Quote

A good practice is to ask yourself very sincerely, 'Why was I born?' Ask yourself this question in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night…every day.

Ajahn Chah

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ajahn Chah
Age: 73 †
Born: 1918
Born: June 17
Died: 1992
Died: January 16
Bhikkhu
Ajahn Chah Subhaddo
Question
Morning
Asks
Practice
Born
Night
Sincerely
Every
Good
Afternoon

More quotes by Ajahn Chah

Image
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
Image
When the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything.
Ajahn Chah
Image
To define Buddhism without a lot of words and phrases, we can simply say, 'Don't cling or hold on to anything. Harmonize with actuality, with things as they are.'
Ajahn Chah
Image
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.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Where does peace arise? Peace arises whenever we let something go.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Things are simply the way they are. They don't give us suffering. Like a thorn: Does a sharp thorn give us suffering? No. It's simply a thorn. It doesn't give suffering to anybody. If we step on it, we suffer immediately. Why do we suffer? Because we stepped on it. So the suffering comes from us.
Ajahn Chah
Image
You should think about your own death 3 times per day at the very least.
Ajahn Chah
Image
If you haven't cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn't really begun.
Ajahn Chah
Image
The serene and peaceful mind is the true epitome of human achievement.
Ajahn Chah
Image
I am like a tree in a forest. Birds come to the tree, they sit on its branches and eat its fruits. To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. The birds say sweet or they say sour, but from the tree's point of view, this is just the chattering of birds.
Ajahn Chah
Image
If you let go completely you will have complete peace.
Ajahn Chah
Image
If you are still following your likes and dislikes, you have not even begun to practise Dhamma.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.
Ajahn Chah
Image
When sitting in meditation, say, That's not my business! with every thought that comes by.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Do not be a bodhisattva, do not be an arahant, do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisattva, you will suffer, if you are an arahant, you will suffer, if you are anything at all, you will suffer.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Time is our present breath.
Ajahn Chah
Image
At some point your heart will tell itself what to do.
Ajahn Chah
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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