Heal and Balance the chakras (Ajahn Chah)

Monroe Institute; Ajahn Chah via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Heal and Balance

Chakras: subtle energy Tibetan chart 1899

(Monroe Institute, 5/15/20) This week's free meditation is designed to provide a quick chakra (energy "wheel" or nexus) tune-up. It is recommended that it be listened to daily. Life circumstances, impersonal situations, our reactions, and interactions with others can easily knock us out of balance. This meditation is short and sweet, and it is instrumental in helping us return to balance as experienced by the subtle energy (prana, chi, spiritus, ki, qi) body. Voiced and written by Residential Trainer Allyn Evans at the Monroe Institute.

 

Needless Baggage

The Western monks of Wat Pah Nanachat

One day a devout elderly lady from a nearby Thai province came on a pilgrimage to Wat Pah Pong Forest Monastery.

She told the abbot, Ajahn Chah, she could stay only a short time, because she had to return to take care of her grandchildren. Since she was an old lady, she asked if he could please give her a brief Dharma talk.

Ajahn Chah replied with great force: "Hey, listen! There’s no one here, just this -- no owner, no one to get old, to have been young, to be good or bad, weak or strong, just this, that’s all, just various elements of nature going their own way, all empty [impersonal].

"There was no one to be born and no one to die! Those who speak of rebirth and re-death are speaking the language of ignorant children.

"In the language of the heart, of Dharma, there are no such things as rebirth and re-death."

How to experience the world

Well, that may be, Ajahn, that may be.

"When our ears hear sound, let them do their job. When our eyes perform their function with visible forms, let them do so.

"When our nose works with scents, let it do its job. When our body experiences tactile sensations, then allow it to perform its natural functions.

"Where will problems arise? There are no problems [in an ultimate sense]. In the same way, all those things that belong to the apparent, leave them with the apparent, and acknowledge that which is the transcendent [beyond the conventional].

"Simply be the ‘one who knows’ [the watcher], knowing without fixation [clinging, attachment], knowing, and letting things be their natural way. All things are just as they are."

Purifying calm then comes insight

EDITOR'S NOTE: What is true about mundane experience (the illusion we live in)? The truth we don't see is threefold: all conditioned things are impersonal (empty), impermanent (in flux), and unsatisfactory (disappointing). So it is said, "Not having been, they come to be; once having been, they cease." And it is GOOD that they are this way, not pessimistic, because the truth nudges us to ESCAPE TO REALITY. And what is real? Ultimately, nirvana is real, not the "self" (soul, personality, atman, ego) we cling to and experience pain. Seeing things as they truly are (insight) is the cause of letting go, not willpower. - Dhr. Seven