Ajahn Chah 's Talks on Dharma
95) It is so easy once you understand. It is so simple and direct. When pleasant things arise, understand that they are empty. When unpleasant things arise, see that they are not yours. They pass away. Don’t relate to them as being you, or see yourself as the owner of them. You think that papaya tree is yours, then why don’t you feel hurt when it is cut down? If you can understand this, then the mind comes into balance. When the mind comes into balance, then this is the correct path, the correct teaching of the Buddha, and the teaching that leads to liberation.
94) The real foundation of the teaching is to see the self as being empty. But people come to study the Dhamma to increase their self-view, so they don’t want to experience suffering or difficulty. They want everything to be cosy. They may want to transcend suffering, but if there is still a self, how can they ever do so?
93) A devout elderly lady from a nearby province came on a pilgrimage to Wat Pah Pong. She told Ajahn Chah she could stay only a short time, as she had to return to take care of her grandchildren, and since she was an old lady, she asked if he could please give her a brief Dhamma talk. Ajahn Chah replied with great force, "Hey, listen! There’s no one here, just this! No owner, no one to be old, to be young, to be good or bad, weak or strong. Just this, that’s all – just various elements of nature going their own way, all empty. No one born and no one to die! Those who speak of birth and death are speaking the language of ignorant children. In the language of the heart, of Dhamma, there are no such things as birth and death."
92) Virtue, concentration, and wisdom together make up the heart of Buddhist practice. 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 of concentration, and the way of wisdom. It’s like a piece of wood cut into three sections, but it’s really only one log. If we want to throw away body and speech, we cannot. We must practice with the body and the mind. So in truth, virtue, concentration, and wisdom are one harmonious union that work together.
91) People say that that Buddha’s teaching is right, but it is impossible to practice in 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 you say "I’m young, so I don’t have time to eat, but when I get older I’ll eat?” If I poked you with a stick that was on fire, would you say “I’m suffering, it’s true, but since I live in this society I can’t get away from it?”
90) A newly ordained novice asked Ajahn Chah what his advice was for those new to meditation practice. "The same as for those who’ve already been at it for a long time," he replied. And what was that? "Just keep at it," he said.
89) Noise – you like the sound of birds but not that of cars. You’re afraid of people and noises, and you like to live alone in the forest. Let go of the noise and take care of the baby. The "baby" is your practice.
88) Theory and practice – the first knows the name of a medicinal plant, and the second goes to find it and uses it.
87) Some people enter the monkhood out of faith, but later trample on the teaching of Buddha. They know better, but refuse to practice rightly. Indeed, those who do really practice are few these days.
86) Our life is an assembly of the elements. We use conventions to describe things, but we get attached to the conventions and take them to be something real. For example, people and things are given names. We could go back to the beginning before names were given, and call men "women" and women "men" – what would be the difference? But now we cling to names and concepts, so we have the war of the sexes and other wars as well. Meditation is for seeing through all of this; then we can reach the unconditioned and be at peace, not at war.
85) Someone once asked Ajahn Chah about the way he taught meditation: "Do you use the method of daily interviewing to examine the mind-state of a person?" Ajahn Chah responded by saying: "Here I teach disciples to examine their own mind-states, to interview themselves. Maybe a monk is angry today, or maybe he has some desire in his mind. I don’t know it but he should. He doesn’t have to come and ask me about it, does he?"
84) Desire in practice can be a friend or an enemy. As a friend, it makes us want to practice, to understand, to end suffering. But to be always desiring something that has not yet arisen, to want things to be other than they are, just causes more suffering, and this is when desire can be a foe. In the end, we must learn to let go of all our desires, even the desire for enlightenment. Only then can we be free.
83) Someone recently asked me, "As we meditate and various things arise in the mind, should we investigate them or just note them coming and going?" If you see someone passing by whom you do not know, you may wonder, "Who is that? Where is he going? What is he up to?" But if we know the person, it is enough just to notice him pass by.
82) If you have time to be mindful, you have time to meditate.
81) We practice to learn letting go, not to increase our holding on. Enlightenment appears when you stop wanting anything.
80) Asking the wrong questions show that you are still caught in doubting. Talking about practice is all right, if it helps contemplation. But it’s up to you yourself to see the Truth.
