คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
ต้องทนอยู่กับคนที่มีนิสัยโทสะโหดร้าย เพราะยังหาคนแทนไม่ได้ ควรทำอย่างไรStuck With a Driver Who Has a Cruel Temper Because No Replacement Has Been Found Yet — What Should We Do?
ให้ใช้การอธิษฐาน คือการกำหนดใจอย่างต่อเนื่องทุกวัน ประกอบกับการทำบุญให้ทานรักษาศีลเจริญภาวนา พร้อมกับต้องเห็นทุกข์โทษภัยของสถานการณ์นั้นอย่างชัดเจน จึงจะมีกำลังพอที่จะหลุดพ้นได้Use resolution — repeated, daily determination of what you want, paired with building merit through giving, precepts, and meditation. This must also be paired with clearly seeing the danger and harm of the situation, since only then is there enough strength to actually break free of it.
Someone asked: a driver they rely on regularly has a temper marked by cruelty and aversion, and they've been stuck with him a long time, unable to find a replacement — what should be done?
Resolution: Determining What You Want
Pra Ajarn explained that this calls for resolution (adhiṭṭhāna) — resolution being the act of determination. Everything about being human comes down to determination; whatever we want depends on us actually setting that determination down. When we determine something correct and good, something that brings genuine benefit, will find a way to bring it about. Everything requires energy, though — there's a cost within samsara — so we must build merit: give, keep precepts, meditate, build the causes of merit, and then resolve: may I be freed from this person.
Why We Must Always Stay Amid Good Company and the Wholesome
The demerit side keeps trying to plant its own people around us, holding us bound, always seeking its chance. This is why we must remain amid good company and the wholesome at all times. Whenever we stay with the wholesome, the stream of merit and treasure flows through; we can tell whether things are good or not by whether that stream is flowing. In a correct system, it flows; in an incorrect one, the environment doesn't support us, and we feel unsettled and uneasy.
A Cruel, Angry Temperament Is a Dangerous Sign — Requires Sustained Determination
Someone with a temperament marked by both cruelty and aversion is frightening and dangerous, especially when greed is entangled with it too — greed and aversion together, with delusion guiding behind them. Having to entrust our life to someone caught in such an incorrect system is genuinely alarming. The remedy is to determine, build the causes of , and resolve every day, several times a day, repeating this determination — and the situation will change on its own.
Only Clearly Seeing the Danger Gives Real Strength to Break Free
The key is to clearly see the danger and harm arising from this determination — to know exactly why we want or don't want something, what danger we see in it, or what value and benefit we see in wanting it. Determined this clearly, we can be freed from the situation before long. Those who can't break free are those who haven't truly recognized the danger and harm; we must first see that danger clearly, and only then will wisdom and the strength of the sphere of liberation be enough to lead us to a better life. Without seeing the danger and harm at all, the sphere of liberation lacks the strength to set us free.