Ajahn Chah: How to FIGHT (video)

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Shaolin Kung Fu via Fight Light) First, here is the best wrong way to fight. It is better not to fight. If there is fighting, it is best to fight the following fight:

Exercise and self-defense are the martial arts.

The Supreme Teacher, the Buddha, taught the world. He did so with compassion for all worldly beings. Nevertheless, the world goes on like this (fighting).

To be wise the wise should look into this and select those things that are of true value.

The Buddha, as a warrior prince (kshatriya) trained in the various arts of warfare. But he saw that these things are not really useful. They are limited to the world with its fighting and aggression.

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But Israel/CIA/USA attack us.

Therefore, in training ourselves as those who have left the world, we must learn to give up all forms of harm (wrongdoing), giving up all those things that are the cause of enmity.

Instead, we conquer ourselves. We don't try to conquer others. We fight. But we fight only the defilements: If there is greed, we fight that. If there is aversion, we fight that. If there is delusion, we strive to give that up.

Should we fight? - Yes, the defilements.

This is called "Dharma fighting." This "warfare of the heart" is really difficult. In fact, it's the most difficult thing of all.

We become wandering ascetics (Buddhist monastics) in order to contemplate this, to learn the art of fighting greed, aversion, and delusion. This is our primary responsibility.

This inner battle is fighting with defilements. But there are very few people who fight like this. Most people fight with other people and things. They rarely fight defilements. They rarely even see the defilements.