Remembering Ajaan Suwat

April 05, 2024

Today is the twenty-second anniversary of Ajaan Suwat’s passing. He was the founder of our monastery. We have a big debt to him. I like to think that we try to repay that debt every day through our practice. But when events like this come around, it’s good to stop and think: What were some of the teachings he left behind?

Some of the teachings were with his manners. He was a very gentle person, but very solid. One time he told a group of people up in the temple in Ontario who were concerned that the income of the temple had fallen since he left. He said, “You know, I don’t care. All I care about is that the monks and the lay people are practicing properly.” That was the end of that discussion.

The next day he turned to me after the meal and said, “You know, I don’t like using strong language like that.” I kept thinking, “Strong? Where?” But it gives you a sense of how gentle he’d like to be.

But he could also be very firm. There was another time when a monk came up here, a monk who had a very dubious history. He brought a lot of lay people along, hoping that Ajaan Suwat wouldn’t say anything in front of the lay people. But Ajaan Suwat immediately asked him about an issue that he had had—there was an accusation against him, that he had sex with two women. He said, “When is this issue ever going to get settled?” The monk said, “Well I’ve be trying to get it settled. But….”

He couldn’t even finish his sentence. Ajaan Suwat said, “If you really wanted it to be settled, it would have been settled a long time ago. In my eyes you’re not a monk.” So he could be really firm when he had to be, when he saw that it was necessary.

What this means is that, as a practitioner, you don’t just adopt one attitude all the time or take on one persona all the time. You try to see what’s appropriate for the occasion. In his case, he taught by showing his sense of when he had to come down strong—and what his idea of strong was—and when he could be more gentle.

So think about that. It’s the same principle with right effort all across the board. There are times when the effort has to be gentle and other times when it has to be strong. We can’t say we’ll just do a middling effort. The effort has to be appropriate for the occasion. We also have to make our words appropriate for the occasion. We have to be very careful about what we do, say, and think to make sure that it’s just right.

He liked to make the comment that “The Buddha says a lot of things are not self: Form is not self; feelings are not self; perceptions; thought fabrications; consciousness. They’re all not self.” But then he added, “Notice, though, that the Buddha goes on to say, ‘You have your actions as your own.’”

When you choose to do an action, that’s your responsibility, and you want to fully take on that responsibility—be alive to that. You don’t pass it off and say, “Well it’s because somebody else made me do it, or because I felt pushed by other people, or that was just the way things were at that time.” You’re responsible for your actions.

Once they’re done, then the results are going to come back again, and those are not self. Those are beyond your control. But what is under your control is something you should pay very careful attention to. Make sure you do it right. We have these chants with each moment to do something skillful, even if it’s just focusing on our breath as it comes in, goes out—being mindful, being alert.

Just try to be skillful every breath, in and out, in and out, alert with every breath. That way, you can take this power that you have and put it to good use.

We feel that Ajaan Suwat put his power of action to good use. And one of his actions was that he, at his late age in life, decided to set up a forest monastery where people from all races and all nationalities could come and practice. It wasn’t easy. So we should have some gratitude for the efforts he made on our behalf and try to practice as best we can, taking responsibility for our thoughts, our words, and our deeds: learning from his example and trying to make it our own.