If we’re going down a road we’ve never been on before, if we don’t want to get lost, we’ll need a map or at least someone to show us the way. It is very easy to get lost if you go without a map or guide. You have to think that this is a road we’ve never been on before. The one we know leads dukkhahis way for samsara– the path of multiple circumambulation in birth and death. We are actually just stuck in the prison of constantly being born and dying. It always has been and will continue to be until we find a guide or a map of the trail. However, the guide or outline that we study is simply the teachings of the Buddha and his dhamma.
If it weren’t for the Buddha who came and recognized the way out of samsara, the way that leads nibbanathen none of us would know how to escape completely. We would be constantly wandering in the three realms of existence. Being born as a human means that we either partake in sensual pleasures or cultivate ourselves jhana (Pali; states of meditative absorption); then after death we are reborn in different worlds. Some go to heaven, others to the Brahma worlds. After doing bad things, some people become ghosts and others go to hell. After that, we are reborn – we become human again – that we become part of sensual pleasures again, we become part of jhana again. If we want to engage in sensual pleasure and jhana, we will do wrong to some extent, just according to the appearance of things. Our good and bad deeds are the main reason why some of us are reborn here in heaven and others in hell. Just circling like this all the time. In fact, there is no way out of samsara until we meet someone as intelligent as a Buddha who comes and appears in the world and finds a way out. The path to nibbana is only this noble eightfold pathor you can just say it’s fair those (Pali; moral behavior), samadhi (Pali; meditation), or bhavana (Pali; mental training).
Therefore we must really apply ourselves to cling to this outline of ours. This map tells us to do merit, practice charity, be able to follow precepts, and do spiritual cultivation. To whatever extent you can do this, the opportunity to escape from samsara will come much faster. If we are only able to practice the dhamma a little, then our chances of escape will be slim. So we have to stop to think about how much time we will have stick (Thai; put it into practice). There is really no telling how much time we have left, because death is something that can come at any time.
In this case, if we want to avoid negligence, we should be urgent to devote our remaining time to practicing the dhamma to the best of our ability. At present we still have this outline, and even without the Buddha we have arahants—monks who practice well and are determined to practice, who can gradually reveal the way to us. However, without time, even though we still have the map and the guide, we won’t be able to get anything useful, since we don’t have time to go according to where the map points, we don’t have time to follow where our guide takes us.
So the thing that we must keep in mind is death, just as the Buddha taught the venerable Ananda to think of death with every breath in and out, to get rid of all negligence and feel the need to make urgent efforts. Be urgent in the practice of giving, observance of precepts, and practice of bhavana; or for monks to urgently practice the observance of principles, the practice of samadhi, and the cultivation of wisdom. Assuming we die before we reach the goal—the end of the path—as to the next time we will come and be reborn, there is no way to know for sure when that will happen. It is very likely that it may be in an era when Buddhism no longer exists.
Buddhism only has about 2,500 years left. We have already come to a time when there is Buddhism, but suppose we go and be born in a time when there is no Buddhism. This means that there are no teachings, no teachers, and no one to advise us along the way. If things are like this, we will not have the opportunity to reach the goal we desire, nibbana, to escape from the prison of birth and death. In other words, this may be your last chance. If we talk about transportation, you can think of it as the last train that we will be able to get on to get home.
This may be the last chance.
If we don’t rush on board, if we still wander this way and that and think it’s no big deal because another train is coming, then we don’t understand that we really have no idea when another train is coming. There is no schedule. Once Buddhism is no more, it will take quite a long time for Buddhism to reappear in the world. A considerable number of eons must pass before that time comes. An eon is the time that we cannot count with numbers. In other words, it will be a very long time before Buddhism re-emerges in the world. It is difficult to say whether there will be time to be born into the world in an era when Buddhism will re-emerge.
As long as Buddhism survives in the world, it is very likely that we will not regain human status. If we have committed evil deeds, then we can very easily be born as an animal. Or if the level of wickedness was great, we may be stuck in the dungeons of the planes of misery. If we stay in hell, live as a ghost, or whatever, we can be stuck in that situation for a long time. On the other hand, if we went towards the wholesome after doing merit, we would be Devatas. If we were able to enter samadhi or jhana, we would be born in the Brahma worlds. Like the Buddha’s two teachers, whom he thought of after attaining enlightenment.
After attaining enlightenment and understanding the dhamma, the Buddha considered sharing the perfect and unparalleled dhamma with those who could understand and grasp it. So he first thought of his two former teachers, with whom the Buddha studied to learn how to enter jhana.
It was these two teachers who gained expertise in both formal and informal meditation practices. Buddha received word that both had passed away. The first teacher died a month ago and the other just two weeks ago. The Buddha considered it unfortunate because the opportunity to go to nibbana in this life had passed. Moreover, it is unlikely that they will be able to come and be born as humans, meeting the Buddhist. England– Teachings of the Buddha – that the Buddha departed in their next life. The Buddha predicted that the Buddha Sasana would remain in the world for only about 5,000 years. By the time they returned, the sasana was probably not around yet, because they had gone on to the Brahma world, where they would live for tens of thousands of years. Buddha considered it unfortunate.
I give this as an example so that you are not careless in practice. The timing needed to connect with Buddhist sasana – to have someone walk the contours of the path with us. It is not an easy thing to meet a guide who will lead us to nibbana. It’s much harder than the odds of winning the lottery. Right now, it’s the same as if we had already won first place in the lottery. If we had won the lottery, the first thing we would do is rush to collect our prize. But we end up dying and respawning before we can go and claim our prize, so we end up with nothing. We won the lottery, but we don’t get anything from it. So it simply becomes another person’s property, passed on to the person with the next number.
These are the things that we must consider so that we are not careless. We seem so sure of ourselves, thinking that there will be no problems, that we just wait until we are old and start practicing the dhamma. We keep telling ourselves that we have a lot to take care of right now, including raising our children, taking care of our families, and taking care of our parents. THE who is he will invent a hundred and eight thousand different excuses to avoid the paṭibat dhamma, because this dhamma practice is something that causes harm to the kilesas, so the kilesas can never give it up without a fight. They just come up with so many excuses to prevent you from practicing.
If we do not have wisdom, if we do not have a sincere belief in nibbana, this will be something that will cause difficulties in escaping from the three worlds, in reaching nibbana. If we are firmly convinced that the value and benefits of nibbana far surpass anything in this world, then we will be able to renounce the world in its entirety. However, if we continue to believe that things in this world are of greater value than nibbana, we will not be able to move forward.
In this situation, we must consider that the various things in the world are like foam on water. There is no substance in it. They deceive us into thinking that they are of great value, but in reality comparing nibbana with the world is like comparing heaven with dirt. It’s like comparing diamonds to stones. The value of these things varies greatly. Don’t be fooled by a bunch of old rocks. Better to look for diamonds; it is better to pursue nibbana.
Don’t be fooled by a bunch of old rocks. Better to look for diamonds; it is better to pursue nibbana.
For the people we still have to take care of, have you ever thought what would happen to them if you died today? If we were to die today, how would those we have a duty to care for fare? They just have to find it one way or another to keep thriving. If they were unable to take care of themselves or find someone to come and take care of them, then they would just have to leave this world as their time came. Sooner or later they must die; the only question is whether this time will come after a shorter or longer time. If we can bring ourselves to look at it this way, we will not be misled by the kilesas into clinging to the various things of the world, which will leave us with no time to practice the dhamma that enables us to escape the prison of birth and death.
This is what we should really think about: we will cultivate the dhamma so that we can meet a map or one of the noble counselors who remain in this world to guide us to nibbana. If we have no map and no one to advise us on the path, we will never escape because we will simply go on like lost or blind people.
At present we are in a similar situation to those who are blind or lost, but we are lucky to have come across a map and a guide. It is up to us whether we will rush to take advantage of this rare opportunity. We already have the map, we already have a guide, so we urgently need to get the map so we can look it over, so that we can start from this day, because there is no telling how many more days, months or years we will be here.
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Extract from The traveling man by Ajaan Suchart Objectives © 2026. Used with permission.
