Awareness Itself

a 1h
Awareness Itself
By Ajaan Fuang Jotiko
Compiled and Translated by

Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Copyright © 1993, 1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu
For free distribution only

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Introduction
Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, my teacher, was born in 1915 to a small farming
family in the province of Chanthaburi, near the Cambodian border of
southeastern Thailand. Orphaned at the age of eleven, he was raised in
a series of monasteries and received ordination as a monk when he
turned twenty. As he began to study the monastic discipline, though,
he realized that the monks of his monastery were not really serious
about practicing the Buddha's teachings, and he longed to find a
teacher who would give him a training more in line with what he had
read. His chance came during his second year as a monk, when Ajaan
Lee Dhammadharo, a member of the forest ascetic tradition founded
by Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto, came to set up a meditation monastery in an
old cemetery just outside of Chanthaburi. Taken with Ajaan Lee's
teachings, Ajaan Fuang re-ordained in the sect to which Ajaan Lee
belonged and joined him at his new monastery.
From that point onward, with few exceptions, he spent every Rains
Retreat under Ajaan Lee's guidance until the latter's death in 1961.
One of the exceptions was a five-year period he spent during World
War II, meditating alone in the forests of northern Thailand. Another
was a six-year period in the early fifties when Ajaan Lee left Ajaan
Fuang in charge of the Chanthaburi monastery and wandered about
various parts of Thailand in preparation for finding a place to settle
down near Bangkok. When in 1957 Ajaan Lee founded Wat Asokaram,
a 2h
his new monastery near Bangkok, Ajaan Fuang joined him there, to
help in what was to be the last major project of Ajaan Lee's life.
After Ajaan Lee's death, Ajaan Fuang was generally expected to

become abbot at Wat Asokaram. The monastery by that time, though,
had grown into such a large, unwieldy community that he did not want
the position. So in 1965, when the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, in
residence at Wat Makut Kasatriyaram (The Temple of the King's Crown)
in Bangkok, asked him to spend the Rains Retreat at his temple, to
teach meditation to him and to any of the other monks at the temple
who were interested, Ajaan Fuang jumped at the chance.
He spent a total of three Rains Retreats at Wat Makut, wandering

about the countryside looking for solitude during the dry seasons.
Although he had immense respect for the Supreme Patriarch as an
individual, he grew tired of the politicking he saw at the higher
ecclesiastical levels and so began looking for a way out. It came in
1968, when a woman named Khun Nai Sombuun Ryangrit donated land
to the Patriarch for a small monastery in a mountainous region near
the coast of Rayong province, not far from Chanthaburi. Ajaan Fuang
volunteered to spend time at the new monastery, Wat Dhammasathit,
until a permanent abbot could be found. The monastery, though, was
in a very poor area where the local people were not enthusiastic about
the idea of a strict meditation monastery in their midst, so no one
could be found to take on the position of abbot. Thus, shortly before
the Supreme Patriarch's death in a car accident in 1971, Ajaan Fuang
accepted the position of abbot at Wat Dhammasathit himself.
It was soon after this that I first met him, in April of 1974. Wat
Dhammasathit had the look of a summer camp down on its luck: three
monks living in three small huts, a lean-to where they would eat their
meals, a kitchen with room for a couple of nuns, and a small wooden
structure on top of the hill -- where I stayed -- which had a view of the
sea off to the south. The land had been donated shortly after a fire had
stripped it of all its vegetation, and the hillsides were covered mostly
with cogon grass. Yearly fires still swept through the area, preventing
trees from taking hold, although the area on the mountain above the
monastery was covered with a thick, malarial forest.
In spite of the poor conditions, Ajaan Fuang seemed to have a clear-

eyed, down-to-earth wisdom that allowed him to transcend his
surroundings -- an inner peace, happiness, and stability that I envied
and admired. After spending a few months practicing meditation under
his guidance, I returned to America and then found my way back to
Thailand in the fall of 1976 to be ordained as a monk and to begin
training under him in earnest.
a 3h
In my absence, he had begun to develop a small but devoted following

of lay meditator’s. In early 1976 the new abbot of Wat Makut had
invited him back to teach there on a regular basis, and for the rest of
his life -- until his death in 1986 -- he split his time evenly between
Bangkok and Rayong. Most of his students came from the professional
classes of Bangkok, people who were turning to meditation for spiritual
strength and solace in the face of the fast-changing pressures of
modern Thai urban society.
During my first years back in Rayong, the monastery was an incredibly

quiet and secluded place, with only a handful of monks and almost no
visitors. Fire lanes had begun to hold the fires in check, and a new
forest was developing. The quiet atmosphere began to change, though,
in the fall of 1979, when construction began on a chedi at the top of
the hill. Because the chedi was being built almost entirely with
volunteer labor, everyone was involved -- monks, laypeople from
Bangkok, and local villagers.
At first I resented the disruption of the monastery's quiet routine, but I

began to notice something interesting: People who never would have
thought of meditating were happy to help with the weekend
construction brigades; during breaks in the work, when the regulars
would go practice meditation with Ajaan Fuang, the newcomers would
join in and soon they too would become regular meditator’s as well. In
the meantime, I began learning the important lesson of how to
meditate in the midst of less than ideal conditions. Ajaan Fuang himself
told me that although he personally disliked construction work, there
were people he had to help, and this was the only way he could get to
them. Soon after the chedi was finished in 1982, work began on a large
Buddha image that was to have an ordination hall in its base, and
again, as work progressed on the image, more and more people who
came to help with the work were drawn to meditation.
Ajaan Fuang's health deteriorated steadily in his later years. A mild

