Deep in a Thai forest lived "a pot-bellied monk who looked more like a bullfrog than a saint" and yet whose no-nonsense brand of Buddhist meditation has profoundly influenced many of the West's most popular teachers. He was called Ajahn Chah. In Being Dharma Paul Breiter, Ajahn Chah's longtime interpreter, brings us his collection of Ajahn Chah's dharma talks. Here we find a teacher who prefers the concrete to the abstract and practice to theory. The practice is training the mind, and the goal is achieving a constant mindfulness that will end suffering and yield peace and compassion at every moment. Achievements, he says, come gradually with relentless training in meditation and practicing the moral precepts. Ajahn Chah's plain teachings and simple, straightforward examples cross language barriers easily as he instructs us on the fundamentals of impermanence and nonattachment. In Being Dharma Paul Breiter allows us to soak up the simple but profound wisdom of this master to the masters. --Brian Bruya


From Publishers Weekly
According to Jack Kornfield, Thai Buddhist master Ajahn Chah (1919-1992) never taught that there were two levels of dharma instruction one for the monk and an easier one for the layperson. Rather, he required all of the lay practitioners who visited him at his monastery to embody the dharma to the same degree that his monastic disciples did. In Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings, Ajahn Chah's dharma talks (which could be as long as five hours each) are condensed for Western lay practitioners. Although the length has been shortened, the content is still bracing and memorable. Paul Breiter provides the translation, and Kornfield gives an insightful foreword. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)