To give up doing evil is more important than making merit.
Interpretation
Choosing to stop doing bad deeds is more valuable than performing good deeds.
This quote by Ajahn Chah emphasizes the importance of ceasing harmful actions rather than simply focusing on accumulating positive contributions. It suggests that the moral and ethical responsibility to refrain from causing harm is fundamental to spiritual and personal growth, and that positive actions will follow when one prioritizes the intention to do no harm.
In practice
In a discussion on personal growth, one might quote this to highlight the importance of ethical behavior over just performing good acts.
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free.
When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
To observe and watch one's own mind is something really interesting. The untrained mind will run and follow its old habit patterns. Because it has not been trained and taught, it will get lost in all kinds of stories and issues. Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one's own mind.
Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
One cool judgement is worth a thousand hasty councils.
Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.
Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand.
It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.
Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep.
I was blessed with a sense of my own destiny. I have never sold myself short. I have never judged myself by other people's standards. I have always expected a great deal of myself, and if I fail, I fail myself. So failure or reversal does not bring out resentment in me because I cannot blame others for any misfortune that befalls me.
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