About This Teaching
Scholars who sit in meditation, Ajahn Chah observes, often feel a little tranquillity and immediately wonder whether it is the first jhāna, and with that thought the peace is shattered. There are no billboards or road signs announcing which level of samādhi one has reached. Written descriptions of the jhānas are only external information; the mind that truly enters deep peace does not match them to theory. Dragging books into the sitting brings desire, and craving pulls the mind straight out of meditation.
His advice is to drop speculation, take up body, speech and mind, and simply observe. If the mind is becoming peaceful, let it be peaceful.
He recalls that after three years as a monk he still did not understand samādhi. The harder he tried to make the mind unify, the more restless it became, yet it was calmer when he was not meditating. He then saw that meditation is like breathing: forcing the breath shallow or deep is stressful, while on a casual stroll it flows easily. His frustration came from willpower tainted by clinging, from bringing craving into the meditation.