Ajaan Chah's Practical Advice

     “Ajaan Chah’s … main approach to dharma was not to ask about people’s formal meditation practice, but to ask, ‘Are you suffering? And what kind of suffering do you bring?’
     It might have been that your house burned down, or that you were in the middle of a divorce, or that you were feeling great guilt from something you’ve done in your past. Or it might have been that you felt trapped in a meaningless life.
     Ajaan Chah would listen to it all. He would work with that person to uncover the attachments that were causing that suffering. Through teaching meditation and awareness, he’d show them how to release that suffering.
     He made no distinction between whether it was a problem of an obsessive thought about enlightenment or a problem in a divorce or a problem that had happened with one’s parents or a problem that was happening because you were sitting and energy and concentration weren’t in balance. He saw them all as different forms of clinging.”  

       Jack Kornfield, Tricycle, Winter 2004

The Biscuit Eater, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia