About This Teaching
Ajahn Chah addresses lay meditators who join short silent retreats and then return to parties and indulgence for months afterwards. Such practice, he says, leaves none of its fruit, like earning twenty pounds in a day and spending thirty the same day. What is needed is to contemplate the harm of unskilful behaviour until it is fully clear, so that one naturally steps back and finds real peace.
He compares inconsistent practice to planting a sapling, pulling it up after three days and replanting it elsewhere, again and again: it dies without bearing fruit. Daily life must be consistently calm and restrained, with attention turned constantly to practice.
He acknowledges that he dislikes speaking critically and does so out of compassion, pointing out where people go wrong. If anyone feels upset, he says, it is not really them but the defilements that are upset.