The Teachings of Ajahn Chah, The Sangha, 2007 edited by Wisdom Quarterly
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| Western student Ajahn Sumedho (left) with enlightened meditation master Ajahn Chah |
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| Learning is not enough. Practice. Penetrate. |
The practice of the Dhamma (Dharma) is to develop our understanding of the way of things so that suffering ceases to arise.
If we think wrongly, we are at odds with the world, at odds with the Dhamma, at odds with the truth.
It's life and death
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| Please don't let me die. I want to live! - Be patient, Patient. |
Suppose, for example, we were sick and had to go to the hospital.
Most people would be thinking, “Please don’t let me die! I want to get better!” This is wrong thinking because it will lead to suffering.
We instead have to think to ourselves, “If I recover I recover, but if I die I die.”
This is right thinking. Why? It is right thinking because ultimately we can’t control conditions. If we think like this, whether we die or recover, we can’t go wrong, we don’t have to worry.
Wanting to get better at all costs, afraid of the thought of dying... this is a mind that doesn’t understand conditions.
Rather, we should think, “If I get better, that’s fine, but if I don’t get better, that’s fine, too.” This way we can’t go wrong. We don’t have to be afraid or cry. Why? We don’t because we have tuned ourselves in to the way things truly are.
"Dhamma"?
- learning
- practicing
- realizing.
Patipatti means putting that theory into practice. And
pativedha means penetrating the Dhamma, which is to say, through experience one realizes the truth of it.
- See Wiki (Dhamma in Theravada)
- Learning Dhamma (Buddhist Dictionary, Ven. Nyanatiloka)
- What is the Triple Gem Dhamma: Good Dhamma is of Three Sorts (Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo, 1994, p 33).
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