skin condition he had developed during his stay at Wat Makut grew
into a full-blown case of psoriasis, and no medicine -- Western, Thai, or
Chinese -- could offer a cure. Still, he maintained an exhausting
teaching schedule, although he rarely gave sermons to large groups of
people. Instead, he preferred to teach on an individual basis. His
favorite way of getting people started in meditation was to meditate
together with them, guiding them through the initial rough spots, and
then have them meditate more and more on their own, making way for
new beginners. Even during his worst attacks of psoriasis, he would
have time to instruct people on a personal basis. As a result, his
following -- though relatively small compared to that of Ajaan Lee and
other famous meditation teachers -- was intensely loyal.
a 4h
In May, 1986, a few days after the Buddha image was completed, but
before the ordination hall in its base was finished, Ajaan Fuang flew to
Hong Kong to visit a student who had set up a meditation center there.
Suddenly, on the morning of May 14, while he was sitting in
meditation, he suffered a heart attack. The student called an
ambulance as soon as he realized what had happened, but Ajaan
Fuang was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Because he had requested a few years earlier that his body not be
cremated, plans began immediately to build him a mausoleum. I was
given the task of assembling his biography and any tape-recorded
talks that might be transcribed and published as a commemorative
volume. I found, to my amazement, that I knew more about his life
than anyone else. The people with whom he had lived when he was
younger had either died or grown so old that their memories were
failing them. All of a sudden the anecdotes he had told me during my
first years back with him -- of his youth and his years with Ajaan Lee --
became the substance of his biography. How much I probably missed,
given the fact that my abilities in Thai and familiarity with Thai culture
were still developing, was disconcerting to think about.
Even more disconcerting was to discover how little of his teachings

were left for posterity. Ordinarily, he refused to let people tape-record
his instructions, as he maintained that his teachings were intended for
the people listening to put into practice right then and there, and
might be wrong for other people at other stages in their practice. The
few tapes that were made came from simple, introductory talks that he
gave to first-time visitors who had come to give a group donation to
the monastery, or to people who were just getting started in
meditation. Nothing of a more advanced nature was on tape.
So after we printed the commemorative volume, I started a project of

my own, writing down what I could remember of his teachings and
interviewing his other students for similar material. The interviewing
took more than two years and involved a fair amount of editing to
extract teachings that would be helpful for people in general and would
work in a written format. The result was a small book entitled, The
Language of the Heart. Then, shortly before I returned to the States to
help start a monastery in California, another Ajaan Fuang tape was
found, a sermon in which he was giving more advanced instructions to
one of his students. I transcribed it and arranged to have it printed as a
small booklet named, Transcendent Discernment.
The book you are holding in your hand is drawn from these three
books. Most of the material comes from The Language of the Heart,
although parts of that book had to be cut either because they referred
a 5h
to incidents peculiar to Thai culture, or because the puns and wordplay

made them untranslatable. Ajaan Fuang loved playing with language --
his sense of humor was one of the first things that attracted me to him
-- and many of his memorable sayings were memorable for just that
reason. Unfortunately, most of these passages lose their impact on
translation, and the explanations they would require might quickly
become tedious, so I have omitted nearly all of them, leaving in a few
-- such as the "litter" story -- to give a taste of his way with words.
In addition to the passages from The Language of the Heart, I have

included almost all of Transcendent Discernment along with highlights
from the commemorative volume. Not everything is a straight
translation from these books, for in some cases I have had to retell the
anecdotes to make them more accessible to a Western reader. I have
been careful throughout, though, to translate the message of Ajaan
Fuang's own words as exactly as possible.
In putting this book together, I have had the opportunity to reflect on

the student/teacher relationship as it exists in Thailand, and in Ajaan
Fuang's dealings with his disciples, both lay and ordained. He provided
an atmosphere of warmth and respect in which his students could
discuss with him the particular problems of their lives and minds
without being made to feel like patients or clients, but simply as fellow
human beings to whom he was offering a solid reference point for their
lives. Since coming to the West, I find that this sort of relationship is
sadly lacking among us and I hope that as Buddhism becomes
established here, this sort of relationship will become established as
well, for the sake of the mental and spiritual health of our society as a
whole.
A group of Thai people once asked me what was the most amazing
thing I had ever encountered in Ajaan Fuang, hoping that I would
mention his mind-reading abilities or other supernatural powers.
Although there were those -- his knowledge of my mind seemed
uncanny -- I told them that what I found most amazing was his
kindness and humanity: In all our years together, he had never made
me feel that I was a Westerner or that he was a Thai. Our
communication was always on a direct, person-to-person level that
bypassed cultural differences. I know that many of his other students,
although they would not have phrased the issue quite this way, sensed
the same quality in him.
I offer this book as a way of sharing some of what I learned from Ajaan
Fuang, and dedicate it, with deepest respect, to his memory. He once
told me that if it hadn't been for Ajaan Lee, he would never have
known the brightness of life. I owe the same debt to him.
a 6h
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(Geoffrey DeGraff)
Note: For this new, revised edition, I have reinstated the section
entitled "Merit", most of which was omitted from the first edition in
1993.
Metta Forest Monastery