79) The heart of the path is quite easy. There’s no need to explain anything at length. Let go of love and hate and let things be. That ’s all that I do in my own practice.
78) Remember you don’t meditate to get anything, but to get rid of things. We do it not with desire but with letting go. If you want anything, you won’t find it.
77) At first you hurry to go forward, hurry to come back, and hurry to stop. You continue to practice like this until you reach the point where it seems that going forward is not it, coming back is not it, and stopping is not it either! It’s finished. There’s no stopping, no going forward and no coming back. It is finished. Right there you will find that there is really nothing at all.
76) The basics in our practice should be first, to be honest and upright; second, to be wary of wrong doing; and third, to be humble within one’s heart, to be aloof and content with little. If we are content with little in regards to speech and in all other things, we will see ourselves, we won’t be distracted. The mind will have a foundation of virtue, concentration, and wisdom.
75) Not practicing rightly is being heedless. Being heedless is like being dead. Ask yourself if you will have time to practice when you die? Constantly ask yourself, "When will I die? If we contemplate in this way, our mind will be alert every second, heedfulness will always be present, and mindfulness will automatically follow. Wisdom will arise, seeing all things as they really are very clearly. Mindfulness guards the mind so that it knows when sensations arise at all times, day and night. To have mindfulness is to be composed. To be composed is to be heedful. If one is heedful, then one is practicing rightly.
74) Meditation is just about the mind and it’s feelings. It’s not something you have to run after or struggle for. Breathing continues while working. Nature takes care of the natural processes. All we have to do is try to be aware, going inwards to see clearly. Meditation is like this.
73) In meditation practice, it is actually worse to be caught in calmness that to be stuck in agitation, because at least you will want to escape from agitation, whereas you are content to remain in calmness and not go any further. When blissful clear states arise from insight meditation practice, do not cling to them.
72) When I had been practicing for only a few years, I still could not trust myself. But after I had experienced much, I learned to trust my own heart. When you have this deep understanding, whatever happens, you can let it happen, and everything will just rise and pass away. You will reach a point where the heart tells itself what to do.
71) Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this – just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. Why not give it a try?
70) Merely thinking about practice is like pouncing on the shadow and missing the substance.
69) Whatever we do, we should see ourselves. Reading books doesn’t ever give rise to anything. The days pass by, but we don’t see ourselves. Knowing about practice is practicing in order to know.
68) When we are lazy we should practice and not only when we feel energetic or in the mood. This is practicing according to the Buddha’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 defilements when we practice only according to our whims like that?
67) When sitting in meditation, say, "That’s not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
66) You’re blind and deaf without meditation. Dhamma isn’t easily seen. You must meditate to see what you’ve never seen. Were you born a teacher? No. You must study first. A lemon is sour only when you have tasted it.
65) Don’t be attached to visions or lights in meditation, don’t rise or all with them. What’s so great about brightness? My flashlight has it. It can’t help us rid ourselves of our suffering.
64) We don’t meditate to see heaven, but to end suffering.
63) I went all over looking for places to meditate. I didn’t realize it was already there, in my heart. All the meditation is right there inside you. Birth, old age, sickness, and death are right there within you. I traveled all over until I was ready to drop dead from exhaustion. Only then, when I stopped, did I find what I was looking for … inside me.
62) "As long as I have still not attained Supreme Enlightenment, I will not rise from this place, even if my blood dries up." Reading this in the books, you may think of trying it yourself. You’ll do it like the Buddha. But you haven’t considered that your car is only a small one. The Buddha’s car was a really big one. He could do it all at once. With only your tiny, little car, how can you possibly take it all at once? It’s a different story altogether.
61) Don’t think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking. Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down. When coming out of sitting, don’t think that you’re coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself.
60) I’ve already laid down the schedule and rules of the monastery. Don’t transgress the existing standards. Anyone who does is not one who has come with a real intention to practice. What can such a person ever hope to see? Even if he slept near me every day, he wouldn’t see me. Even if he slept near the Buddha, he wouldn’t see the Buddha, if he didn’t practice.
59) I’ve heard people say, "Oh, this year was a bad year for me." "How come?" I ask them. "I was sick all year," they reply. "I couldn’t practice at all." Oh! If they don’t practice when death is near, when will they ever practice? No! They only get lost in happiness. If they’re suffering, they still don’t practice. They get lost in that, too. I don’t know when people think they’re going to practice.
