No Ajahn Chah

NO AJAHN CHAH

– Reflections –

No Ajahn Chah

– Reflections –

Complied & Edited by Dhamma Garden.

’Offer the gift of Dhamma to others as freely as it has been offered

to you.’

Following the wish of Ajahn Chah that his Dhamma teachingsnot be sold in any way or form, this book is published for freedistribution only.

I

The quotations in this collection havebeen taken from Bodhinyana, A Taste ofFreedom, A Still Forest Pool, Samadhi Bha-vana, Seeing the Way, Living Dhamma,Food for the Heart, and Venerable Father.Some quotations come from a personal col-lection hitherto unpublished.

II

Once there was a layman who came toAjahn Chah and asked him who Ajahn Chahwas. Ajahn Chah, seeing that the spiritualdevelopment of the individual was not veryadvanced, pointed to himself and said,"This, this is Ajahn Chah."

On another occasion, someone else askedAjahn Chah the same question. This time,however, seeing that the questioner’s capac-ity to understand the Dhamma was higher,Ajahn Chah answered by saying, "AjahnChah? There is no Ajahn Chah."

IV

Contents

COVER

INTRODUCTION 1

BIRTH AND DEATH 3

BODY 15

BREATH 19

DHAMMA 23

HEART & MIND 37

V

IMPERMANENCE 53

KAMMA 63

MEDITATION PRACTICE 69

NON-SELF 105

PEACE 113

SUFFERING 125

TEACHER 143

UNDERSTANDING & WISDOM 155

VIRTUE 165

MISCELLANEOUS 177

AN INVITATION 219

GLOSSARY 223

VI

INTRODUCTION 1

INTRODUCTION

When people would say to Ajahn Chah thatthey found it impossible to practice in soci-ety, he would ask them: “If I poked you inthe chest with a burning stick, would you say‘I’m suffering, it’s true, but since I live in thissociety I can’t get away from it?”’

Ajahn Chah’s response makes a point notunlike the Buddha’s parable of the poisonedarrow. The Buddha tells of man who hadbeen shot by an arrow and would not letanyone pull it out until his question aboutthe arrow, the bow and the archer were allanswered. The only problem was that thewounded man would probably die before hecould get the replies to all of his questions.What the wounded man had to realize wasthat he was in pain and dying, and he shoulddo something about that right away.

Ajahn Chah emphasized this point overand over again in his teachings: You’re suf-fering; do something about it now! He

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wouldn’t spend much time talking aboutpeace, wisdom, or nibbanic states, but ratherthe practice of constantly being aware ofwhat was happening within the body andmind in the present moment, learning howto simply watch and let go. Meditation, he’dsay, was not getting things, but getting ridof things. Even when asked about the peacethat one could attain through practice, hewould instead rather speak of the confusionthat one should first get rid of, for, as he putit, peace is the end of confusion.

This collection reflects not on suffer-ing and meditation practice, but also givesus some insight into impermanence, virtue,non-self and so on. We hope that the readerwill take this little book as a companion and"good friend" for moments of quiet reflec-tion, and perhaps get a glimpse of the "no-Ajahn Chah" who used to say, "I’m alwaystalking about things to develop and thingsto give up, but, really, there’s nothing to de-velop and nothing to give up".

BIRTH ANDDEATH

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1. A good practice is to ask yourself verysincerely, "Why was I born?" Ask yourselfthis question in the morning, in the after-noon, and at night... every day.

BIRTH AND DEATH 5

2. Our birth and death are just one thing.You can’t have one without the other. It’s alittle funny to see how at a death people areso tearful and sad, and at a birth how happyand delighted. It’s delusion. I think if youreally want to cry, then it would be better todo so when someone is born. Cry at the root,for if there were no birth, there would be nodeath. Can you understand this?

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3. You’d think that people could appre-ciate what it would be like to live in a per-son’s belly. How uncomfortable that wouldbe! Just look at how merely staying in a hutfor only one day is already hard to take. Youshut all the doors and windows and you’resuffocating already. How would it be to liein a person’s belly for nine months? Yet youwant to be born again! You know it wouldn’tbe comfortable in there, and yet you want tosick your head right in there, to put your neckin the noose once again.

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4. Why are we born? We are born so thatwe will not have to be born again.

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5. When one does not understand death,life can be very confusing.

BIRTH AND DEATH 9

6. The Buddha told his disciple Anandato see impermanence, to see death with everybreath. We must know death; we must diein order to live. What does this mean? Todie is to come to the end of all our doubts,all our questions, and just be here with thepresent reality. You can never die tomorrow;you must die now. Can you do it? If you cando it, you will know the peace of no morequestions.

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7. Death is as close as our breath.

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8. If you trained properly, you wouldn’tfeel frightened when you fall sick, nor up-set when someone dies. When you go intothe hospital for treatment, determine in yourmind that if you get better, that’s fine, andthat if you die, that’s fine, too. I guaranteeyou that if the doctors told me I had cancerand was going to die in a few months, I’d re-mind the doctors, "Watch out, because deathis coming to get you, too. It’s just a questionof who goes first and who goes later." Doc-tors are not going to cure death or preventdeath. Only the Buddha was such a doctor,so why not go ahead and use the Buddha’smedicine?

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9. If you’re afraid of illnesses, if you areafraid of death, then you should contemplatewhere they come from. Where do they comefrom? They arise from birth. So don’t be sadwhen someone dies – it’s just nature, and hissuffering in this life is over. If you want to besad, be sad when people are born: “Oh, no,they’ve come again. They’re going to sufferand die again!"

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10. The “One Who Knows" clearlyknows that all conditioned phenomena areunsubstantial. So this "One Who Knows"does not become happy or sad, for it doesnot follow changing conditions. To becomeglad, is to be born; to become dejected, is todie. Having died, we are born again; havingbeen born, we die again. This birth and deathfrom one moment to the next is the endlessspinning wheel of samsara.

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BODY

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11. If the body could talk, it would betelling us all day long, "You’re not my owner,you know.” Actually it’s telling it to us allthe time, but it’s Dhamma language, so we’reunable to understand it.

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12. Conditions don’t belong to us. Theyfollow their own natural course. We can’tdo anything about the way the body is. Wecan beautify it a little, make it look attractiveand clean for a while, like the young girl whopaint their lips and let their nail grow long,but when old age arrives, everyone is in thesame boat. That is the way the body is. Wecan’t make it any other way. But what wecan improve and beautify is the mind.

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13. If our body really belonged to us, itwould obey our commands. If we say "Don’tget old," or “I forbid you to get sick," does itobey us? No! It’s take no notice, We onlyrent this "house," not own it. If we think itdoes belong to us, we will suffer when wehave to leave it. But in reality, there is nosuch thing as a permanent self, nothing un-changing or solid that we can hold on to.

BREATH

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14. There are people who are born anddie and never once are aware of their breathgoing in and out of their body. That’s howfar away they live from themselves.

BREATH 21

15. Time is our present breath.

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16. You say that you are too busy to med-itate. Do you have time to breath? Medita-tion is your breath. Why do you have timeto breathe but not to meditate? Breathing issomething vital to people’s lives. If you seethat Dhamma practice is vital to your life,then you will feel that breathing and prac-ticing the Dhamma are equally important.

DHAMMA

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17. What is Dhamma? Nothing isn’t.

DHAMMA 25

18. How does the Dhamma teach theproper way of life? It shows us how to live.It has many ways of showing it – on rocks ortrees or just in front of you. It is a teachingbut not in words. So still the mind, the heart,and learn to watch. You’ll find the wholeDhamma revealing itself here and now. Atwhat other time and place are you going tolook?

