CLARITY OF INSIGHT – AJAHN CHAH VENERABLE

AJAHN CHAH VENERABLE

Meditate reciting… “Buddho”, “Buddho” until it penetrates deep into the heart of your
consciousness (citta). The word “Buddho” represents the awareness and wisdom of the Buddha. In practice, you must depend on this word more than anything else. The awareness it brings will lead you to understand the truth about your own mind. It’s a true refuge, which means that there must be both mindfulness and insight present.

Wild animals can have awareness of a sort. They have mindfulness as they stalk their prey and
prepare to attack. Even the predator needs firm mindfulness to keep hold of the captured prey however defiantly it struggles to escape death. That is one kind of mindfulness. For this reason you must be able to distinguish between different kinds of mindfulness. The Buddha taught to meditate reciting “Buddho” as a way to apply the mind. When you consciously apply the mind to an object, it wakes up. The awareness wakes it up. Once this knowing has arisen through meditation, you can see the mind clearly. As long as the mind remains without the awareness of “Buddho”,
even if there is ordinary worldly mindfulness present, it is as if unawakened and without insight. It will not lead you to what is truly beneficial.

Sati or mindfulness depends on the presence of “Buddho” — the knowing. It must be a clear
knowing, which leads to the mind becoming brighter and more radiant. The illuminating effect that this clear knowing has on the mind is similar to the brightening of a light in a darkened room. As long as the room is pitched black, any objects placed inside remain difficult to distinguish or else completely obscured from view because of the lack of light.

But as you begin intensifying the brightness of the light inside, it will penetrate throughout the whole room, enabling you to see more clearly from moment to moment, thus allowing you to know more and more the details of any object inside there.