Our Real Home: A Talk to an Aging Lay Disciple Approaching Death
Ajahn Chah (translated from the Thai by The Sangha at Wat Pah Nanachat © 1994)  |
| Ajahn Chah was regarded as an arahant. |
Now determine in your mind to listen with respect to the
Dhamma. During the time that I am speaking, be as attentive to my words as if it were the Lord Buddha himself sitting in front of you.
Close your eyes and make yourself comfortable, compose your mind and make it one-pointed. Humbly allow the Triple Gem [Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha] of wisdom, truth, and purity to abide in your heart as a way of showing respect to the Fully Enlightened One.
Today I have brought nothing material of any substance to offer you, only Dhamma, the teachings of the Lord Buddha. Listen well. You should understand that even the Buddha himself, with his great store of accumulated virtue, could not avoid physical death.
When he reached old age, he relinquished his body and let go of its heavy burden. Now you too must learn to be satisfied with the many years you've already depended on your body.
You should feel that it's enough.
You can compare it to household utensils you've had for a long time — your cups, saucers, plates, and so on. When you first had them, they were clean and shining, but now after using them for so long, they're starting to wear out.
Some are already broken, some have disappeared and those that are left are deteriorating; they have no stable form, and it's their nature to be like that. Your body is the same way — it's been continually changing right from the day you were born, through childhood and youth, until now it's reached old age. You must accept that.
The Buddha said that conditions (sankharas), whether they are internal conditions, bodily conditions, or external conditions, are not-self, their nature is to change. Contemplate this truth until you see it clearly.
This very lump of flesh that lies here in decline is saccadhamma, the truth. The truth of this body is saccadhamma, and it is the unchanging teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha taught us to look at the body, to contemplate it, and come to terms with its nature.
We must be able to be at peace with the body, whatever state it is in. The Buddha taught that we should ensure that it's only the body that is locked up in jail and not let the mind be imprisoned along with it.
Now as your body begins to run down and deteriorate with age, don't resist that, but don't let your mind deteriorate with it. Keep the mind separate.
Give energy to the mind by realizing the truth of the way things are. The Lord Buddha taught that this is the nature of the body, it can't be any other way: having been born it gets old and sick and then it dies. This is a great truth you are presently encountering. Look at the body with wisdom and realize it.
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