Today’s quote comes to us from the Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo (1918-1992), an enormously influential twentieth-century teacher in the Thai Forest Tradition.

Born to simple farmers in northeastern Thailand, Ajahn Chah began monastic study at age nine.  Due to responsibilities at home, however, was not able to ordain until he was twenty.  Following the death of his father in 1946, he left the monastery and wandered across his country as an ascetic practitioner.  He eventually found his way to the great Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta Thera, with whom he studied formally.

Ajahn Chah later went on to found Wat Nong Pah Pong and Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand in 1954 and 1975, respectively.  Over one hundred branch monasteries connected with these temples and inspired by his teachings have since developed all over the world.  The first of these was Cittaviveka – Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, which Ajahn Chah founded with the help of his principal Western disciple Ajahn Sumedho in England in 1979.

Collections of his teachings in English include Food for the Heart:  The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah; Being Dharma:  The Essence of the Buddha’s Teachings; and Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away:  Teachings on Impermanence and the End of Suffering.

Here’s the quote:

What is Dhamma? Dhamma is that which can cut through the problems and difficulties of mankind, gradually reducing them to nothing. That’s what is called Dhamma and that’s what should be studied throughout our daily lives so that when some mental impression arises in us, we’ll be able to deal with it and go beyond it.

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Let me explain more clearly. Right now we are sitting in a peaceful forest. Here, if there’s no wind, a leaf remains still. When a wind blows it flaps and flutters. The mind is similar to that leaf. When it contacts a mental impression, it, too, ”flaps and flutters” according to the nature of that mental impression. And the less we know of Dhamma, the more the mind will continually pursue mental impressions. Feeling happy, it succumbs to happiness. Feeling suffering, it succumbs to suffering. It’s constant confusion!

In the end people become neurotic. Why? Because they don’t know! They just follow their moods and don’t know how to look after their own minds. When the mind has no one to look after it, it’s like a child without a mother or father to take care of him. An orphan has no refuge and, without a refuge, he’s very insecure.

Likewise, if the mind is not looked after, if there is no training or maturation of character with right understanding, it’s really troublesome.