The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
Interpretation
Acceptance of emotions and thoughts without judgment leads to inner peace.
This quote by Ajahn Chah emphasizes the importance of accepting our feelings and thoughts as they are, without labeling them as good or bad. It conveys a profound sense of peace that comes from allowing ourselves to experience emotions fully, while recognizing that they are just aspects of our human experience, not definitive truths about our identity.
In practice
In a meditation workshop, to encourage participants to accept their thoughts.
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free.
When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
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.
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.
Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind.
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.
Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
The longest tyranny that ever sway'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle],_x000D_ _x000D_ And made his torch their universal light._x000D_ _x000D_ So truth, while only one suppli'd the state,_x000D_ _x000D_ Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves. _x000D_ A pattern is a message, and may be transmitted as a message.
All will come through, not a single soul (jiva) shall be lost.
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