Timeless Dhamma

We’re commemorating the passing away of Ajaan Fuang today. He was my teacher in Thailand. I studied with him for 10 years. And as he said, the basis of our skill here is the breath. So focus on your breath.

The Buddha says we suffer partly because we breathe in ignorance, we breathe without skill. So try to bring an attitude of skill to the way you breathe. What kind of breathing would feel good for the body right now? Where is a good place in the body to focus, as you feel the sensations of the breathing? Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths. Wherever the breath is most prominent, focus there. Then adjust the breath so that it’s comfortable. If long breathing isn’t comfortable, you can change it. If it is comfortable, keep it up.

We’re learning to train ourselves here. The Buddha says again and again that when you meditate on the breath, you train yourself to breathe in different ways that induce certain feelings, induce certain mind states. It may not come naturally, but the trained mind is the mind that gives rise to happiness.

We remember Ajaan Fuang not because he was born in a high-ranking family or because he was wealthy or powerful. He was none of those things. He came from a poor family. He was orphaned at an early age. He didn’t have much hope in life in a material sense. But he did see that the Dhamma offered an opportunity. So he trained himself in the Dhamma, which means that he was able to change his habits, the way he talked, the way he acted, the way he thought. He tried to bring those in line with the Dhamma.

As he constantly said, the Dhamma is a constant principle. He didn’t have much use for ideas that the Dhamma should be changed to make it more modern or up-to-date. He said the Dhamma has worked all these many years. People’s defilements haven’t changed that much all over these many years. So why should the Dhamma change? Instead of trying to change the Dhamma, we should try to change ourselves to fit in line with the Dhamma. The Dhamma is timeless; we should try to make our practice timeless as well.

That’s another point he liked to make.

As you go through the day, you may say, “I have no time to meditate.” Well, you have time to breathe, right? Then stay with your breath. Be mindful of your breath. Be mindful of the breath energy in the body. That way, you keep yourself grounded. And instead of having your day time divided up into little times—time to eat, time to talk, time to watch TV, time to surf the net—whatever you’re doing, it’s time to meditate, time to train the mind. When you have that “timeless” attitude, then you’re going to meet with the timeless Dhamma. That’s the basic principle of the practice.

So. Regardless of what our backgrounds are in terms of the world, we can make ourselves excellent people just like Ajaan Fuang by training ourselves in line with the Dhamma, changing ourselves, changing our habits, changing our ways of thought, so that we think in line with the Dhamma, act in line with the Dhamma, speak in line with the Dhamma. In that way, people will want to remember us, too. Whether they remember us or not, that really doesn’t matter. But we want to make ourselves worthy of remembrance.

At the very least, you’ve made a memorial out of this life. That was another phrase that he liked to use: to make this life a memorial—something you reflect back on, reflect back on it with pride, that this was a lifetime in which you practiced the Dhamma, brought yourself in line with the Dhamma. That’s a good memory to have.