This book is a translation of a talk given by Venerable “Luangpor” Pramote Pamojjo in Bangkok, Thailand at the Novotel Suvarnambhumi Airport Hotel, on January 12, 2014. Download this book in PDF format by right-click here and select “Save as”.
Welcome everyone.
We study the Dhamma so that we can free ourselves from suffering. The highest goal in our practice is to free our mind from suffering; otherwise, we are drowning in suffering for all time. All of those who have never had the fortune to listen to the Buddha’s teachings are stuck in suffering forever. The most we can do is relieve suffering from time to time. For example, when we are hungry, we go to eat to relieve the suffering of the hunger or when we are sick, we take medicine to relieve the symptoms. But to truly release from suffering once and for all, we have to rely on the Buddha’s teachings. When we truly understand the Dhamma within our heart then we free ourselves from suffering.
This is something we can do in this lifetime. It is not about being a good person and giving charity, and hoping that eventually one day or one lifetime we will be able to free ourselves. That is an inferior path. The Buddha’s teachings are truly special and amazing. They can release us from suffering right here right now in this moment. It is in this life that we have to free ourselves from suffering. Let us not have any expectations of future lives being any better than this one. We have to be good from right here and now. How do we know if we are really going to have future lifetimes and what are they going to be like? We may have heard from the Buddha that future lifetimes actually exist, but if we have not seen the evidence ourselves then our heart really doesn’t understand it or accept it. Waiting for future lifetimes is not very useful and also works with things that are hard to believe. The amazing thing about the Buddha’s teachings is that if we practice in accordance with the Dhamma, we can have a life right here and now, with no suffering at all. At minimum, we can have less suffering, and less and less all the time.
To read more, download this book in PDF format by right-click here and select “Save as”.