Across 26 – 27 December 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, the Ajahn Chah Remembrance Day (ACRD) 2025 “honours the life and teachings of Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo, a revered Thai Forest Tradition master who passed away on 16 January 1992.”
Four HOL contributors, who had participated in ACRD 2025, were invited to reflect on Ajahn Chah’s and his disciples’ teachings, specifically those that straightened their views and inspired their practices.
In this short anthology, we explore the skillful illustration of simple yet profound Dhamma teachings through using day-to-day analogies. These powerful metaphors imprint understanding of the Dhamma right into the heart. They anchor the mind with a keen awareness of reality, like a kite soaring against the worldly winds of suffering.
Claire
When the Glass Is Already Broken
There have been many teachings from Ajahn Chah that went straight into my heart. I’d like to share with you a small lesson from Luang Por that is particularly memorable for me.
The story goes that one day someone asked Ajahn Chah how genuine happiness is possible in an ever-changing world that is full of loss and suffering. Ajahn Chah smiled, held up the glass he had been drinking from, and said,
“To me, this glass is already broken. I drink from it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes reflecting the sunlight in beautiful patterns. If I tap it, it gives off a lovely ring. But when I set it on a shelf, and the wind knocks it over, or my elbow brushes it off the table, and it shatters on the floor, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious. Every moment is just as it is, and nothing needs to be otherwise”.
Cherishing What Cannot Last
It’s a precious teaching that encapsulates Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta (impermanence, suffering, and non-self). Our lives are just like this.
For instance, this body that we have can be seen as borrowed.
It will die and decompose eventually. The people that we love will one day leave us for one reason or another.
The list goes on.
I used to cry a lot over matters related to Vibhava-tanha. But now, I just try to cherish everything that comes my way. When one truly knows that nothing lasts, one can treasure and live in the present moment even more.
Ezra
A Glimpse of Total Commitment
“I dedicate my body and mind, my whole life, to the practice of the Lord Buddha’s teachings in their entirety. I will realize the truth in this lifetime … I will let go of everything and follow the teachings. No matter how much suffering and difficulty I have to endure I will persevere, otherwise there will be no end to my doubts. I will make this life as even and continuous as a single day and night. I will abandon attachments to mind and body and follow the Buddha’s teachings until I know their truth for myself.”
It was my first time reading this quote, which was displayed alongside a photo of a younger Ajahn Chah. I didn’t know a lot about Ajahn Chah at that time, but I was very inspired by his commitment and dedication to the practice.
I thought to myself that I would like to have the same level of dedication and commitment.
But how does one let go of everything and abandon all attachments, unless one has decided to live a monastic life?
That being said, the burdens of life are indeed tiring. I look forward to laying everything down to have true freedom one day.
KH Tee
From Concept to Direct Experience
Though I was born after Ajahn Chah’s time, I feel deeply grateful for the blessing of encountering the treasure trove of Ajahn Chah’s teachings through his students, such as Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Jayasāro.
Since I was exposed to the Dhamma at a young age, I have the tendency to approach the Teachings intellectually. This tendency is occasionally accompanied by attachment and conceptual proliferation, which can be a hindrance to the arising of true Insight.
Ajahn Chah’s masterful and direct way of teaching has softened that attachment. It guides the mind to investigate and verify the Dhamma experientially. I began to see the practice and the liberating insights not as lofty ideals, but as a living path that frees the mind from suffering, accessible in the here and now, when the conditions are ripe.
Stillness, Suffering, and Release
Ajahn Chah’s well-known imagery of A Still Forest Pool is one of the most powerful metaphorical teachings on mindfulness and clear comprehension, which has deeply inspired my practice.
Ajahn taught that when we let things follow their natural course, the mind becomes still like a clear forest pool, unperturbed as it clearly observes and understands the true nature of all conditioned phenomena.
It is such a beautiful invitation to incline the mind towards a happiness arising from inner stillness. One arose simply by allowing things to arise and pass away in their own natural course.
Each time I recollect this teaching, the effort to sit through change without grasping, resisting, or denying arises easefully.
Ajahn Chah’s teachings on the two kinds of suffering — one from clinging to the pleasant and resisting the unpleasant, the other from fully feeling the constant change of experience, be it pleasant or unpleasant — reframed how I relate to suffering. It imbues me with the courage to fully meet reality without flinching, even when it is painful.
By seeing the futility of grasping at what is inherently changing, the mind begins to be interested in the possibility of a path beyond suffering, a path of skillful release. What once felt unbearable becomes manageable, sustaining my patience and reinforcing trust in the workings of kamma.
Rare is the arising of such a wise teacher who teaches the Dhamma-Vinaya so skillfully (AN 3:114), and the opportunity to hear and practice the True Dhamma (Dhp 182).
With deep gratitude towards these rare conditions, may Ajahn Chah’s legacy continue to be a supportive condition for many beings with little dust to encounter the Dhamma, cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path, and realize the highest bliss of Nibbāna.
Si Jing
From Knowing to Living the Dhamma
Like the Buddha, Ajahn Chah taught us through simple metaphors that cut straight to the heart. Over the two days of ACRD, several of these metaphors stayed with me.
I’ve always enjoyed reading the suttas, and it’s easy to mistake reading for practice. One recurring reminder was that the Dhamma isn’t meant for intellectual appreciation alone: it has to be lived.v
Ajahn Chah’s metaphor of the ladle in the soup encapsulates this: you can be fully immersed, yet never taste the true Dhamma.
That got me moving towards a more balanced approach to the teachings.
At a time when I felt that I wasn’t “good enough” nor practising “hard enough,” another teaching landed.
Patience, Humility, and Steady Effort
I held the fixed view that long daily meditation equates to being a good practitioner. This mentality has caused a lot of suffering, as I neither sat frequently nor for long durations.
Luang Por Pasanno offered the following teaching:
“Don’t try to be a ten-wheel truck when you’re just a little wheelbarrow.”
This reminder gave me permission to meet the practice, and myself, where I am at — rather than through self-judgment and criticism.
Finally, the emphasis on being patient continuously changed how I relate to encountering plateaus in the practice.
Ajahn Chah compared practice to rubbing two sticks together to start a fire: often nothing seems to happen, and we stop just before the spark occurs. However, when we rub the sticks consistently without stopping, we may start a fire eventually.
The “earthworm practice” that Luang Por Pasanno described echoed the emphasis on patience-endurance.
Like a blind earthworm, sometimes practising the Dhamma is simply moving forward despite no clear view of the path ahead.
These analogies helped me trust small, consistent effort and to keep at it even when results aren’t obvious.
The metaphors taught reflect Ajahn Chah’s (and his disciples’) wisdom and skill as a teacher. May these teachings inspire and encourage you as they did for me!
Walking the Path Here and Now
Ajahn Chah may no longer be physically present with us, yet his teachings remain vividly alive through the way they are practised.
Across these reflections, a common thread emerges: the Dhamma is not something to be admired from a distance. Dhamma is to be tested, lived, and realised in the conditions of our daily lives.
Whether through patience in uncertainty, letting go of fixed views, or meeting experience with honesty and humility, the path unfolds in gradual, steady shifts of understanding.
Ajahn Chah’s and his disciples’ teachings remind us that sincerity and continuity of practice provide the conditions for spiritual progress. In this way, we may continue to meet Ajahn Chah—not just in memory alone, but in every moment we practise.
