Where is the Good Person?

Where is the good person? It’s lying within us. If we’re good, then wherever we go the goodness goes with us.

People may praise us, blame us or treat us with contempt, but whatever they say or do, the goodness remains. Without goodness, our mind constantly wavers: we’re angered by criticism and pleased by praise.

Through knowing where the good person dwells, we have a principle to rely on in letting go of thought. If we go somewhere where people dislike us or say things about us, then we don’t consider that to be because they’re good or bad; we know that goodness and badness lie within us.

Nobody can know us as well as we know ourselves.

This reflection by Ajahn Chah as recounted by Ajahn Jayasaro is from the book, Stillness Flowing, (pdf) p.90.