If your mind is happy then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look.
AJAHN CHAHIf suffering arises you must contemplate right there, you don’t have to run away.
More Ajahn Chah Quotes
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Read yourself, not books. Truth isn’t outside, that’s only memory, not wisdom. Memory without wisdom is like an empty thermos bottle – if you don’t fill it, it’s useless.
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The master held up a glass and said: Someone gave me this glass; It holds my water admirably and it glistens in the sunlight.
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To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. The birds say sweet or they say sour, but from the tree’s point of view, this is just the chattering of birds.
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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.
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Regarding this Dhamma, it is not something that we can simply talk about or take another’s word for it.
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Hear the bird’s song then let go. If you know nature, you’ll know truth. If you know truth, you’ll know nature.
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You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still. This is the happiness of the Buddha.
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When the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything.
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One day some people came to the master and asked: How can you be happy in a world of such impermanence, where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness or death?
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The only way to experience it is to put the teachings into practice. Once you taste it, you are no longer in any doubt about its flavour and you do not have to ask anyone else. The problem is solved.
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When we sit in meditation and hear a sound, we think, ‘Oh, that sound’s bothering me.’ If we see it like this, we suffer. But if we investigate a little deeper,
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Do not be a bodhisattva, do not be an arahant, do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisattva, you will suffer, if you are an arahant, you will suffer, if you are anything at all, you will suffer.
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We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things. Enlightenment appears when you stop wanting anything.
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You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can’t solve your own doubts.
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Do not be in a hurry or try to push your practice. If you become peaceful, then accept it,; if you don’t become peaceful, then accept that also.
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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.
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It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering.
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We will come to understand that everything in the world is our teacher.
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Mental activity is like a deadly poisonous cobra. If we don’t interfere with a cobra, how poisonous it may be, it simply goes its own away.
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Just know what is happening in your mind – not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty. It’s like a letter – you have to open it before you can know what’s in it.
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The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
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What’s so great about brightness? My flashlight has it. It can’t help us rid ourselves of our suffering.
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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
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Why do we suffer? Because we stepped on it. So the suffering comes from us.
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When coming out of sitting, don’t think that you’re coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures.
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Where does peace arise? Peace arises whenever we let something go.
AJAHN CHAH