Top 100 Ajahn Quotes
#1. Complaining is finding faults, wisdom is finding solutions
Ajahn Brahm
#2. When life is good do not take it for granted as it will pass. Be mindful, be compassionate and nurture the circumstances that find you in this good time so it will last longer. When life falls apart always remember that this too will pass. Life will have its unexpected turns.
Ajahn Brahm
#3. any place you don't want to be is a prison.
Ajahn Brahm
#4. There is no way that we can understand it all. So the heart's response to that mystery is faith - a trust in the fundamental orderliness of the universe.
Ajahn Amaro
#5. Do not be in a hurry or try to push your practice. If you become peaceful, then accept it,; if you don't become peaceful, then accept that also. This is the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and persevere.
Ajahn Chah
#6. If you haven't cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn't really begun.
Ajahn Chah
#7. Whatever you do in your life, Son, the door of my heart will always be open to you.
Ajahn Brahm
#8. The mind of one who practises doesn't run away anywhere, it stays right there. Good, evil, happiness and unhappiness, right and wrong arise, and he knows them all. The meditator simply knows them, they don't enter his mind. That is, he has no clinging. He is simply the experiencer.
Ajahn Chah
#9. The one who recognizes the uncertainty of phenomena is the Dharma within you.
Ajahn Chah
#10. Better lite a candle than complain about the darkness
Ajahn Brahm
#11. Peace is the most valuable commodity. And it's free!
Ajahn Brahm
#12. Love, oneness, is no separation between you and life. It is a progressive letting go, a progressive not fault finding. Just do nothing and love this moment. Its very beautiful and very deep.
Ajahn Brahm
#13. When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.
Ajahn Chah
#14. The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.
Ajahn Sumedho
#15. A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn't.
Ajahn Chah
#16. Letting go a little brings a little peace. Letting go a lot brings a lot of peace. Letting go completely brings complete peace.
Ajahn Chah
#17. Everyone makes mistakes. The wise are not people who never make mistakes, but those who forgive themselves and learn from their mistakes.
Ajahn Brahm
#18. Fear is finding fault with the future.
Ajahn Brahm
#19. You should think about your own death 3 times per day at the very least.
Ajahn Chah
#21. My first meditation teacher told me that there is no such thing as a bad meditation. He was right. During the difficult meditations you build up your strength, which creates meditation for peace.
Ajahn Brahm
#22. With even a little intuitive wisdom we will be able to see clearly the ways of the world. We will come to understand that everything in the world is our teacher.
Ajahn Chah
#23. Suttas are not meant to be 'sacred scriptures' that tell us what to believe. One should read them, listen to them, think about them, contemplate them, and investigate the present reality, the present experience with them. Then, and only then, can one insightfully know the truth beyond words.
Ajahn Sumedho
#24. Look at your own mind. The one who carries things thinks he's got things, but the one who looks on sees only the heaviness. Throw away things, lose them, and find lightness.
Ajahn Chah
#25. Do not be a bodhisattva, do not be an arahant, do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisattva, you will suffer, if you are an arahant, you will suffer, if you are anything at all, you will suffer.
Ajahn Chah
#26. Love is not liking somebody. Anyone can do that. Love is loving things that sometimes you don't like.
Ajahn Brahm
#27. The selfless giving, the service, the kindness which you give out into this world that is the currency of (the) meaning (of life).
Ajahn Brahm
#28. I am like a tree in a forest. Birds come to the tree, they sit on its branches and eat its fruits. To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. The birds say sweet or they say sour, but from the tree's point of view, this is just the chattering of birds.
Ajahn Chah
#29. Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher.
Ajahn Chah
#30. If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer
Ajahn Chah
#31. There are people who are born and die and never once are aware of their breath going in and out of their body. That's how far away they live from themselves
Ajahn Chah
#32. We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things. Enlightenment appears when you stop wanting anything.
Ajahn Chah
#33. The heart is the only book worth reading.
