25/11/2024
:: Ajahn Chah | Meditation ::
“You must give up all the thinking,
the inner dialogue and the doubting.
Don’t get caught up in these things during the meditation.
In the end all that will remain in the mind in its purest form are
mindfulness, clear comprehension and wisdom.”
~ Ajahn Chah
Excerpt From “On Meditation”, Page 5
https://www.abhayagiri.org/media/books/chah_on_meditation.pdf
With wisdom there will be an understanding of sense objects. For instance, during the meditation sense objects are experienced which give rise to feelings and moods. You may start to think of a friend, but then wisdom should immediately counter with ‘‘It doesn’t matter,’’ ‘‘Stop,’’ or ‘‘Forget it.’’ Or if there are thoughts about where you will go tomorrow, then the response would be, ‘‘I’m not interested, I don’t want to concern myself with such things.’’
Maybe you start thinking about other people, then you should think, ‘‘No, I don’t want to get involved.’’ ‘‘Just let go,’’ or ‘‘It’s all uncertain and never a sure thing.’’ This is how you should deal with things in meditation, recognizing them as ‘‘not sure, not sure,’’ and maintaining this kind of awareness.
You must give up all the thinking, the inner dialogue, and the doubting. Don’t get caught up in these things during the meditation. In the end all that will remain in the mind in its purest form are mindfulness, clear comprehension, and wisdom. Whenever these things weaken, doubts will arise, but try to abandon those doubts immediately, leaving only mindfulness, clear comprehension, and wisdom.
Try to develop mindfulness like this until it can be maintained at all times. Then you will understand mindfulness, clear comprehension, and meditation thoroughly.