Tiny home of our own: Ajahn Chah Teachings

An A-frame solution full of light and two floors

What can be done to secure a spot, a quiet place to practice the Dharma, what the Buddha taught?

Having acquired the floorspace, by loan or lease, squatting or deed, it's time to set up a structure, a shelter from the elements and creeping things, nuisances and dangers.

The yurt, a Central and North Asian hut that can be carried about while being very environment-friendly, is a good option. But any hut will do, even a tent of saffron robes. Why won't Amazon, Temu, eBay, or Alibaba carry something like that. (Oh, they do?)

• Yes, this A-frame tiny house is for sale on Amazon for less than $15,000 (MSN)

Avoid covered wagons pulled by slave sheep.

Level some land. Sweep away rocks or add sand. Use a vehicle as a base. That's an option. It's stable and movable. It makes a good meditation kuti to expand the mind as the heart softens and stabilizes. And now for bhavana (bringing into being, self-development, cultivation of the good).

The Teachings of Ajahn Chah

Edited by Dhr. Seven, inspired by Sayalay Aloka. This selection taken from pp. 311-316

RIGHT PRACTICE – STEADY PRACTICE

The Teachings of Ajahn Chah

AJAHN CHAH: There was a time in my practice, after I had been practicing about five years, when I felt that living with others was a hindrance. I would sit in my kuti (hut) and try to meditate.

People would keep coming by to chat, disturbing me. I ran off to live by myself. I thought I couldn’t practice with people bothering me. I was fed up, so I went to live in a small, deserted monastery in the forest, near a small village.

I stayed there alone, speaking to no one – because there was nobody else to speak to. After I’d been there about 15 days the thought arose, “Hmm, it would be good to have a novice or pa-kow [1] here with me. He could help me out with some small jobs.”

• [1] Pa-kow: Eight-Preceptor who often lives in training with Buddhist monks (bhikkhus). In addition to his own meditation practice, he also helps with certain services that monks are forbidden from doing by the Buddhist Monastic Disciplinary Code (Vinaya).

I knew this would come up! And sure enough, here it was. So I said to myself, “Hah, you’re a real character! You say you’re fed up with your friends, fed up with your fellow monastics and novices [samanas and samaneras, wandering ascetics and little-wanderering ascetics], and now you want a novice. What’s this?”

“No,” it [my rationalization] says back, “I want a good novice.”

If mind is happy, then you are happy anywhere.

“There! Where are all the good people? Can you find any? Where are you going to find a good person? In the whole monastery there were only no-good people. You must have been the only good person to have run away like this!”

...You have to follow it up like this, follow up the tracks of your thoughts until you see... “Hmm, this is the important one. Where is there a good person to be found? There aren’t any good people. You must find the good person within yourself. If you are good in yourself then wherever you go will be good.

“Whether others criticize or praise you, you are still good. If you aren’t good, then when others criticize you, you get angry. And when they praise you, you get pleased.”

I know you're good, Homer. - STFU, B*tch!

At that time, I reflected on this and have found it to be true from that day up until the present. Goodness must be found within.

As soon as I saw this, that feeling of wanting to run away disappeared. In later times, whenever I had that desire arise, I let it go. Whenever it arose, I was aware of it and kept my awareness on it. Thus, I had a solid foundation.

Wherever I lived, whether people condemned me or whatever they would say, I would reflect that the point is not whether they were good or bad. Good or evil must be seen within ourselves. However other people are, that’s their concern.

Don’t go thinking, “Oh, today is too hot” or “Today is too cold” or “Today is....” Whatever the day is like, that’s just the way it is.

Really we are simply blaming the weather for our own laziness. We must see the Dhamma [the Truth and practices to see it the Buddha taught] within ourselves, then there is a surer kind of peace.

So for all of you who have come to practice here. Even though it’s only for a few days, still many things will arise. Many things may be arising which you’re not even aware of. There is some right thinking, some wrong thinking...many, many things.

