Ajahn Chah-Still Flowing Water

DaltheJigsaw

BhikkhuJayasara

Sadu Sadu Sadu for Ajahn Chah! thank you for posting this as it is rare to find teachings from Ajahn outside of book form(which I have most all of them already).

DaltheJigsaw

Jayantha said:

Sadu Sadu Sadu for Ajahn Chah! thank you for posting this as it is rare to find teachings of Ajahn outside of the book form (which I have most all of them already).

You are more than welcome!

misecmisc1

Thanks. have read some of these in pdf files, but nice to have it in audio format too. reading takes 3 hours and strain on eyes, listening just half an hour and without strain. enjoying it. after Ajahn Brahm's talks, at least got audio format for Ajahn Chah's teachings. :clap:

federica

@LeonBasin: Please remember the Mod request that you post some pre-amble or outline of the content of the video, in your post; it's just helpful to get an idea of what we're about to watch... yeah?

Thanks....

DaltheJigsaw

federica said:

@LeonBasin: Please remember the Mod request that you post some pre-amble or outline of the content of the video, in your post; it's just helpful to get an idea of what we're about to watch... yeah?

Thanks....

Sorry! I forgot. I will next time, thank you for reminding me!

Nirvana

What a wonderful talk on THE MEANING OF PEACE, among other things!

I have excerpted from its midsection some of what Ajahn Chah has to say in the video that @LeonBasin linked in, ABOVE in Post 1.

LIVING DHAMMA
Rainy Season 1981, shortly before his stroke

What people usually refer to as peace is simply the calming of the mind —not the calming of the defilements. [Usually in meditation] the defilements are simply being temporarily subdued much like grass covered by a rock. In 3 or 4 days you take the rock off the grass and in no long time it grows up again. The grass hadn’t really died; it was simply being suppressed. It’s the same when sitting in meditation: The mind is calmed, but the defilements are not really calmed. Therefore, samadhi is not a sure thing. To find real peace, you must develop wisdom. Samadhi is one kind of peace —like the rock covering the grass. In a few days you take the rock away and the grass grows up again. This is only a temporary peace. The peace of wisdom is like putting a rock down and not lifting it up —just leaving it where it is. The grass can’t possibly grow again. This is real peace —the calming of the defilements, the sure peace which results from wisdom.
We speak of wisdom (pañña) and samadhi as separate things but in essence they’re one and the same. Wisdom is the dynamic function of samadhi; samadhi is the passive aspect of wisdom. They arise from the same place, but take different directions...
In dhamma practice, one condition is called samadhi, the later condition is called pañña... But in any case, in our practice, whatever condition [of development] you refer to, one must always begin with the mind...
What is the mind?... It’s like the owner of a house. The owner stays at home while visitors come to see him. He’s the one who receives... sense impressions... who lets go of sense impressions... The receiver of impressions leads us into happiness and suffering, right and wrong. But it doesn’t have any form. We assume it to be a “self,” but it’s really only Nama Dhamma. Does Goodness have any form? Does Evil? Do happiness and suffering have any form? You can’t find them. Are they round or are they square? Short or Long? Can you see them? These things are nama dhamma; they can’t be compared to material things —they're formless. But we know that they exist.
Therefore it’s said to begin the practice by calming the mind. “Put awareness into the mind. If the mind is aware it will be at peace.” Some people don’t go for awareness, they just want to have peace —a kind of blanking out— so they never learn anything. If we don’t have this “one who knows” what is there to base our practice on?
If there is no long there is no short. If there is no right there can be no wrong. People these days study away, looking for good and evil; but that which is beyond good and evil they know nothing of. All they know is the “right” and the “wrong.”
<<I’m gonna take only what’s right. I don’t want to know about the wrong! Why should I?>>
If you try to take only what is right, in a short time it will go wrong again. Right leads to Wrong. People keep searching among the right and the wrong. They don’t try to find that which is neither right nor wrong. They study about good and evil. They search for Virtue. But they know nothing about that which is beyond good and evil.
They study the Long and the Short, but that which is neither long nor short they know nothing of.
The Knife has a blade, an edge, and a handle. ¿ Can you lift only the blade; can you lift only the edge of the blade or the handle? ——The handle, the edge, and the blade are all parts of the same Knife —when you pick up the knife you get all 3 parts together. In the same way, when you pick up that which is good, the bad must follow. People search for goodness and try to throw away all evil. They don’t study that which is neither good nor evil. If you don’t study this there can be no completion. If you pick up goodness, badness follows. If you pick up happiness, suffering follows. The practice of clinging to goodness and rejecting evil is the dhamma of children. It’s like a toy. Sure, it’s alright [for mere children]...
If you grab onto goodness, evil will follow. The end of the path is confused —it’s not so good. Take a simple example: You have children. Now suppose you want only to love them and never to experience hatred. This is the thinking of one who doesn’t know human nature. If you hold onto love, hatred will follow. In the same way, people decide to study the Dhamma to develop wisdom, studying good and evil as closely as possible. Now, having known good and evil, what do they do? They try to cling to the good, and evil follows. They didn’t study that which is beyond good and evil. This is what you should study.
<<I’m gonna be like this.>>
<<I’m gonna be like that.>>
But they never say “I’m not gonna be anything, because there isn’t really any “I.” This they don’t study. All they want is goodness. If they attain goodness they lose themselves in it. If things get too good, they’ll start to go bad. And so people end up swinging back and forth like this.
In order to calm the mind and become aware of the perceiver of sense impressions, you must observe it, follow the “one who knows” [and] train the mind until it is pure.

How pure should you make it? If it’s really pure, the mind should be above both good and evil —above even “purity.” “It’s finished!” That’s when the practice is finished.

blu3ree

YEY!

Theswingisyellow

:om: Ajahn Chah :om:

markkemark

Thank you.

DaltheJigsaw

markkemark said:

Thank you.

You are welcome!!

Florian

Great stuff. As Lao-tsu says, 'Because right and wrong appeared the Way was injured'.

sova

Thank you Leon! =D

SeaOfTranquility

Just wanted to bump this one up to the top.

I have read Ajahn Chah teachings but not heard them read out load before. Thanks for posting it.

Here is a link to The Teachings of Ajahn Chah
http://www.ajahnchah.org/

Best Wishes