Valley Center, CA 92082-1409
January, 1999
Mind What You Say

§ Normally, Ajaan Fuang was a man of few words who spoke in
response to circumstances: If the circumstances warranted it, he could
give long, detailed explanations. If not, he'd say only a word or two --
or sometimes nothing at all. He held by Ajaan Lee's dictum: "If you're
going to teach the Dhamma to people, but they're not intent on
listening, or not ready for what you have to say, then no matter how
fantastic the Dhamma you're trying to teach, it still counts as idle
chatter, because it doesn't serve any purpose."
§ I was constantly amazed at his willingness -- sometimes eagerness --

to teach meditation even when he was ill. He explained to me once, "If
people are really intent on listening, I find that I'm intent on teaching,
and no matter how much I have to say, it doesn't tire me out. In fact, I
usually end up with more energy than when I started. But if they're not
intent on listening, then I get worn out after the second or third word."
§ "Before you say anything, ask yourself whether it's necessary or not.
If it's not, don't say it. This is the first step in training the mind -- for if
you can't have any control over your mouth, how can you expect to
have any control over your mind?"
§ Sometimes his way of being kind was to be cross -- although he had

his own way of doing it. He never raised his voice or used harsh
language, but still his words could burn right into the heart. Once I
a 7h
commented on this fact, and asked him, "Why is it that when your
words hurt, they go right to the heart?"
He answered, "That's so you'll remember. If words don't hit home with

the person listening, they don't hit home with the person speaking,
either."
§ In being cross with his students, he'd take his cue from how earnest
the student was. The more earnest, the more critical he'd be, with the
thought that this sort of student would use his words to best effect.
Once a lay student of his -- who didn't understand this point -- was
helping to look after him when he was ill in Bangkok. Even though she
tried her best to attend to his needs, he was constantly criticizing her,
to the point where she was thinking of leaving him. It so happened,
though, that another lay student came to visit, and Ajaan Fuang said in
a passing remark to him, "When a teacher criticizes his students, it's
for one of two reasons: either to make them stay or to make them go."
The first student, on overhearing this, suddenly understood, and so

decided to stay.
§ A story that Ajaan Fuang liked to tell -- with his own twist -- was the
Jataka tale of the turtle and the swans.
Once there were two swans who liked to stop by a certain pond every
day for a drink of water. As time passed, they struck up a friendship
with a turtle who lived in the pond, and they started telling him about
some of the many things they saw while flying around up in the air.
The turtle was fascinated with their stories, but after a while began to
feel very depressed, because he knew he'd never have a chance to see
the great wide world the way the swans did. When he mentioned this
to them, they said, "Why, that's no problem at all. We'll find a way to
take you up with us." So they got a stick. The male swan took one end
of the stick in his mouth, the female took the other end in hers, and
they had the turtle hold on with its mouth to the middle. When
everything was ready, they took off.
As they flew up into the sky, the turtle got to see many, many things
he had never dreamed about on the earth below, and was having the
time of his life. When they flew over a village, though, some children
playing below saw them, and started shouting, "Look! Swans carrying a
a 8h
turtle! Swans carrying a turtle!" This spoiled everything for the turtle,
until he thought of a smart retort: "No. The turtle's carrying the
swans!" But as soon as he opened his mouth to say it, he fell straight
to his death below.
The moral of the story: "Watch out for your mouth when you enter high
places."
§ "Litter" is Thai slang for idle chatter, and once Ajaan Fuang used the
term to dramatic effect.
It happened one evening when he was teaching in Bangkok. Three

young women who were long-time friends happened to show up
together at the building where he was teaching, but instead of joining
the group that was already meditating, they found themselves an out-
of-the-way corner to catch up on the latest gossip. As they were busy
talking, they didn't notice that Ajaan Fuang had gotten up to stretch
his legs and was walking right past them, with an unlit cigarette in his
mouth and a box of matches in his hand. He stopped for a second, lit a
match, and instead of lighting his cigarette, tossed the lit match into
the middle of their group. Immediately they jumped up, and one of
them said, "Than Phaw! Why did you do that? You just barely missed
me!"
"I saw a pile of litter there," he answered, "and felt I should set fire to
it."
§ One day Ajaan Fuang overheard two students talking, one of them
asking a question and the other starting his answer with, "Well, it
seems to me..." Immediately Ajaan Fuang cut him off: "If you don't
really know, say you don't know, and leave it at that. Why go
spreading your ignorance around?"
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu

You may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computers and
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Introduction

teacher who would give him a training more i n line with what he
had read. His chance came during his second year as a monk, when
Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, a member of the forest ascetic tradition
founded by Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto, came to set up a meditation
monastery in an old cemetery just outside of Chanthaburi. Taken with
Ajaan Lee's teachings, Ajaan Fuang re-ordained in the sect to which
Ajaan Lee belonged and joined him at his new monastery.
a 12h



a 13h

his guidance, I returned to America and then found my way
back to Thailand in the fall of 1976 to be ordained as a monk and to
begin training under him in earnest.




a 14h



a 15h
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu

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Introduction

a 18h


had grown into such a large, unwieldy community that he did not
want the position. So in 1965, when the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand,
in residence at Wat Makut Kasatriyaram (The Temple of the King's
Crown) in Bangkok, asked him to spend the Rains Retreat at his
temple, to teach meditation to him and to any of the other monks at
the temple who were interested, Ajaan Fuang jumped at the chance.

a 19h





a 20h

cremated, plans began immediately to build him a mausoleum. I
was given the task of assembling his biography and any tape-recorded


a 21h


discuss with him the particular problems of their liv es and minds
without being made to feel like patients or clients, but simply as
fellow human beings to whom he was offering a solid reference point
for their lives. Since coming to the West, I find that this sort of
relationship is sadly lacking among us and I hope that as Buddhism
becomes established here, this sort of relationship will become
established as well, for the sake of the mental and spiritual health of
our society as a whole.
a 22h
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(Geoffrey DeGraff)
1993.

