Ajaan Suwat Suvaco after a series of questions on political issues

(After a series of questions on political issues)

Ajaan Suwat: The issues of the monks’ life are very subtle. The Buddha laid down rules forbidding us from even talking about these things, so I’d rather not go into these matters in detail. My main concern is what I can do so that you can depend on yourselves to attain peace and happiness of mind. That’s what concerns me: how each of us can learn how to depend on ourselves, so that our minds are solid and don’t waver in line with events, so that we can look after ourselves in a way allowing us to escape the dangers of the sufferings arising within us. Every person has suffering, and every person is only one person. There’s nobody who’s two. If each of us looks after our one person, without oppressing anyone or harming anyone, there would be no problems. The problem is that we don’t look after ourselves, and expect help to come from outside. That means that we abandon our responsibilities, and that’s why there’s injustice in the world — oppression, corruption, inequality. If every person were to listen to the Buddha’s teachings and be responsible for him or herself, we’d see that everyone else is just like us. If we curse them, they’ll curse us back. If we show them respect, they’ll show us respect in return. This is why we shouldn’t oppress them or harm them. We should treat them with justice, because if there are things that we don’t like having done to us and yet we go do them to other people, it creates dangers for ourselves. When we can see these dangers, we should look after our own behavior. Then these dangers won’t exist. This is the basic principle at which the Buddha’s teachings aim. And this is why monks aren’t involved with worldly affairs. We have to study this principle until we understand it, and that way there will be no oppression.

~ Fistful of Sand by Ajaan Suwat Suvaco, transl. Thanissaro

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