Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah by Ajahn Chah

Author:Ajahn Chah [Chah, Ajahn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Published: 2005-06-10T05:00:00+00:00

CONTEMPLATION

Another way to approach Dhamma practice is to contemplate and examine everything we see, do, and experience. Don’t discard meditation. When some people finish sitting or walking meditation they think it’s time to stop and rest. They stop focusing their minds on their object of meditation or theme of contemplation. They completely drop it. Don’t practice like that. Whatever you see, inquire into what it really is. Contemplate the good people in the world. Contemplate the evil ones too. Take a penetrating look at the rich and powerful; the destitute and poverty-stricken. When you see a child, an elderly person, or a young man or woman, investigate the meaning of age. Everything is fuel for inquiry. This is how you cultivate the mind.

The contemplation that leads to the Dhamma is the contemplation of conditionality, the process of cause and effect, in all its various manifestations: both major and minor, black and white, good and bad. In short, everything. When you think, recognize it as a thought and contemplate that it’s merely that, nothing more. All these things wind up in the grave-yard of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self, so don’t possessively cling to any of them. This is the cremation ground of all phenomena. Bury and cremate them in order to experience the truth.

Having insight into impermanence means not allowing ourselves to suffer. It’s a matter of investigating with wisdom. For example, we obtain something we consider good or pleasurable, and so we’re happy. Take a close and sustained look at this goodness and pleasure. Sometimes after having it for a long time we get fed up with it. We want to give it away or sell it. If there’s nobody who wants to buy it, we’re ready to throw it away. Why? What are the reasons underlying this dynamic? Everything is impermanent, inconstant, and changing, that’s why. If we can’t sell it or even throw it away, we start to suffer. This entire issue is just like that, and once one incident is fully understood, no matter how many more similar situations arise, they are all understood to be just the same. That’s simply the way things are. As the saying goes, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

Occasionally we see things we don’t like. At times we hear annoying or unpleasant noises and get irritated. Examine this and remember it. Because some time in the future we might like those noises. We might actually delight in those very same things we once detested. It’s possible! Then it occurs to us with clarity and insight, “Aha! All things are impermanent, unable to fully satisfy, and not-self.” Throw them into the mass grave of these universal characteristics. The clinging to the likeable things we think we get, have, and are will then cease. We come to see everything as essentially the same. Everything we then experience generates insight into the Dhamma.

Everything I’ve said so far is simply for you to listen to and think about. It’s just talk, that’s all. When people come to see me, I speak.

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