Once there was a layman who came to Ajahn Chah and asked him who Ajahn Chah was. Ajahn Chah, seeing that the spiritual development of the individual was not very advanced, pointed to himself and said, “This, this is Ajahn Chah.”



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Body


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. 
 

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. 
 
 

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. 

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. 
 
15 Time is our present breath.  
 
 
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.  

Dhamma


17 What is Dhamma? Nothing isn’t.  
 
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?  
 
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.  
 
 
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.  

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.  
 

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.  
 

23 It’s hard to find those who listen to Dhamma, who remember Dhamma and practice it, who reach Dhamma and see it.  
 
 
24 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.  
 
25 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.  
 
26 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.  
 
 

27 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.  

 28 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.  



29 Similarly when you expound the Dhamma, you must not force yourself. It should happen on its won and should flow spontaneously from the present moment and circumstances. People have different levels of re3feptive 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.  

Heart & Mind


 
30 Only one book is worth reading: the heart.  
 
 
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.  
 
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.  

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.  
 
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.  

35 Look at your 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.  
 
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.  
 
37 Buddhism is a religion of the heart. Only this. One who practices to develop the heart is one who practices Buddhism.  
 
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.  
 
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.  
 
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?  

41 Use your heart to listen to the Teachings, not your ears.  
 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.  

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.  

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? 


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