About This Teaching
Ajahn Chah teaches that Buddhism means giving up evil and doing good, and then letting go of both. The Buddha pointed out two extremes, indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain, or slackness and tension. Those who follow them never arrive at peace. The Middle Way, he stresses, refers not to body and speech but to the mind, which is shaken by impressions it dislikes and drawn into indulgence by those it likes.
Happiness, he says, is only a refined form of suffering. He compares it to a snake: unhappiness is the head with poisonous fangs, but grab the tail and it will turn and bite just the same, since both belong to one snake. Both are born of wanting. Even when we gain wealth, praise or prestige, fear of losing them keeps the mind uneasy.
Morality, concentration and wisdom are the path, magga, but not the essence, which is peace. That peace is neither happiness nor unhappiness. The original mind is unmoving, and when it gets lost in pleasure, clinging begins.