Ajahn Chah Quotes - Page 3

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Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect praise or reward.

Ajahn Chah

Letting Go, Generosity, Expectations

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People go through life blindly, ignoring death like revellers at a party feasting on fine foods. They ignore that later they will have to go to the toilet, so they do not bother to find out where there is one. When nature finally calls, they have no idea where to go and are in a mess.

Ajahn Chah

Party, Ideas, People

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Learn to see that it is not things that bother us, that we go out to bother them. 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

Reflection, Mirrors, Understanding

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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

Mind, Suffering, Letters

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Letting go a little brings a little peace. Letting go a lot brings a lot of peace. Letting go completely brings complete peace.

Ajahn Chah

Letting Go, Littles

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If it shouldn't happen, it wouldn't happen.

Ajahn Chah

Happens, Ifs

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Time is our present breath.

Ajahn Chah

Time, Breaths

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Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

Ajahn Chah

Book, Reading, Heart

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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

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Read yourself, not books. Truth isn't outside, that's only memory, not wisdom. Memory without wisdom is like an empty thermos bottle - if you don't fill it, it's useless.

Ajahn Chah

Memories, Book, Bottles

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If we see suffering then we don't have suffering.

Ajahn Chah

Suffering, Ifs

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To give up doing evil is more important than making merit.

Ajahn Chah

Giving Up, Evil, Important

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You should think about your own death 3 times per day at the very least.

Ajahn Chah

Thinking, Should

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Whenever we feel that we are definitely right, so much so that we refuse to open up to anything or anybody else, right there we are wrong. It becomes wrong view. When suffering arises, where does it arise from? The cause is wrong view, the fruit of that being suffering. If it was right view it wouldn't cause suffering.

Ajahn Chah

Views, Suffering, Doe

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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.

Ajahn Chah

Rain, Dirty, Sky

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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

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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

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When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.

Ajahn Chah

Confusing, Doe, Life Death

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Dharma is in your mind, not in the forest. Don't believe others, just listen to your mind. You don't have to go anywhere else. Wisdom is in yourself, just like a sweet ripe mango is already in a young green one.

Ajahn Chah

Sweet, Believe, Mind

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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

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The heart of the path is quite easy. 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.

Ajahn Chah

Love, Letting Go, Hate

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But when I know that the glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious.

Ajahn Chah

Glasses, Broken, Minutes

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In practice, some come to see easily, some with difficulty. But whatever the case, never mind. Difficult or easy, the Buddha said not to be heedless. Just that--don't be heedless. Why? Because life is not certain. 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!

Ajahn Chah

Thinking, Practice, Mind

Ajahn Chah (2001). “Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings”, p.9, Shambhala Publications

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If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.

Ajahn Chah

Buddhist, Freedom, Feelings

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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

Mindfulness, Ifs

"A Taste of Freedom: Selected Dhamma Talks".

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Born: June 17, 1918
Died: January 16, 1992
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