No Ajahn Chah - PDF

Tom Tom, modified 10 Years ago at 12/16/13 7:32 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 12/16/13 7:24 PM

No Ajahn Chah - PDF

Posts: 466 Join Date: 9/19/09 Recent Posts
http://www.ajahnchah.org/pdf/no_ajahn_chah.pdf

A couple highlights:

Ajahn Chah listened to one of his disciples recite the Heart Sutra. When he had finished, Ajahn Chah said, " No emptiness either…no bodhisatta." He then asked, where did the sutra come from?" "It's reputed to have been spoken by the Buddha," the follower replied. "No Buddha," retorted Ajahn Chah. Then he said, " This is talking about deep wisdom, beyond all conventions. How could we teach without them? We have to have names for things, isn't that so?"


Merely thinking about practice is like pouncing on the shadow and missing the substance.
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Adam , modified 10 Years ago at 12/17/13 12:06 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 12/17/13 12:06 AM

RE: No Ajahn Chah - PDF

Posts: 613 Join Date: 3/20/12 Recent Posts
Interesting, I just read abook by Paul Breiter who is the disciple mentioned in that excerpt from "No Ajahn Chah." He recounts that story and lots of others as well as his efforts to develop mindfulness (and survive the difficult conditions) during his 5 year stay at Ajahn Chah's monastery.

Frankly the book was a touch depressing as it makes it really obvious that alot of people, probably the majority, who try at this path (specifically the ajahn-chah style path of letting go of attachment to everything) fail. On the other hand there were some nice stories, a few practice tips, and a very well-detailed account of what Ajahn Chah was really like as a teacher and trainer... I never realized how much of his training consisted of basically torturing his students in all kinds of ways[1] to get them to let go of their attachment to stuff.

[1] for some examples: insulting them a lot, making them sit through really long talks, giving them shitty food, moving them to random branch monasteries when they got too comfortable, randomly changing the schedule at the monastery etc.
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katy steger,thru11615 with thanks, modified 10 Years ago at 12/17/13 8:31 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 12/17/13 8:31 AM

RE: No Ajahn Chah - PDF

Posts: 1740 Join Date: 10/1/11 Recent Posts
Adam. .
On the other hand there were some nice stories, a few practice tips, and a very well-detailed account of what Ajahn Chah was really like as a teacher and trainer... I never realized how much of his training consisted of basically torturing his students in all kinds of ways[1] to get them to let go of their attachment to stuff.

[1] for some examples: insulting them a lot, making them sit through really long talks, giving them shitty food, moving them to random branch monasteries when they got too comfortable, randomly changing the schedule at the monastery etc.


I've read that Ajahn Chah was an original "son" (a first follower) of Ajhan Mun and that Ajahn Mun had fearful students go straight away to sit in some deep part of the forests alone so that they would overcome mental hindrances more quickly and realized clear mindfulness. I can understand why a teacher would ask me to do something so challenging, so long as I can see for myself that they have already mastered the same.
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