Honouring Venerable Ajahn Chah Through Our Practice

Ajahn Anan's talk commemorates Venerable Ajahn Chah and reflects on Ajahn Chah's enduring spiritual influence, emphasizing that his teachings on the Dhamma continue to guide disciples despite his physical absence.

Ajahn Anan recalls the early challenges at Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah's monastery, highlighting the spiritual fulfillment derived from practicing Dhamma amidst material scarcity. He focuses on Buddhist concepts of impermanence, suffering, non-self, and the importance of mindfulness, moral conduct, concentration, and wisdom in the path to enlightenment.

Ajahn Anan discusses the dangers of attachment to conventional realities and material phenomena, advocating for a practice-oriented approach to understanding and liberation. The annual commemoration of Ajahn Chah's passing is described as a time for collective meditation and reflection, inspiring continued dedication to spiritual practice and growth in Dhamma.

Transcript

This year is 2024,

And Venerable Ajahn Chah was born in 1918.

He was ordained in 1939.

He learned Dhamma from the founder of the Thai forest tradition,

Venerable Ajahn Mun,

As well as Venerable Ajahn Kinnari and Venerable Ajahn Thongrat.

And he came to stay in Wat Nongpa Pong in 1954,

Which is my birth year.

So I remember well that from 1954 till this year is 70 years.

And this year is the 106th anniversary since his birth.

And Venerable Ajahn Chah has passed away 32 years now.

Talking about Ajahn Chah's passing away,

It is just off the body.

But his disciples,

The monks,

Novices and all the laypeople recollect him in their hearts.

In line with the teachings of the Buddha,

Venerable Ajahn Chah has said that the Buddha has been enlightened and attained Parinibbana already,

But the Dhamma that will make one a Buddha is still here.

The practices,

Training and teachings that Venerable Ajahn Chah gave that will make his disciples to understand the Dhamma,

These teachings are still here.

They are solid.

And there are the Sangha of monks and laypeople who come together with solidarity to practice and have done it continuously for 32 years now.

And time passes quickly,

32 years from 1992 till 2024 now.

And we still recollect Venerable Ajahn Chah's virtues.

And the virtues of the Sama Sambuddha,

The perfectly self-awakened Buddha are boundless.

The virtues of the Dhamma,

The virtues of the Sangha are boundless.

All these things can arise from the Barami,

The spiritual accumulations of the Buddha that he built Barami and coming to be enlightened.

He is the supreme first teacher.

He is the foremost Sasada,

The founder of the dispensation in this world.

He gave the Dhamma and taught it.

And this made the Buddha's teachings to be carried on by the Sangha till the present day.

Carried on till the great teacher Venerable Ajahn Mun that had attained to becoming an Arahant who had taught his disciples,

Many great teachers amounting to up to 100 monks.

And there is our Venerable Ajahn Chah included here as well.

Ajahn Chah had sacrificed and taught his disciples constantly,

Even when he was sick already and the faith of his disciples wanted him only to receive guests at a specific time and wanted to fence off his kuti,

His dwelling.

He said that he felt sorry for those travelling from near and far who wouldn't be able to meet him and would feel disappointed.

This was his great metta,

Goodwill.

This is the boundless Dhamma and the boundless Sangha.

And he didn't take much rest.

In the day he wouldn't rest.

He said that to fence him off like this,

He wasn't a cow or a buffalo.

To go and fence off his kuti,

He liked to be free and he had metta to his disciples.

And we see that every day during the anniversary of Ajahn Chah's passing,

There is Dhamma practice at Wat Nong Pah Pong.

His disciples come together with hearts of faith.

Both the Sangha from in Thailand and other countries and the greater public as well.

Coming together like this,

It is something amazing.

At the time when Venerable Ajahn Chah was still alive,

On Magha Puja,

For Katina and his birthday on the 17th June every year,

These were the days set up that the Sangha would gather together.

They were intent to come to practice Dhamma and to listen to Ajahn Chah's Dhamma.

It was a rare opportunity to listen to the Dhamma.

Even in Wat Nong Pah Pong 50 years ago,

The monk's life there was not easy.

In the beginning days,

For alms food,

One banana and they had to eat the peel as well,

So that you could be full.