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19. First you understand the Dhammawith your thoughts. If you begin to under-stand it, you will practice it. And if you prac-tice it, you will begin to see it. And when yousee it, you are the Dhamma and you have thejoy of the Buddha.

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20. The Dhamma has to be found bylooking into your own heart and seeing thatwhich is true and that which is not, thatwhich is balanced and that which is not bal-anced.

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21. There is only one real magic, themagic of Dhamma. Any other magic is likethe illusion of a card trick. It’s distracts usfrom the real game: our relation to humanlife, to birth, to death and to freedom.

DHAMMA 29

22. Whatever you do, make it Dhamma.If you don’t feel good, look inside. If youknow it’s wrong and still do it, that’s defile-ment.

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23. It’s hard to find those who listento Dhamma, who remember Dhamma andpractice it, who reach Dhamma and see it.

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24. It’s all Dhamma if we have mind-fulness. When we see the animals that runaway from danger, we see that they are justlike us. They flee from suffering and run to-ward happiness. They also have fear. Theyfear for their lives just as we do. When wesee according to truth, we see that all ani-mals and human being are no different. Weare all mutual companions of birth, old age,sickness, and death.

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25. Regardless of time and place, thewhole practice of Dhamma comes to com-pletion at the place where there is nothing.It’s the place of surrender, of emptiness, oflaying down the burden. This is the finish.

DHAMMA 33

26. The Dhamma is not far away. It’sright with us. The Dhamma isn’t about an-gels in the sky or anything like that. It’s sim-ply about us, about what we are doing rightnow. Observe yourself. Sometimes there ishappiness, sometimes suffering, sometimescomfort, sometimes pain... this is Dhamma.Do you see it? To know this is Dhamma, youhave to read your experiences.

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27. The Buddha wanted us to contact theDhamma, but people only contact the words,the books and the scriptures. This is contact-ing that which is "about" Dhamma, and notcontacting the "real" Dhamma as taught byour Great Teacher. How can people say thatthey are practicing well and properly if theyonly do that? They are a long way off.

DHAMMA 35

28. When you listen to the Dhamma youmust open up your heart and compose your-self in the center. Don’t try to accumulatewhat you hear or make a painstaking effort toretain what you hear through memory. Justlet the Dhamma flow into your heart as it re-veal itself, and keep yourself continuouslyopen to its flow in the present moment. Whatis ready to be retained will be so, and it willhappen of it’s own accord, not through anydetermined effort on your part.

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29. Also when you expound theDhamma you must not force yourself. Itshould happen on it’s own and should flowspontaneously from the present moment andcircumstances. People have different levelsof receptive ability, and when you’re there atthat same level, it just happens, the Dhammaflows. The Buddha had the ability to knowpeople’s temperaments and receptive abili-ties. He used this very same method of spon-taneous teaching. It’s not that he possessedany special superhuman power to teach, butrather that he was sensitive to the spiritualneeds of the people who came to him, and sohe taught them accordingly.

HEART & MIND

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30. Only one book is worth reading: theheart.

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31. The Buddha taught us that what-ever makes the mind distressed in our prac-tice hits home. Defilements are distressed.It’s not that the mind is distressed! We dontknow what our mind and defilements are.Whatever we aren’t satisfied with, we justdon’t want anything to do with it. Our wayof life is not difficult. What’s difficult is notbeing satisfied, not agreeing with it. Our de-filements are the difficulty.

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32. The world is in a very feverish state.The mind changes from like to dislike withthe feverishness of the world. If we can learnto make the mind still, it will be the greatesthelp to the world.

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33. If your mind is happy, then youare happy anywhere you go. When wis-dom awakens within you, you will see Truthwherever you look. Truth is all there is. It’slike when you’ve learned how to read... youcan then read anywhere you go.

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34. If you’re allergic to one place, you’llbe allergic to every place. But it’s not theplace outside you that’s causing you trouble.It’s the place inside you.

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35. Look at your own mind. The onewho carries things thinks he’s got things, butthe one who looks on only sees the heavi-ness. Throw away things, lose them and findlightness.

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36. The mind is intrinsically tranquil.Out of this tranquility, anxiety and confusionare born. If one sees and knows this confu-sion, then the mind is tranquil once more.

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37. Buddhism is a religion of the heart.Only this. One who practices to develop theheart is one who practices Buddhism.

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38. When the light is dim, it isn’t easyto see the old spider webs in the corners ofa room. But when the light is bright, youcan see them clearly and then be able totake them down. When your mind is bright,you’ll be able to see your defilements clearly,too, and clean them away.

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39. Strengthening the mind is not doneby making it move around as is done tostrengthen the body, but by bringing themind to a halt, bringing it to rest.

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40. Because people dont see themselves,they can commit all sorts of bad deeds. Theydon’t look at their own minds. When peo-ple are going to do something bad, they haveto look around first to see if anyone is look-ing: "Will my mother see me?" “Will myhusband see me?” "Will my children seeme?" " Will my wife see me?” If there’sno one watching, then they go right aheadand do it. This is insulting themselves. Theysay no one is watching, so they quickly fin-ish their bad deed before anyone will see.And what about themselves? Aren’t they a"somebody" watching ?

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41. Use your heart to listen to the Teach-ings, not your ears.

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42. There are those to do battle withtheir defilements and conquer them. This iscalled fighting inwardly. Those who fightoutwardly take hold of bombs and guns tothrow and to shoot. They conquer and areconquered. Conquering others is the way ofthe world. In the practice of Dhamma wedon’t have to fight others, but instead con-quer our own minds, patiently resisting allour moods.

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43. Where does rain come from? Itcomes from all the dirty water that evapo-rates from the earth, like urine and the wateryou throw out after washing your feet. Isn’tit wonderful how the sky can take that dirtywater and change it into pure, clean water?Your mind can do the same with your defile-ments if you let it.

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44. The Buddha said to judge only your-self, and not to judge others, no matter howgood or evil they may be. The Buddhamerely points out the way, saying, " Thetruth is like this." Now is our mind like thator not?

IMPERMANENCE

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45. Conditions exist through change.You can’t prevent it. Just think, could youexhale without inhaling? Would it feel good?Or could you just inhale? We want things tobe permanent, but that can’t be. It’s impossi-ble.

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46. If you know that all things are im-permanent, all your thinking will graduallyunwind, and your won’t need to think toomuch. Whenever anything arises, all youneed to say is "Oh, another one!" Just that!

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47. Any speech which ignores uncer-tainty is not the speech of a sage.

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48. If you really see uncertainly clearly,you will see that which is certain. The cer-tainly is that things must inevitably be uncer-tain and that they cannot be otherwise. Doyou understand? Knowing just this much,you can know the Buddha, you can rightlydo reverence to him.

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49. If your mind tries to tell you it has al-ready attained the level of sotapanna, go andbow to a sotapanna. He’ll tell you himselfit’s all uncertain. If you meet a sakadagamı,go and pay respects to him. When he seesyou, he’ll simply say, "Not a sure thing!" Ifthere’s an anagamı, go and bow to him. He’lltell you only one thing, "Uncertain!" If youmeet even an arahant, go and bow to him.He’ll tell you even more firmly, "It’s all evenmore uncertain!" You’ll hear the words of theNoble Ones: Everything is uncertain. Don’tcling to anything!"

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50. Sometimes I’d go to see old religioussites with ancient temples. In some placesthey would be cracked. Maybe one of myfriends would remark, "Such a shame, isn’tit? It’s cracked." I’d answer, "If they weren’tcracked there’d be no such thing as the Bud-dha. There’d be no Dhamma. It’s crackedlike this because it’s perfectly in line with theBuddha’s teaching."

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51. Conditions all go their own naturalway. Whether we laugh or cry over them,they just go their own way. And there isno knowledge of science which can preventthis natural course of things. You may geta dentist to look at your teeth, but even ifthey can fix them, they still finally go theirnatural way. Eventually even the dentist hasthe same trouble. Everything fall apart in theend.

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52. What can we take for certain? Noth-ing! There’s nothing but feelings. Sufferingarises, stays, then passes away. Then happi-ness replaces suffering – only this. Outsideof this, there is nothing. But we are lost peo-ple running and grabbing at feelings contin-uously. Feelings are not real, only changes.

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KAMMA

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53. When those who do not understandthe Dhamma act improperly, they look allaround to make sure no one is watching. Butour kamma is always watching. We neverreally get away with anything.

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54. Good actions bring good results, badactions bring bad results. Don’t expect thegods to do thing for you, or the angles andguardian deities to protect you, or the auspi-cious days to help you. These things aren’ttrue. Don’t believe in them. If you believe inthem, you will suffer. You will always bewaiting for the right day, the right month,the right year, the angles, or the guardiandeities. You’ll only suffer that way. Lookinto your own actions and speech, into yourown kamma. Doing good, you inherit good-ness, doing bad you inherit badness.

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55. Through right practice, you allowyour old kamma to wear itself out. Know-ing how things arise and pass away, you canjust be aware and let them run their course.It is like having two trees: if you fertilize andwater one and do not take care of the other,there is no question which one will grow andwhich one will die.

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56. Some of you have come from thou-sands of miles away, from Europe and Amer-ica and other far-off places, to listen to theDhamma here at Nong Pah Pong Monastery.To think that you’ve come from so far andgone through so much trouble to get here.Then we have these people who live just out-side the wall of the monastery but who haveyet to enter through its gate. It make you ap-preciate good kamma more, doesn’t it?

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57. When you do something bad, there isnowhere you can go to hide. Even if othersdon’t see you, you must see yourself. Evenif you go into a deep hole, you’ll still findyourself there. There’s no way you can com-mit bad actions and get away with it. In thesame way, why shouldn’t you see your ownpurity? You see it all – the peace, the agita-tion, the liberation, the peace, the bondage.You see all these for yourself.

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58. If you want to wait around to meetthe future Buddha, then just don’t practice.You’ll probably be around long enough tosee him when he comes.


59. I’ve heard people say, "Oh, this yearwas a bad year for me." "How come?" "Iwas sick all year. I couldn’t practice at all."Oh! If they don’t practice when death is near,when will they ever practice? If they’re feel-ing well, do you think they practice? No.They only get lost in happiness. If they’resuffering they still don’t practice. They getlost in that, too. I don’t know when peoplethink they’re going to practice.

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60. I’ve already laid down the scheduleand rules of the monastery. Don’t transgressthe existing standards. Anyone who does isnot one who has come with a real intention topractice. What can such a person ever hopeto see? Even if he slept near me every day,he wouldn’t see me. Even if he slept near theBuddha, he wouldn’t see the Buddha, if hedisn’t practice.


61. Don’t think that only sitting withthe eyes closed is practice. If you do thinkthis way, then quickly change your thinking.Steady practice is being mindfull in everyposture, whether sitting, walking, standingor lying down. When coming out of sitting,don’t think that you’re coming out of med-itation, but that you are only changing pos-tures. If you reflect in this way, you will havepeace. Wherever you are, you will have thisattitude of practice with you constantly. Youwill have a steady awareness within yourself.

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62. "As long as I have still not attainedSupreme Enlightenment, I will not rise fromthis place, even if my blood dries up." Read-ing this in the books, you may think of tryingit yourself. You’ll do it like the Buddha. Butyou haven’t considered that your car is onlya small one. The Buddha’s car was a reallybig one. He could do it all at once. Withonly your tiny, little car, how can you possi-bly take it all at once? It’s a different storyaltogether.


63. I went all over looking for placesto meditate. I didn’t realize it was alreadythere, in my heart. All the meditation is rightthere inside you. Birth, old age, sickness,and death are right there within you. I trav-eled all over until I was ready to drop deadfrom exhaustion. Only then, when I stopped,did I find what I was looking for... inside me.

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64. We don’t meditate to see heaven, butto end suffering.


65. Don’t be attached to visions or lightsin meditation, don’t rise or fall with them.What’s so great about brightness? My flash-light has it. It can’t help us rid ourselves ofour suffering.

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66. You’re blind and deaf without med-itation. Dhamma isn’t easily seen. Youmust meditate to see what you’ve never seen.Were you born a teacher? No. You muststudy first. A lemon is sour only when youhave tasted it.


67. When sitting in meditation, say "That’s not my business!" with every thoughtthat comes by.

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68. When we are lazy we should practiceand not only when we feel energetic or inthe mood. This is practicing according to theBuddha’s teaching. According to our own,we practice only when we’re feeling good.How are we going to get anywhere like that?When are we going to cut the stream of de-filements when we practice only accordingto our whims like that?


69. Whatever we do, we should see our-selves. Reading books doesn’t ever give riseto anything. The days pass by, but we don’tsee ourselves. Knowing about practice ispracticing in order to know.

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70. Of course, there are dozens of med-itation techniques, but it all comes down tothis – just let it all be. Step over here whereit is cool, out of the battle. Why not give it atry?


71. Merely thinking about practice islike pouncing on the shadow and missing thesubstance.

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72. When I had been practicing for onlya few years, I still could not trust myself.But after I had experienced much, I learnedto trust my own heart. When you have thisdeep understanding, whatever happens, youcan let it happen, and everything will just riseand pass away. You will reach a point wherethe heart tells itself what to do.


73. In meditation practice, it is actuallyworse to be caught in calmness that to bestuck in agitation, because at least you willwant to escape from agitation, whereas youare content to remain in calmness and notgo any further. When blissful clear statesarise from insight meditation practice, do notcling to them.

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74. Meditation is just about the mind andit’s feelings. It’s not something you have torun after or struggle for. Breathing continueswhile working. Nature takes care of the nat-ural processes. All we have to do is try to beaware, going inwards to see clearly. Medita-tion is like this.


75. Not practicing rightly is being heed-less. Being heedless is like being dead.Ask yourself if you will have time to prac-tice when you die? Constantly ask your-self, "When will I die? If we contemplatein this way, our mind will be alert every sec-ond, heedfulness will always be present, andmindfulness will automatically follow. Wis-dom will arise, seeing all things as they re-ally are very clearly. Mindfulness guards themind so that it knows when sensations ariseat all times, day and night. To have mindful-ness is to be composed. To be composed isto be heedful. If one is heedful, then one ispracticing rightly.

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76. The basics in our practice should befirst, to be honest and upright; second, to bewary of wrong doing; and third, to be hum-ble within one’s heart, to be aloof and con-tent with little. If we are content with little inregards to speech and in all other things, wewill see ourselves, we won’t be distracted.The mind will have a foundation of virtue,concentration, and wisdom.


77. At first you hurry to go forward,hurry to come back, and hurry to stop. Youcontinue to practice like this until you reachthe point where it seems that going forwardis not it, coming back is not it, and stoppingis not it either! It’s finished. There’s no stop-ping, no going forward and no coming back.It’s is finished. Right there you will find thatthere is really nothing at all.

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78. Remember you don’t meditate to getanything, but to get rid of things. We do itnot with desire but with letting go. If youwant anything, you won’t find it.


