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.
Interpretation
Meditation involves both insight and calmness, which are interconnected elements in the process.
In this quote, Ajahn Chah illustrates the dual nature of meditation, comparing it to a log of wood that cannot be separated into distinct ends—insight and calmness. Both aspects are integral to a complete practice; when one engages in true meditation, both insight and concentration develop together, highlighting the unity of the meditative experience and the mind's role in achieving balance within.
In practice
In a public talk about mindfulness, one might reference this quote to explain the holistic nature of meditation.
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.
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind.
Without frustration you will not discover that you might be able to do something on your own. We grow through conflict.
Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture.
In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.
Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like.
Much as we wish, not one of us can bring back yesterday or shape tomorrow. Only today is ours, and it will not be ours for long, and once it is gone it will never in all time be ours again. Thou only knowest what it holds in store for us, yet even we know something of what it will hold. The chance to speak the truth, to show mercy, to ease another’s burden. The chance to resist evil, to remember all the good times and good people of our past, to be brave, to be strong, to be glad.
Paul Edgecomb: What do you want me to do John? I'll do it. You want me to let you walk out of here and see how far you get? John Coffey: Now why would you want to do a foolish thing like that? Paul Edgecomb: When I die and I stand before God awaiting judgment and he asks me why I let one of HIS miracles die, what am I gonna say, that it was my job?
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