58) If you want to be around to meet the future Buddha, then just don’t practice. You’ll probably be around long enough to see him when he comes.
57) When you do something bad, there is nowhere you can go to hide. Even if others don’t see you, you must see yourself. Even if you go into a deep hole, you’ll still find yourself there. There’s no way you can commit bad actions and get away with it. In the same way, why shouldn’t you see your own purity? You see it all - the peace, the agitation, the liberation, the bondage; you see all these for yourself.
56) Some of you have come from thousands of miles away, from Europe and America and other far-off places, to listen to the Dhamma here at Nong Pah Pong Monastery. To think that you’ve come from so far and gone through so much trouble to get here. Then we have these people who live just outside the walls of the monastery but who have yet to enter through its gate. It makes you appreciate good karma more, doesn’t it?
55) Through right practice, you allow your old karma to wear itself out. Knowing how things arise and pass away, you can just be aware and let them run their course. It is like having two trees: if you fertilize and water one and do not take care of the other, there is no question which one will grow and which one will die.
54) Good actions bring good results; bad actions bring bad results. Don’t expect the gods to do things for you, or the angels and guardian deities to protect you, or the auspicious days to help you. These things aren’t true. Don’t believe in them. If you believe in them, you will suffer. You will always be waiting for the right day, the right month, the right year, the angels, or the guardian deities. You’ll only suffer that way. Look into your own actions and speech, into your own karma. Doing good, you inherit goodness, doing bad you inherit badness.
53) When those who do not understand the Dhamma act improperly, they look all around to make sure no one is watching. But our kamma is always watching. We never really get away with anything.
52) What can we take for certain? Nothing! There’s nothing but feelings. Suffering arises, stays, then passes away. Then happiness replaces suffering - only this. Outside of this, there is nothing. But we are lost people running and grabbing at feelings continuously. Feelings are not real, only changes.
51) Conditions all go their own natural way. Whether we laugh or cry over them, they just go their own way. And there is no knowledge of science, which can prevent this natural course of things. You may get a dentist to look at your teeth, but even if he can fix them, they still finally go their natural way. Eventually even the dentist will have the same trouble. Everything falls apart in the end.
50) Sometimes I’d go to see old religious sites with ancient temples. In some places they would be cracked. Maybe one of my friends would remark, "Such a shame, isn’t it? It’s cracked." I’d answer, "If they weren’t cracked there’d be no such thing as the Buddha. There’d be no Dhamma. It’s cracked like this because it’s perfectly in line with the Buddha’s teaching."
49) If your mind tries to tell you it has already attained the level of sotapanna, go and bow to a sotapanna. He’ll tell you himself it’s all uncertain. If you meet a sakadagami, go and pay respects to him. When he sees you, he’ll simply say, "Not a sure thing!" If there’s an anagami, go and bow to him. He’ll tell you only one thing, "Uncertain!" If you meet even an arahant, go and bow to him. He’ll tell you even more firmly, "It’s all even more uncertain!" You’ll hear the words of the Noble Ones: "Everything is uncertain. Don’t cling to anything!"
48) If you really see uncertainty clearly, you will see that which is certain. The certainty is that things must inevitably be uncertain and that they cannot be otherwise. Do you understand? Knowing just this much, you can know the Buddha, you can rightly do reverence to him.
47) Any speech which ignores uncertainty is not the speech of a sage.
46) If you know that all things are impermanent, all your thinking will gradually unwind and you won’t need to think too much. Whenever anything arises, all you need to say is "Oh, another one!" Just that!
45) Conditions exist through change. You can’t prevent it. Just think, could you exhale without inhaling? Would it feel good? Or could you just inhale? We want things to be permanent, but that can’t be. It’s impossible.
44) The Buddha said to judge only yourself, and not to judge others, no matter how good or evil they may be. The Buddha merely points out the way, saying, "The truth is like this." Now, is our mind like that or not?
43) Where does rain come from? It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet. Isn’t it wonderful how the sky can take that dirty water and change it into pure, clean water? Your mind can do the same with your defilements if you let it.
42) There are those who do battle with their defilements and conquer them. This is called fighting inwardly. Those who fight outwardly take hold of bombs and guns to throw and to shoot. They conquer and are conquered. Conquering others is the way of the world. In the practice of Dhamma we don’t have to fight others, but instead conquer your own minds, patiently resisting all our moods.