79. The heart of the path is quiteeasy. There’s no need to explain anything atlength. Let go of love and hate and let thingsbe. That ’s all that I do in my own practice.

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80. Asking the wrong questions showthat you are still caught in doubting. Talkingabout practice is all right, if it helps contem-plation. But it’s up to you yourself to see theTruth.


81. We practice to learn letting go, notto increase our holding on. Enlightenmentappears when you stop wanting anything.

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82. If you have time to be mindful, youhave time to meditate.


83. Someone recently asked me, "Aswe meditate and various things arise in themind, should we investigate them or just notethem coming and going?" If you see some-one passing by whom you do not know, youmay wonder, "Who is that? Where is he go-ing? What is he up to?" But if we know theperson, it is enough just to notice him passby.

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84. Desire in practice can be a friend oran enemy. As a friend, it makes us want topractice, to understand, to end suffering. Butto be always desiring something that has notyet arisen, to want things to be other thanthey are, just causes more suffering, and thisis when desire can be a foe. In the end, wemust learn to let go of all our desires, eventhe desire for enlightenment. Only then canwe be free.


85. Someone once asked Ajahn Chahabout the way he taught meditation: "Do youuse the method of daily interviewing to ex-amine the mind-state of a person?" AjahnChah responded by saying: "Here I teachdisciples to examine their own mind-states,to interview themselves. Maybe a monk isangry today, or maybe he has some desire inhis mind. I don’t know it but he should. Hedoesn’t have to come and ask me about it,does he?"

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86. Our life is an assembly of the el-ements. We use conventions to describethings, but we get attached to the conven-tions and take them to be something real. Forexample, people and things are given names.We could go back to the beginning beforenames were given, and call men "women"and women "men" – what would be the dif-ference? But now we cling to names andconcepts, so we have the war of the sexes andother wars as well. Meditation is for seeingthrough all of this; then we can reach the un-conditioned and be at peace, not at war.


87. Some people enter the monkhoodout of faith, but later trample on the teachingof Buddha. They know better, but refuse topractice rightly. Indeed, those who do reallypractice are few these days.

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88. Theory and practice – the first knowsthe name of a medicinal plant, and the sec-ond goes to find it and uses it.


89. Noise – you like the sound of birdsbut not that of cars. You’re afraid of peopleand noises, and you like to live alone in theforest. Let go of the noise and take care ofthe baby. The "baby" is your practice.

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90. A newly ordained novice askedAjahn Chah what his advice was for thosenew to meditation practice. "The same asfor those who’ve already been at it for a longtime," he replied. And what was that? "Justkeep at it," he said.


91. People say that that Buddha’s teach-ing is right, but it is impossible to practicein society. They say things like "I’m young,so I don’t have the opportunity to practice,but when I’m old I’ll practice." Would yousay "I’m young, so I don’t have time to eat,but when I get older I’ll eat?” If I poked youwith a stick that was on fire, would you say“I’m suffering, it’s true, but since I live inthis society I can’t get away from it?”

104 NO AJAHN CHAH

92. Virtue, concentration, and wisdomtogether make up the heart of Buddhist prac-tice. Virtue keeps the body and speech intact.And the body is the residence of the mind.So practice has the way of virtue, the way ofconcentration, and the way of wisdom. It’slike a piece of wood cut into three sections,but it’s really only one log. If we want tothrow away body and speech, we cannot. Wemust practice with the body and the mind.So in truth, virtue, concentration, and wis-dom are one harmonious union that work to-gether.

NON-SELF

105

106 NO AJAHN CHAH

93. A devout elderly lady from a nearbyprovince came on a pilgrimage to Wat PahPong. She told Ajahn Chah she could stayonly a short time, as she had to return totake care of her grandchildren, and sinceshe was an old lady, she asked if he couldplease give her a brief Dhamma talk. AjahnChah replied with great force, "Hey, listen!There’s no one here, just this! No owner, noone to be old, to be young, to be good orbad, weak or strong. Just this, that’s all –just various elements of nature going theirown way, all empty. No one born and noone to die! Those who speak of birth anddeath are speaking the language of ignorantchildren. In he language of the heart, ofDhamma, there are no such things as birthand death."

NON-SELF 107

94. The real foundation of the teachingis to see the self a being empty. But peoplecome to study the Dhamma to increase theirself-view, so they don’t want to experiencesuffering or difficulty. They want everythingto be cosy. They may want to transcend suf-fering, but if there is still a self, how can theyever do so?

108 NO AJAHN CHAH

95. It is so easy once you understand. Itis so simple and direct. When pleasant thingsarise, understand that they are empty. Whenunpleasant things arise, see that they are notyours. They pass away. Don’t relate to themas being you, or see yourself as the owner ofthem. You think that papaya tree is yours,then why don’t you feel hurt when it is cutdown? If you can understand this, then themind comes into balance. When the mindcomes into balance, then this is the correctpath, the correct teaching of the Buddha, andthe teaching that leads to liberation.

NON-SELF 109

96. People don’t study that which is be-yond good and evil. This is what they shouldstudy. "I’m going to be like this; I’m goingto be like that," they say. But they never say,"I’m not going to be anything because therereally isn’t any ’I”’. This they don’t study.

110 NO AJAHN CHAH

97. Once you understand non-self, thenthe burden of life is gone. You’ll be at peacewith the world. When we see beyond self,we no longer cling to happiness and we cantruly be happy. Learn to let go without strug-gle, simply let go, to be just as you are – noholding on, no attachment – free.

NON-SELF 111

98. All bodies are composed of thefour elements of earth, water, wind and fire.When they come together and form a bodywe say it’s a male or a female, giving itnames and so on, so that we can identify eachother more easily. But actually there isn’tanyone there – only earth, water, wind andfire. Don’t get excited over it or infatuatedby it. If you really look into it, you will notfind anyone there.

112 NO AJAHN CHAH

PEACE

113

114 NO AJAHN CHAH

99. Question: What’s peacefulness like?Answer: What is confusion? Well,

peacefulness is the end of confusion.

PEACE 115

100. Peace is within oneself to be foundin the same place as agitation and suffering.It’s is not found in a forest or on a hill top,nor is it given by a teacher, Where you expe-rience suffering, you can also find freedomfrom suffering. Trying to run away from suf-fering is actually to run toward it.

116 NO AJAHN CHAH

101. If you let go a little, you will have alittle peace. If you let go a lot, you will havea lot of peace. If you let go completely, youwill have complete peace.

PEACE 117

102. Actually, in truth, there isn’t any-thing to human beings. Whatever we may be,it’s only in the realm of appearances. How-ever, if we go beyond appearances and seethe truth, we will see that there isn’t anythingthere but the universal characteristics – birthin the beginning, change in the middle, andcessation in the end. This is all there is. If wesee that all things are like this, then no prob-lems arise. If we understand this, we willhave contentment and peace.

118 NO AJAHN CHAH

103. Know what is good and bad,whether traveling or living in one place. Youcan’t find peace on a mountain or in a cave.You can even go to where the Buddha at-tained enlightenment without getting closerto the truth.

PEACE 119

104. Looking outside the self is to com-pare and to discriminate. You will not findhappiness that way. Nor will you find peaceif you spend your time looking for a perfectperson or the perfect teacher. The Buddhataught us to look at the Dhamma, the truth,and not to look at other people.

120 NO AJAHN CHAH

105. Anyone can build a house of woodand bricks, but the Buddha taught us that sortof home is not our real home. It’s a homein the world and it follows the ways of theworld. Our real home is inner peace.