January, 1999
Mind What You Say


a 23h


either."

decided to stay.
a 24h
to his death below.
places."

me!"
it."
a 25h
§ "We each have two ears and one mouth -- which shows that we
should give more time to listening, and less to speaking."
§ "Whatever happens in the course of your meditation, don't tell it to

anyone except your teacher. If you go telling other people, it's
bragging. And isn't that a defilement?"
§ "When people advertise how good they are, they're really advertising
how stupid they are."
§ "If something's really good, you don't have to advertise."
§ Thailand has a number of monk magazines, somewhat like movie-

star magazines, which print the life stories and teachings of famous
and not-so-famous monks, nuns, and lay meditation teachers. The life
stories tend to be so heavily embellished with supernatural and
miraculous events, though, that they are hard to take seriously. From
the occasional contact he had with the editors and reporters
responsible for these magazines, Ajaan Fuang felt that, by and large,
their primary aims were mercenary. As he put it, "The great meditation
teachers went into the wilds and put their lives on the line in order to
find the Dhamma. When they found it, they offered it free of charge on
their return. But these people sit in their air-conditioned offices, write
down whatever comes into their heads, and then put it up for sale." As
a result, he never cooperated with them when they tried to put him in
their magazines.
Once a group of reporters from a magazine named People Beyond the

World came to visit him, armed with cameras and tape recorders. After
paying their respects, they asked for his prawat, or personal history.
Now it so happens that the Thai word prawat can also mean police
record, so Ajaan Fuang responded that he didn't have one, as he had
never done anything wrong. But the reporters were not easily
discouraged. If he didn't want to give his life story, they said, could he
please at least teach them some Dhamma. This is a request no monk
can refuse, so Ajaan Fuang told them to close their eyes and meditate
a 26h
on the word buddho -- awake. They turned on their tape recorders and
then sat in meditation, waiting for a Dhamma talk, and this was what
they heard:
"That's today's Dhamma: two words -- bud- and dho. Now if you can't
keep these two words in mind, it would be a waste of time to teach you
anything else."
End of sermon. When they realized that that was all, the reporters --
looking very exasperated -- gathered their cameras and tape recorders
and left, never to bother him again.
Mind What You Eat
§ "We human beings have long tongues, you know. You sit around
and suddenly your tongue flicks out to sea: You want to eat seafood.
Then it flicks around the world: You want to eat foreign cuisine. You
have to train your tongue and shrink it down to size."
§ "When you eat, keep your mind on your breath, and contemplate why
you're eating. If you're eating simply for the taste of the food, then
what you eat can harm you."
§ After his trip to America, one of his students asked him if he had had
a chance to eat pizza while he was there. He mentioned that he had,
and that it was very good. This surprised one of his students who had
gone along on the trip. "You ate only two bites," he said. "We thought
you didn't like it."
"Two bites were enough to fill me up," he answered. "Why would you
want me to eat more?"
§ Once a woman who had been studying with him for only a short while
decided to prepare some food to donate to him. Wanting to make sure
it would be something he liked, she asked him straight out, "What kind
of food do you like, Than Phaw?"
a 27h
His answer: "Food that's within reach."
§ It was a Friday evening, and a group of Ajaan Fuang's students were

riding in the back of a pickup truck on their way from Bangkok to Wat
Dhammasathit. Another student had sent a bushel of oranges along
with them to donate to the monks at the wat, and after a while on the
road one of the students decided that the oranges looked awfully good.
So he came up with the following argument: "We're Than Phaw's
children, right? And he wouldn't want us to go hungry, right? So
anyone who doesn't have an orange isn't a child of Than Phaw."
Some of the group were observing the eight precepts, which forbid
eating food after noon, so they were able to slip through the net.
Everyone else, though, helped him or herself to the oranges, even
though a few of them felt bad about eating food intended for the
monks.
When they arrived at the wat, they told Ajaan Fuang what had
happened, and he immediately lit into them, saying that anyone who
takes food intended for monks and eats it before it has been given to
the monks is going to be reborn as a hungry ghost in the next life.
This scared one woman in the group, who immediately responded, "But
I only ate one section!"
Ajaan Fuang replied, "Well, if you're going to be a hungry ghost, you

might as well eat enough to fill yourself up while you can."
§ During the Rains Retreat in 1977 a couple from the town of Rayong
came out to the wat almost every evening to practice meditation. The
strange thing about them was that whatever happened in the course of
their meditation would tend to happen to both of them at the same
time.
On one occasion they both found that they couldn't eat, because they
were overcome by a sense of the filthiness of food. This lasted for
three or four days without their getting weak or hungry, so they began
to wonder what stage they had reached in their meditation.
When they mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang on their next visit to the
wat, he had them sit in meditation, and then told them. "Okay,
contemplate food to see what it's made of. Elements, right? And what's
a 28h
your body made of? The very same elements. The elements in your
body need the elements in food in order to keep going. So why get all
worked up about the filthiness of food? Your body is even filthier. When
the Buddha teaches us to contemplate the filthiness of food, it's so that
we can get over our delusions about it -- not so that we won't be able
to eat."
That ended their inability to eat food.
People Practicing the Dhamma
§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students -- a seamstress -- was criticized by a

customer: "You practice the Dhamma, don't you? Then why are you so
greedy, charging such high prices? People practicing the Dhamma
should take only enough profit just to get by."
Although she knew her prices were fair, she couldn't think of a good
answer, so the next time she saw Ajaan Fuang she told him what had
happened. He replied, "The next time they say that, tell them -- 'Look,
I'm not practicing the Dhamma to be stupid.'"
§ When I first went to stay at Wat Dhammasathit, the B-52's from

Utapao Air Force Base could sometimes be heard high overhead in the
wee hours of the morning, flying on their bombing missions into
Cambodia. Each time I heard them, I began to wonder what business I
had meditating when there were so many injustices in the world that
needed to be fought. When I mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, he said,
"If you try to straighten out the world without really straightening
yourself out first, your own inner goodness will eventually break down,
and then where will you be? You won't be able to do anybody --
yourself or anyone else -- any good at all."
§ "As soon as we're born, we're sentenced to death -- just that we don't
know when our turn will come. So you can't be complacent. Start right
in and develop all your good qualities to the full while you still have the
chance."
a 29h
§ "If you want to be a good person, make sure you know where true
goodness really lies. Don't just go through the motions of being good."
§ "We all want happiness, but for the most part we aren't interested in
building the causes for happiness. All we want are the results. But if we
don't take an interest in the causes, how are the results going to come
our way?"
§ When I first went to practice meditation with Ajaan Fuang, I asked

him if people really were reborn after death. He answered, "When you
start out practicing, the Buddha asks you to believe in only one thing:
karma. As for things aside from that, whether or not you believe them
isn't really important."
§ One year, shortly before the Rains Retreat -- a time when people
traditionally make resolutions to step up their practice of the Dhamma
-- one of Ajaan Fuang's students approached him and said that she was
thinking of observing the eight precepts during the Rains, but was
afraid that going without the evening meal would leave her hungry.
He retorted: "The Buddha fasted until he didn't have any flesh at all --
just skin and bones -- so that he could discover the Dhamma to teach
us, but here we can't even stand going without one single meal. It's
because of this that we're still swimming around in the cycle of birth
and death."
As a result, she resolved that she'd have to observe the eight precepts
on each Buddhist Sabbath -- the full moon, the new moon, and the
half-moon days -- during the three months of the Rains. And so she did.
At the end of the Rains she felt really proud of herself for having kept
to her resolution, but on her next visit to Ajaan Fuang, before she was
able to broach the topic at all, he commented, "You're lucky, you know.
Your Rains Retreat has only twelve days. Everyone else's is three
months."
On hearing this she felt so embarrassed that she has observed the
eight precepts every day throughout each Rains Retreat ever since.
§ Another student was meditating in Ajaan Fuang's presence when -- in

a spasm of mindlessness -- she slapped a mosquito that was biting her
a 30h
arm. Ajaan Fuang commented: "You charge a high price for your blood,
don't you? The mosquito asks for a drop, and you take its life in
exchange."
§ A young man was discussing the precepts with Ajaan Fuang and
came to number five, against taking intoxicants: "The Buddha forbade
alcohol because most people lose their mindfulness when they drink it,
right? But if you drink mindfully it's okay, isn't it, Than Phaw?"
"If you were really mindful," he answered, "you wouldn't drink it in the
first place."
§ There seem to be more excuses for breaking the fifth precept than
for any other. One evening another student was conversing with Ajaan
Fuang at the same time that a group of people were sitting around
them in meditation. "I can't observe the fifth precept," he said,
"because I'm under a lot of group pressure. When we have social
occasions at work, and everyone else in the group is drinking, I have to
drink along with them."
Ajaan Fuang pointed to the people sitting around them and asked,
"This group isn't asking you to drink. Why don't you give in to their
group pressure instead?"
§ The seamstress saw her friends observing the eight precepts at Wat
Dhammasathit, and so decided to try it herself. But in the middle of the
afternoon, as she was walking through the monastery, she passed a
guava tree. The guavas looked inviting, so she picked one and took a
bite.
Ajaan Fuang happened to be standing not far away, and so he

remarked, "Hey. I thought you were going to observe the eight
precepts. What's that in your mouth?"
The seamstress realized in a jolt that she had broken her precepts, but
Ajaan Fuang consoled her, "It's not all that necessary to observe the
eight precepts, but make sure you observe the one precept, okay? Do
you know what the one precept is?"
"No, Than Phaw. What is it?"

a 31h
"Not doing any evil. I want you to hold onto this one for life."
§ A woman came to Wat Dhammasathit to observe the precepts and

meditate for a week, but by the end of the second day she told Ajaan
Fuang that she had to return home, because she was afraid her family
couldn't get along without her. He taught her to cut through her
worries by saying, "When you come here, tell yourself that you've died.
One way or another, your family will have to learn to fend for
themselves."
§ On his first visit to Wat Dhammasathit, a middle-aged man was

surprised to see an American monk. He asked Ajaan Fuang, "How is it
that Westerners can ordain?"
Ajaan Fuang's answer: "Don't Westerners have hearts?"
§ A Bangkok magazine once carried the serialized autobiography of a

lay meditator who used his powers of concentration to treat diseases.
One installment mentioned how he had visited Ajaan Fuang,
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Ê3333æ3333¶333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

computer networks
Introduction

a 34h




a 35h





a 36h


a 37h

to incidents peculiar to Thai culture, or
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu

computer networks
Introduction

a 40h




a 41h





a 42h


a 43h


included almost all of Transcendent Discernment along with
highlights from the commemorative volume. Not everything is a
straight translation from these books, for in some cases I have had to
retell the anecdotes to make them more accessible to a Western
reader. I have been careful throughout, though, to translate the
message of Ajaan Fuang's own words as exactly as possible.

whole.
a 44h

Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(Geoffrey DeGraff)
1993.