41) Use your heart to listen to the Teachings, not your ears.
40) Because people don’t see themselves, they can commit all sorts of bad deeds. They don’t look at their own minds. When people are going to do something bad, they have to look around first to see if anyone is looking: "Will my mother see me?" "Will my husband see me?" "Will my children see me?" "Will my wife see me?" If there’s no one watching, then they go right ahead and do it. This is insulting themselves. They say no one is watching, so they quickly finish their bad deed before anyone will see. And what about themselves? Aren’t they a "somebody" watching?
39) Strengthening the mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest.
38) When the light is dim, it isn’t easy to see the old spider webs in the corners of the room. But when the light is bright, you can see them clearly and then be able to take them down. When your mind is bright, you’ll be able to see your defilements clearly, too, and clean them away.
37) Buddhism is a religion of the heart. Only this. One who practices to develop the heart is one who practices Buddhism.
36) The mind is intrinsically tranquil. Out of this tranquility, anxiety and confusion are born. If one sees and knows this confusion, then the mind is tranquil once more.
35) Look at you own mind. The one who carries things thinks he’s got things, but the one who looks on only sees the heaviness. Throw away things, lose them, and find lightness.
34) If you’re allergic to one place, you’ll be allergic to every place. But it’s not the place outside you that’s causing you trouble. It’s the "place" inside you.
33) If your mind is happy, then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look. Truth us all there is. It’s like when you’ve learned how to read - you can then read anywhere you go.
32) The world is in a very feverish state. The mind changes from like to dislike with the feverishness of the world. If we can learn to make the mind still, it will be the greatest help to the world.
31)The Buddha taught us that whatever makes the mind distressed in our practice hits home. Defilements are distressed. It’s not that the mind is distressed! We don’t know what our minds and defilements are. Whatever we aren’t satisfied with, we just don’t want anything to do with it. Our way of life is not difficult. What’s difficult is not being satisfied, not agreeing with it. Our defilements are the difficulty.
30) Only one book is worth reading: the heart.
29) It’s all Dhamma if we have mindfulness. When we see the animals that run away from danger, we see that they are just like us. They flee from suffering and run towards happiness. They also have fear. They fear for their lives just as we do. When we see according to truth, we see that all animals and human beings are no different. We are all mutual companions of birth, old age, sickness, and death.
28) Similarly when you expound the Dhamma, you must not force yourself. It should happen on its own and should flow spontaneously from the present moment and circumstances. People have different levels of receptive ability, and when you’re there at that same level, it just happens, the Dhamma flows. The Buddha had the ability to know people’s temperaments and receptive abilities. He used this very same method of spontaneous teaching. It’s not that he possessed any special superhuman power to teach, but rather that he was sensitive to the spiritual needs of the people who came to him, and so he taught them accordingly.
27) When you listen to the Dhamma you must open up your heart and compose yourself in the center. Don’t try to accumulate what you hear or make a painstaking effort to retain what you hear from memory. Just let the Dhamma flow into your heart as it reveals itself, and keep yourself continuously open to its flow in the present moment. What is ready to be retained will be so, and it will happen of its own accord, not through any determined effort on your part.
26) The Buddha wanted us to contact the Dhamma, but people only contact the words, the books and the scriptures. That is contacting that which is "about" Dhamma, and not contacting the "real" Dhamma as taught by our Great Teacher. How can people say that they are practicing well and properly if they only do that? They are a long way off.
25) The Dhamma is not far away. It’s right with us. The Dhamma isn’t about angels in the sky or anything like that. It’s simply about us, about what we are doing right now. Observe yourself. Sometimes there is happiness, sometimes suffering, sometimes comfort, sometimes pain …this is the Dhamma. Do you see it? To know this Dhamma, you have to read your experiences.
24) Regardless of time and place, the whole practice of Dhamma comes to completion at the place where there is nothing. It’s the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden. This is the finish.
23) It’s hard to find those who listen to Dhamma, who remember Dhamma and practice it, who reach Dhamma and see it.
22) Whatever you do, make it Dhamma. If you don’t feel good, look inside. If you know it’s wrong and still do it, that’s defilement.
