If suffering arises you must contemplate right there, you don’t have to run away.
AJAHN CHAHIf we only make merit but have not stopped doing bad things, then we will never have a day of completion. It is like an overturned bowl which is left outside in the rain.
More Ajahn Chah Quotes
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When the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything.
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No. It’s simply a thorn. It doesn’t give suffering to anybody. If we step on it, we suffer immediately.
AJAHN CHAH -
The serene and peaceful mind is the true epitome of human achievement.
AJAHN CHAH -
Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.
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Don’t think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking.
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You should settle the issue right there. One who runs away from suffering out of fear is the most foolish person of all. He will simply increases his stupidity endlessly.
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A woman wanted to know how to deal with anger. I asked when anger arose whose anger it was. She said it was hers.
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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.
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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.
AJAHN CHAH -
There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.
AJAHN CHAH -
To define Buddhism without a lot of words and phrases, we can simply say, ‘Don’t cling or hold on to anything. Harmonize with actuality, with things as they are.’
AJAHN CHAH -
Things are simply the way they are. They don’t give us suffering. Like a thorn: Does a sharp thorn give us suffering?
AJAHN CHAH -
We do it, not with desire, but with letting go. If you want anything, you wont find it.
AJAHN CHAH -
You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable.
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 -
The Dharma Path is to keep walking forward. But the true Dharma has no going forward, no going backward, and no standing still.
AJAHN CHAH -
Truth is all there is. It’s like when you learned how to read, you can then read anywhere you go.
AJAHN CHAH -
Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering.
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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 -
Wherever we start to think that things are certain, uncertainty is lurking right there. Heedlessness is just holding things as certain. It is grasping at certainty where there is no certainty and looking for truth in things that are not true. Be careful! They are likely to bite you sometime in the future!
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If we see suffering then we don’t have suffering.
AJAHN CHAH -
The mind of one who practises doesn’t run away anywhere, it stays right there. Good, evil, happiness and unhappiness, right and wrong arise, and he knows them all.
AJAHN CHAH -
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
AJAHN CHAH -
Whatever he taught, we should practise it. Only bowing to him is not enough. We need to renounce, give up, stop, so that we may see the Buddha.
AJAHN CHAH -
You will have a steady awareness within yourself.
AJAHN CHAH -
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 CHAH