So I say this practice is difficult. Even though some of you may experience some peace when you sit in meditation, don’t be in a hurry to congratulate yourselves.

Oh, yes, yes, now it's good and peaceful.

Likewise, if there is some confusion, don’t blame yourselves. If things seem to be good, don’t delight in them, and if they’re not good don’t be averse to them. Just look at it all. Look at what you have. Just look. Don’t bother judging. If it’s good, don’t hold on to it; if it’s bad, don’t cling to it.

Good and bad can both bite, so don’t hold fast to them. The practice is simply to sit, sit and watch it all. Good moods and bad moods come and go as is their nature. Don’t only praise your mind or only condemn it.

Know the right time for these things. When it’s time for congratulations then congratulate it, but just a little. Don’t overdo it. Just like teaching a child, sometimes you may have to spank it a little. In our practice, sometimes we may have to punish ourselves, but don’t punish yourself all the time. If you punish yourself all the time, in a while you’ll just give up the practice.

But then you can’t just give yourself a good time and take it easy either. That’s not the way to practice. We practice according to the Middle Way.

What is the Middle Way? This Middle Way is difficult to follow. You can’t rely on your moods and desires. Don’t think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking!

Steady practice is having the attitude of practice while standing, walking, sitting, and lying down. [This is sati-sampajanna, "mindfulness and clear comprehension."] When coming out of sitting meditation, reflect that you’re simply changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace.

Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself. Those who, having finished their evening sitting, simply indulge in their moods, spending the whole day letting the mind wander where it wants, will find that the next evening when sitting meditation, all they get is the “backwash” from the day’s aimless thinking. There is no foundation of calm because they have let it go cold all day.

If you practice like this, your mind gets gradually further and further from the practice.

When I ask some of my disciples, “How is your meditation going?” They say, “Oh, it’s all gone now.”

You see? They can keep it up for a month or two, but in a year or two it’s all finished. Why is this? It’s because they don’t take this essential point into their practice. When they’ve finished sitting, they let go of their samadhi [coherence, stillness]. They start to sit for shorter and shorter periods until they reach the point where as soon as they start to sit, they want to finish. Eventually they don’t even sit.

It’s the same with bowing to a Buddha image. At first, they make the effort to bow every night before going to sleep. But after a while, their minds begin to stray. Soon they don’t bother to bow at all. They just nod until eventually it’s all gone. They throw out the practice completely.

Ah, like this, the mind settles quickly. I'm calm.

Therefore, understand the importance of sati [mindfulness, bare awareness, not discursive thinking but being with and accepting what is happening now without abandoning ourselves].

Practice it constantly. Right practice is steady practice. Whether standing, walking, sitting, or reclining, the practice must continue. This means that practice, meditation, is done in the mind, not in the body.

If our mind has zeal, is conscientious and ardent, then there will be awareness [nonabsentmindedness, nonforgetting, presence]. The mind is the important thing. The mind is that which supervises everything we do.

When we understand properly then we practice properly. When we practice properly, we don’t go astray. Even if we only do a little, that is still all right.

For example, when you finish sitting in meditation, remind yourselves that you are not actually finishing meditation. [Mindfulness meditation continues all the time.] You are simply changing postures. Your mind is still composed. Whether standing, walking, sitting, or reclining, you have sati with you.

If you have this kind of awareness, you can maintain your internal practice. In the evening when you sit again, the practice continues uninterrupted. Your effort is unbroken, allowing the mind to attain calm. This is called steady practice.

Whether we are talking or doing other things, we make the practice continuous. If our mind has recollection and self-awareness continuously, our practice will naturally develop. It will gradually come together. The mind will find peace, because it will know what is right and what is wrong. It will see what is happening within us and realize peace.

If we are to develop sila (virtue, moral restraint) or samadhi (firmness of mind), we must first have pañña (wisdom). Some people think that they’ll develop moral restraint one year, samadhi the next, and the year after that they’ll develop wisdom. They think these three things are separate.

