If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.
AJAHN CHAHWe don’t meditate to see heaven, but to end suffering.
More Ajahn Chah Quotes
-
-
You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable.
AJAHN CHAH -
To know existence as this flow, empty of lasting pleasure, void of self, is to find that which is stable and free of suffering, to find true peace in the world.
AJAHN CHAH -
The Dhamma is revealing itself in every moment, but only when the mind is quiet can we understand what it is saying, for the Dhamma teaches without words.
AJAHN CHAH -
Know and watch your heart. It’s pure but emotions come to colour it. So let your mind be like a tightly woven net to catch emotions and feelings that come, and investigate them before you react.
AJAHN CHAH -
When you sit, let it be. What you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.
AJAHN CHAH -
Proper effort is not the effort to make something particular happen. It is the effort to be aware and awake each moment, the effort to overcome laziness and merit, the effort to make each activity of our day meditation.
AJAHN CHAH -
Only one book is worth reading: the heart.
AJAHN CHAH -
No. It’s simply a thorn. It doesn’t give suffering to anybody. If we step on it, we suffer immediately.
AJAHN CHAH -
Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down.
AJAHN CHAH -
A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn’t.
AJAHN CHAH -
All that I have said up to now has merely been words. When people come to see me, I have to say something. But it is best not to speak about these matters too much.
AJAHN CHAH -
The Dhamma has to sink deeply into the mind so that whatever we do, the mind has always goodness within it. All the ways of making merit are aiming at this. Goodness lies in the right view that is established in the mind.
AJAHN CHAH -
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.
AJAHN CHAH -
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?
AJAHN CHAH -
We need to develop meditation so that the understanding arises clearly within oneself. It is not the case that merely by listening to another’s explanation our defilements will disappear.
AJAHN CHAH -
Don’t think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking.
AJAHN CHAH -
Difficult or easy, the Buddha said not to be heedless. Just that–don’t be heedless. Why? Because life is not certain.
AJAHN CHAH -
If you listen to the Dhamma teachings but don’t practice you’re like a ladle in a soup pot.
AJAHN CHAH -
The one who recognizes the uncertainty of phenomena is the Dharma within you.
AJAHN CHAH -
If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.
AJAHN CHAH -
We do it, not with desire, but with letting go. If you want anything, you wont find it.
AJAHN CHAH -
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.
AJAHN CHAH -
If you want a chicken to be a duck, and a duck to be a chicken, you will suffer.
AJAHN CHAH -
If we see suffering then we don’t have suffering.
AJAHN CHAH -
A woman wanted to know how to deal with anger. I asked when anger arose whose anger it was. She said it was hers.
AJAHN CHAH -
Whenever we feel that we are definitely right, so much so that we refuse to open up to anything or anybody else, right there we are wrong. It becomes wrong view.
AJAHN CHAH