Eliminate all forms of mental suffering

“…There was actually a Buddha and there were actually his teachings that can help eliminate all forms of mental suffering. The person who has realized this truth is at the first level of Ariya-Saṅgha, the Sotāpanna. Once you see this truth, you will also eliminate your doubt of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha.

Your faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha will be unshakeable because you know that they are real. But before you reach this stage, you can sometimes doubt whether the Buddha was real, whether his teachings were real, whether they are capable of eliminating the suffering from your mind, or whether the Ariya-Saṅgha are real. These are things that you haven’t proved for yourself.
But when you develop samatha-bhāvanā and vipassanā-bhāvanā by contemplating the nature of the body and the nature of the painful feeling, you will then realize the truth. You will come to see the Four Noble Truths alive in your mind, and you will see clearly and internalize the first two Noble Truths: the truth of suffering and the truth of the cause of suffering.

These first two, you will realize, by using the magga, the fourth truth. Magga is sīla, samādhi, paññā or dāna, sīla, bhāvanā. So this is what you should do. The Buddha said your job is to develop the magga to its fullest. The magga is like medicine. You have to take all the medicine that a physician prescribes to you if you want to get well. If you do, eventually your illness will disappear.

So too will all your mental suffering if you follow the Buddha’s instruction and develop dāna, sīla, bhāvanā. Right now you are doing this but not to the fullest; you are not giving everything away, you are not keeping the precepts all the time and you are not practicing bhāvanā all the time.

You have to look at the Noble Disciples' example; they followed the instructions of the Buddha to the fullest. They used to be lay people like you. But they gave up their lay life, became monks and bhikkhunīs/nuns, and spent all their time on bhāvanā and keeping the precepts. Once they had done that, sooner or later, they became enlightened.

According to the Buddha, if you follow his teachings completely and work hard, you can become enlightened either in seven days, seven weeks, seven months, or seven years. So this is what you have to do, you have to develop the magga: the path that will lead you to enlightenment. The path consists of dāna, giving away your possessions, observing the sīla—starting with the five precepts—then moving up to the eight precepts, then to bhikkhu and bhikkhunī ’s precepts.

In addition, the path includes committing all your time to sitting, walking, standing, or lying down meditation…”

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto