From: lyeh@alleg.edu (Hun Lye)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: What is Contemplation?
Date: 23 Jan 1993 12:59:16 -0800
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Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: gap.caltech.edu
Keywords: Buddhism

Below are some answers offered by the late Ajahn Chah to the questions  
asked by some of his students.  The late Ajahn Chah was a teacher of the  
Thai Forest Tradition.


Q:  When you teach about the value of contemplation, are you speaking of  
sitting and thinking over particular themes - the 32 parts of the body for  
instance?
A:  That is not necessary when the mind is truly still.  When tranquility  
is properly established the right object of investigation becomes obvious.   
When contempation is `True,' there is no discrimination into `right' and  
`wrong,' `good' or `bad'; there is nothing like that.  You don't sit there  
thinking, `Oh, this is like that and that is like this,' etc.  Thai is a  
coarse form of contemplation.  Meditative contemplation is not *merely* a  
matter of thinking - rather it's what we call `contemplation in silence.'   
Whilst going about our daily routinue we mindfully consider the real  
nature of existence through comparisons.  This is a coarse kind of  
inverstigation but it leads to the real thing.

Q:  When you talk about contemplating the body and mind, though, do we  
actually use thinking?  Can thinking produce true Insight?  Is this  
vipassana?
A:  In the beginning we need to work using thinking, even though later on  
we go beyond it.  When we are doing true contemplation all dualistic  
thinking has ceased; although we need to consider dualistically to get  
started.  Eventually all thinking and pondering comes to an end.  


Q:  You say there must be sufficient tranquility (samadhi) to contemplate.   
Just how tranquil do you mean?
A:  Tranquil enough for there o be presence of mind.


Q:  Do you mean staying with the here-and-now, not thinking about the past  
and future?
A:  Thinking about the past and future is alright if you understand what  
these things really are, but you must not get caught up in them.  Treat  
them the same as you would anything else - don't get caught up.  When you  
see thinking as just thinking, then that's wisdom.  Don't believe in any  
of it!  Recognize that all of it is just something hat has arisen and will  
cease.  Simply see everything just as it is - it is what it is - the mind  
is the mind - it's not anything or anybody in itself.  Hapiness is just  
hapiness, suffering is just suffering - it is just what it is.  When you  
see this you will be beyond doubt.


Q:  I still don't understand.  Is true contemplating the same as thinking?
A:  We use thinking as a tool, but the knowing that arises because of its  
use is above and beyond the process of thinking; it leads to our not being  
fooled by our thinking any more.  You recognize that all thinking is  
merely the movement of the mind, and also that the knowing is not born and  
doesn't die.  What do you think all this movement called `mind' comes out  
of?  What we talk about as the mind - all the activity - is just the  
conventional mind.  It's not the real mind at all.  What is real is just  
IS, it's not arising and it's not passing away.  
     Trying to understand these things just by talking about them, though,  
won't work.  We need to really consider impermanence, unsatisfactoriness  
and impersonality (anicca, dukkha, anatta); that is, we need to use  
thinking to contemplate the nature of conventional reality.  What comes  
out of this work is wisdom; and if it's real wisdom everything's  
completed, finished - we recognize emptiness.  Even though there may still  
be thinking, it's empty - you are not affected by it.



_______________________________________________________________________

Posted by,
Hun Lye
lyeh@alleg.edu