Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
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Myotai
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Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by Myotai »

Did Ajahn Cha teach any particular method like Goenka or Mahasi?

One of my favourite books is by Ajahn Sumedho, he speaks in the chapter 'Letting go' about his main practice for years being just that...letting go.

Sounds very Zen like and nothing I have come across in terms of a particular style as such.

Thanks,

M...
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pilgrim
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by pilgrim »

No..he doesn't really make a clear distinction between samatha and vipassana either.
http://www.buddhanet.net/bodhiny2.htm
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Sati1
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by Sati1 »

Myotai wrote:One of my favourite books is by Ajahn Sumedho, he speaks in the chapter 'Letting go' about his main practice for years being just that...letting go.
Could you please mention what book this is? It sounds like a simple but powerful method.

Thank you,
Sati1

----
"I do not perceive even one other thing, o monks, that when developed and cultivated entails such great happiness as the mind" (AN 1.30, transl. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi)
"So this spiritual life, monks, does not have gain, honor, and renown for its benefit, or the attainment of moral discipline for its benefit, or the attainment of concentration for its benefit, or knowledge and vision for its benefit. But it is this unshakable liberation of mind that is the goal of this spiritual life, its heartwood, and its end," (MN 29, transl. Ven Bhikkhu Bodhi)
Babadhari
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by Babadhari »

here is a short discourse by Ajahn Chah On Meditation
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai ... f.html#med
Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.
Aflame, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs ......

Seeing thus, the disciple of the Noble One grows disenchanted. SN 35.28
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Sam Vara
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by Sam Vara »

Sati1 wrote:
Myotai wrote:One of my favourite books is by Ajahn Sumedho, he speaks in the chapter 'Letting go' about his main practice for years being just that...letting go.
Could you please mention what book this is? It sounds like a simple but powerful method.

Thank you,
Here's one version:

http://www.dhammatalks.net/Books2/Ajahn ... SKILFUL_GO
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PsychedelicSunSet
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by PsychedelicSunSet »

Myotai wrote:Did Ajahn Cha teach any particular method like Goenka or Mahasi?

One of my favourite books is by Ajahn Sumedho, he speaks in the chapter 'Letting go' about his main practice for years being just that...letting go.

Sounds very Zen like and nothing I have come across in terms of a particular style as such.

Thanks,

M...

Ajahn Chah never really gave any specific method. I don't think it's a coincidence that Ajahn Chah never gave methodical instructions on meditation. The heart of his teachings is very much about a general awareness, and of letting go.
Ajahn Chah wrote:Remember you don't 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 won't find it.
If you want some guidance that has the flavor of Ajahn Chah, I would look at Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Amaro, and Ajahn Pasanno's talks/writings on meditation. But you won't really find any methodical approach such as Goenka, Mahasi, and Ajaan Lee.


:anjali:
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Mkoll
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by Mkoll »

In the chapter "A Gift of Dhamma" in his book Food for the Heart, Ven. Chah gives instructions for breath meditation.

:anjali:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
culaavuso
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by culaavuso »

Mkoll wrote:In the chapter "A Gift of Dhamma" in his book Food for the Heart, Ven. Chah gives instructions for breath meditation.
This talk is available for free reading at A Gift of Dhamma
Food for the Heart is available for free reading at Food for the Heart
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bodom
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Re: Did Ajahn Chah teach a 'method'?

Post by bodom »

This short story from Ajahn Amaro gives an inside look on Ajahn Chah's attitude toward meditation methods and techniques:
When I arrived at the International Forest Monastery in Thailand, I had never read any Buddhist books and I wasn't actually in search of becoming a Buddhist monk. I was a wanderer, a free-lance spiritual seeker, and I just happened to turn up at this forest monastery that Ajahn Sumedho had established a couple of years before, basically as a place for a free meal and a roof over my head for a few nights. Little did I expect, some twelve or thirteen years later, that I would be doing what I am doing now. But when I went there and asked the monks about Buddhism, to explain things a little bit for me so that I could get a feel for what their life was about, the first thing one of them did was to give me a copy of a book of talks by a Zen Master, and he said, "Don't bother trying to read the Theravada literature; it's terribly boring, very dry. Read this, it is pretty much the same thing that we're doing, and it will give you a sense of what our practice is about. And I thought, "Well, obviously these guys are not too hung up on their tradition." The book was Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.

So, one could see right from the beginning that, even though there is a strength to the particular form within any Buddhist country, one is not necessarily constricted or limited by that. I was there for months before I even heard of 'Theravada' and 'Mahayana', let alone the differences of opinion between them. It seemed that when you actually lived the life there really wasn't any great disparity, but if you thought about it a lot, and if you were the kind of person who wrote histories and books and had got into the political side of religious life, then that was where the divergences occurred.

I have heard Ajahn Sumedho recount a few times over the years that, for the first year of his monastic life, he had been practising using the instructions from a Chan meditation retreat given by the Ven. Master Hsu Yun, and that he had used the Dharma talks from that retreat given in China as his basic meditation instruction.

When he went to Wat Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah asked him what kind of meditation he had been doing, at first he thought, "Oh no, he's going to get me to give this up and do his method." But, when Ajahn Sumedho described what he had been doing and mentioned that it had had excellent results, Ajahn Chah said, "Oh, very good, just carry on doing that."
http://www.dharmabliss.org/Lesser,Great ... %20Way.htm

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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