The biggest Dhamma, the superior Dhamma is not paññā or samādhi, but mindfulness (sati)

Monk: In the current period, after 30 to 40 years, when Thailand has become different from the 70s, what would you say about the biggest obstacles and the danger for young monks? What is your advice?

Than Ajahn: It is the same. The world is the same. The danger is when people are not practising, they think about all other things other than practicing. When you are not mindful you are not practising already and you start creating hindrances for your mind unknowingly. If you can maintain mindfulness, you can get rid of all the hindrances. So the Buddha said mindfulness is the most important tool in the practice.

The biggest Dhamma, the superior Dhamma is not paññā or samādhi, but mindfulness (sati). The Lord Buddha compared sati to a footprint of an elephant, while the other Dhamma is like the footprint of the other animals. The footprint of the elephant can cover the footprints of all the other animals. That’s how important mindfulness is. That’s why the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is very important. If you can read and understand and can practise following the instructions in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Buddha said you can attain (enlightenment) in 7 days, 7 months or 7 years at the maximum. So don’t forget this, the most important thing is mindfulness.

To be able to be mindful, you have to be alone, live in seclusion. You then will have no distraction to develop your mindfulness. When you are involved with people and things, your mind will start to go adrift with the events, with happenings, then you are not being mindful and your desire starts to come out. So try to seek seclusion: stay in isolation, body and mind.

First the body has to be secluded, when the body is secluded then the mind will become secluded. When the body is not secluded the mind will become involved with other things that the body encounters. Isolate and develop mindfulness then everything will come, samādhi will come.

Once you have samādhi, learn how to extend it by investigating the body, the vedāna and the citta to see that they are all aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā. When you see them then you can leave them alone. Right now you want to manage all these things. You want to manage your body, you want to manage your vedāna, you want to manage your citta. This is wrong because you cannot manage them, instead of bringing peacefulness to you, you are bringing dukkha to yourself by trying to manage something that is not manageable.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto