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A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn't.
Ajahn Chah
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Ajahn Chah
Age: 73 †
Born: 1918
Born: June 17
Died: 1992
Died: January 16
Bhikkhu
Ajahn Chah Subhaddo
Madman
Madmen
Smile
Doesn
More quotes by Ajahn Chah
If you want a chicken to be a duck, and a duck to be a chicken, you will suffer.
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When sitting in meditation, say, That's not my business! with every thought that comes by.
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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.
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Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher.
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Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. What you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.
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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.
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If you have time to be mindful, you have time to meditate.
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When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness. And when we stop clinging, we can begin to be happy.
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Look at your own mind. The one who carries things thinks he's got things, but the one who looks on sees only the heaviness. Throw away things, lose them, and find lightness.
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When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.
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Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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To practice Dhamma means to observe and examine oneself.
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We protect virtue so that virtue will protect us.
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To give up doing evil is more important than making merit.
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There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.
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Some people are afraid of generosity. They feel they will be taken advantage of or oppressed. In cultivating generosity, we are only oppressing our greed and attachment. This allows our true nature to come out and become lighter and freer.
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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.
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