176. You say you love your girlfriend one hundred percent. Well, turn her inside out and see how many percent of her you still love. Or if you miss your lover so much when she's not with you, then why not ask her to send to you a vial of her faeces in it. In that way, whenever you think of her with longing, you can open the vial and smell it. Disgusting? What is it, then that you love? What is it that makes your heart pound like a rice pounder every time a girl with a really attractive figure comes walking along or you smell her perfume in the air? What is it? What are these forces? They pull and suck you in, but you don’t put up a real fight, do you? There's a price to pay it in the end, know!

177. One day Ajahn Chan came upon a large, heavy branch that was lying in his path and which he wanted to move out of the way. He motioned to a disciple to get hold of one end while he lifted the other. Then when they held it ready to throw, he looked up and asked, "Is it heavy?" And after they had flung it into he forest, he asked again, "Now, is it heavy?" It was like this that Ajahn Chan taught his disciples to see the Dhamma in everything they said or did. In this case, he demonstrated the benefit of "letting go." 

178. One of Ajahn Chah disciples was unplugging a tape recorder when he accidentally touched the metal prongs of the plug while it was still connected. He got a shock and dropped it immediately. Ajahn Chah noticed and said. Oh! How come you could let go of that so easily? Who told you to?"

179. It was Christmas and the foreign monk had decided to celebrate it. They invited some laypeople as well as Ajahn Chah to join them. The laypeople were generally upset and skeptical. Why, they asked were Buddhists celebrating Christmas? Ajahn Chah then gave a talk on religion in which he said, "As far as I understand, Christianity teaches people to do good and avoid evil, just as Buddhism does, so what is the problem? However, if people are upset by the idea of celebrating Christmas, that can be easily remedied. We wont call it Christmas. Let's call it " Christ-Buddhamas".  Anything that inspires us to see what is true and do what is good is proper practice, You may call it any anme you like."

180. During the time refugees were pouring into Thailand from Laos and Cambodia, the charitable organizations who came out to help were many. This made some ordained Westerners think it was not right that Buddhist monk and nuns should just sit in the forest while other religious organizations were so actively participating in alleviating the plight of the refugees. So they approached Ajahn Chah to express their concern, and this is what he said, " helping in refugee camps is good. It is indeed our natural human duty to each other. But going through our own madness so that we can lead others through, that's the only cure. Anyone can go out and distribute clothes and pitch tents, but how many can come into the forest and sit to know heir minds? As long as we don’t know how to 'cloth' and 'feed' people's minds, there will always be a refugee problem somewhere in the world."

181. Ajahn Chah listened to one of his disciples recite the heart Sutra. When he had finished, Ajahn Chah said, " No emptiness either…no bodhisatta." He then asked, where did the sutra come from?" it's repute to have been spoken by the Buddha," the follower replied. "No Buddha," retorted Ajahn Chah. Then he said, " this is talking about deep wisdom, beyond all conventions. How could we teach without them? We have to have names for things, isn't that so?"

182. To become a Noble One, we have to continuously undergo changes until only the body remains. The mind changes completely but the body still exist. There is hot, cold, pain, and sickness as usual. But the mind has changed and now sees birth, old age, sickness and death in the light of truth.

183. Someone once asked Ajahn Chah to talk about enlightenment; could he describe his own enlightenment? With everyone eagerly waiting to hear his answer, he said, "Enlightenment isn't difhard to understand. Just take a banana and put it into your mouth, then you will know what it tastes like. You have to practice to experience realization, and you have to preserve. If it were so easy to become enlightened, everyone would be doing it. I started going to the temple when I was eight years old, and I have been a monk for over forty years. But you want to meditate for a night or two and go straight to nibbana. You don’t just sit down and - zip! - there you are, you know. You can't get someone to blow on your head and make you enlightened either."

184. The worldly way is to do things for a reason, to get something in return, but in Buddhism we do things without any idea of gain. But if we don’t want anything at all, what will we get? We don't get anything! Whatever we get is just a cause for suffering, so we practice not getting anything. Just make the mind peaceful and have done with it.