PEACE 121

106. The forest is peaceful, why aren’tyou? You hold onto things causing yourconfusion. Let nature teach you. Hear thebird’s song then let go. If you know na-ture, you’ll know Dhamma. If you knowDhamma, you’ll know nature.

122 NO AJAHN CHAH

107. Looking for peace is like lookingfor a turtle with a mustache. You won’t beable to find it. But when your heart is ready,peace will come looking for you.

PEACE 123

108. Virtue, concentration, and wisdomtogether make up the Path. But this Path isnot yet the true teaching, not what the teacheractually wanted, but merely the Path thatwill take you there. For example, say youtraveled the road from Bangkok to Wat PahPong; the road was necessary for your jour-ney, but you were seeking Wat Pah Pong themonastery, not the road. In the same way, wecan say that virtue, concentration, and wis-dom are outside the truth of the Buddha butare road that leads to this truth. When youhave developed these three factors, the resultis the most wonderful peace.

124 NO AJAHN CHAH

SUFFERING

125

126 NO AJAHN CHAH

109. There are two kinds of suffering:the suffering which leads to more suffering,and the suffering which leads to the end ofsuffering. The first is the pain of graspingafter fleeting pleasures and aversion for theunpleasant, the continued struggle of mostpeople day after day. The second is the suf-fering which comes when you allow your-self to feel fully the constant change of ex-perience – pleasure, pain, joy, and anger –without fear or withdrawal. The suffering ofour experience lead to inner fearlessness andpeace.

SUFFERING 127

110. We want to take the easy way, but ifthere’s no suffering, there’s no wisdom. Tobe ripe for wisdom, you must really breakdown and cry in your practice at least threetimes.

128 NO AJAHN CHAH

111. We don’t become monk or nuns toeat well, sleep well, and be very comfortable,but to know suffering:

– how to accept it...– how to get rid of it...– how not to cause it.

So don’t do that which causes suffering, likeindulging in greed, or it will never leave you.

SUFFERING 129

112. In truth, happiness is suffering indisguise, but in such a subtle form that youdon’t see it. If you cling to happiness, it’s thesame as clinging to suffering, but you don’trealize it. When you hold onto happiness, it’simpossible to throw away the inherent suf-fering. They’re inseparable like that. Thusthe Buddha taught us to know suffering, seeit as the inherent harm in happiness, to seethem as equal. So be careful! When happi-ness arise, don’t be overjoyed, and don’t getcarried away. When suffering comes, don’tdespair, don’t lose yourself in it. See thatthey have the same equal value.

130 NO AJAHN CHAH

113. When suffering arises, understandthat there is no one to accept it. If you thinksuffering is yours, happiness is yours, youwill not be able to find peace.

SUFFERING 131

114. People who suffer will accordinglygain wisdom. If we don’t suffer, we don’tcontemplate. If we don’t contemplate, nowisdom is born. Without wisdom, we don’tknow. Not knowing, we can’t get free of suf-fering – that’s just the way it is. Therefore wemust train and endure in our practice. Whenwe then reflect on world, we won’t be afraidlike before. It isn’t that the Buddha was en-lightened outside of the world but within theworld itself.

132 NO AJAHN CHAH

115. Sensual indulgence and self-mortification are two paths the Buddha dis-couraged. This is just happiness and suffer-ing. We imagine we have freed ourselvesfrom suffering, but we haven’t. We just clingto happiness, If we cling to happiness, wewill suffer again. That’s the way it is, butpeople think contrarily.

SUFFERING 133

116. People have suffering in one place,so they go somewhere else. When suffer-ing arise there, they run off again. Theythink they’re running away from suffering,but they’re not. Suffering goes with them.They carry suffering around without know-ing it. If we don’t know suffering, thenwe can’t know the cause of suffering. Ifwe don’t know the cause of suffering, thenwe can’t know the cessation of suffering.There’s no way we can escape it.

134 NO AJAHN CHAH

117. Students today have much moreknowledge that students of previous times.They have got all the things they need, ev-erything is more convenient. But they alsohave a lot more suffering and confusion thanbefore. Why is this?

SUFFERING 135

118. Do not be a bodhisatta ; do not anarahant; do not be anything at all. If you area bodhisatta, you will suffer; if you are anarahant, you will suffer; if you are anythingat all, you will suffer.

136 NO AJAHN CHAH

119. Love and hate are both suffering,because of desire. Wanting is suffering;wanting not to have is suffering. Even if youget what you want, it’s still suffering becauseonce you’ve got it, you then live in the fear oflosing it. How are you going to live happilywith fear?

SUFFERING 137

120. When you’re angry, does it feelgood or bad? If it feel so bad, then why don’tyou throw it away? Why bother to keep it?How can you say that you are wise and in-telligent if you hold onto such things? Somedays the mind can even cause the whole fam-ily to quarrel or cause you to cry all night.And, yet, we still continue to get angry andsuffer. If you see the suffering of anger, thenjust throw it away. If you don’t throw it away,it will go on causing suffering indefinitely,with no chance of respite. The world of un-satisfactory existence is like this. If we knowthe way it is, we can solve the problem.

138 NO AJAHN CHAH

121. A woman wanted to know how todeal with anger. I asked her when angerarose whose anger it was. She said it washers. Well, if it really was her anger, then sheshould be able to tell it to go away, shouldn’tshe? But it really isn’t hers to command.Holding onto anger as a personal possessionwill cause suffering. If anger really belongedto us, it would have to obey us. If it doesn’tobey us, that means it’s only a deception.Don’t fall for it. Whether the mind is happyor sad, don’t fall for it. It’s all a deception.

SUFFERING 139

122. If you see certainly in that which isuncertain, you are bound to suffer.

140 NO AJAHN CHAH

123. The Buddha is always here teach-ing. See for yourself. There is happiness andthere is unhappiness. There is pleasure andthere is pain. And they’re always here. Whenyou understand the nature of pleasure andpain, there you see the Buddha, there you seethe Dhamma. The Buddha is not apart fromthem.

SUFFERING 141

124. Contemplating them together, wesee that happiness and suffering are equal,just as hot and cold are. The heat from a firecan burn us to death, while the coldness fromice can freeze us to death. Neither is greater.It’s the same with happiness and suffering.In the world, everyone desires happiness andno one desires suffering. Nibbana has no de-sire. There is only tranquility.

142 NO AJAHN CHAH

TEACHER

143

144 NO AJAHN CHAH

125. You are your own teacher. Lookingfor teachers can’t solve your own doubts. In-vestigate yourself to find the truth – inside,not outside. Knowing yourself is most im-portant.

TEACHER 145

126. One of my teachers ate very fast. Hemade noises as he ate. Yet he told us to eatslowly and mindfully. I used to watch himand get very upset. I suffered, but he didn’t!I watched the outside. Later I learned: somepeople drive very fast but carefully; othersdrive slowly and have many accidents. Don’tcling to rules, to outer form. If you watchothers at most ten percent of the time andwatch yourself ninety percent of the time,your practice is okay.

146 NO AJAHN CHAH

127. Disciples are hard to teach. Someknow but don’t bother to practice. Somedon’t know and don’t try to find out. I don’tknow what to do with them. Why is it hu-mans have minds like this? Being ignorantis not good, but even if I tell them, they stilldon’t listen. People are so full of doubts intheir practice. They’re alway doubting. Theywant to go to Nibbana but they don’t want towalk to path. It’s baffling. When I tell themto meditate, they’re afraid, and if not afraid,then just plain sleepy. Mostly they like to dothe things I don’t teach. This is the pain ofbeing a teacher.

TEACHER 147

128. If we could see the truth of the Bud-dha’s teaching so easily, we wouldn’t needso many teachers. When we understand theteachings, we just do what is required of us.But what makes people so difficult to teach isthat they don’t accept the teachings and aguewith the teachers and the teachings. In frontof the teacher they behave a little better, butbehind his back they become thieves! Peopleare really difficult to teach.

148 NO AJAHN CHAH

129. I don’t teach my disciples to liveand practice heedlessly. But that’s what theydo when I’m not around. When the po-liceman is around, the thieves behave them-selves. When he asked if there are anythieves around, of course they all say therearen’t, that they’ve never seen any. But assoon as the policeman’s gone, they’re at itagain. It was like that even in the Buddha’stime. So just watch yourself and don’t beconcerned with what others do.

TEACHER 149

130. True teachers speak only of the dif-ficult practice of giving up or getting rid ofthe self. Whatever may happen, do not aban-don the teacher. Let him guide you, becauseit is easy to forget the Path.

150 NO AJAHN CHAH

131. Your doubts about your teacher canhelp you. Take from your teacher what isgood, and be aware of your own practice.Wisdom is yourself to watch and develop.

TEACHER 151

132. Don’t just believe in the teacher be-cause he says a fruit is sweet and delicious.Taste it for yourself and then all the doubtingwill be over.

152 NO AJAHN CHAH

133. Teachers are those who point outthe direction of the Path. After listening tothe teacher, whether or not we walk the Pathby practicing ourselves, and thereby reap thefruits of practice, is strictly up to each one ofus.

TEACHER 153

134. Sometimes teaching is hard work.A teacher is like a garbage can that peoplethrow their frustrations and problems into.The more people you teach, the bigger thegarbage disposal problems. But teaching is awonderful way to practice Dhamma. Thosewho teach grow in patience and in under-standing.

154 NO AJAHN CHAH

135. A teacher cannot really clear up ourdifficulties. He is just a source to investi-gate the Path. He can’t make it clear. Ac-tually what he says is not worth listening to.The Buddha never praised believing in oth-ers. We must believe ourselves. This is diffi-cult, yes, but that’s really how it is. We lookoutside but never really see. We have to de-cide to really practice. Doubts don’t disap-pear by asking others, but through our ownunending practice.

UNDERSTANDING& WISDOM

155

156 NO AJAHN CHAH

136. No one and nothing can free you butyour own understanding.


137. A madman and an arahant bothsmile, but the arahant knows why while themadman doesn’t.

158 NO AJAHN CHAH

138. A clever person watches others, buthe watches with wisdom, not with ignorance.If one watches with wisdom, one can learnmuch. But if one watches with ignorance,one can only find faults.


139. The real problem with people nowa-days is that they know but still don’t do. It’sanother matter if they don’t do because theydon’t know; but if they already know and stilldon’t do, what’s the problem?

160 NO AJAHN CHAH

140. Outward scriptural study is not im-portant. Of course, the Dhamma books arecorrect, but they are not right. They can-not give you right understanding. To see theword "anger" in print is not the same as expe-riencing anger. Only experiencing for your-self can give you true faith.


141. If you see things with real insight,then there is no stickiness in your relation-ship to them. They come – pleasant and un-pleasant – you see them and there is no at-tachment. They come and they pass. Even ifthe worst kinds of defilement come up, suchas greed or anger, there’s enough wisdom tosee their impermanent nature and allow themto just fade away. If you react to them, how-ever, by linking or disliking, that isn’t wis-dom. You’re only creating more suffering foryourself.

162 NO AJAHN CHAH

142. When we know the truth, we be-come people who don’t have to think much,we become people with wisdom. If we don’tknow, we have more thinking than wisdomor no wisdom at all. A lot of thinking with-out wisdom is extreme suffering.


143. These days people don’t search forthe Truth. People study simply in order tofind the knowledge necessary to make a liv-ing, raise their families and look after them-selves, that’s all. To them being smart ismore important than being wise.

164 NO AJAHN CHAH

VIRTUE

165

166 NO AJAHN CHAH

144. Be careful about observing our pre-cepts. Virtue is a sense of shame. Whatwe have doubts about, we should not do orsay. This is virtue. Purity is being beyond alldoubts.

VIRTUE 167

145. There are two levels of practice.The first level forms the foundation, whichis the development of virtue, the precepts,in order to bring happiness and harmonyamong people. The second level is the prac-tice of Dhamma with the sole goal of liberat-ing the heart. This liberation is the source ofwisdom and compassion and is the true rea-son for the Buddha’s teaching. Understand-ing these two levels is the basis of true prac-tice.

168 NO AJAHN CHAH

146 Virtue and morality are the motherand father of the Dhamma growing withinus. They provide it with the proper nourish-ment and guidance.

VIRTUE 169

147. Virtue is the basis for a harmo-nious world in which people can live trulyas humans and not as animals. Developingvirtue is at the heart of our practice. Keep theprecepts. Cultivate compassion and respectfor all life. Be mindful in your actions andspeech. Use virtue to make your life simpleand pure. With virtue as a basis for every-thing you do, your mind will become kind,clear, and quiet. Meditation will grow easilyin this environment.

170 NO AJAHN CHAH

148. Look after your virtue as a gar-dener takes care of his plants. Do not be at-tached to big or small, important or unimpor-tant. Some people want shortcuts. They say,"Forget concentration, we’ll go straight to in-sight; forget virtue, we’ll start with concen-tration." We have so many excuses for ourattachments.

VIRTUE 171

149. Right effort and virtue are not aquestion of what you do outwardly but ofconstant inner awareness and restraint. Thus,charity, if given with good intention, canbring happiness to oneself and to others. Butvirtue must be the root of this charity for itto be pure.

172 NO AJAHN CHAH

150. The Buddha taught us to refrainfrom what is bad, to do good, and to puritythe heart. Our practice, then, is to get rid ofwhat is worthless and keep what is valuable.Do you still have anything bad or unskillfulin your heart? Of course! So why not cleanhouse? But true practice is not only gettingrid of what is bad and cultivating the good.This is only part of it. In the end we must gobeyond both good and bad. Finally there isa freedom that includes all and a desireless-ness from which love and wisdom naturallyflow.

VIRTUE 173

151. We must start right here where weare, directly and simply. When the first twosteps. Virtue and right view, have been com-pleted, then the third step of uprooting de-filement will naturally occur without deliber-ation. When light is produced, we no longerworry about getting rid of darkness, nor dowe wonder where the darkness has gone. Wejust know that there is light.

174 NO AJAHN CHAH

152. Following the precepts has threelevels. The first is to undertake them astraining rules given to us by our teachers.The second arises when we undertake andabide in them by ourselves. But for thoseat the highest level, the Noble Ones. It is notnecessary to think of precepts, of right andwrong. This true virtue comes from wisdomthat knows the Four Noble Truths in the heartand acts from this understanding.

VIRTUE 175

153. Some monks disrobe to go to thefront where bullets fly past them every day.They prefer it like that. They really want togo. Danger surrounds them on all sides andyet they’re prepared to go. Why don’t theysee the danger? They’re prepared to die bythe gun but nobody wants to die developingvirtue. This is really amazing, isn’t it?

176 NO AJAHN CHAH

MISCELLANEOUS

177

178 NO AJAHN CHAH

154. One of Ajahn Chah’s disciples hada knee problem that could only be correctedby surgery. Although the doctors had as-sured him his knee would be well in a coupleof weeks, months went by and it still hadn’thealed properly. When he saw Ajahn Chahagain, he complained saying, “They said itwouldn’t take this long. It shouldn’t be thisway.” Ajahn Chah laughed and said, “If itshouldn’t be this way, it wouldn’t be thisway.”

