Not Being Anything

"If you are anything, it's turmoil. If you are this or are that, you are a problem. So you don't have to be anything. There's nothing but letting go — letting go and knowing in line with what things do. When you know in line with what things do in every way, there's no more doubt. And you aren't anything." This record is an excerpt from Ajahn Chah's talk, 'In the Shape of a Circle.'

Transcript

Once I read an Ajataka tale about our Buddha when he was still a bodhisatta.

He was like you.

He had ordained and encountered a lot of difficulties.

But when he thought of disrobing,

He was ashamed of what other people would think.

That he had ordained all these years,

And yet still wanted to disrobe.

Still,

Things didn't go the way he wanted,

So he thought he'd leave.

He came across a squirrel whose baby had been blown into the ocean by the wind.

He saw the squirrel running down to the water,

And then back up again.

But he didn't know what it was doing.

It ran down to the water,

And stuck its tail in the water,

And then ran up to the beach and shook out its tail.

Then it ran down and stuck its tail in the water again.

So he asked it,

What are you doing?

Oh,

My baby has fallen into the water.

I miss it,

And I want to fetch it out.

How are you going to do that?

I'm going to use my tail to bail the water out of the ocean until it's dry,

So that I can fetch my baby out.

Ugh,

And when will the ocean ever go dry?

That's not the issue.

This is the way it is with the practice.

You keep bailing out the water,

Bailing out the water,

And don't care whether it ever goes dry.

When you're going to be a Buddha,

You can't abandon your efforts.

When the Bodhisatta heard this,

It flashed in his heart.

He got up and pushed through with his efforts.

He didn't retreat.

That's how he became the Buddha.

It's the same with us.

Wherever things aren't going well,

That's where they will go well.

You make them happen where they aren't yet happening.

Wherever you're deluded,

That's where knowledge will arise.

If you don't believe me,

Spit right here.

That'll make it dirty.

But when you wipe it away,

It'll be clean right here,

Right where it's dirty.

It won't become clean out there in the grounds of the monastery.

Keep coming back to the same place over and over again.

A Jantung rat once told me,

Cha,

Drill the hole right in line with the dowel.

That's all he said.

I'd just started practicing and didn't understand what he was saying.

If it comes low,

Jump over its head.

That's what he said.

If it comes high,

Slip under it.

But I didn't know what he was saying.

So I went off to meditate and kept contemplating it.

Actually,

He was telling me how to solve my problems.

Drill the hole right in line with the dowel means,

Wherever the problem arises,

Contemplate right there.

Wherever you're deluded,

Contemplate right there.

If you're attached to a site,

Contemplate the site.

Right around,

Right there.

That's what it means.

Drill the hole right in line with the dowel.

Don't go drilling far away.

Drill right there at the dowel.

It's the same as when we step on a thorn.

You take a needle and probe right there where the thorn is.

Don't go probing anywhere else.

Probe right where the thorn is stuck in your foot.

Even if it hurts,

You have to endure it.

Keep probing all around it,

And then pry it out.

That's how you get the thorn out.

If the thorn is stuck in your foot,

But you go probing around your rear,

When will you ever be done with it?

So I contemplated this.

Ah.

Teachers meditate in line with the language of their own minds.

They don't go groping around the formulations in the books the way that we do.

Their own formulations arise from reality.

So what comes low,

And what comes high?

If it comes low,

Jump over its head.

If it comes high,

Slip under it.

I kept contemplating this.

Maybe he was talking about my moods and preoccupations.

Some of them come low,

Some of them come high.

You have to watch them to see how you can avoid them.

If they come low,

Jump over their heads.

If they come high,

Slip under them.

Do what you can so that they don't hit you.

This is the practice.

You contemplate right where you're deluded,

So that you'll know right there.

Any other issue is just duck shit and chicken shit.

You don't have to go groping after it.

That's how you have to take things on in meditation.

But actually,

It's not a matter of taking.

You take them on by abandoning them.

This is how the suppositions of language have things all backwards.

You let things go.

You practice letting go.

You don't have to become a stream winner or a once returner.

You don't have to make those suppositions.

You don't have to be those things.

If you are anything,

It's a turmoil.

If you are this or you are that,

You are a problem.

So you don't have to be anything.

There's nothing but letting go.

Letting go and then knowing,

In line with what things do.

When you know in line with what things do in every way,

There's no more doubt.

And you aren't anything.

Think about it in a simple way.

If someone yells at you,

But you don't rear up in response,

That's the end of the matter.

It doesn't reach you.

But if you grab hold of it and won't let it go,

You're in a bad shape.

Why put their words into yourself?

If they yell at you,

Just leave it at that.

But if they yell at you over there in the ordination hall and you bring it into your ears while you're sitting here,

It's as if you like to suffer.

This is called not understanding suffering.

You stir things up with your thinking and give rise to all kinds of issues.

Your practice is actually something short,

And not at all long.

If you say it's long,

It's longer than long.

If you say it's short,

It's shorter than short.

When it comes to the practice,

You can't use your ordinary ways of thinking.

You need to have patience and endure.

You need to make an effort.

Whatever happens,

You don't have to pick it up and carry it around.

When things are a certain way,

That's all they are.

When we see the Dhamma in this way,

We don't hold onto anything.

Pleasure we know,

Pain we know.

The Buddha and his Arahant disciples,

When they gain awakening,

It's not the case that coconut milk sweets aren't sweet for them.

With their sweet in the same way that they're sweet for us.

When the noble ones eat sour tamarins,

They squeeze their eyes shut,

Just like us.

You understand?

Things are just the same way that they were before.

Only that the noble ones don't hold onto them or get fixated on them.

If you argue with them that the tamarind is sour,

They'll say,

Sour is fine,

Sweet is fine.

Neither sour nor sweet,

That's fine.

That's what they'll say.

The same principle applies here.

When people come and say wrong things,

We can hear them and it doesn't matter.

We just leave it at that.

If you can do this,

Then even though you're as old as you are now,

You can be young.

You can get a lot younger.

Reviews

thank you 🙏

Really loved these thoughts and sat and meditated on them for a few after as well.

Bows

Thank you 🌾

🙏🏻

So much wisdom packed in this short talk. I will listen to it over and over.

Sorry, too speedy for my English.
I'll listen to it again.
Thanks for sharing. 🙏❤️🌹

Amazing. Thank you 🙏

Amazing teaching

This meditation has the weirdest stories and examples! Still, there is wisdom here. Weird is neither good nor bad. It is simply weird.

A wonderful talk with a lot to reflect on. Thank you

Thank you! 🙏🏼

Thank you for these thought provoking words

Fantastic, exact words of wisdom I needed to hear today 🙏

🙏🙏🙏

Very Motivating. Thank you!

A great learning

Excellent

So telling thanks 😊

Short, sweet, deep, eloquent, simple, relevant to all