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 CHAHLooking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: You won’t be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.
More Ajahn Chah Quotes
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Sati is life. Whenever we don’t have sati, when we are heedless, it’s as if we are dead.
AJAHN CHAH -
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?
AJAHN CHAH -
Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
AJAHN CHAH -
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.
AJAHN CHAH -
Practicing meditation is just like breathing. While working we breathe, while sleeping we breathe, while sitting down we breathe…
AJAHN CHAH -
If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.
AJAHN CHAH -
Even if the water is falling right on it, it only touches the outside and not the inside. In this way the bowl will never get full.
AJAHN CHAH -
See the world as a mirror. It is all a reflection of the mind. When you know this, you can grow in every moment, and every experience reveals truth and brings understanding.
AJAHN CHAH -
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.
AJAHN CHAH -
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.
AJAHN CHAH -
When you sit, let it be. What you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.
AJAHN CHAH -
When sitting in meditation, say, “That’s not my business!” with every thought that comes by.
AJAHN CHAH -
We have limited time in our life, therefore we should try to teach ourselves, not to teach others.
AJAHN CHAH -
Just go into the room, sit in the centre of the room, open the doors and windows, and see who comes to visit.
AJAHN CHAH -
The meditator simply knows them, they don’t enter his mind. That is, he has no clinging. He is simply the experiencer.
AJAHN CHAH






