Top 90 Ajahn Chah Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “At some point your heart will tell itself what to do.”

— Ajahn Chah

52. “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

53. “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

54. “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

55. “If you let go completely you will have complete peace.”

— Ajahn Chah

56. “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

57. “The heart of the path is quite easy. There’s no need to explain anything at length. Let go of love and hate and let things be. That’s all that I do in my own practice.”

— Ajahn Chah

58. “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

59. “If you haven’t wept deeply, you haven’t begun to meditate.”

— Ajahn Chah

60. “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

61. “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

62. “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

63. “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

64. “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

65. “Mindfulness is life. Whenever we don’t have mindfulness, when we are heedless, it’s as if we are dead.”

— Ajahn Chah

66. “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

67. “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

68. “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

69. “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

70. “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

71. “You should know both the universal and the personal, the realm of forms and the freedom to not cling to them. The forms of the world have their place, but in another way, there is nothing there. To be free, we need to respect both of these truths.”

— Ajahn Chah

72. “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

73. “The one who recognizes the uncertainty of phenomena is the Dharma within you.”

— Ajahn Chah

74. “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

75. “Know and watch your heart. It’s pure but emotions come to colour it.”

— Ajahn Chah

76. “Strengthening the mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest.”

— Ajahn Chah

77. “The heart is the only book worth reading.”

— Ajahn Chah

78. “If we see everything as uncertain, then their I value fades away.”

— Ajahn Chah

79. “Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught us that sort of home is not our real home. It’s a home in the world and it follows the ways of the world. Our real home is inner peace.”

— Ajahn Chah

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 us all there is. It’s like when you’ve learned how to read – you can then read anywhere you go.”

— Ajahn Chah

81. “Love and hate are both suffering, because of desire. Wanting is suffering, wanting not to have is suffering. Even if you get what you want, it’s still suffering because once you’ve got it, you then live in the fear of losing it. How are you going to live happily with fear?”

— Ajahn Chah

82. “Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this – just let it all be.”

— Ajahn Chah

83. “The Buddha told his disciple Ananda to see impermanence, to see death with every breath. We must know death; we must die in order to live. What does that mean? To die is to come to the end of our doubts, all our questions, and just be here with the present reality. You can never die tomorrow; you must die now. Can you do it? If you can do it, you will know the peace of no more questions.”

— Ajahn Chah

84. “First you understand the Dhamma with your thoughts. If you begin to understand it, you will practice it. And if you practice it, you will begin to see it, you are the Dhamma and you have the joy of the Buddha.”

— Ajahn Chah

85. “There’s only one book worth reading: the mind.”

— Ajahn Chah

86. “It’s all Dhamma if we have mindfulness. When we see the animals that run away from danger, we see that they are just like us. They flee from suffering and run towards happiness. They also have fear. They fear for their lives just as we do. When we see according to truth, we see that all animals and human beings are no different. We are all mutual companions of birth, old age, sickness, and death.”

— Ajahn Chah

87. “How does the Dhamma teach the proper way of life? It shows us how to live. It has many ways of showing it – on rocks or trees or just in front of you. It is a teaching but not in words. So still the mind, the heart, and learn to watch. You’ll find the whole Dhamma revealing itself here and now. At what other time and place are you going to look?”

— Ajahn Chah

88. “When we practice only when we’re feeling good, how are we going to get anywhere like that?”

— Ajahn Chah

89. “If you see things with real insight, then there is no stickiness in your relationship to them. They come, pleasant and unpleasant, you see them and there is no attachment, They come and they pass. Even if the worst kinds of defilement come up, such as greed or anger, there enough wisdom to see their impermanent nature and allow them to fade away. If you react to them, by liking or disliking, that is not wisdom. You’re only creating more suffering for yourself.”

— Ajahn Chah

90. “Your doubts about your teacher can help you. Take from your teacher what is good, and be aware of your own practice. Wisdom is yourself to watch and develop.”

— Ajahn Chah

91. “We never really get away with anything.”

— Ajahn Chah