Ajahn Chah: How to find right understanding

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

What? Are you serious, that's how I find noble "right view"? There has to be another way!

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When, not if. (Pema Chodron)

How can you find right understanding? I can answer you simply by using this glass I'm holding.

It appears to be clean and useful, something to drink from and keep for a long time, right? "Right understanding" is to see this as a broken glass, as if it has already shattered. Sooner or later it will shatter and lie destroyed.

This glass is as good as broken, so use it.

If you keep this understanding in mind while using it -- that all it is is a combination of elements which have come together in this form to break apart in line with nature -- then no matter what happens to the glass, you'll have no problem.

This body is similar to this glass. It is also going to break apart. We die. You have to understand that.

This one, too, and the bottle...and this body.

Yet when you do, it doesn't mean you should go kill yourself, just as you shouldn't take that useful glass and shatter it or throw it away before it's served its usefulness.

The glass is something to make use of until it falls apart -- in its own natural way. This right understanding can make you free in all the changing circumstances of the entire world.

THE BUDDHA'S LASTS WORDS: "All things (that depend on conditions) are hurtling towards destruction; work out your awakening with diligence" (DN 16).

"Open are the doors to the deathless (nirvana)" (MN 26), so make an end of rebirth and death.