In my time,

In 1976,

One banana was hard to find.

There were 70 monks and novices,

And one banana had to be cut into four pieces.

It wouldn't get to be enough for one banana for one monk.

It would be one banana shared between four monks.

We wouldn't even hope for any sugary drinks,

Sugar,

Pepsi or coke.

It would be only after a long time before it would happen to come in once.

It was a very long time.

In a month,

We may open it for evening drinks just one time.

It would be stocked up till it was enough first.

But we could live.

What for?

It was for learning the monastic practices and for the Dhamma.

It was hard and difficult,

But the Sangha had hearts of faith.

The Dhamma that Ajahn Chah gave was what uplifted our hearts.

It gave us fullness of heart and bliss.

With food,

It would give fullness temporarily,

But the Dhamma would give more fullness.

It was for one who is searching for freedom from all suffering.

Even though Ajahn Chah has passed away from us for a long time,

32 years now,

But his monastic practices and training that he taught and instructed,

Following in line with the teachings of the Sama Sampuddha,

Are still here.

If we are to practice them,

We will see the Dhamma.

We can attain to the Dhamma.

It is like the knowledge of teachers is still here.

If we learn the knowledge of teachers,

Then we can become a teacher.

For one who has determined to build more Barami,

Will be able to do it.

Because the Dhamma is still here.

We can say that the Buddha is still here,

In the Dhamma.

Venerable Ajahn Chah is still here,

In his training,

Practices and teachings,

And in the Dhamma as well.

So all the faithful laity that practice this year,

May you feel proud that our Ajahn Chah has practiced well already,

Practiced rightly,

Practiced appropriately,

Practiced to be free from suffering already.

He is an incomparable field of merit,

With no equal.

Our faith has confidence,

With full strength of heart.

When we have this confidence,

Then we practice diligently,

Following his easy to understand teachings.

Sometimes our mind thinks of bad thoughts,

Then he says for us to throw them away.

Don't be anxious and suffer over bad thoughts.

Good thoughts we pick them up and act following them.

In our mind there are all sorts of things,

Like the trees in the forest.

There are straight trees and bent trees.

So we choose the trees that are straight to use as posts for our house.

We have to be intelligent to choose the trees.

We have to be intelligent to watch the mind,

And to look after the mind.

Our mind has many things.

What is no good,

We throw it away.

What is good,

We practice it.

Don't be anxious.

Don't attach to it as being our thoughts.

When we attach to it as our thoughts,

Then we don't want our mind to think bad thoughts,

Which isn't possible.

When we begin to know about wrongdoing and bad karma,

Then we just want to do only good.

To abandon wrongdoing and to do merit,

By way of the body and speech,

We can do it.

But by way of the mind,

We can't just be determined.

Because our mind is scattered,

Going with all the sense and mental objects.

Here we have to have effort and diligence.

We don't stop goodness till it is complete.

We have a meditation object.

We keep sila,

The moral precepts.

And the benefit of sila is that it will bring up samadhi concentration.

When samadhi is firmly established,

It will progress to wisdom.

We will understand into the dhamma.

We will understand into conventions.

Into conventional reality.

Then liberation can arise.

Our body,

Made up of the four elements,

Was born and it has no name.

It never had a name before.

They give it a name.

Our parents give us a name,

So that we can know what to call this person.

But in reality,

It's not like that.

But after we use that name for a long time,

We really become that name.

We feel that we are deluded by conventions.

But Ajahn Chah has said,

There's a cup of water,

And he tells us,

Pick up that spittoon over there.

We feel like it's not right,

Because he is calling the cup a spittoon.

The convention has changed.

Imagine it has been called since the beginning that the cup is a spittoon.

A spittoon is called a cup,

Or it can be called any name.

If we know it deeply,

Then it is the four elements.

Our body,

We give it a new name.

We call ourselves another name,

Any name.

Mr.

A.

Then they will call us Mr.

A,

Or Mr.

B,

Like that.

In reality,

There isn't anything.

There isn't anything here means it is anicca,

Dukkha,

Anatta,

Impermanent,

Unsatisfactory and not-self.

If we see it as having something,

Having a self,

Having this or that,

Then we get it and we are delighted.

