About This Teaching
Offered on the second day of a new year, this talk reminds listeners how rare it is to be born human and meet the Buddha's teaching. The human realm is where all Buddhas and most arahants purified their hearts, yet people keep chasing sights, sounds and wealth they have met countless times before, treating old things as new.
Ajahn Dtun warns against "losing points" through immoral actions, which interrupt the growth of virtue. Thoughts and suffering do not arise from trees, houses or cars but from the mind, so mindfulness must guard it; when wisdom is too weak to let go of an emotion, one returns to "Buddho" to establish calm. If people can tame elephants and break horses, he asks, why not train our own hearts? He suggests ten or fifteen minutes of meditation a day.
The old year has passed, and calendar names are only conventions. When the body breaks apart, wealth stays behind and only the goodness built through sila, samadhi and panna goes with the mind.