Ajahn Chah
#34. Know and watch your heart. It's pure but emotions come to colour it. So let your mind be like a tightly woven net to catch emotions and feelings that come, and investigate them before you react.
Ajahn Chah
#35. Of course there are dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. Why not give it a try?
Ajahn Chah
#36. If you know how to let go and be at peace, you know everything you need to know about living in the world.
Ajahn Brahm
#37. All religions are like different cars all moving in the same direction. People who don't see it have no light in their hearts.
Ajahn Chah
#38. That which is threatening to the ego is liberating to the heart.
Ajahn Amaro
#39. Read yourself, not books. Truth isn't outside, that's only memory, not wisdom. Memory without wisdom is like an empty thermos bottle - if you don't fill it, it's useless.
Ajahn Chah
#40. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness. And when we stop clinging, we can begin to be happy.
Ajahn Chah
#41. The forest is peaceful, why aren't you? You hold on to things causing your confusion. Let nature teach you. Hear the bird's song then let go. If you know nature, you'll know truth. If you know truth, you'll know nature.
Ajahn Chah
#42. When you have abandoned all past and future, it is as if you have come alive. You are here, mindful ... the nature of all types of consciousness reveals itself.
Ajahn Brahm
#43. Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don't accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little you a will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace.
Ajahn Chah
#44. The heart is that which lies at the centre of things, and is also formless. It is simple awareness devoid of movement to and fro, of past and future, within and without, merit and harm. Wherever the centre of a thing lies, there lies its heart, for the word 'heart' means centrality.
Ajahn Thate
#45. Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind.
Ajahn Chah
#46. We protect virtue so that virtue will protect us.
Ajahn Chah
#47. When we conquer ourselves, then everything will be conquered: oneself, others, and all the sense objects as well, coming in by way of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body
it will all get conquered like this.
Ajahn Chah
#48. Some people are afraid of generosity. They feel they will be taken advantage of or oppressed. In cultivating generosity, we are only oppressing our greed and attachment. This allows our true nature to come out and become lighter and freer.
Ajahn Chah
#49. We look directly into our suffering rather than try to become happy. The happiness that arises from this approach is reliable.
Ajahn Sumedho
#50. Mental activity is like a deadly poisonous cobra. If we don't interfere with a cobra, how poisonous it may be, it simply goes its own away.
Ajahn Chah
#51. If we see everything as uncertain, then their I value fades away.
Ajahn Chah
#52. A new day is here. Yesterday is a memory. Tomorrow is unknown. Now is the knowing.
Ajahn Sumedho
#53. When the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything.
Ajahn Chah
#54. Learn to see that it is not things that bother us, that we go out to bother them. See the world as a mirror. It is all a reflection of the mind. When you know this, you can grow in every moment, and every experience reveals truth and brings understanding.
Ajahn Chah
#55. Don't be attached to visions or lights in meditation, don't rise or fall with them. What's so great about brightness? My flashlight has it. It can't help us rid ourselves of our suffering.
Ajahn Chah
#56. You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can't solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth - inside, not outside. Knowing yourself is most important.
Ajahn Chah
#57. But when I know that the glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious.
Ajahn Chah
#58. We should always be grateful for the faults in our partner because if they didn't have those faults from the start, they would have been able to marry someone much better than us
Ajahn Brahm
#59. Life is what's happening while you're worrying.
Ajahn Brahm
#60. If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
Ajahn Chah
#61. When the weather is hot, keep a cool mind. When the weather is cold, keep a warm heart.
Ajahn Brahm
#62. Why seek revenge? Karma is going to get the bastards anyway
Ajahn Brahm
#63. These days people don't search for the Truth. People study simply in order to find knowledge necessary to make a living, raise families and look after themselves, that's all. To them, being smart is more important than being wise!
Ajahn Chah
#64. If you let go a little you will have a little happiness. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.
Ajahn Chah
#65. If you have time to breathe you have time to meditate. You breathe when you walk. You breathe when you stand. You breathe when you lie down.
Ajahn Amaro
#66. We don't meditate to see heaven, but to end suffering.