And if we lose it,

Then we will suffer,

We will be upset.

So the mind that clings onto a thing will all be the cause for suffering to arise.

But Ajahn Chah taught with wisdom.

For us,

If we cling onto something,

Sometimes a person would paint a very beautiful portrait of him.

They were overjoyed.

He didn't praise that person,

Saying he had painted a beautiful picture.

He would teach dhamma.

This is beautiful.

But if a sharp knife cut and ruined this picture,

What's your heart going to be like?

This is the danger here.

It is suffering.

The person who painted the portrait to offer understood,

Oh,

This is true.

We would suffer.

To be delighted that this picture I painted was beautiful,

It is a danger.

So he taught us to let go.

Not to attach and cling in material phenomena,

In mental phenomena,

In the feelings from all the sense objects.

And this can overcome suffering.

And though we may not be able to practice this 100%,

But it is the correct path that the material and mental phenomena are impermanent,

Unsatisfactory,

And not self.

This is correct.

He taught directly.

Whatever arises in our feelings,

I like this.

He taught,

It is not sure,

Not permanent.

This I don't like at all.

Again it is not sure,

Not permanent.

Sometimes we meet someone who we really like,

We really get along with them.

We say it is not sure,

Not permanent.

We don't get along with someone at all.

Again it is not sure,

Not permanent.

We teach it so our mind gets intelligent.

This is wisdom.

Teaching it like this requires effort.

We need mindfulness and firm samadhi.

And then wisdom arises.

And we are intent to meditate.

So may your mindfulness be in the present as much as you are able to.

So coming to the anniversary of the passing of Vajrancha,

That is the passing of his body,

But his heart is pure.

If we want to be with him,

Then we need to practice following him,

So that our heart becomes pure following him as well.

So we do walking meditation and sitting meditation.

Or on the 16th January,

Every year,

Some people intend to not sleep on that night.

Can we see that by the Bharami of the Buddha,

Dhamma and Sangha,

We can have the inner strength to not sleep?

We have great fulfillment.

Both the Sangha and the laity don't sleep.

They recollect that 48 years ago,

There were thousands of laypeople who didn't sleep like this,

Who would listen to Dhamma all through the night.

The Sangha of 500 monks wouldn't sleep and lead the all-night meditation practice.

It was a very beautiful picture.

It was people who were determined to puja,

To give homage to great virtues.

There was homage with fragrant flowers,

With food,

Rice and sweets,

And there is the homage of practice to the Sama Sambuddha,

Dhamma and Arahant Sangha,

Venerable Ajahn Chah.

And we will gain great results from this.

Even by bowing and paying respects,

We already get results of merit and goodness.

But from Dhamma practice,

It gives immensely greater benefits.

Even some people who aren't able to come this year,

Can intend to go next year.

Those who didn't come this year,

Can be at home and practice following it online.

Or being in other monasteries,

We don't sleep as well.

We practice and meditate all night,

Not sleeping.

We don't have to travel,

We can be at the monastery,

At home,

And we can practice going without sleep.

We are sincerely intent.

As if Ajahn Chah is right here,

In front of us.

So we are determined to practice,

And this is our good opportunity.

So may you be determined.

Even though Venerable Ajahn Chah has passed away 32 years ago,

But his training and practices are still here.

And for us to see him,

We need to see the Dhamma.

The Buddha said that whoever sees the Dhamma,

Sees me,

The Tathagata.

If we see the Buddha,

From seeing the Dhamma,

We also see the Sangha of the Buddha.

It comes together.

The Buddha,

Dhamma,

And Sangha.

So may you be determined,

To practice,

To polish away the mental defilements,

To endure and to meditate,

Even if it is hard.

And we don't just practice only when we come together on the 13th to 17th January every year.

At home and at the monastery,

We are intent to practice all through the year.

And then coming to the time of year for Ajahn Chah's memorial,

We gather together and it is a power,

An important power.

So may you set your heart on this.

May you meet with happiness and prosperity.

May you know and see the Dhamma.

May you give homage to the Samosambuddha,

Dhamma and Sangha.

May you grow in Dhamma.

May you have good health and strength.

May you grow in blessings.