The Path to Enlightenment/ Ajahn Suchart Abhijato

Q&A :: Dhamma in English by Phra Suchart Abhijato

พระสุชาติ อภิชาโต
May 8, 2021
Question: How to meditate on the 6 elements? (1:54 minutes) by Phra Suchart Abhijato Wat Yansangwararam Chonburi Thailand.
Ajahn Suchart Q&A, II - Knowing Element & Deathless Element: The Path and Its End

Clear Mountain Monastery Project
Dec 19, 2021
In this interview, Ajahn Suchart answers questions on a wealth of topics, including the nature of 4th jhana, the basics of mindfulness practice, and the relationship between the knowing element of the mind and the deathless element of Nibbāna. Phra Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto is one of the most globally well-known and well-respected monks in Thailand. Born in 1947 in Suphanburi, Thailand, Phra Ajahn Suchart attended California State University, Fresno where he studied Civil Engineering. After returning to Thailand, Phra Ajahn was inspired by an English Dhamma book on impermanence to search for a true path to happiness through formal ordination as a Buddhist monk. At the age of 27, he was ordained at Wat Bovornives in Bangkok with the late Supreme Patriarch as his preceptor. About six weeks after ordination, Phra Ajahn Suchart traveled to Wat Pa Baan Taad (บ้านตาด) to live and train with Luangta Mahā Boowa Ñāṇasampanno, the preeminent forest meditation monk at the time. Once there, he stayed there for the next nine years. After his time at Wat Pa Baan Taad and after staying in Pattaya for some time, Phra Ajahn Suchart moved to Wat Yansangwararam (ญาณสังวราราม) in Chonburii (ชลบุรี) in 1984 and has resided there until present.
Phra Ajahn Suchart is the author of numerous Dhamma books including “Real Happiness,” “Sensual Pleasures are Painful,” and the autobiography “My Way.” He now teaches internationally both in the Thai and English languages.
Tan Ajahn Suchart's Dhamma in English online session: Dhamma in English via Zoom: Tuesday, 8:00 P.M - 10:00 P.M (Thailand time, GMT+7) . Joining details are available during the Live session at www.facebook.com/AjahnSuchartAbhijato.
LIVE: Q&A session: Sunday, (current) starting time is approximately at 11:30 A.M. to noon time (Thailand time). [Subject to change] Everyone is welcome.
To learn more, visit https://linktr.ee/clear_mountain_mona...

 

Ajahn Suchart Q&A, III - Knowing Element & Deathless Element: The Path and Its End

Clear Mountain Monastery Project
Dec 19, 2021

 

First Awakening: The Irreversible Step of Sotāpanna | Ajahn Suchart Q&A

Clear Mountain Monastery Project
Aug 27, 2025
Questions:
00:01:40 (1) What is Stream-Entry (Sotāpanna)?
00:03:36 (2) How common is it for someone to have attained Stream-Entry these days?
00:04:52 (3) Will someone know for sure when they have attained Stream-Entry?
00:07:17 (4) What is the experience of Stream-Entry actually like? Is it just seeing the impermanence of the five khandhas, or is there also a vision of the Deathless?
00:09:03 (5) Is this glimpse of the Deathless something visual? Is it something that the Stream-Enterer will feel with their whole body?
00:10:47 (6) Is the body a key doorway to Stream-Entry?
00:10:47 (7) Is death-contemplation a key doorways to Stream-Entry?
00:12:43 (8) What is the doubt that a Stream-Enterer has completely eradicated?
00:14:51 (9) What doubts will still remain?
00:18:31 (10) Did Luang Ta Maha Bua speak about that ultimate happiness in any other ways?
00:19:33 (11) How do you translate sakkāya-diṭṭhi in English, and what is the view that Stream-Enterers have given up?
00:24:23 (12) Is the belief in one's personality something that is cut at Stream-Entry?
00:26:35 (13) Why is it that a Sotāpanna is said to never fall to the lower realms (apāya)?
00:28:38 (14) What is a Sotāpanna's virtue like? Will there be an increased sensitivity to all evil? Would that continue into a subsequent life?
00:28:38 (15) Would a child who attained Stream-Entry in a previous life be different from a normal child?
00:29:37 (16) Would it be possible for a Sotāpanna to drink a bit of alcohol?
00:29:37 (17) What is the virtue of a Noble One or a Sotāpanna like?
00:30:45 (18) How do you translate sīlabbata-parāmāsa? How does a Stream-Enterer relate to morality if they don't cling to it?
00:35:46 (19) How is the "crazy wisdom" approach, where people think they don't have to follow any rules, a misunderstanding?
00:36:57 (20) What does a Stream-Enterer think about unenlightened people?
00:38:24 (21) How should a lay person - with a job, kids, and family obligations - interpret the urgency of the situation? How should they practice?
00:39:41 (22) What does the gratitude of a streamer look like? What does it mean that a Stream-Enterer cannot experience ingratitude?
00:41:43 (23) How should people relate to external events and the news?
00:43:11 (24) Does a Stream-Enterer know for sure that other realms - hell, hungry ghosts, etc. - are real and not just psychological states?
00:45:51 (25) Are dreams of hells or hungry ghost realms in a virtual reality? Or is there some physical reality outside of the dream?
00:47:14 (26) What one or two practices would you advise for modern people in order to move towards Stream-Entry?
00:51:33 (27) Could a non-Buddhist attain Stream-Entry if they practiced breath meditation and examined the body?
00:53:23 (28) What is your conception of the Bodhisattva path, and what would you say about it?
00:54:48 (29) What would you say to someone who believes it is selfish to aim straight for Awakening and to leave samsara - to someone who believes that one should instead develop the ten perfections (pāramitās) to become a future Buddha instead?
00:56:40 (30) When someone becomes a Stream-Enterer, does the practice change? Or is it just more of what they have been doing?
00:59:16 (31) Do you have any final words of encouragement for those listening?
01:03:56 (32) Are you already here?
In this interview, Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho interview Tan Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto about the Sotāpanna, or Stream Entry, the first stage of Enlightenment. They delve into how one knows such an experience is real, the fetters released through the experience, and the route of practice which most quickly leads to such insight.