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Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah was born in a village in Ubon Province, North-East Thailand. At the age of nine he went to live in the local monastery. He was ordained as a novice, and... Читать далее

Ajahn Chah was born in a village in Ubon Province, North-East Thailand. At the age of nine he went to live in the local monastery. He was ordained as a novice, and at the age of twenty took higher ordination. He studied basic Dhamma, the Discipline and other scriptures, and later became a wandering tudong bhikkhu. He travelled for a number of years in the style of an ascetic bhikkhu, sleeping in forests, caves and cremation grounds, and spent a short but enlightening period with Ajahn Mun himself.

In 1954 he was invited to settle in a forest near Bahn Gor, the village of his birth. The forest was uninhabited and known as a place of cobras, tigers and ghosts. More and more bhikkhus, nuns and lay-people came to hear his teachings and stay on to practise with him, and as time went by, a large monastery formed and was given the name Wat Pah Pong. There are now disciples of Ajahn Chah living, practising meditation and teaching in more than 300 mountain and forest branch monasteries throughout Thailand and the West.

Although Ajahn Chah passed away in 1992, the training that he established is still carried on at Wat Pah Pong and its branches. There is usually group meditation twice a day and sometimes a talk by the senior teacher, but the heart of the meditation is the way of life. The monastics do manual work, dye and sew their own robes, make most of their own requisites and keep the monastery buildings and grounds in immaculate shape. They live extremely simply, following the ascetic precepts of eating once a day from the alms bowl and limiting their possessions and robes. Scattered throughout the forest are individual huts where bhikkhus and nuns live and meditate in solitude, and where they practise walking meditation on cleared paths under the trees.

In some of the monasteries in the West, and a few in Thailand, the physical location of the centre dictates that there might be some small variations to this style – for instance, the monastery in Switzerland is situated in a old wooden hotel building at the edge of a mountain village – however, regardless of such differences, the same spirit of simplicity, quietude and scrupulosity sets the abiding tone. Discipline is maintained and practice to continue. Indeed, not only has this practice of wandering on foot been maintained by Ajahn Chah, his disciples and many other forest monastics in Thailand; it has also been sustained by his monks and nuns in many countries of the West. In these situations the strict standards of conduct are still maintained: living only on almsfood freely offered by local people, eating only between dawn and noon, not carrying or using money, sleeping wherever shelter can be found. Wisdom is a way of living and being, and Ajahn Chah endeavoured to preserve the simple monastic life-style in all its dimensions, in order that people may study and practise Dhamma in the present day.

AJAHN CHAH’S TEACHING OF WESTERNERS

From the beginning Ajahn Chah chose not to give any special treatment to the farang (Western) monks who came to study with him, but to let them adapt to the climate, food and culture as best they could, and use the experience of discomfort for the development of wisdom and patient endurance.

“In 1975 Wat Pah Nanachat (the International Forest Monastery) was established near Wat Pah Pong as a place for Westerners to practise. The people of Bung Wai village had been long-standing disciples of Ajahn Chah and asked him if the foreign monks could settle there and start a new monastery. Then in 1976 Ajahn Sumedho was invited by a group in London to come and establish a Theravādan monastery in England. Ajahn Chah came over the following year and left Ajahn Sumedho and a small group of monastics at the Hampstead Buddhist Vihāra, a town house on a busy street in North London. Within a few years they had moved to the country and several different branch monasteries had been established. Other monasteries were set up in France, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and the U.S.A. Ajahn Chah himself travelled twice to Europe and North America, in 1977 and 1979.

He once said that Buddhism in Thailand was like an old tree that had formerly been vigorous and abundant; now it was so aged that it could only produce a few fruits and they were small and bitter. Buddhism in the West he likened in contrast to a young sapling, full of youthful energy and the potential for growth, but needing proper care and support for its development.

(From The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah – Single Volume)

《解脫的滋味》是非常吸引人的書名,因為身在萬丈紅 塵中的我們,無論僧俗,不是被工作、家人所纏縛,就是被 名韁利鎖所束縛,或被寺院的寺務所羈絆,而不得解脫。 英文版《解脫的滋味》已經印行第五版了,且內容有所 增補和刪改。我用來翻譯的版本有網路版與佛陀教育基金會 印行的版本,內容略有不同,尤其是阿姜查的略傳,佛陀教 育基金會印行的版本內容要詳細多了。由於英譯本內容太簡 略,經常語焉不詳,所以我必須一再的加以補充說明,以免 讀者閱讀後,有不知所云的困惑。 讀阿姜查的著作就像品嚐一頓豐盛的法筵,讀後除了充 滿法喜,也會有「心有戚戚焉」的感受。除了欣賞阿姜查通 達活潑的智慧,以及他的簡明、生活化、直指人心的開示外, 他的風趣、慈悲、耐心與苦行,也讓人讚嘆不已,讓吾人「雖 不能至,心嚮往之」。 宋朝的理學家程頤在<論語序說>中提到:「今人不會 讀書,如讀《論語》,未讀時是此等人,讀了後又只是此等 人,便是不曾讀。」同樣的,讀阿姜查的著作,未讀時,非 常執著、強硬強勢,放不下,讀後依然故我,我執我相仍非 常深重,依然「我最大」,很難相處,「便是不曾讀」。 《解脫的滋味》是我翻譯的第四本阿姜查的著作,其他 三本也是篇篇精彩,一代大師阿姜查的著作之所以如此受歡 迎,是因為他解門、行門俱佳,且不厭其煩的教導四眾弟子, 讓後人受益無窮,並緬懷他的慈悲、智慧與風姿。 最後,非常感謝姬天予和何彩熙兩位老師惠予校對,謹 此致謝。
Эта книга является переводом A Taste of Freedom
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