Be True

Close your eyes and watch your breath. Feel the breath as it comes in, as it goes out. Notice where you feel it. Wherever it’s most prominent in the body, focus your attention there. Then try to keep it there. And try to see what kind of breathing feels best. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If not, you can change. Make it faster, slower, heavier, lighter, deeper, more shallow. Experiment, explore with your meditation.

These are things that Ajaan Lee would emphasize again and again.

Today we’re making merit, dedicating to him. Sixty-three years ago, on April 26, he passed away. This is the Sunday closest to that date, so we’re taking that opportunity to commemorate his teaching, to commemorate his life, and to remember our debt of gratitude to him. He was part of the forest tradition that revived a lot of the old teachings, brought them to life again, so they can now spread around the world.

I was thinking just now during the ceremony that Ajaan Lee would have been pleased to see so many different people of so many different nationalities at the ceremony. He was a very large-hearted person. And he was very inquisitive. Ajaan Fuang, my teacher, who was his student, once said that if Ajaan Lee had met me, he would have spent a lot of time picking my brain because of my Western education. He was always wanting to learn new things.

He developed a new method of breath meditation, based on what he saw of the yogis in India. They were standing out in the sun for long periods of time, lying on beds of nails. He happened to be in India to visit the Buddha’s holy spots, and the question occurred to him, “How do they do that?”

He looked into his meditation and saw that they worked with the breath energy. So he tried working with his breath energy, too, and ended up coming up with a method not only that we have to practice today, but it saved his life one time.

He was in the forest, days away from help, and he had a heart attack. The only thing he had as his medicine was his breath. So he used his breath. The quality of mind he used, of course, was his truthfulness. Once he made up his mind that the breath was going to be his only way out, he was sincere and devoted to it. He remained loyal to it. And as he would say again and again, the Buddha’s teachings are a matter of the truth. If we want to know the truth, we have to be true, too.

Think about the ajaans in the forest tradition. Many of them came from very poor families, with only a little bit of education. And what advantage did they have? They had their truthfulness. Whatever the Buddha called for, they were willing to do it. It’s through the power of the truth that we learn the truth. After all, the Buddha’s teachings are not just teachings to memorize. They’re teachings to do. And you learn about them, you master them, by committing yourself to them and then reflecting on what you’ve done.

This is a theme we see again and again in Ajaan Lee. He keeps comparing meditation to skills you develop by using your own powers of observation. So your powers of observation have to be true, but in the doing you have to be true as well.

That means being sincere in doing it and being really attentive to what you’re doing. Then, when something doesn’t come out right, you can figure out, “Well what did I do? What did I do wrong? What could I change?”

As I said, the truth itself is powerful. Ajaan Lee compared it to an elephant. When an elephant wiggles his ears, even if just for a moment, everybody knows the elephant means business. It could charge at any time, so they immediately go running away. But if a dog or a cat wiggled its ears, it could wiggle its ears all day long, but nobody would notice.

So it’s the power of the truth that brings us to the truth, by being true and committing ourselves to the practice and true in observing ourselves—and wanting to learn—being willing to change our attitudes when we see they’re not working. This is how we master the truth and how we know the truth of what the Buddha had to teach.