January, 1999
Mind What You Say


a 45h


either."

decided to stay.
a 46h
to his death below.
places."

me!"
it."
a 47h


their magazines.

a 48h
they heard:
anything else."
Mind What You Eat
§ "We human beings have long tongues, you know. You sit around and
suddenly your tongue flicks out to sea: You want to eat seafood. Then
it flicks around the world: You want to eat foreign cuisine. You have to
train your tongue and shrink it down to size."

a 49h

anyone who doesn't have an
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu

computer networks
Introduction

Lee Dhammadharo, a member of the forest ascetic tradition
founded by Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto, came to set up a meditation
monastery in an old cemetery just outside of Chanthaburi. Taken with
Ajaan Lee's teachings, Ajaan Fuang re-ordained in the sect to which
Ajaan Lee belonged and joined him at his new monastery.
a 52h



a 53h



At first I resented the disruption of the monastery's quiet r outine,

but I began to notice something interesting: People who never would
have thought of meditating were happy to help with the weekend

a 54h



a 55h


whole.
a 56h

Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(Geoffrey DeGraff)
1993.

January, 1999
Mind What You Say


and no matter how much I have to say, it doesn't tire me out. In
fact, I usually end up with more energy than when I started. But if
they're not intent on listening, then I get worn out after the second or
third word."
a 57h


either."

decided to stay.
a 58h
to his death below.
places."

me!"
it."
a 59h


their magazines.

a 60h
they heard:
anything else."
Mind What You Eat
§ "We human beings have long tongues, you know. You sit around and
suddenly your tongue flicks out to sea: You want to eat seafood. Then
it flicks around the world: You want to eat foreign cuisine. You have to
train your tongue and shrink it down to size."
a 61h

anyone who doesn't have an orange isn't a child of Than Phaw."
Some of the group were observing the eight precepts, which forbid
eating food after noon, so they were able to slip through the net.
Everyone else, though, helped him or herself to the oranges, even
though a few of them felt bad about eating food intended for the
monks.
When they arrived at the wat, they told Ajaan Fuang what had
happened, and he immediately lit into them, saying that anyone who
takes food intended for monks and eats it before it has been given to
the monks is going to be reborn as a hungry ghost in the next life.
This scared one woman in the group, who immediately responded, "But
I only ate one section!"
Ajaan Fuang replied, "Well, if you're going to be a hungry ghost, you

might as well eat enough to fill yourself up while you can."
§ During the Rains Retreat in 1977 a couple from the town of Rayong
came out to the wat almost every evening to practice meditation. The
strange thing about them was that whatever happened in the course of
their meditation would tend to happen to both of them at the same
time.
On one occasion they both found that they couldn't eat, because they
were overcome by a sense of the filthiness of food. This lasted for
three or four days without their getting weak or hungry, so they began
to wonder what stage they had reached in their meditation.
a 62h
When they mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang on their next visit to the
wat, he had them sit in meditation, and then told them. "Okay,
contemplate food to see what it's made of. Elements, right? And what's
your body made of? The very same elements. The elements in your
body need the elements in food in order to keep going. So why get all
worked up about the filthiness of food? Your body is even filthier. When
the Buddha teaches us to contemplate the filthiness of food, it's so that
we can get over our delusions about it -- not so that we won't be able
to eat."
That ended their inability to eat food.
People Practicing the Dhamma
§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students -- a seamstress -- was criticized by a

customer: "You practice the Dhamma, don't you? Then why are you so
greedy, charging such high prices? People practicing the Dhamma
should take only enough profit just to get by."
Although she knew her prices were fair, she couldn't think of a good
answer, so the next time she saw Ajaan Fuang she told him what had
happened. He replied, "The next time they say that, tell them -- 'Look,
I'm not practicing the Dhamma to be stupid.'"
§ When I first went to stay at Wat Dhammasathit, the B-52's from

Utapao Air Force Base could sometimes be heard high overhead in the
wee hours of the morning, flying on their bombing missions into
Cambodia. Each time I heard them, I began to wonder what business I
had meditating when there were so many injustices in the world that
needed to be fought. When I mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, he said,
"If you try to straighten out the world without really straightening
yourself out first, your own inner goodness will eventually break down,
and then where will you be? You won't be able to do anybody --
yourself or anyone else -- any good at all."
§ "As soon as we're born, we're sentenced to death -- just that we don't
know when our turn will come. So you can't be complacent. Start right
in and develop all your good qualities to the full while you still have the
chance."
a 63h
§ "If you want to be a good person, make sure you know where true
goodness really lies. Don't just go through the motions of being good."
§ "We all want happiness, but for the most part we aren't interested in
building the causes for happiness. All we want are the results. But if we
don't take an interest in the causes, how are the results going to come
our way?"
§ When I first went to practice meditation with Ajaan Fuang, I asked

