Renowned for the beauty and simplicity of his teachings, Ajahn Chah was Thailand's best-known meditation teacher. His charisma and wisdom influenced many American and European seekers, and helped shape the American Vipassana community. This collection brings together for the first time Ajahn Chah's most powerful teachings, including those on meditation, liberation from suffering, calming the mind, enlightenment and the 'living dhamma'. Most of these talks have previously only been available in limited, private editions and the publication of Food for the Heart therefore represents a momentous occasion: the hugely increased accessibility of his words and wisdom. Western teachers such as Ram Dass and Jack Kornfield have extolled Chah's teachings for years and now readers can experience them directly in this book.

Food for the Heart, Ajahn Chah, Wisdom Publications, 396 pages, $18.95.

Ajahn Chah (1918-1992) was part of a movement to establish simple monastic communities in the remote forests of Thailand. At this date over 100 forest monasteries have been established which look to his teaching as their inspiration; many Westerners as well as Thais, have trained in these monasteries. Ajahn Chah's simple yet profound style of teaching has a special appeal to Westerners, and in 1979 the first of several branch monasteries in the West was established in England and there are now more than ten monasteries in the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

	Foreword    by Jack Kornfield		7
	Introduction		9
	1.	About This Mind	41
	2.	Fragments of a Teaching	43
Part 1	Conduct--Virtue and the World of the Senses
	3.	Living in the World with Dhamma	53
	4.	Making the Heart Good	61
	5.	Sense Contact--the Fount of Wisdom	69
	6.	Understanding Vinaya	81
	7.	Maintaining the Standard	93
	8.	Why Are We Here?	101
	9.	The Flood of Sensuality	111
	10.	The Two Faces of Reality	119
Part 2	Meditation
	11.	A Gift of Dhamma	135
	12.	Inner Balance	141
	13.	The Path in Harmony	147
	14.	The Training of the Heart	153
	15.	Reading the Natural Mind	163
	16.	The Key to Liberation	179
	17.	Meditation (Samadhi Bhavana)	219
	18.	Dhamma Fighting	227
	19.	Just Do It!	231
	20.	Right Practice--Steady Practice	239
	21.	Samma Samadhi--Detachment Within Activity	249
	22.	In the Dead of Night	257
Part 3	Wisdom
	23.	What Is Contemplation?	275
	24.	Dhamma Nature	279
	25.	Living with the Cobra	287
	26.	The Middle Way Within	291
	27.	The Peace Beyond	297
	28.	Convention and Liberation	307
	29.	No Abiding	313
	30.	Right View--the Place of Coolness	319
	31.	Our Real Home	323
	32.	The Four Noble Truths	333
	33.	"Tuccho Pothila"--Venerable Empty Scripture	341
	34.	"Not Sure!"--the Standard of the Noble Ones	351
	35.	Still, Flowing Water	363
	36.	Transcendence	373
	37.	Toward the Unconditioned	383
	38.	Epilogue	395
	Glossary		397
	Notes		403
	Sources of the Text		409
	Index		415