Ajahn Quotes & Sayings

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

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

We have limited time in our life, therefore we should try to teach ourselves, not to teach others. We should conquer ourselves, rather than conquer others. Whether coming or going, standing, sitting or lying down, our mind should be focused in this way. If we practise like this and develop mindfulness continuously, wisdom arises quickly and this is a fast way of practice. — Ajahn Chah

If you want to understand suffering you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there. Where suffering lies is right where non-suffering will arise, it ceases at the place where it arises. If suffering arises you must contemplate right there, you don't have to run away. You should settle the issue right there. One who runs away from suffering out of fear is the most foolish person of all. He will simply increases his stupidity endlessly. — Ajahn Chah

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

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

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

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

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

Complaining is finding faults, wisdom is finding solutions — Ajahn Brahm

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

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

A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn't. — Ajahn Chah

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

To think that you will be happy by becoming something else is delusion. Becoming something else just exchanges one form of suffering for another form of suffering. But when you are content with who you are now, junior or senior, married or single, rich or poor, then you are free of suffering. — Ajahn Brahm

any place you don't want to be is a prison. — Ajahn Brahm

How many times have you tried to solve "the problem"? you'll be trying to solve it not just until you die but for many more lifetimes. Instead, understand that this world is just the play of the senses. It's the five khandhas doing their thing; it has nothing to do with you. It's just people being people, the world being the world. — Ajahn Brahm

We don't meditate to see heaven, but to end suffering. — Ajahn Chah

A new day is here. Yesterday is a memory. Tomorrow is unknown. Now is the knowing. — Ajahn Sumedho

Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking. — Ajahn Brahm

The goal lies away from the sensual world. It is not a rejection of the sensual world, but understanding it so well that we no longer seek it as an end in itself. We no longer expect the sensory world to satisfy us. We no longer demand that sensory consciousness be anything other than an existing condition that we can use skillfully according to time and place. — Ajahn Sumedho

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

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

The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed. — Ajahn Sumedho

When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing. — Ajahn Chah

If you are still following your likes and dislikes, you have not even begun to practise Dhamma. — Ajahn Chah

To practice Dhamma means to observe and examine oneself. — Ajahn Chah

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

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

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart. — Ajahn Chah

If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good. — Ajahn Chah

You say that you are too busy to meditate. Do you have time to breathe? Meditation is your breath. Why do you have time to breathe but not to meditate? Breathing is something vital to peoples lives. If you see that Dhamma practice is vital to your life, then you will feel that breathing and practising the Dhamma are equally important. — Ajahn Chah

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

The one who recognizes the uncertainty of phenomena is the Dharma within you. — Ajahn Chah

Peace is the most valuable commodity. And it's free! — Ajahn Brahm

We say that to 'give up all evil and to develop the good' is the heart of the Buddha's teaching. If we only make merit but have not stopped doing bad things, then we will never have a day of completion. It is like an overturned bowl which is left outside in the rain. Even if the water is falling right on it, it only touches the outside and not the inside. In this way the bowl will never get full. — Ajahn Chah

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

We look directly into our suffering rather than try to become happy. The happiness that arises from this approach is reliable. — Ajahn Sumedho

Careful patience is the fastest way! — Ajahn Brahm

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

Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight. — Ajahn Brahm

When we sit in meditation and hear a sound, we think, 'Oh, that sound's bothering me.' If we see it like this, we suffer. But if we investigate a little deeper, we see that the sound is simply sound. If we understand like this, then there's nothing more to it. We leave it be. The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it? You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound. — Ajahn Chah

Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking. Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down. When coming out of sitting, don't think that you're coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself. — Ajahn Chah

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

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

Time is our present breath. — Ajahn Chah

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

If we see everything as uncertain, then their I value fades away. — Ajahn Chah

Whenever we feel that we are definitely right, so much so that we refuse to open up to anything or anybody else, right there we are wrong. It becomes wrong view. When suffering arises, where does it arise from? The cause is wrong view, the fruit of that being suffering. If it was right view it wouldn't cause suffering. — Ajahn Chah

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

We protect virtue so that virtue will protect us. — Ajahn Chah

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

That which is threatening to the ego is liberating to the heart. — Ajahn Amaro

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

To give up doing evil is more important than making merit. — Ajahn Chah

Love is not liking somebody. Anyone can do that. Love is loving things that sometimes you don't like. — Ajahn Brahm

Oftentimes, the First Noble Truth is misquoted as "All life is suffering," but that is an inaccurate and misleading reflection of the Buddha's insight. He did not teach that life is constant misery, nor that you should expect to feel pain and unhappiness at all times. Rather, he proclaimed that suffering is an unavoidable reality of ordinary human existence that is to be known and responded to wisely. — Ajahn Sumedho

