About This Teaching
Ajahn Chah's teaching to lay people is presented here: Dhamma is not far away or reserved for monks, but is found in one's own body and mind. He compares heedless people to a chicken that is fed and fussed over and mistakes it for love, until it is taken to market. Practice means knowing anger, greed, liking and disliking as they arise. Anyone who knows that fire is hot and water is cool can practise. Mindfulness is everyone's task, and losing it for a minute is being crazy for a minute.
He likens reflecting on impermanence to boxers training on sandbags before a fight, and to seeing a glass as already broken. Bhāvanā (cultivation) is not only sitting; it continues in every posture, because death can come in any posture. He offers a phrase for daily life, rendered as that's all it is. He closes with the image of forest leaves that are still when there is no wind. The original mind is naturally at peace; it is the defilements that stir it.