About This Teaching
Ajahn Chah stresses that the path has to be walked in one's own heart. The hearing is one thing and the sound another. Once sense objects are seen as impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self, the mind lets go and no longer gets entangled. At an advanced stage, investigation flows on its own and awareness stays awake even during sleep. He notes that his own snoring stopped.
For beginners, physical seclusion matters, along with a teacher who shows where one is wrong while sure of being right. A warrior who fights only from what he has read will lose. He warns against forcing meditation with vows and time limits, using the image of someone who keeps opening their eyes to check a stick of incense. The nagging questioner asking how late you will sit is defilement and should be told off. Visions and strange experiences should be treated as not-self and not followed. Everything seen in daily life is material for reflection, and things should be thrown into the graveyard of impermanence.