him if people really were reborn after death. He answered, "When you
start out practicing, the Buddha asks you to believe in only one thing:
karma. As for things aside from that, whether or not you believe them
isn't really important."
§ One year, shortly before the Rains Retreat -- a time when people
traditionally make resolutions to step up their practice of the Dhamma
-- one of Ajaan Fuang's students approached him and said that she was
thinking of observing the eight precepts during the Rains, but was
afraid that going without the evening meal would leave her hungry.
He retorted: "The Buddha fasted until he didn't have any flesh at all --
just skin and bones -- so that he could discover the Dhamma to teach
us, but here we can't even stand going without one single meal. It's
because of this that we're still swimming around in the cycle of birth
and death."
As a result, she resolved that she'd have to observe the eight precepts
on each Buddhist Sabbath -- the full moon, the new moon, and the
half-moon days -- during the three months of the Rains. And so she did.
At the end of the Rains she felt really proud of herself for having kept
to her resolution, but on her next visit to Ajaan Fuang, before she was
able to broach the topic at all, he commented, "You're lucky, you know.
Your Rains Retreat has only twelve days. Everyone else's is three
months."
On hearing this she felt so embarrassed that she has observed the
eight precepts every day throughout each Rains Retreat ever since.
a 64h
§ Another student was meditating in Ajaan Fuang's presence when -- in

a spasm of mindlessness -- she slapped a mosquito that was biting her
arm. Ajaan Fuang commented: "You charge a high price for your blood,
don't you? The mosquito asks for a drop, and you take its life in
exchange."
§ A young man was discussing the precepts with Ajaan Fuang and
came to number five, against taking intoxicants: "The Buddha forbade
alcohol because most people lose their mindfulness when they drink it,
right? But if you drink mindfully it's okay, isn't it, Than Phaw?"
"If you were really mindful," he answered, "you wouldn't drink it in the
first place."
§ There seem to be more excuses for breaking the fifth precept than
for any other. One evening another student was conversing with Ajaan
Fuang at the same time that a group of people were sitting around
them in meditation. "I can't observe the fifth precept," he said,
"because I'm under a lot of group pressure. When we have social
occasions at work, and everyone else in the group is drinking, I have to
drink along with them."
Ajaan Fuang pointed to the people sitting around them and asked,
"This group isn't asking you to drink. Why don't you give in to their
group pressure instead?"
§ The seamstress saw her friends observing the eight precepts at Wat
Dhammasathit, and so decided to try it herself. But in the middle of
the afternoon, as she was walking through the monastery, she passed
a guava tree. The guavas looked inviting, so she picked one and took a
bite.
Ajaan Fuang happened to be standing not far away, and so he

remarked, "Hey. I thought you were going to observe the eight
precepts. What's that in your mouth?"
The seamstress realized in a jolt that she had broken her precepts, but
Ajaan Fuang consoled her, "It's not all that necessary to observe the
a 65h
eight precepts, but make sure you observe the one precept, okay? Do
you know what the one precept is?"
"No, Than Phaw. What is it?"
"Not doing any evil. I want you to hold onto this one for life."
§ A woman came to Wat Dhammasathit to observe the precepts and

meditate for a week, but by the end of the second day she told Ajaan
Fuang that she had to return home, because she was afraid her family
couldn't get along without her. He taught her to cut through her
worries by saying, "When you come here, tell yourself that you've died.
One way or another, your family will have to learn to fend for
themselves."
§ On his first visit to Wat Dhammasathit, a middle-aged man was

surprised to see an American monk. He asked Ajaan Fuang, "How is it
that Westerners can ordain?"
Ajaan Fuang's answer: "Don't Westerners have hearts?"
§ A Bangkok magazine once carried the serialized autobiography of a

lay meditator who used his powers of concentration to treat diseases.
One installment mentioned how he had visited Ajaan Fuang, who had
certified that he (the layman) had attained jhana. This didn't sound like
Ajaan Fuang's style, but soon after the magazine came out, unusual
numbers of people came to the wat under the impression that Ajaan
Fuang, like the author of the autobiography, could treat illnesses
through meditation. One woman asked him if he treated kidney
diseases, and he answered, "I treat only one kind of disease: diseases
of the mind."
§ A student asked permission to keep a notebook of Ajaan Fuang's

teachings, but he refused, saying, "Is that the sort of person you are? --
always carrying food around in your pocket for fear there'll be nothing
to eat?" Then he explained: "If you jot everything down, you'll feel it's
okay to forget what you've written, because it's all there in your
a 66h
notebook. The end result is that all the Dhamma will be in your
notebook, and none in your heart."
§ "The texts say that if you listen well, you'll gain wisdom. To listen
well, your heart has to be quiet and still. You listen with your heart, not
just with your ears. Once you've listened, you have to put what you've
heard into practice right then and there. That's when you'll reap the
benefits. If you don't put it into practice, what you've heard will never
become real inside you."
§ Once, while the chedi at Wat Dhammasathit was being built, some
of the students working on the chedi got into a serious argument. One
of them became so upset that she went to tell Ajaan Fuang, who was
staying in Bangkok at the time. When she finished her report, he
asked her, "Do you know what gravel is?"
Taken aback, she answered, "Yes."
"Do you know what diamonds are?"
"Yes."
"Then why don't you gather the diamonds? What good do

you get out of gathering gravel?"
§ Even in a Buddhist country like Thailand, some young

people who practice the Dhamma find that their parents
are against it, and feel that they should be spending their
time in more practical ways. Once that parents of the
seamstress tried to put a stop to her visits to Wat Makut,
and this got her very angry. But when she told her feelings
to Ajaan Fuang, he warned her, "You owe a huge debt to
your parents, you know. If you get angry with them, or yell
at them, you're stoking the fires of hell on your head, so
watch out. And remind yourself: If you wanted parents who
would encourage your practice, why didn't you choose to
be born from somebody else? The fact that they're your
parents shows that you've made past karma with them. So
just use up your old karma debts as they come. There's no
a 67h
need to create any more karma by getting into

