Forest Tradition books...

Something I posted in a Buddhist forum...

The good thing about books by ajahns in the Thai Forest Tradition, for example, The Sound of Silence, is that you can pick them up, open any pages, and start reading. You don't even have to start from the beginning of a chapter. Most of the books are from talks given during meditation retreats to lay practitioners and in some cases to only bhikkhus during morning or evening meditation sessions.

If you compare these books to books that are scripture-based, you may be disappointed because they may seem so shallow. But are they? Many teachings are different ways of telling us how to meditate; to encourage us to practice, practice and practice and never stop practice; to guide us to watch the arising and falling of bodily pains or the popping up of thoughts, and see the nature of these feelings and thoughts as what they really are. Perhaps that is all there is to it, see for ourselves if the Buddha's teaching that all conditioned things have the nature of anicca, dukkha, anatta ...or not. That is the way to realize for oneself if the teachings are true or not true. Once in a while ajahns would guide us back to mindfulness, to be mindful of the experience of whatever arise and cease, to be with the present moment - as our minds tend to wander around, going into the past or the future.

In my recollection, teachings and books by the Thai Forest Tradition ajahns are mostly introductions in meditation sessions, not dhamma discussions. So the aim is to lead the readers or listeners to calm their minds and become more concentrated, for the minds to be relaxed and not tense, so that they can go on to meditate easily. If someone prefers to read scripture-based books, then they may not find what they are used to in these books by Thai Forest Tradition ajahns.

Are these books for you or not? That depends on how one practices. I myself prefer to start my meditation session by listening to talks by ajahns (MP3). If I read a book, say The Sound of Silence for example, I may not even finish the chapter, and start a meditation session when my mind has become a bit more quiet. It's "a" way to practice, to see for ourselves, without pre-conception, of how things really are; to let go and not to hang on.