Ajahn Chah
#67. The problem is grasping the clock. So what do I do? Let it go, lay it aside - put it down gently without any kind of aversion. Then I can pick it up again, see what time it is and lay it aside when necessary.
Ajahn Sumedho
#68. Remember you dont meditate to get anything, but to get rid of things. We do it, not with desire, but with letting go. If you want anything, you wont find it.
Ajahn Chah
#69. Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
Ajahn Chah
#70. If you listen to the Dhamma teachings but don't practice you're like a ladle in a soup pot. The ladle is in the soup pot every day, but it doesn't know the taste of the soup. You must reflect and meditate.
Ajahn Chah
#71. I know this glass is already broken, so I enjoy it incredibly.
Ajahn Chah
#72. A good practice 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.
Ajahn Chah
#73. Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: You won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.
Ajahn Chah
#74. The mind is intrinsically tranquil. Out of this tranquility, anxiety and confusion are born. If one sees and knows this confusion, then the mind is tranquil once more.
Ajahn Chah
#75. The Dhamma is revealing itself in every moment, but only when the mind is quiet can we understand what it is saying, for the Dhamma teaches without words.
Ajahn Chah
#76. To give up doing evil is more important than making merit.
Ajahn Chah
#77. The goal of this meditation is beautiful silence, stillness, and clarity of mind.
Ajahn Brahm
#78. Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.
Ajahn Brahm
#79. The secret of life is ... everything is out of control.
Ajahn Brahm
#80. If your mind is happy then you are happy anywhere you go.
When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look.
Truth is all there is.
It's like when you learned how to read, you can then read anywhere you go.
Ajahn Chah
#81. Where does peace arise? Peace arises whenever we let something go.
Ajahn Chah
#82. The Dhamma has to be found by looking into your own heart and seeing that which is true and that which is not, that which is balanced and that which is not balanced.
Ajahn Chah
#84. People go through life blindly, ignoring death like revellers at a party feasting on fine foods. They ignore that later they will have to go to the toilet, so they do not bother to find out where there is one. When nature finally calls, they have no idea where to go and are in a mess.
Ajahn Chah
#85. Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.
Ajahn Chah
#86. Dharma is in your mind, not in the forest. Don't believe others, just listen to your mind. You don't have to go anywhere else. Wisdom is in yourself, just like a sweet ripe mango is already in a young green one.
Ajahn Chah
#87. At some point your heart will tell itself what to do.
Ajahn Chah
#88. Of course we can always imagine more perfect conditions, how it should be ideally, how everyone should behave. But it is not our task to create an ideal. It's our task to see how it is, and to learn from the world as it is. For the awakening of the heart, conditions are always good enough.
Ajahn Sumedho
#89. Understand the place of love in a spiritual life. A powerful and blissful type of love has no conditions, no ownership and no people involved. Be free from fear. Be who you are. That is love.
Ajahn Brahm
#90. To practice Dhamma means to observe and examine oneself.
Ajahn Chah
#91. The serene and peaceful mind is the true epitome of human achievement.
Ajahn Chah
#92. Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.
Ajahn Brahm
#93. Meditation is a skilful letting go: gently but with resolution.
Ajahn Sumedho
#94. To define Buddhism without a lot of words and phrases, we can simply say, 'Don't cling or hold on to anything. Harmonize with actuality, with things as they are.'
Ajahn Chah
#95. Mindfulness is life. Whenever we don't have mindfulness, when we are heedless, it's as if we are dead.
Ajahn Chah
#96. I contemplated my greed for peace. And I did not seek tranquillity anymore.
Ajahn Sumedho
#97. When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
Ajahn Chah
#98. Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty. It's like a letter - you have to open it before you can know what's in it.
Ajahn Chah
#99. Only one book is worth reading: the heart.
Ajahn Chah
#100. If we want to really see the Buddha, we should observe his virtuous qualities. Whatever he taught, we should practise it. Only bowing to him is not enough. We need to renounce, give up, stop, so that we may see the Buddha.
Ajahn Chah
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