MISCELLANEOUS 179

155. If some gives you a nice, fat, yel-low banana that’s sweet and fragrant but poi-sonous, will you eat it? Most people will.They know that desire is poisonous, but they"eat" it anyway.

180 NO AJAHN CHAH

156. See your defilements, know themlike you know a cobra’s poison. You won’tgrab the cobra because you know it can killyou. See the harm in things harmful and theuse in things useful.

MISCELLANEOUS 181

157. We are always dissatisfied. In asweet fruit, we miss the sour; in a sour fruit,we miss the sweet.

182 NO AJAHN CHAH

158. If you have something bad smellingin your pocket, wherever you go it will smellbad. Don’t blame it on the place.

MISCELLANEOUS 183

159. Buddhism in the East today is likea big tree which may look majestic, but canonly give small and tasteless fruit. Buddhismin the west is like a sapling not yet able tobear fruit, but having the potential to givelarge, sweet ones.

184 NO AJAHN CHAH

160. People nowadays think too much.There are too many things for them to getinterested in, but none of them lead to anytrue fulfillment.

MISCELLANEOUS 185

161. Just because you go and call alcohol"perfume" doesn’t make it become perfume,you know. But, you people, when you wantto drink alcohol, you say it’s perfume, thengo ahead and drink it. You must be crazy!

186 NO AJAHN CHAH

162. People are always looking out-wards, at people and things. They look at thishall, for example, and say, "Oh, it’s so big!"Actually it’s not big at all. Whether or notit seems big, depends on your perception ofit. In fact this hall is just the size it is, neitherbig nor small. But people run after their feel-ings all the time. They are so busy lookingaround and having opinions about what theysee that they have no time to look at them-selves.

MISCELLANEOUS 187

163. Some people get bored, fed up, triedof the practice and lazy. They can’t seemto keep the Dhamma in mind. Yet, if yougo and scold them, they’ll never forget that.Some may remember it for the rest of theirlife and never forgive you for it. But whenit comes to the Buddha’s teaching, telling usto be moderate, to be restrained, to practiceconscientiously, why do they keep forgettingthese things? Why don’t people take thesethings to heart?

188 NO AJAHN CHAH

164. Seeing that we are better than othersis not right. Seeing that we are equal to oth-ers is not right. Seeing that we are inferior toothers is not right. If we think we are betterthan others, pride arise. If we think we areequal to others, we fail to show respect andhumility at the proper times. If we think weare inferior to others, we get depressed think-ing we are inferior, born under a bad sign andso on. Just let all of that go!

MISCELLANEOUS 189

165. We must learn to let go of condi-tions and not try to oppose or resist them.And yet we plead with them to comply withour wishes. We look for all sorts of meansto organize them or make a deal with them.If the body gets sick and is in pain, we don’twant it to be so, so we look for various sut-tas to chant. We don’t want the body to be inpain. We want to control it. These suttas be-come some form of mystical ceremony, get-ting us even more entangled in clinging. Thisis because we chant them in order to ward offillness, to prolong life and so on. Actuallythe Buddha gave us these teachings in or-der to help us know the truth of the body, sothat we can let go and give up our longings,but we end up chanting them to increase ourdelusion.

190 NO AJAHN CHAH

166. Know your own body, heart, andmind. Be content with little. Don’t be at-tached to the teachings. Don’t go and holdonto emotions.

MISCELLANEOUS 191

167. Some people are afraid of generos-ity. They feel that they will be exploited oroppressed. In cultivating generosity, we areonly oppressing our greed and attachment.This allows our true nature to express itselfand become lighter and freer.

192 NO AJAHN CHAH

168. If you reach out and grab a fire inyour neighbor’s house, the fire will be hot. Ifyou grab a fire in your own house, that, too,will be hot. So don’t grab at anything thatcan burn you, no matter what or where it is.

MISCELLANEOUS 193

169. People outside may call us mad tolive in the forest like this, sitting like statues.But how do they live? They laugh, they cry,they are so caught up that at times they killthemselves or one another out of greed andhatred. Who are the mad ones?

194 NO AJAHN CHAH

170. More than merely teaching peo-ple, Ajahn Chah trained them by creatinga general environment and specific situationwhere they could learn about themselves. Hewould say things like, "Of what I teach you,you understand maybe 15%," or "He’s been amonk for five years, so he understands 5%."A junior monk said in response to the latter,"So I must have 1% since I’ve been here oneyear." "No," was Ajahn Chah’s reply. "Thefirst four years you have no percent, then thefifth year, you have 5%."

MISCELLANEOUS 195

171. One of Ajahn Chah’s disciples wasonce asked if he was ever going to disrobe, ifhe was going to die in the yellow robes. Thedisciple said that it was hard to think about,and that although he had no plans to dis-robe, he couldn’t really decide that he neverwould. When he looked into it, he said, histhoughts seemed meaningless. Ajahn Chahthen replied by saying, "That they are mean-ingless is the real Dhamma."

196 NO AJAHN CHAH

172. When someone asked Ajahn Chahwhy there was so much crime in Thailand,a Buddhist country, or why Indochina wassuch a mess, he said, "Those aren’t Bud-dhists who are doing those unwholesomethings. That isn’t Buddhism doing thosethings. Those are people doing those things.Buddha never taught anything like that."

MISCELLANEOUS 197

173. Once a visitor asked Ajahn Chah ifhe was an arahant. He said, "I am like a teein a forest. Birds come to the tree, they sit onit’s branches and eat its fruit. To the birds thefruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. Butthe tree doesn’t know anything about it. Thebirds say sweet or they say sour, but from thetree’s point of view, this is just the chatteringof birds."

198 NO AJAHN CHAH

174. Someone commented, "I can ob-serve desire and aversion I my mind, but it’shard to observe delusion." " You’re riding ona horse and asking where the horse is?" wasAjahn Chah ’s reply.

MISCELLANEOUS 199

175. Some people become monks outof faith but then trample on the teachingsof the Buddha. They don’t now themselvesbetter. Those who really practice are fewthese days, for there are too many obstaclesto overcome. But if it isn’t good, let it die; ifit doesn’t die, then make it good.

200 NO AJAHN CHAH

176. You say you love your girlfriendone hundred percent. Well, turn her insideout and see how many percent of her youstill love. Or if you miss your lover so muchwhen she’s not with you, then why not askher to send to you a vial with her feces in it.In that way, whenever you think of her withlonging, you can open the vial and smell it.Disgusting? What is it, then, that you love?What is it that makes your heart pound likea rice pounder every time a girl with a re-ally attractive figure comes walking along oryou smell her perfume in the air? What is it?What are these forces? They pull and suckyou in, but you don’t put up a real fight, doyou? There’s a price to pay for it in the end,you know?

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177. One day Ajahn Chah came upona large, heavy branch that was lying in hispath and which he wanted to move out of theway. He motioned to a disciple to get holdof one end while he lifted the other. Thenwhen they held it ready to throw, he lookedup and asked, "Is it heavy?" And after theyhad flung it into he forest, he asked again,"Now, is it heavy?" It was like this that AjahnChah taught his disciples to see the Dhammain everything they said or did. In this case,he demonstrated the benefit of "letting go."

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178. One of Ajahn Chah’s disciples wasunplugging a tape recorder when he acciden-tally touched the metal prongs of the plugwhile it was still connected. He got a shockand dropped it immediately. Ajahn Chah no-ticed and said, “Oh! How come you couldlet go of that so easily? Who told you to?"

