Dhamma in a Nutshell – The Great sayings of Ajarn Chah Supatto (Wat Nong Pha Pong, Ubon Ratchathani).
Simple and to the point are the famous sayings of Ajarn Chah – Ajarn Chah is perhaps the Greatest Master Monk of the 20th Century that Thailand has seen (as far as true Dhamma practise in the Path of the Arahants goes). In spite of the fact that he could not speak English, he managed to capture the hearts of a massive number of Western followers who came to his temple in The Empoverished North East province of Ubon in Thailand, many ordaining into the Sangha as Samaneras and Bhikkhus. This led to many branches of Wat Nong Pha Pong being established in the Western World, and his legacy has stretched accross all the Major Continents of the World.
He was able to communicate his Dhamma through using short and simple “Zen-Koan-like” questions and statements which led one to see directly for oneself what one had to do in order to practise the Dhamma correctly. This made what is perhaps the hardest aspect of the Dhamma student’s practise much easier; The method of application necessary to enable a manifest practise in one’s daily life – a dhamma that is practised constantly in each and every waking moment. How to awaken the Dhamma in one’s heart? His answers were always more inclined to let you know what not to do rather than what to do.. the secret of “letting go” – when asked about aquiring peace through meditation, he would answer “meditation is not about getting something – it is more about letting go, not clinging to anything.. meditation is more about getting rid of things than aquiring things (which burden us).” If you need a simple answer to a difficult question, then Ask Ajarn Chah……
The many wise sayings will be published sporadically as blog posts with my added comments under the “Ajahn Chah Speaks” category, as well as under the subcategory they belong to (e.g. “Karma”, “meditation” “Suffering” etc)
But here are a few tasters for you to see how the Master Ajarn Chah managed to take some of the Dhamma’s most difficult concepts and make them simple to grasp;
“Strengthening the Mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest”
“The Dhamma is not far away. It’s right here with us. The Dhamma isn’t about Angels in the sky or anything like that. It’s simply about us; about what we are doing right now. Observe yourself. Sometimes there is Happiness, sometimes Suffering, sometimes Comfort, sometimes Pain….. This is Dhamma. Do You see it? To Know the Dhamma, you have to learn to Watch, Observe and Read your Experiences” (as they are happening).
“A good practise is to ask yourself very sincerely ‘why was I born?’ Ask yourself this question in the morning, in the afternoon and at night.. every day.”
“Why are we born? We are born so that we will not have to be born again.”
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