Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings

Chah offers a thorough exploration of Theravadan Buddhism in a gentle, sometimes humorous, style that makes the reader feel as though he or she is being entertained by a story. He emphasizes the path to freedom from emotional and psychological suffering and provides insight into the fact that taking ourselves seriously causes unnecessary hardship. Ajahn Chah influenced a generation of Western teachers: Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Joseph Goldstein, and many other Western Buddhist teachers were at one time his students. Anyone who has attended a retreat led by one of these teachers, or read one of their books, will be familiar with this master's name and reputation as one of the great Buddhist teachers of this century.

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