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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
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Ajahn Chah
Age: 73 †
Born: 1918
Born: June 17
Died: 1992
Died: January 16
Bhikkhu
Ajahn Chah Subhaddo
Without
Cling
Things
Phrases
Define
Buddhism
Hold
Simply
Words
Harmonize
Anything
Actuality
More quotes by Ajahn Chah
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
When the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything.
Ajahn Chah
Do not be in a hurry or try to push your practice. If you become peaceful, then accept it, if you don’t become peaceful, then accept that also. This is the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and persevere.
Ajahn Chah
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
These days people don't search for the Truth. People study simply in order to find knowledge necessary to make a living, raise families and look after themselves, that's all. To them, being smart is more important than being wise!
Ajahn Chah
We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things. Enlightenment appears when you stop wanting anything.
Ajahn Chah
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
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
Why are we born? We are born so that we will not have to be born again.
Ajahn Chah
If it shouldn't happen, it wouldn't happen.
Ajahn Chah
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
Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: You won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.
Ajahn Chah
If you let go a little you will have a little happiness. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.
Ajahn Chah
When we conquer ourselves, then everything will be conquered: oneself, others, and all the sense objects as well, coming in by way of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body -- it will all get conquered like this.
Ajahn Chah
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
Sati is life. Whenever we don't have sati, when we are heedless, it's as if we are dead.
Ajahn Chah
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
If you haven't cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn't really begun.
Ajahn Chah
If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer
Ajahn Chah
Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind.
Ajahn Chah