THE TEACHINGS OF AJAHN CHAH

A Note on Translation

Most of the talks in this collection were originally taken from old cas- sette tape recordings of Venerable Ajahn Chah, some in Thai and some in the North-Eastern Dialect, most recorded on poor quality equipment under less than optimum conditions. This presented some difficulty in the work of translation, which was overcome by occasionally omitting very unclear passages and at other times asking for advice from other listeners more familiar with those languages.

As regards the translations, the various translators have tried to be as exact as possible with the content of the teachings but have omitted much of the repetition inevitably arising in oral instruction. Pa ̄li words absorbed into the Thai language have, in the course of time, acquired additional meanings: e.g., the Thai “arome” refers to the Pa ̄li “a ̄rammana” – sense object or mental impression, but its common meaning is “mood” or “emotion”. The Venerable Ajahn uses these words in both ways and we have translated accordingly.