The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah the Buddha, if he didn’t practise. So knowing the Dhamma or seeing the Dhamma depends on practice. Have confidence, purify your own heart. If all the monks in this monastery put awareness into their respective minds we wouldn’t have to reprimand or praise anybody. We wouldn’t have to be suspicious of or favour anybody. If anger or dislike arise just leave them at the mind, but see them clearly! Keep on looking at those things. As long as there is still something there it means we still have to dig and grind away right there. Some say, ‘I can’t cut it, I can’t do it’ – if we start saying things like this there will only be a bunch of thugs here, because nobody cuts at their own defilements. You must try. If you can’t yet cut it, dig in deeper. Dig at the defilements, uproot them. Dig them out even if they seem hard and fast. The Dhamma is not something to be reached by following your desires. Your mind may be one way, the truth another. You must watch up front and keep a lookout behind as well. That’s why I say, ‘It’s all uncertain, all transient.’ This truth of uncertainty, this short and simple truth, is at the same time so profound and faultless that people tend to ignore it. They tend to see things differently. Don’t cling to goodness, don’t cling to badness. These are attributes of the world. We are practising to be free of the world, so bring these things to an end. The Buddha taught to lay them down, to give them up, because they only cause suffering. 612
