Quote

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

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
Merit
Evil
Making
Give
Giving
Important

More quotes by Ajahn Chah

Image
If you haven't cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn't really begun.
Ajahn Chah
Image
If we want to really see the Buddha, we should observe his virtuous qualities. Whatever he taught, we should practise it. Only bowing to him is not enough. We need to renounce, give up, stop, so that we may see the Buddha.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Where does peace arise? Peace arises whenever we let something go.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free.
Ajahn Chah
Image
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
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
The one who recognizes the uncertainty of phenomena is the Dharma within you.
Ajahn Chah
Image
A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn't.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Sati is life. Whenever we don't have sati, when we are heedless, it's as if we are dead.
Ajahn Chah
Image
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
Image
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.
Ajahn Chah
Image
If you have time to be mindful, you have time to meditate.
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
If we see suffering then we don't have suffering.
Ajahn Chah
Image
If you let go completely you will have complete peace.
Ajahn Chah
Image
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
Image
Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher.
Ajahn Chah
Image
Know and watch your heart. It's pure but emotions come to colour it.
Ajahn Chah
Image
The Dharma Path is to keep walking forward. But the true Dharma has no going forward, no going backward, and no standing still.
Ajahn Chah
Image
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