Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away (eBook)

Ajahn Chah (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2005 | 1. Auflage
144 Seiten
Shambhala (Verlag)
978-0-8348-2399-0 (ISBN)

Infos

AjahnChah (1919–1992) was admired for the way he demystified the Buddhistteachings, presenting them in a remarkably simple and down-to-earth style forpeople of any background. He was a major influence and spiritual mentor for ageneration of American Buddhist teachers, including Jon Kabat-Zinn, SharonSalzberg, and Jack Kornfield.

Previousbooks by Ajahn Chah have consisted of collections of short teachings on a widevariety of subjects. This new book focuses on the theme of impermanence,offering powerful remedies for overcoming our deep-seated fear of change,including guidance on letting go of attachments, living in the present, andtaking up the practice of meditation. EverythingArises, Everything Falls Awayalso contains stories and anecdotes about this beloved master's life and hisinteractions with students, from his youth as a struggling monk to his lastyears when American students were coming to study with him in significantnumbers. These stories help to convey Ajahn Chah's unique spirit and teachingstyle, allowing readers to know him both through his words and the way in whichhe lived his life.

Textauszug

FromChapter 16: Understanding Dukkha

Dukkhasticks on the skin and goes into the flesh, from the flesh, it gets into thebones. It's like an insect on a tree that eats through the bark, into the wood,and then into the core, until finally the tree dies.

Aswe grow up, it gets buried deep inside. Our parents teach us grasping andattachment, giving meaning to things, believing firmly that we exist as aself-entity and that things belong to us. From our birth that's what we aretaught. We hear this over and over again, and it penetrates our hearts andstays there as our habitual feeling. We're taught to get things, to accumulateand hold on to them, to see them as important and as ours. This is what ourparents know, and this is what they teach us. So it gets into our minds, intoour bones.

Whenwe take an interest in meditation and hear the teaching of a spiritual guide,it's not easy to understand. It doesn't really grab us. We're taught not to seeand do things the old way, but when we hear this, it doesn't penetrate ourhearts.

Sowe sit and listen to teachings, but it's often just sound entering the ears. Itdoesn't get inside and affect us. It's like we're boxing, and we keep hittingthe other guy but he doesn't go down. We remain stuck in our self-view. Thewise have said that moving a mountain from one place to another is easier thanmoving the conceit of self-view, this solid feeling that we really exist assome special individual.

Wecan use explosives to level a mountain and then move the earth. But the tightgrasping of self-conceit—,oh man! Our wrong ideas and bad tendencies remain sosolid and unbudging, and we're not aware of them. So the wise have said thatremoving this view and turning wrong understanding into right understanding isabout the hardest thing to do.

Forus who are worldly beings (putthujana)toprogress on to being virtuous beings (kalyanajana)isnot easy. A putthujana is one who is thickly obscured, who is dark, who isstuck deep in this darkness and obscuration. The kalyanajana has made thingslighter. We teach people to lighten, but they don't want to do that, becausethey don't understand their situation, their condition of obscuration. So theykeep on drifting in their confused state.

Ifwe come across a pile of buffalo dung, we won't think it's ours and we won'twant to pick it up. We will just leave it where it is, because we know what itis.

Suchis what's good in the way of the impure. That which is evil is the food of badpeople. If you teach them about doing good, they're not interested, but preferto stay as they are because they don't see the harm in it. Without seeing theharm, there's no way things can be rectified. If you recognize it, then youthink, 'Oh! My whole pile of dung doesn't have the value of a small pieceof gold!' and you will want gold instead, you won't want the dung anymore.If you don't recognize this, you remain the owner of a pile of dung.

That'sthe 'good' of the impure. Gold, jewels, and diamonds are consideredsomething good in the realm of humans. The foul and rotten are good for fliesand other insects. If you gather fresh flowers, the flies won't be interestedin them. Even if you tried to pay them, they wouldn't come. But whereverthere's a dead animal, wherever there's something rotten, that's where they'llgo. Wrong view is like that. It delights in that kind of thing. What'ssweet-smelling to a bee is not sweet to a fly.

Therewere once two close friends. After they died, one was reborn among the gods ofsensual enjoyment, while the other was born as a maggot in a pit of excrement.

Thegod was endowed with various powers, and...

Produkt-Details

• Übersetzer: Paul Breiter
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
• ISBN-10: 0-8348-2399-3 / 0834823993
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8348-2399-0 / 9780834823990