arguments."
§ Channeling spirits has long been popular in Thailand, and

even some people who practice the Dhamma also like to
attend séances. But Ajaan Fuang once said, "If you want
results from your practice, you have to make up your mind
that the Buddha is your one and only refuge. Don't go
taking refuge in anything else."
§ "If you practice the Dhamma, you don't have to be

amazed by anyone else's powers or abilities. Whatever you
do, say or think, let your heart take its stand on the
principles of reason."
§ "The truth lies within you. If you're true in what you do,
you'll meet with the truth. If you're not, you'll meet only
with things that are fake and imitation."
Merit
§ One of Ajaan Fuang's student’s reports that the first time

she met him, he asked her, "Where do you usually go to
make merit?" She answered that she had helped sponsor
a Buddha image at that temple and contributed to a
crematorium at this temple, etc. So he asked further:
"Why haven't you made merit at your heart?"
§ Once Ajaan Fuang had one of his students cut

away some of the grass and weeds that were
threatening to overgrow the monastery. She
didn't really want to do the work, though, and
all the while as she was cutting away she kept
asking herself, "What kind of karma did I do
that I have to work so hard like this?" When
a 68h
she had finished, he told her, "Well, you got

some merit, but not very much."
"What? After all that work, I still didn't get very

much?"
"If you want your full measure of merit, the merit has to go
all the way to your heart."
§ There's another story involving grass. One day Ajaan

Fuang pointed out the overgrown grass near his hut and
asked the same woman, "Don't you want the grass at the
corral gate?"
"What do you mean, grass at the corral gate?"
"The opportunity to make merit right nearby that everyone

else overlooks. That's called 'grass at the corral gate.'"
§ Another time, Ajaan Fuang took some of his Bangkok

students up the hill to clean the area around the chedi.
They found a large pile of trash that someone had thrown
away up there, and one of the group complained, "How
could anyone be so disrespectful as to do something like
this?" But Ajaan Fuang told her, "Don't criticize whoever
did it. If they hadn't thrown the trash here, we wouldn't
have the opportunity to earn the merit that comes from
cleaning it up."
§ One day, after Ajaan Fuang's name had appeared in a

magazine article, a group of three men from Bangkok took
a day off from work to drive to Rayong and pay their
respects to him. After bowing down and then chatting for a
while, one of them said, "Our country still has monks who
practice rightly and well so that we can ask to have a share
of their paramis, isn't that true, Than Phaw?"
"It's true," he answered, "but if we keep asking for a share of their

paramis without developing any of our own, they'll see that we're
simply beggars and

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a 1h

Compiled and Translated by

Copyright © 1993, 1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu

For free distribution only

After Ajaan Lee's death, Ajaan Fuang was generally expected to

He spent a total of three Rains Retreats at Wat Makut, wandering

In spite of the poor conditions, Ajaan Fuang seemed to have a clear-

In my absence, he had begun to develop a small but devoted following

During my first years back in Rayong, the monastery was an incredibly

At first I resented the disruption of the monastery's quiet routine, but I

Ajaan Fuang's health deteriorated steadily in his later years. A mild

Even more disconcerting was to discover how little of his teachings

So after we printed the commemorative volume, I started a project of

to incidents peculiar to Thai culture, or because the puns and wordplay

In addition to the passages from The Language of the Heart, I have

In putting this book together, I have had the opportunity to reflect on

Metta Forest Monastery

Mind What You Say

§ I was constantly amazed at his willingness -- sometimes eagerness --

§ Sometimes his way of being kind was to be cross -- although he had

He answered, "That's so you'll remember. If words don't hit home with

The first student, on overhearing this, suddenly understood, and so

It happened one evening when he was teaching in Bangkok. Three

§ "We each have twÐÏà¡±á8888888888888888>88þÿ

By Ajaan Fuang Jotiko

Compiled and Translated by

Copyright © 1993, 1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu

For free distribution only

Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, my teacher, was born in 1915 to a small farming

One of the exceptions was a five-year period he spent during World

After Ajaan Lee's death, Ajaan Fuang was generally expected to

He spent a total of three Rains Retreats at Wat Makut, wandering

In spite of the poor conditions, Ajaan Fuang seemed to have a clear-

In my absence, he had begun to develop a small but devoted following

During my first years back in Rayong, the monastery was an incredibly

At first I resented the disruption of the monastery's quiet routine, but I

Ajaan Fuang's health deteriorated steadily in his later years. A mild

teaching schedule, although he rarely gave sermons to large groups of

Even more disconcerting was to discover how little of his teachings

So after we printed the commemorative volume, I started a project of

By Ajaan Fuang Jotiko

Compiled and Translated by

Copyright © 1993, 1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu

For free distribution only

Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, my teacher, was born in 1915 to a small farming

War II, meditating alone in the forests of northern Thailand. Another

After Ajaan Lee's death, Ajaan Fuang was generally expected to

He spent a total of three Rains Retreats at Wat Makut, wandering

In spite of the poor conditions, Ajaan Fuang seemed to have a clear-

In my absence, he had begun to develop a small but devoted following

During my first years back in Rayong, the monastery was an incredibly

At first I resented the disruption of the monastery's quiet routine, but I

Ajaan Fuang's health deteriorated steadily in his later years. A mild

people. Instead, he preferred to teach on an individual basis. His

Even more disconcerting was to discover how little of his teachings

So after we printed the commemorative volume, I started a project of

In addition to the passages from The Language of the Heart, I have

In putting this book together, I have had the opportunity to reflect on

Metta Forest Monastery

Mind What You Say