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2008

June

Teachings of Ven Ajahn Chah
About Ven Ajahn Chah
Teachings of Ven Ajahn Chan

SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2008 (10:17 AM)

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Teachings of Ven Ajahn Chan

(I'm feeling peaceful)

In Memory of our beloved Teacher: Venerable Ajahn Chah "...Doctors prescribe medicine to eliminate disease from the body. The Teachings of the Buddha are perscribed to cure disease of the mind, to bring back its natural healthy state. So Buddha can be considered to be a doctor who prescribes cures for the ills of the mind. He is in fact the greatest doctor in the world..." What is this disease of the mind then? Wrong Understanding which lets Greed, Hatred and Delusion take over the mind. In order to eliminate the disease we have to apply Morality, Concentration and Wisdom "...The Buddha laid down Morality, Concentration and Wisdom as the path to peace, the way to enlightenment. But in truth these things are not the essence of Buddhism. They are merely the Path... The essence of Buddhism is peace, and that peace arises from truly knowing the nature of all things..." "...The worldly way is to do things for a reason, to get some return, but in Buddhism we do things without any gaining idea.. If we don't want anything at all, what will we get? We don't get anything! Whatever you get is just cause for suffering, so we practise not getting anything... Just make the mind peaceful and have done with it..." About this mind... "About this mind..." by ven. Ajahn Chah About this mind... in truth there nothing really wrong with it. It is intrinsically pure. Within itself it's already peaceful. That the mind is not peaceful these days is because it follows moods. The real mind doesn't have anything to it, it is simply (an aspect of) Nature. It becomes peaceful or agitated because moods deceive it. The untrained mind is stupid. Sense impressions come and trick it into happiness, suffering, gladness and sorrow, but the minds true nature is none of those things. The gladness or sadness is not the mind, but only a mood coming to deceive us. The untrained mind gets lost and follows these things, it forgets itself. Then we think that it is we who are upset or at ease or whatever. But really this mind of ours is already unmoving and peaceful... really peaceful ! Just like a leaf which is still as long as no wind blows. If wind comes up the leaf flutters. The fluttering is due to the wind - the "fluttering" (of the mind) is due to those sense impressions; the mind follows them. If it doesn't follow them, it doesn't "flutter". If we know fully the true nature of sense impressions we will be unmoved. Our practice is simply to see the Original Mind. So we must train the mind to know those sense impressions, and not get lost in them. To make it peaceful, just this the aim of all this difficult practice we put ourselves through. "About meditation..." by ven. Ajahn Chah When sitting in meditation we are told to close the eyes, not to look at anything else, because now we are going to look directly at the mind. When we close our eyes, our attention comes inwards. We establish out attention on the breath, centre our feelings there, put our mindfulness there. Let the breath go naturally, don't force it to be short or long or whatever, just sit and watch it going in and out. When the mind lets go of all external impressions, the sound of cars and such will not disturb you. Nothing, whether sights or sounds, will disturb you, because the mind doesn't receive them. Your attentions has gathered on the breath. If the mind is confused and won't concentrate on the breath, take a full, deep breath, as deep as you can, and then let it out till there is none left. Do this three times and then re-establish your attention. The mind will become calm. It's natural for the mind to be calm for a while, and then restlessness and confusion may arise again. When this happens, concentrate, breath deeply again, and then re-establish your attention on the breath. Just keep going like this. When this has happened many times you will become adept at it and the mind will let go of all external manifestations. External impressions will not reach the mind. Sati (mindfulness) will be firmly established. As the mind becomes more refined, so does the breath. Feelings will become finer and finer, the body and mind will be light. Our attention is solely on the inner, we see the in-breaths and out-breaths clearly, we see all impressions clearly. This is called Samadhi. After watching the breath for a long time, it may become very refined; the awareness of the breath will gradually cease, leaving only bare awareness. The breath may become so refined it disappears! Perhaps we are "just sitting", as if there is no breath at all. Actually there is breathing, but it seems as if there is none. This is because the mind has reached its most refined state, there is just bare awareness. It has gone beyond the breath. The knowledge that the breath has disappeared becomes established. What will we take as our object of meditation now? We take just this knowledge, that is, the awareness that there is no breath. Unexpected things may happen at this time; some people experience them, some don't. If they do arise, we should be firm and have strong mindfulness. Some people see that the breath has disappeared and they get a freight, they are afraid they might die. Here we should know the situation just as it is. We simply notice that there's no breath and take that as our object of awareness. This, we can say, is the firmest, surest type of Samadhi. There is only one firm, unmoving state of mind. Perhaps the body will become so light it's as if there is no body at all. We feel like we're sitting in empty space, all seems empty. Although this may seem very unusual, you should understand that there is nothing to worry about. Firmly establish your mind like this. When the mind is firmly unified, having no sense impressions to disturb it, one can remain in that state for any length of time. There will be no painful feelings to disturb us. When Samadhi has reached this level, we can leave it when we choose, but if we come out of this Samadhi we do so comfortably, not because we've become bored with it or tired. We come out because we've had enough for now, we feel at ease, we have no problems at all. If we can develop this type of Samadhi, then if we sit, say, thirty minutes or an hour, the mind will be cool and calm for many days. When the mind is cool and calm like this, it is clean. Whatever we experience, the mind will take up and investigate with wisdom. This is the fruit of Samadhi.

Category: Religion & Philosophy

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