. We all have to emphasize on Dhamma. You all have to emphasize on Vinaya. We have to practice in Dhamma in the present moment to our fullest. We have to give everything we have. We cannot look and cannot enjoy the deliciousness of this world. The time is passing by. We’ve wasted already a lot of time. We cannot allow ourselves to be lost in carelessness anymore, being lost in delusion. So, the Buddha has to be your true leader.

  35. At the end of this year, at the last period, take the most important thing with you. And this is… You cannot be careless. Stop your carelessness. But now all of you are careless. This carelessness and amusing ourselves, this is the glue, this is the sensuality, which sticks in our heart, in our mind. A mind which is controlled by avijja, by delusion. A mind which is under the power and the influence of Avijja, delusion.

  36. The Dhamma and the Vinaya, the small, the minor and the big, the major rules, they are the vehicle out of Samsara, out of delusion. And Dhamma and Vinaya are with us at all the time in the present moment. So, may all of you be heedful, don’t be heedless, don’t be careless. May all of you see the four divine messengers. May all of you see birth, old age, decay, sickness and death. In this Samsara, in this circle of birth and death, old age, sickness and death: there is nothing worth being deluded in. There is nothing worth to amuse ourselves with. May all of you see the danger in samsara. Find back to mindfulness and wisdom, sati sampajanna. We don’t need to allow ourselves to constantly postpone and delay the opportunity for the practice. Because samsara has no end: It will go on and on. The circle of misery, of pain, sickness, decay, old age and death, again and again. There is no end if you allow yourself to be deluded.

  37. The present moment is Dhamma. Our life is nothing else than the present moment. There is only cause and effect. When this is, this will be. May all of you arrive in the present moment. Sila, Samadhi and Pañña: they have to work to the fullest in the present moment. So that we can stop being a separate entity, an ego or a self. Then we will be just Dhamma, and renouncing the sense of self, renouncing the ego.