Ajahn Chah Quotes About Meditation

Quotes about: Meditation

• When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.

  Ajahn Chah

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Buddhist

• To observe and watch one's own mind is something really interesting. The untrained mind will run and follow its old habit patterns. Because it has not been trained and taught, it will get lost in all kinds of stories and issues. Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one's own mind.

  Ajahn Chah

  Running, Buddhism, Meditation Practice

• 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

  Effort, Meditation, Overcoming

• Regarding this Dhamma, it is not something that we can simply talk about or take another's word for it. 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. When we gain some understanding we need to chew on it again so that we see it for ourselves with certainty: paccattam.

  Ajahn Chah

  Meditation, Understanding, Listening

• When we sit in meditation and hear a sound, we think, 'Oh, that sound's bothering me.' If we see it like this, we suffer. But if we investigate a little deeper, we see that the sound is simply sound. If we understand like this, then there's nothing more to it. We leave it be. The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it? You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound.

  Ajahn Chah

  Thinking, Meditation, Suffering

• 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 is all there is.
  It's like when you learned how to read, you can then read anywhere you go.

  Ajahn Chah

  Meditation, Mind, Looks

• Of course there are dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. Why not give it a try?

  Ajahn Chah

  Giving, Meditation, Battle

• 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 peoples lives. If you see that Dhamma practice is vital to your life, then you will feel that breathing and practising the Dhamma are equally important.

  Ajahn Chah

  Practice, Breathing, Meditation

• Just go into the room, sit in the centre of the room, open the doors and windows, and see who comes to visit.
  You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable.
  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.

  Ajahn Chah

  Jobs, Doors, Visits You

• Practicing meditation is just like breathing. While working we breathe, while sleeping we breathe, while sitting down we breathe... Why do we have time to breathe? Because we see the importance of the breath, we can always find time to breathe. In the same way, if we see the importance of meditation practice we will find the time to practice.

  Ajahn Chah

  Sleep, Meditation Practice, Breathing

• If you haven't cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn't really begun.

  Ajahn Chah

  Numbers, Meditation, Cried

• 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

  Meditation, Mind, Woods

• Don’t be attached to visions or lights in meditation, don’t rise or fall with them. What’s so great about brightness? My flashlight has it. It can’t help us rid ourselves of our suffering.

  Ajahn Chah

  Fall, Light, Meditation

• Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking. Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down. When coming out of sitting, don't think that you're coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself.

  Ajahn Chah

  Attitude, Lying, Eye

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