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179. It was Christmas and the foreignmonks had decided to celebrate it. They in-vited some laypeople as well as Ajahn Chahto join them. The laypeople were generallyupset and skeptical. Why, they asked, wereBuddhists celebrating Christmas? AjahnChah then gave a talk on religion in whichhe said, "As far as I understand, Christian-ity teaches people to do good and avoid evil,just as Buddhism does, so what is the prob-lem? However, if people are upset by theidea of celebrating Christmas, that can beeasily remedied. We won’t call it Christmas.Let’s call it "Christ-Buddhamas". Anythingthat inspires us to see what is true and dowhat is good is proper practice. You maycall it any name you like."

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180. During one time refugees werepouring into Thailand from Laos and Cam-bodia. The charitable organizations whocame out to help were many. This madesome ordained Westerners think it was notright that Buddhist monks and nuns shouldjust sit in the forest while other religious or-ganizations were so actively participating inalleviating the plight of the refugees. So theyapproached Ajahn Chah to express their con-cern, and this is what he said, "Helping inrefugee camps is good. It is indeed our nat-ural human duty to each other. But goingthrough our own madness so that we can leadothers through, that’s the only cure. Anyonecan go out and distribute clothes and pitchtents, but how many can come into the forestand sit to know heir minds? As long as wedon’t know how to ’clothe’ and ’feed’ peo-ple’s minds, there will always be a refugeeproblem somewhere in the world."

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181. Ajahn Chah listened to one of hisdisciples recite the Heart Sutra. When hehad finished, Ajahn Chah said, "No empti-ness either... no bodhisatta." He then asked,"Where did the sutra come from?" "It’s re-puted to have been spoken by the Buddha,"the follower replied. "No Buddha," retortedAjahn Chah. Then he said, "This is talkingabout deep wisdom, beyond all conventions.How could we teach without them? We haveto have names for things, isn’t that so?"

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182. To become a Noble One, we haveto continuously undergo changes until onlythe body remains. The mind changes com-pletely but the body still exist. There is hot,cold, pain, and sickness as usual. But themind has changed and now sees birth, oldage, sickness and death in the light of truth.

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183. Someone once asked Ajahn Chahto talk about enlightenment; could he de-scribe his own enlightenment? With ev-eryone eagerly waiting to hear his answer,he said, "Enlightenment isn’t hard to under-stand. Just take a banana and put it into yourmouth, then you will know what it tastes like.You have to practice to experience realiza-tion, and you have to perserve. If it were soeasy to become enlightened, everyone wouldbe doing it. I started going to the templewhen I was eight years old, and I have beena monk for over forty years. But you wantto meditate for a night or two and go straightto Nibbana. You don’t just sit down and –zip! – there you are, you know. You can’tget someone to blow on your head and makeyou enlightened either."

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184. The worldly way is to do things fora reason, to get something in return, but inBuddhism we do things without any idea ofgain. But if we don’t want anything at all,what will we get? We don’t get anything!Whatever we get is just a cause for suffer-ing, so we practice not getting anything. Justmake the mind peaceful and have done withit.

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185. The Buddha taught to lay downthose things that lack a real abiding essence.If you lay everything down you will see thetruth. If you don’t, you won’t. That’s theway it is. And when wisdom awakens withinyou, you will see truth wherever you look.Truth is all you’ll see.

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186. An "empty" heart doesn’t mean it’sempty as if there was nothing in it. It’s emptyof evil, but it’s full of wisdom.

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187. People don’t reflect on old age,sickness and death. They only like to talkabout non-aging, non-sickness, and non-death, so they never develop the right feelingfor Dhamma practice.

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188. Most people’s happiness dependson having things go to their liking. Theyhave to have everybody in the world say onlypleasant things. Is that how you find happi-ness? Is it possible to have everybody in theworld say only pleasant things? If that’s howit is, when will you ever find happiness?

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189. Trees, mountains, and vines all liveaccording to their own truth. They appearand die following their nature. They remainimpassive. But not we people. We make afuss over everything. Yet the body just fol-lows it’s own nature: it’s born, grows old andeventually dies. It follows nature in this way.Whoever wishes it to otherwise will just suf-fer.

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190. Don’t go thinking that by learn-ing a lot and knowing a lot you’ll know theDhamma. That’s like saying you’ve seen ev-erything there is to see just because you’vegot eyes, or that you’ve heard everythingthere is to hear just because you’ve got ears.You may see but you don’t fully see. You seeonly with the "outer eye." Not with the innereye." You hear with the "outer ear," not withthe "inner ear."

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191. “The Buddha taught us to give upall forms of evil and cultivate virtue. This isthe right path. Teaching in this way is likethe Buddha picking us up and placing us atthe beginning of the path. Having reachedthe path, whether we walk along it or not isup to us. The Buddha’s job is finished rightthere. He shows us the way, that which isright and that which is not right. This muchis enough; the rest is up to us.”

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192. “You must know the Dhamma foryourself. To know for yourself means topractice for yourself. You can depend on ateacher only fifty percent of the way. Eventhe teaching I have given you is completelyuseless in itself, even if it is worth hearing.But if you were to believe it all just becauseI said so, you wouldn’t be using the teach-ing properly. If you believed me completely,then you’d be foolish. To hear the teaching,see it’s benefits, put it onto practice for your-self, see it within yourself... this is muchmore useful.”

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193. “Sometimes when doing walkingmeditation, a soft rain would start to fall andI’d want to quit and go inside, but then I’dthink of the times I used to work in the ricepaddies. My pants would be wet form theday before but I’d have to get up before dawnand put them on again. Then I’d have to godown below the house to get the buffalo outof its pen. It was so muddy in there. I’d grabits rope and it would be covered in buffalodung. Then the buffalo’s tail would swisharound and spatter me with dung on top ofthat. My feet would be sore with athlete’sfoot and I’d walk along thinking, "Why islife so miserable?" And now here I was want-ing to stop my walking meditation... what alittle bit of rain to me? Thinking like that Iencouraged myself in the practice.”

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194. “I don’t know who to talk to aboutit. We talk about things to be developed andthings to give up, but there’s really nothingto develop, nothing to give up.”

AN INVITATION

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“All that I have said up to now has merelybeen words. When people come to see me, Ihave to say something. But it is best not tospeak about these matters too much. Betterto begin practice without delay. I am like agood friend inviting you to go somewhere.Do not hesitate, just get going. You won’tregret it.”

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GLOSSARY

(Unless indicated otherwise, the wordsbelow are in the Pali language)

Ajahn (Thai) – teacherAnagamı – "Non-returner", the third stagein the realization of Nibbana.Arahant – "Holy One", an enlightened be-ing, free from all delusion through the re-alization of Nibbana in the fourth and finalstage, who is free from rebirth.Bodhisatta – In the Theravadin school, thisrefers to a being destined for enlightenment.Dhamma – The Teaching of the Buddha; Ul-timate Truth

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Four noble truths – The Buddha’s firstteaching in which he pointed out the truthsof suffering, its cause, its cessation, and thepath leading to its cessation.Kamma – volitional actionNibbana – full enlightenment; The mentalstate in which all greed, hatred, and delusionhave been completely and permanently erad-icated.Noble Ones – Those who have attained oneof the four progressive stages of enlighten-ment. The sotapanna, sakadagamı, anagamı,and arahant are all Noble Ones.Sakadagamı – "Once-returner", the secondstage in the realization of Nibbana.Samsara – cycle of birth.Sotapanna – "Stream-entrant”, the firststage in the realization of NibbanaWat (Thai) – monastery; temple

No Ajahn Chah

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Transcript of No Ajahn Chah