Monday, December 5, 2016

Looking for a Teacher

When you go looking for teachings on how to meditate, 
you have to look for people who are pure, 
monks who are pure, 
who really act in line with what they say: 
people who are content with little, 
who practice to gain release from suffering,
to gain release from the cycle of wandering-on.


This energizes your practice because it gives rise to a sense of conviction and inspiration.
If the teachers are lay people like you,
they… I’ve never felt inspired by them.
They have spouses, children, belongings—they’re embroiled.
In the evening they teach meditation and then in the morning they drink beer, drink alcohol.

They’re just ordinary people.
When you study in school, what do you do?
You look for teachers who know more than you do, right?
Only then will you study with them.
When you practice the Buddha’s teachings, when you practice meditation,
you have to look for people with few defilements, light defilements
—people who’ve been able to get out of their defilements to a good extent.
Source:
It’s Like This
Venerable Ajahn Chah
Translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

No comments:

Post a Comment