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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- Điều hướng trang này:
- Understanding Wisdom
- Virtue
Teacher125 You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can’t solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth - inside, not outside. Knowing yourself is most important. 126 One of my teachers ate very fast. He made noises as he ate. Yet he told us to eat slowly and mindfully. I used to watch him and get very upset. I suffered, but he didn’t! I watched the outside. Later I learned that some people drive very fast but carefully; others drive slowly and have many accidents. Don’t cling to rules, to outer form. If you watch others at most ten percent of the time and watch yourself ninety percent of the time, you practice is okay. 127 Disciples are hard to teach. Some know but don’t bother to practice. Some don’t know and don’t try to find out. I don’t know what to do with them. Why is it that humans have minds like this? Being ignorant is not good, but even if I tell them, they still don’t listen. People are so full of doubts in their practice. They always doubt. They want to go to Nibbana but they don’t want to walk the path. It’s baffling. When I tell them to meditate, they’re afraid, and if not afraid, then just plain sleepy. Mostly they like to do the things I don’t teach. This is the pain of being a teacher. 128 If we could see the truth of the Buddha’s teaching so easily, we wouldn’t need so many teachers. When we understand the teachings, we just do hat is required of us. But what makes people so difficult to teach is that they don’t accept the teachings and argue with the teacher and the teachings. In front of the teacher they behave a little better, but behind his back they become thieves! People are really difficult to teach. 129 I don’t teach my disciples to live and practice heedlessly. But that’s what they do when I’m not around. When the policeman is around, the thieves behave themselves. When he asks if there are any thieves around, of course they all say there aren’t; that they’ve never seen any. But as soon as the policeman is gone, they’re all at it again. It was like that even in the Buddha’s time. So just watch yourself and don’t be concerned with what others do. 130 True teacher speak only of the difficult practice of giving up or getting rid of the self. Whatever may happen, do not abandon the teacher. Let him guide you, because it is easy to forget the Path. 131 Your doubts about your teacher can help you. Take from your teacher what is good, and be aware of your own practice. Wisdom is for you to watch and develop. 132 Don’t just believe in the teacher because he says a fruit is sweet and delicious. Taste it for yourself and then all the doubting will be over. 133 Teachers are those who point out the direction of the Path. After listening to the teacher, whether or not we walk the Path by practicing ourselves, and thereby reap the fruits of practice, is strictly up to each one of us. 134 Sometimes teaching is hard work. A teacher is like a garbage can that people throw their frustrations and problems into. The more people you teach, the bigger the garbage disposal problems. But teaching is a wonderful way to practice Dhamma. Those who teach grow in patience and in understanding. 135 A teacher cannot really clear up our difficulties. He is just a source to investigate the Path. He can’t make it clear. Actually what he says is not worth listening to. The Buddha never praised believing in others. We must believe ourselves. This is difficult, yes, but that’s really how it is. We look outside but never really see. We have to decide to really practice. Doubts don’t disappear by asking others, but through our own unending practice. Understanding & Wisdom136 No one and nothing can free you but your own understanding. 137 A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn’t. 138 A clever person watches others, but he watches with wisdom, not with ignorance. If one watches with wisdom, once can learn much. But if one watches with ignorance, one can only find faults. 139 The real problem with people nowadays is that they know but still don’t do. It’s another matter if they don’t do because they don’t know, but if they already know and still don’t do, then what’s the problem? 140 Outward scriptural study is not important. Of course, the Dhamma books are correct, but they are not right. They cannot give you right understanding. To see the word “anger” in print is not the same as experiencing anger. Only experiencing for yourself can give you true faith. 141 If you see things with real insight, then there is no stickiness in your relationship to them. They come - pleasant and unpleasant - you see them and there is no attachment. They come and they pass. Even if the worse kinds of defilements come up, such as greed and anger, there’s enough wisdom to see their impermanent nature and allow them to just fade away. If you react to them, however, by liking or disliking, that isn’t wisdom. You’re only creating more suffering for yourself. 142 When we know the truth, we become people who don’t have to think much, we become people with wisdom. If we don’t know, we have more thinking than wisdom or no wisdom at all. A lot of thinking without wisdom is extreme suffering. 143 These days people don’t search for the Truth. People study simply in order to find the knowledge necessary to make a living, raise their families and look after themselves, that’s all. To them being smart is more important than being wise.
144 Be careful about observing our precepts. Virtue is a sense of shame. What we have doubts about; we should not do or say. This is virtue. Purity is being beyond all doubts. 145 There are two levels of practice. The first level forms the foundation, which is the development of virtue, the precepts, in order to bring happiness and harmony among people. The second level is the practice of Dhamma with the sole goal of liberating the heart. This liberation is the source of wisdom and compassion and is the true reason for the Buddha’s teaching. Understanding these two levels is the basis of true practice. 146 Virtue and morality are the mother and father of the Dhamma growing within us. They provide it with the proper nourishment and guidance. 147 Virtue is the basis for a harmonious world in which people can live truly as humans and not as animals. Developing virtue is at the heart of our practice. Keep the precepts. Cultivate compassion and respect for all life. Be mindful in your actions and speech. Use virtue to make your life simple and pure. With virtue as a basis for everything you do, your mind will become kind, clear, and quiet. Meditation will grow easily in this environment. 148 Look after your virtue as a gardener takes care of his plants. Do not be attached to big or small, important or unimportant. Some people want shortcuts. They say, “Forget concentration, we’ll go straight to insight; forget virtue, we’ll start with concentration.” We have so many excuses for our attachments. 149 Right effort and virtue are not a question of what you do outwardly but of constant inner awareness and restraint. Thus, charity, if given with good intention, can bring happiness to oneself and to others. But virtue must be the root of this charity for it to be pure. 150 The Buddha taught us to refrain from what is bad, to do good, and to purify the heart. Our practice, then, is to get rid of what is worthless and keep what is valuable. Do you still have anything bad or unskillful in your heart? Of course! So why not clean house? But true practice is not only getting rid of what is bad and cultivating the good. This is only part of it. In the end we must go beyond both good and bad. Finally there is a freedom that includes all and a desirelessness from which love and wisdom naturally flow. 151 We must start right here where we are, directly and simply. When the first two steps, virtue and right view, have been completed, then the third step of uprooting defilement will naturally occur without deliberation. When light is produced, we no longer worry about getting rid of the darkness, nor do we wonder where the darkness has gone. We just know that there is light. 152 Following the precepts has three levels. The first is to undertake them as training rules given to us by our teachers. The second arises when we undertake and abide in them by ourselves. But for those at the highest level, the Noble Ones, it is not necessary to speak of precepts, of right and wrong. This true virtue comes from wisdom that knows the Four Noble Truths in the heart and acts from this understanding. 153 Some monks disrobe to go to the front where bullets fly past them every day. They prefer it like that. They really want to go. Danger surrounds them on all sides and yet they’re pre3pared to go. Why don’t they see the danger? They’re prepared to die by the gun but nobody wants to die developing virtue. This is really amazing, isn’t it? Каталог: 2010 2010 -> Giới thiệu chung Kết quả Kinh tế của Việt Nam 2010 -> Học thêm Hóa học 11 axit bazơ muối câu 1 2010 -> CHÍnh phủ CỘng hoà XÃ HỘi chủ nghĩa việt nam 2010 -> Danh mục các loại giấy tờ VỀ tạo lập nhà Ở ĐẤT Ở làm cơ SỞ pháp lý ĐỂ CẤp giấy chứng nhậN 2010 -> Ủy ban nhân dân cộng hòa xã HỘi chủ nghĩa việt nam thành phố CẦn thơ Độc lập Tự do Hạnh phúc 2010 -> BỘ TƯ pháp cộng hoà XÃ HỘi chủ nghĩa việt nam 2010 -> PHÁt triển nông thôN 2010 -> BỘ chính trị ĐẢng cộng sản việt nam 2010 -> CHÍnh phủ CỘng hoà XÃ HỘi chủ nghĩa việt nam tải về 264.42 Kb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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