F or ewor d

A jahn Sum e dho

This biogr aphy of Luang Por Chah * will be an important aid in pr eserving the memories, and sharing t he e xperiences, of those of us who liv ed and tr ained with him. I, myself, first met Luang Por Chah in 1967 and w as immediately impr essed with his silent pr esence. At that time, I couldn’t speak Thai, and he couldn’t speak English. At firs t, w e r elied on tw o Thai monks as interpr eters. But they so on left, and I began to mak e efforts to learn the Thai language and the Northeastern dialect.

In fact, Luang Por Chah’s teac hings w er e so pr actical that they w er e independent of w or ds, e xplanations and interpr etations. Our life at W at Pah Pong w as based on a w ar eness and mindfulness, on being a w ar e of the state of mind, being a w ar e of what y ou ar e actually feeling. T o do this, y ou w er e not dependent on a particular language. This simple teac hing w as about observing the state of mind, the ār ammaṇa , the emotional r eality that is pr esent; to be a w ar e of it; to see it in terms of the thr ee c har acteristics: anicca , dukkha , anattā . I could pr actice in this w a y , ev en during that initial period when I could not, as y et, understand the v erbal teac hings.

Luang Por’s whole attitude to w ar ds life w as o ne that motiv ated me to w ant to tr ain and liv e as a bhikkhu . T o me, he w as a living e xample of the r esult of Buddhist meditation in the Thai F or est Tr adition. He inspir ed me. Thr ough living c lose to him and getting to trust him, by listening to him as I began to understand the language, I disco v er ed ho w gifted he w as

* See ‘Honorifics’ on page xvii.

in giving Dhamma talks and r eflections. I appr eciated ho w he alw ays had time for the monks and nuns and the lay co mmunit y .

No w adays, ther e is inter est thr oughout the w orld in the teac hings of Luang Por Chah. This w as not t he case when I first met him fifty y ears ago. In those days, he w as har dly kno wn outside of Ubon Pr o vince. T oda y , his fame has spr ead w orldwide. Although it is no w tw enty-fiv e y ears since he passed a w a y , his teac hings ar e so pr actical that they continue to r esonate. Luang Por alw ays emphasized the importance of pr actice. He pointed out ho w eac h one of us can apply the Buddha’s teac hings in our life and mak e them w ork.

I wish to e xpr ess m y gr atitude to Ajahn Jay asar o fo r writing this biogr aphy of Luang Por Chah, and making this publication a v ailable. I kno w that it will be appr eciated by a gr eat many people. It giv es me joy to t hink of all the people thr oughout the w orld who, thr ough r eading t his book, will begin to appr eciate the teac hings of Luang Por Chah.