Translator’s Foreword to ‘Everything Is Teaching Us’

Ajahn Chah's monasteries were known for strictness as well as a certain flexibility rooted in a reverence for the path of practice laid down by the Lord Buddha, along with an intensely practical approach that sought to realize the essence of what the Buddha taught, which is liberation. This might be worth keeping in mind while reading the teachings; Ajahn Chah gives us the 'bad news' about the shortcomings of ordinary, worldly existence and emphasizes renunciation as the key, yet his only aim was liberation. As he said, ''Making offerings, listening to teachings, practicing meditation, whatever we do should be done for the purpose of developing wisdom. Developing wisdom is for the purpose of liberation, freedom from all these conditions and phenomena.'' And that was what he embodied. He manifested a joyous, vibrant freedom that spoke volumes about the worth of the Buddha's teachings.

Ajahn Chah didn't prepare his talks or teach from notes, nor did he give series of talks. Sometimes a single talk will cover many aspects of the path. Many of the teachings have a rambling, stream of consciousness (perhaps 'stream of wisdom' describes it better) quality, and it is quite valid to open them anywhere. Some talks seem to go off on tangents, only to come back to an underlying theme, while others take time to warm up to the main theme and then develop it relentlessly. So this book need not be read from the beginning, and the individual talks need not be read beginning to end. Feel free to open the book anywhere and enjoy the glow of Ajahn Chah's wisdom. But please don't read in a hurry or merely enjoy Ajahn Chah's rhetorical skill. He was a gifted speaker, and the flow of his words can be entertaining, even mesmerizing, but his teachings are rich in meaning, and the full import is to be had by reading and contemplating, and by coming back to read again sometime later on. Read with a discerning spirit, not taking anything on his say-so. ''Those who easily believe others are said by the Buddha to be foolish,'' was one of his frequent admonitions. He urged everyone to put the teachings into practice and understand them through experience rather than just taking them as an object of intellectual curiosity.

I apologize in advance for any vagueness in my translation. When ordinary people try to render the words of an enlightened master into another language, something is inevitably lost. I wish to thank Ajahn Pasanno of Abhayagiri Monastery, California, for his assistance in helping me with Dhamma and language questions. If this volume can point something out to help even a few people learn more about their own minds and encourage them on the path to liberation, the efforts to produce it will have been most worthwhile.

The translator of 'Everything is Teaching Us' (Paul Breiter)