Biography
Venerable Ajahn Chah was born on June 17, 1918 in a
small village near the town of Ubon Rajathani, North-East Thailand.
After finishing his basic schooling, he spent three years as a novice
before returning to lay life to help his parents on the farm. At the age
of twenty, however, he decided to resume monastic life, and on April 26,
1939 he received upasampada (bhikkhu ordination). Ajahn Chah's early
monastic life followed a traditional pattern, of studying Buddhist
teachings and the Pali scriptural language. In his fifth year his father
fell seriously ill and died, a blunt reminder of the frailty and
precariousness of human life. It caused him to think deeply about life's
real purpose, for although he had studied extensively and gained some
proficiency in Pali, he seemed no nearer to a personal understanding of
the end of suffering. Feelings of disenchantment set in, and finally (in
1946) he abandoned his studies and set off on mendicant pilgrimage.
He walked some 400 km to Central Thailand, sleeping in forests and
gathering almsfood in the villages on the way. He took up residence in a
monastery where the vinaya (monastic discipline) was carefully studied
and practiced. While there he was told about Venerable Ajahn Mun
Bhuridatto, a most highly respected Meditation Master. Keen to meet such
an accomplished teacher, Ajahn Chah set off on foot for the Northeast in
search of him.
At this time Ajahn Chah was wrestling with a crucial problem. He had
studied the teachings on morality, meditation and wisdom, which the
texts presented in minute and refined detail, but he could not see how
they could actually be put into practice. Ajahn Mun told him that
although the teachings are indeed extensive, at their heart they are
very simple. With mindfulness established, if it is seen that everything
arises in the heart-mind. ..right there is the true path of practice.
This succinct and direct teaching was a revelation for Ajahn Chah, and
transformed his approach to practice. The Way was clear.
For the next seven years Ajahn Chah practiced in the style of the
austere Forest Tradition, wandering through the countryside in quest of
quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He lived in tiger
and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to
the true meaning of life. On one occasion he practiced in a cremation
ground, to challenge and eventually overcome his fear of death. Then, as
he sat cold and drenched in a rainstorm, he faced the utter desolation
and loneliness of a homeless monk.
In 1954, after years of wandering, he was invited back to his home
village. He settled close by, in a fever ridden, haunted forest called
'Pah Pong'. Despite the hardships of malaria, poor shelter and sparse
food, disciples gathered around him in increasing numbers. The
monastery, which is now known as Wat Pah Pong began there, and
eventually branch monasteries were also, established elsewhere.
In 1967 an American monk came to stay at Wat Pah Pong.
The newly ordained Venerable Sumedho had just spent his first vassa
('Rains' retreat) practicing intensive meditation at a monastery near
the Laotian border. Although his efforts had borne some fruit, Venerable
Sumedho realized that he needed a teacher who could train him in all
aspects of monastic life. By chance, one of Ajahn Chah's monks, one who
happened to speak a little English visited the monastery where Venerable
Sumedho was staying. Upon hearing about Ajahn Chah, he asked to take
leave of his preceptor, and went back to Wat Pah Pong with the monk.
Ajahn Chah willingly accepted the new disciple, but insisted that he
receive no special allowances for being a Westerner. He would have to
eat the same simple almsfood and practice in the same way as any other
monk at Wat Pah Pong. The training there was quite harsh and forbidding.
Ajahn Chah often pushed his monks to their limits, to test their powers
of endurance so that they would develop patience and resolution. He
sometimes initiated long and seemingly pointless work projects, in order
to frustrate their attachment to tranquility. The emphasis was always on
surrender to the way things are, and great stress was placed upon strict
observance of the vinaya.
In the course of events, other Westerners came through Wat Pah Pong. By
the time Venerable Sumedho was a bhikkhu of five vassas, and Ajahn Chah
considered him competent enough to teach, some of these new monks had
also decided to stay on and train there. In the hot season of 1975,
Venerable Sumedho and a handful of Western bhikkhus spent some time
living in a forest not far from Wat Pah Pong. The local villagers there
asked them to stay on, and Ajahn Chah consented. The Wat Pah Nanachat
('International Forest Monastery') came into being, and Venerable
Sumedho became the abbot of the first monastery in Thailand to be run by
and for English-speaking monks.
In 1977, Ajahn Chah was invited to visit Britain by the English Sangha
Trust, a charity with the aim of establishing a locally-resident
Buddhist Sangha. He took Venerable Sumedho and Venerable Khemadhammo
along, and seeing the serious interest there, left them in London at the
Hampstead Vihara (with two of his other Western disciples who were then
visiting Europe). He returned to Britain in 1979, at which time the
monks were leaving London to begin Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in
Sussex. He then went on to America and Canada to visit and teach. After
this trip, and again in 1981, Ajahn Chah spent the 'Rains' away from Wat
Pah Pong, since his health was failing due to the debilitating effects
of diabetes. As his illness worsened, he would use his body as a
teaching, a living example of the impermanence of all things. He
constantly reminded people to endeavor to find a true refuge within
themselves, since he would not be able to teach for very much longer.
Before the end of the 'Rains' of 1981, he was taken to Bangkok for an
operation; it, however, did little to improve his condition. Within a
few months he stopped talking, and gradually he lost control of his
limbs until he was virtually paralyzed and bed-ridden. From then on, he
was diligently and lovingly nursed and attended by devoted disciples,
grateful for the occasion to offer service to the teacher who so
patiently and compassionately showed the Way to so many.