They think that this year they will develop, but if the mind is not firm (samadhi), how can they do it? If there is no understanding (pañña), how can they do it? Without samadhi or pañña, sila will be sloppy. 

In fact, these three come together at the same point. When we have sila (restraint), we have calm (samadhi); when we have samadhi, we have understanding (pañña). They are all one like a mango.

Whether it’s small or fully grown, it’s still a mango. When it’s ripe, it’s still the same mango. If we think in simple terms like this, we can see it more easily. We don’t have to learn a lot of things just to know these things, to know our practice.

Don't Look Down on Defilements: They Will
Laugh at You (Ashin Tejaniya)

When it comes to meditation, some people don’t get what they want. So they just give up, saying they don’t yet have the merit to practice meditation. They can do bad things. They have that sort of talent, but they don’t have the talent to do good. They throw in the towel, saying they don’t have a good enough foundation.

This is the way people are. They side with their defilements.

Now that you have this chance to practice, please understand that whether you find it difficult or easy to develop samadhi, is entirely up to you not the samadhi.

If it is difficult, it is because you are practicing wrongly. In our practice we must have “right view” (samma-ditthi).

...If our view is right, then everything else is right:

1. right view,
2. right intention,
3. right speech,
4. right action,
5. right livelihood,
6. right effort,
7. right mindfulness,
8. right stillness – the enlightening Eightfold Path.

When there is right view, all the other factors [of this Eightfold Path] will follow. Whatever happens, keep the mind from straying off the track. Look within and you will see clearly.

For the best practice, as I see it, it isn’t necessary to read many books. Take all the books and lock them away. Just read your own mind.

It's good to read. I like reading. I get lost in books

You have all been burying yourselves in books from the time you entered school. I think that now you have this opportunity and have the time, so take the books, put them in a cupboard, and lock the door.

Just read your mind. Whenever something arises within the mind, whether you like it or not, whether it seems right or wrong, just cut it off with, “This is not a sure thing.”

Whatever arises just cut it down, reminding yourself, “Not sure, not sure.”

With just this single axe, you can cut it all down. It’s all “not sure.”

Sophia (Khema Theri), Goddess of Wisdom

For the duration of this next month that you will be staying in this forest monastery, you should make a lot of headway. You will see the Truth. This “not sure” is really an important one. This one develops wisdom.

The more you look, the more you will see the “not-sure-ness.” After you’ve cut something off with “not sure,” it may come circling round and pop up again.

Yes, it’s truly “not sure.” Whatever pops up, just stick this one label on it all: “not sure.” You stick the sign on, “not sure.” And in a while, when its turn comes, it crops up again. “Ah, not sure.” Dig here! Not sure.

You will see this same old one who’s been fooling you month in month out, year in year out, from the day you were born. There’s only this one who’s been fooling you all along. See this and realize the way things are.

When your practice reaches this point, you won’t cling to sensations, because they are all uncertain.

Have you ever noticed this? Maybe you see a clock and think, “Oh, this is nice!” Buy it and see. In not many days, you’re already bored with it.

“This pen is really beautiful,” so you take the trouble to buy one. In not many months, you tire of it again. This is how it is.

Where is there any certainty? If we see all these things as uncertain, then their value fades away. All things become insignificant. Why should we hold on to things that have no value?

We keep them only as we might keep an old rag to wipe our feet with. We see all sensations as equal in value because they all have the same nature.

When we understand sensations, we understand the world. The world is sensations, and sensations are the world. If we aren’t fooled by sensations, we aren’t fooled by the world. If we aren’t fooled by the world, we aren’t fooled by sensations.

The mind that sees this will have a firm foundation of wisdom. Such a mind will not have many problems. Any problems it does have it can solve. When there are no more problems, there are no more doubts.

Peace arises in their stead. This is called “practice.” If we really practice, it must be like this. More

• Ajahn Chah, The Teachings of Ajahn Chah (pp. 311-316) edited and rearranged by Dhr. Seven, with help from American DRC and Sayalay Aloka (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly