Ajahn Chah: knowing the nature of things

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

What is the suchness he awakened to?

When we realize dhamma [nature, suchness, what is just as it is], wherever we sit, we know the Dhamma [the Dharma, the Buddha’s Teaching]; wherever we are, we hear the Buddha’s Teaching.

When we understand Dhamma, the Buddha is within our mind [heart], the Dhamma is within our mind, and the practice-leading-to-wisdom is within our mind.

Having the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the [Enlightened-] Saṅgha within our mind means that whether our actions are, good or bad, we know clearly for ourselves their true nature.

Thai Forest  Kammathana

That is how the Buddha [Tathagatha] discarded worldly opinions, praise and blame, compliments and criticism. When people praised or criticized him, he just accepted it for what it was [tathātā, thusness, just that].

These two things [praise and blame] are simply worldly conditions, so he wasn’t shaken by them. Why not? Because he knew dukkha [disappointment, suffering, distress, ill, unsatisfactoriness]:

He knew that if he believed in that praise or blame, they would cause him to be disappointed, to stress, to suffer.