Tuesday, July 21, 2020

How to USE suffering: Ajahn Chah

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

Quit it, Lisa. - You quit it, Richard.
(Ajahn Chah) My way of training people involves some suffering [disappointment, pain], because suffering is the Buddha’s path to enlightenment.

He wanted us to see suffering [so that we'll let go of it and its causes] and to see [its] origination, cessation, and the path [to liberation from all suffering]. This is the way out for all the ariya [noble persons], the awakened ones.

If we don’t go this way, there is no way out. The only way is knowing suffering, knowing the cause of suffering, knowing the cessation of suffering, and knowing the path-of-practice leading to the cessation of suffering. This is the way that the ariya, beginning with [the first stage of enlightenment called] stream entry, were able to escape [all suffering]. It’s necessary to know suffering.

Worldly "success"?
(Jack Kerouac) "‘Vanity of vanities…all is vanity.’ You kill yourself to get to the grave. Especially you kill yourself to get to the grave before you die; and the name of the grave is ‘success,’ the name of that grave is hullabullo boom boom horsesh*t."

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