Wisdom of the Masters
Venerable Ajahn Chah - Selected Pointers for Meditation - Theravada Forest Tradition
06 Apr 2021
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of the heart in Buddhism?
Only one book is worth reading.
The heart. Read yourself, not books.
Buddhism is a religion of the heart. Only this. One who practices to develop the heart is one who practices Buddhism. Truth isn't outside. That's only memory, not wisdom. Memory without wisdom is like an empty thermos bottle.
Chapter 2: How can we develop a still mind to aid meditation?
If you don't fill it, it's useless. The world is in a very feverish state. The mind changes from like to dislike with the feverishness of the world. If we can learn to make the mind still, it will be the greatest help to the world.
Look at your mind.
The one who carries things thinks they're in control of things. But the one who looks on only sees the heaviness. Throw away things, lose them and find lightness. The mind is intrinsically tranquil.
Chapter 3: What does Ajahn Chah say about the nature of defilements?
Out of this tranquility, anxiety and confusion are born. If one sees and knows this confusion, the mind is tranquil once more. When the light is dim, it isn't easy to see old spider webs in the corners of a room. But when the light is bright, you can see them clearly and then be able to take them down.
When your mind is bright, you'll be able to see your defilements clearly, too, and clean them away. Strengthening the mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest. Because people don't see themselves, they can commit all sorts of bad deeds, They don't look at their own minds.
When people are going to do something bad, they have to look around first to see if anyone is looking. Will my mother see me? Will my husband see me? Will my children see me? Will my wife see me? If there's no one watching, then they go right ahead and do it. This is insulting themselves. They say no one is watching, so they quickly finish their bad deed before anyone will see.
And what about themselves? Aren't they a somebody watching? There are those who do battle with their defilements and conquer them.
Chapter 4: How can understanding the Dharma lead to personal transformation?
This is called fighting inwardly. Those who fight outwardly take hold of bombs and guns to throw and to shoot. Conquering others is the way of the world. In the practice of Dharma, we don't have to fight others. but instead conquer our own minds, patiently resisting all our moods. The Buddha said to judge only yourself and not to judge others, no matter how good or evil they may be.
The Buddha merely points out the way, saying, The truth is like this. Now, is our mind like that or not?
What is Dharma?
Nothing isn't Dharma. How does the Dharma teach the proper way of life? It shows us how to live. It has many ways of showing it, on rocks or trees or just in front of you. It is a teaching, but not in words. So still the mind, the heart, and learn to watch. You'll find the whole Dharma revealing itself here and now.
At what other time and place are you going to look?
First you understand the Dharma with your thoughts. If you begin to understand it, you will practice it.
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Chapter 5: What role does observation play in meditation practice?
And if you practice it, you will begin to see it. And when you see it, you are the Dharma and you have the joy of the Buddha. The Dharma has to be found by looking into your own heart and seeing into your own heart and seeing that which is true and that which is not, that which is balanced and that which is not balanced. There is only one real magic, the magic of Dharma.
Any other magic is like the illusion of a card trick. It distracts us from the real game, our relation to human life, to birth, to death and to freedom.
Whatever you do, make it Dharma.
If you don't feel good, look inside. If you know it's wrong and still do it, that's defilement. It's hard to find those who listen to Dharma. who remember Dharma and practice it, who reach Dharma and see it. Regardless of time and place, the whole practice of Dharma comes to completion at the place where there is nothing. It's the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden.
This is the finish. The Dharma is not far away. It's right with us.
The Dharma isn't about angels in the sky. or anything like that. It's simply about us, about what we are doing right now.
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Chapter 6: Why is breathing considered vital in Dharma practice?
Observe yourself. Sometimes there is happiness, sometimes suffering, sometimes comfort, sometimes pain. This is Dharma. Do you see it? To know this Dharma, you have to read your experiences. The Buddha wanted us to contact the Dharma. But people only contact the words, the books and the scriptures.
It is contacting that which is about Dharma and not contacting the real Dharma as taught by our great teacher. How can people say that they are practicing well and properly if they only do that?
They are a long way off.
If you see certainty in that which is uncertain you are bound to suffer. When the heart truly understands it lets go of everything The mind of one who practices doesn't run away anywhere. It stays right there. Good, evil, happiness and unhappiness, right and wrong arise. And they know them all. The meditator simply knows them. They don't enter their mind. That is, they have no clinging.
They are simply the experiencer.
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Chapter 7: How does wrong view contribute to suffering?
When we sit in meditation and hear a sound, we think, oh, that sound's bothering me. If we see it like this, we suffer. But if we investigate a little deeper, we see that the sound is simply sound. If we understand like this, then there's nothing more to it. We leave it be. The sound is just sound. Why should you go and grab it?
You see, that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound.
You say that you were 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 people's lives. If you see that Dharma practice is vital to your life, then you will feel that breathing and practicing the Dharma are equally important.
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.
With even a little intuitive wisdom, we will be able to see clearly the ways of the world.
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Chapter 8: What is the ultimate goal of practicing Dharma according to Ajahn Chah?
we will come to understand that everything in the world is our teacher. But if you are still following your likes and dislikes, you have not even begun to practice Dharma. Do not be in a hurry to 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.
Thank you.