About This Teaching
A disciple remembers that Ajahn Chah's care for sick monks was gentler than his words. He was known for the blunt saying that if you are not dead you should make it good, and if it is no good, let it die.
Yet whenever a monk or novice fell ill he gave them particular attention. He set food aside for those too sick to come to the meal, visited their huts, asked how they were, emptied and washed their spittoons, swept around the hut and encouraged them with Dhamma. Medicine was limited to local herbs, but he offered what he had, along with steady encouragement in the practice.