A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah

Jack Kornfield and Paul Breiter's edited compilation of Ajahn Chah's dharma talks from Wat Pah Pong in northeast Thailand — the principal English-language source for one of the 20th century's most influential Theravada masters. Seven thematic sections move from foundational practice (the middle way, ending doubt, Buddhist psychology) through meditation in daily life, virtue, and the spiral of virtue-concentration-wisdom, to the nature of realisation.

The teacher whose Thai Forest tradition shaped Western Insight Meditation through Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein speaks throughout in the tradition's characteristic register: short, direct, and parable-driven. The book's title comes from Ajahn Chah's own image — a still mind, like a clear forest pool, in which the true nature of things is reflected without distortion.

Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things.

Ajahn Chah — the teaching that gives the book its title

Contents

Reception

The book that introduced Ajahn Chah to most Western practitioners and a foundational text for the Forest Tradition's institutional presence in English (the Amaravati and Abhayagiri monasteries his lineage founded). Read inside the tradition as faithful selection rather than full presentation; Ajahn Sumedho's later books and the Ajahn Chah Now collection complete the picture. Outside the tradition the book is regularly cited as one of the cleanest available statements of Theravada practice for Western readers.

Frequently asked

What is A Still Forest Pool about?

It is a compilation of Ajahn Chah's dharma talks from Wat Pah Pong monastery in northeast Thailand, edited by Jack Kornfield and Paul Breiter. Seven thematic sections cover Theravada meditation practice, the middle way, virtue, the spiral of virtue-concentration-wisdom, and the nature of realisation.

Who is Ajahn Chah?

Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) was a Thai Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master of the Thai Forest tradition. His teaching shaped Western Insight Meditation through students including Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein, who went on to co-found the Insight Meditation Society.

What does the title A Still Forest Pool mean?

The title comes from Ajahn Chah's own teaching: a mind made still through mindfulness becomes like a clear forest pool, in which the true nature of things — and the many rare animals that come to drink — are seen without distortion. This is, he says, the happiness of the Buddha.