“Just That Much”

Gradually, little by little, one’s practice should gain momentum and as time passes, whatever sense objects and mental states arise will lose their value in this way. One’s heart will know them for what they are and accordingly put them down.

The path has matured internally when, having reached the point where one is able to know things and put them down with ease, one will have the ability to swiftly bear down upon the defilements.

From then on there will just be the arising and passing away in this place, the same as waves striking the seashore. When a wave comes in and finally reaches the shoreline, it just disintegrates and vanishes; a new wave comes and it happens again – the wave going no further than the limit of the shoreline. In the same way, nothing will be able to go beyond the limits established by one’s own awareness.

That’s the place where one will meet and come to understand impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. It is there that things will vanish – the three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self are the same as the seashore, and all sense objects and mental states that are experiences go in the same way as the waves.

Happiness is uncertain; it’s arisen many times before. Suffering is uncertain; it’s arisen many times before; that’s the way they are. In one’s heart one will know that they are like that; they are ‘just that much.’ The heart will experience these conditions in this way, and they will gradually keep losing their value and importance. This is talking about the characteristics of the heart, the way it is; it is the same for everybody, even the Buddha and all his disciples were like this.

If one’s practice of the Path matures, it will become automatic, and it will no longer be dependent on anything external. When a defilement arises, one will immediately be aware of it and accordingly be able to counteract it.

However, that stage when the Path is still not mature enough nor fast enough to overcome the defilements is something that everybody has to experience – it’s unavoidable. But it is at that point where one must use skillful reflection. Don’t go investigating elsewhere or trying to solve the problem at some other place. Cure it right there.

Apply the cure at that place where things arise and pass away. Happiness arises and then passes away, doesn’t it? Suffering arises and then passes away, doesn’t it? One will continuously be able to see the process of arising and ceasing, and see that which is good and bad in the heart. These are phenomena that exist and are part of nature. Don’t cling tightly to them or create anything out of them at all.

If one has this kind of awareness, then even though one will be coming into contact with things, there will not be any noise. In other words, one will see the arising and passing away of phenomena in a very natural and ordinary way. One will just see things arise and then cease. One will understand the process of arising and ceasing in the light of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self.

This reflection by Ajahn Chah is from the book The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, (pdf) pp. 518-520.