The teachings of Ajahn Chah

The teachings of Ajahn Chah

With no long, there's no short; with no right, there's no wrong. People these days keep studying, looking to understand what's right and what's wrong, what's good and evil, but they don't know neither-rightness-nor-wrongness. All they're looking to know is what's right and wrong: "I'm going to take only what's right. I won't take what's wrong. Why should I?" If you try to take only what's right, in a short while it'll go wrong. It's right for the sake of wrong. People keep searching for what's right and wrong, but they don't try to find what's neither-rightness-nor-wrongness. 

They study about good and bad, they search for merit and evil, but they don't study the point where there's neither merit nor evil. They study issues of long and short, but the issue of neither long nor short they don't study.

This knife has a blade, a back, and a handle. When you pick it up, can you lift only the blade? Can you lift only the back of the blade, or the handle? 

The handle is the handle of the knife; the back, the back of the knife; the blade, the blade of the knife. 

When you pick up the knife, you pick up all three parts together.

In the same way, if you pick up what's good, what's bad must follow. People search for what's good and try to throw away what's bad, but they don't study what's neither good nor bad. If you don't study this, things never come to an end. If you pick up goodness, badness comes along with it. It follows right along. 

If you pick up happiness, suffering follows along. 

They're connected. The practice of clinging to what's good and rejecting what's bad is the Dhamma of children,  Dhamma for children to toy around with. Sure, if you want, you can take just this much, but if you grab onto what's good, what's bad will follow. 

The end of this path gets all cluttered up. So it's not so good.

~ Ajahn Chah