If we are still suffering, how can we teach other to be free? Ajahn Chah replied, 'First of all, be very honest. Don't pretend that you are wise in ways you are not. Tell people how you are yourself. And then take the measure of things. In weightlifting, if you're strong, you know that through practice you can lift a really big weight. Maybe you've seen someone lift a weight bigger than you can. You can tell your students, 'If you practice, you can lift that big weight, but don't try it yet. I can't even do it, but I've seen people do it.' Be willing to express what is possible without trying to fool someone that you've done it. — Jack Kornfield

When the weather is hot, keep a cool mind. When the weather is cold, keep a warm heart. — Ajahn Brahm

I know this glass is already broken, so I enjoy it incredibly. — Ajahn Chah

To observe and watch one's own mind is something really interesting. The untrained mind will run and follow its old habit patterns. Because it has not been trained and taught, it will get lost in all kinds of stories and issues. Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one's own mind. — Ajahn Chah

In practice, some come to see easily, some with difficulty. But whatever the case, never mind. Difficult or easy, the Buddha said not to be heedless. Just that
don't be heedless. Why? Because life is not certain. Wherever we start to think that things are certain, uncertainty is lurking right there. Heedlessness is just holding things as certain. It is grasping at certainty where there is no certainty and looking for truth in things that are not true. Be careful! They are likely to bite you sometime in the future! — Ajahn Chah

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

The heart is the only book worth reading. — Ajahn Chah

Everyone makes mistakes. The wise are not people who never make mistakes, but those who forgive themselves and learn from their mistakes. — Ajahn Brahm

If you want a chicken to be a duck, and a duck to be a chicken, you will suffer. — Ajahn Chah

Why are we born? We are born so that we will not have to be born again. — Ajahn Chah

Her whispering lips brushed his ear.
She was praying. Soft begging words to Ganesha and the Buddha, to Kali-Mary Mercy and the Christian God...she was praying to anything at all, begging the Fates to let her walk from the shadow of death. Pleas spilled from her lips, a desperate trickle. She was broken, soon to die, but still the words slipped out in a steady whisper. Tum Karuna ke saagar Tum palankarta hail Mary full of grace Ajahn Chan Bodhisattva, release me from suffering...
He drew away. Her fingers slipped from his cheek like orchid petals falling. — Paolo Bacigalupi

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

When the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything. — Ajahn Chah

Where does peace arise? Peace arises whenever we let something go. — Ajahn Chah

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

Fear is finding fault with the future. — Ajahn Brahm

When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by. — Ajahn Chah

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer — Ajahn Chah

Life is what's happening while you're worrying. — Ajahn Brahm

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

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

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

There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free. — Ajahn Chah

If you haven't cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn't really begun. — Ajahn Chah

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

The Dharma Path is to keep walking forward. But the true Dharma has no going forward, no going backward, and no standing still. — Ajahn Chah

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

With mindfulness you can see the real owner of things. Do you think this is your world, your body? It is the world's world, the body's body. If you tell it, Don't get old, does the body listen? Does your stomach ask permission to get sick? We only rent this house; why not find out who really owns it? — Ajahn Chah

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

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

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

The serene and peaceful mind is the true epitome of human achievement. — Ajahn Chah

The secret of life is ... everything is out of control. — Ajahn Brahm

Proper effort is not the effort to make something particular happen. It is the effort to be aware and awake each moment, the effort to overcome laziness and merit, the effort to make each activity of our day meditation. — Ajahn Chah

The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are. — Ajahn Chah

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

What are people searching for in life? God. In the christian scriptures, it says 'Be still and know you are God.' What is this? You are peace, compassion, truth, Love, freedom. Real love- the ability to love yourself so much that you forgive everything and you are at peace with yourself like a mother loves a child, not trying to be someone. — Ajahn Brahm

Where does rain come from? It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet. Isn't it wonderful how the sky can take that dirty water and change it into pure, clean water? Your mind can do the same with your defilements if you let it. — Ajahn Chah

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

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

A woman wanted to know how to deal with anger. I asked when anger arose whose anger it was. She said it was hers. Well, if it really was her anger, then she should be able to tell it to go away, shouldnt she? But it really isn't hers to command. Holding on to anger as a personal possession will cause suffering. If anger really belonged to us, it would have to obey us. If it doesn't obey us, that means it's only a deception. Don't fall for it. Whenever the mind is happy or sad, don't fall for it. Its all a deception. — Ajahn Chah

Our modern Western culture only recognises the first of these, freedom of desires. It then worships such a freedom by enshrining it at the forefront of national constituitions and bills of human rights. One can say that the underlying creed of most Western democracies is to protect their people's freedom to realise their desires, as far as this is possible. It is remarkable that in such countries people do not feel very free. The second kind of freedom, freedom from desires, is celebrated only in some religious communities. It celebrates contentment, peace that is free from desires. — Ajahn Brahm