21) There is only one real magic, the magic of Dhamma. Any other magic is like the illusion of a card trick. It distracts us from the real game: our relation to human life, to birth, to death and to freedom.
20) The Dhamma has to be found by looking into your own heart and seeing that which is true and that which is not, that which is balanced and that which is not balanced.
19) First you understand the Dhamma with your thoughts. If you begin to understand it, you will practice it. And if you practice it, you will begin to see it, you are the Dhamma and you have the joy of the Buddha.
18) How does the Dhamma teach the proper way of life? It shows us how to live. It has many ways of showing it - on rocks or trees or just in front of you. It is a teaching but not in words. So still the mind, the heart, and learn to watch. You’ll find the whole Dhamma revealing itself here and now. At what other time and place are you going to look?
17) What is Dhamma? Nothing isn’t.
16) You say that you are too busy to meditate. Do you have time to breathe? Meditation is your breath. Why do you have time to breathe but not to meditate? Breathing is something vital to people’s lives. If you see that Dhamma practice is vital to your life, they you will feel that breathing and practicing the Dhamma are equally important.
15) Time is our present breath.
14) There are people who are born and die and never once are aware of their breath going in and out of their body. That’s how far away they live from themselves.
13) If our body really belonged to us, it would obey our commands. If we say, "Don’t get old," Or "I forbid you to get sick" does it obey us? No! It takes no notice. We only rent this "house", not own it. If we think it does belong to us, we will suffer when we have to leave it. But in reality, there is no such thing as a permanent self, nothing unchanging or solid that we can hold on to.
12) Conditions don’t belong to us. They follow their own natural course. We can’t do anything about the way the body is. We can beautify it a little, make it look attractive and clean for a while, like the young girls who paint their lips and let their nails grow long, but when old age arrives, everyone is in the same boat. That is the way the body is. We can’t make it any other way. But, what we can improve and beautify is the mind.
11) If the body could talk, it would be telling us all day long, "You’re not my owner, you know." Actually it’s telling it to us all the time, but it’s Dhamma language, so we’re unable to understand it.
10) The "One Who Knows" clearly knows that all conditioned phenomena are unsubstantial. So this "One Who Knows" does not become happy or sad, for it does not follow changing conditions. To become glad, is to be born; to become dejected, is to die. Having died, we are born again; having been born, we die again. This birth and death from one moment to the next is the endless spinning wheel of samsara.
9) If you’re afraid of illness, if you are afraid of death, they you should contemplate where they come from. Where do they come from? They arise from birth. So, don’t be sad when someone dies - it’s just nature, and his suffering in this life is over. If you want to be sad, be sad when people are born: "Oh, no, they’ve come again. They’re going to suffer and die again!"
8) If you’ve trained properly, you wouldn’t feel frightened when you fall sick, nor be upset when someone dies. When you go into the hospital for treatment, determine in your mind that if you get better, that’s fine, and that if you die, that’s fine, too. I guarantee you that if the doctors told me I had cancer and was going to die in a few months, I’d remind the doctors, "Watch out, because death is coming to get you, too. It’s just a question of who goes first and who goes later." Doctors are not going to cure death or prevent death. Only the Buddha was such a doctor, so why not go ahead and use the Buddha’s medicine?
7) Death is as close as our breath.
6) The Buddha told his disciple Ananda to see impermanence, to see death with every breath. We must know death; we must die in order to live. What does that mean? To die is to come to the end of our doubts, all our questions, and just be here with the present reality. You can never die tomorrow; you must die now. Can you do it? If you can do it, you will know the peace of no more questions.
5) When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.
4) Why are we born? We are born so that we will not have to be born again.
3) You’d think that people could appreciate what it would be like to live in a person’s belly. How uncomfortable that would be! Just look at how merely staying in a hut for only one day is already hard to take. You shut all the doors and windows and you’re suffocating already. How would it be to live in a person’s belly for nine months? Yet you want to stick your head right in there, to put your neck in the noose once again.
2) Our birth and death are just one thing. You can’t have one without the other. It’s a little funny to see how at a death people are so tearful and sad, and at a birth how happy and delighted. It’s delusion. I think that if you really want to cry, then it would be better to do so when someone’s born. Cry at the root, for if there were no birth, there would be no death. Can you understand this?
1) A good practice is to ask yourself very sincerely, "Why was I born?" Ask yourself this question in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night…every day.