Achaan Chah

[Guest guest]

Hi Folks,

 

When I was out in Santa Fe doing more of the Grof Transpersonal Training

(holotropic breathwork), I bought a lovely little book of teachings by

Achaan Chah, Jack Kornfield's teacher. Here is one of the teachings I

like:

 

Know Yourself - Know Others

 

Know your own mind and body, and you will know others' as well.

One's facial expressions, speech, gestures, actions, all stem from one's

state of mind. A Buddha, an enlightened being, can read these because

he has experienced and seen with wisdom the states of mind that underlie

them, just as wise older people, having passed through childhood, can

understand the ways of children.

This self-knowledge differs from memory. An old person can be clear

inside but fuzzy in regard to external things. Book learning may be

very difficult for him, he forgets names and faces, and so on. Maybe he

knows very well that he wants a basin, but because of the weakness of

his memory, he may ask for a glass instead.

If you see states rising and falling in the mind and do not cling to

the process, letting go of both happiness and suffering, mental rebirths

become shorter and shorter. Letting go, you can even fall into hell

states without too much disturbance, because you know the impermanence

of them. Through right practice, you allow your karma to wear itself

out. Knowing how things arise and pass away, you can just be aware and

let them run their course. It is like having two trees: if you

fertilize and water one and do not take care of the other, there is no

question which one will grow and which one will die.

 

 

So (mark again), for me it appears that just relaxing and allowing life

to happen lets it wind down and clarity arises. I certainly notice that

happening in the breathwork. Yesterday, at a workshop, I felt I could

just allow whatever energy that wanted to arise to arise and burn itself

out. This can happen for the whole room now. Demon energies come up,

and they go to ground through my willingness to just be with them.

People in the room talk in tongues and I can understand it. In a

workshop a couple of weeks ago, I heard the demons asking us to teach

them how to love. It seems to me all to be that way. It's all

estranged energy wanting to love again. So practicing not clinging,

imagining a hollow channel for difficult energies to pass through to

completion seems to me to be worth practicing. I think Achaan Chah is

recommending watering and fertilizing our willingness to just let it all

be, and not watering our resistance. This child (me) stopped nagging

his parents for candy not because he was successful in stifling that

energy but because when it had expressed itself enough, it was finished

and could transform into something else (which of course I have been

trying to stifle unsuccessfully for years. - don't get me wrong - this

is ongoing practice for me.)

 

I hope this helps.

 

Love, Mark