Before you is a book by one of Thailand’s most famous teachers of Theravada—Ajahn Chaa. This collection of reflections is not only about suffering and meditation practice, but also about how to give us some understanding of impermanence, virtue, the absence of “self,” and so on. We hope that in moments of private contemplation, the reader/listener will use this small book as a companion and a “good friend,” and perhaps catch a glimpse of what “not—Ajahn Chaa” is like, as he used to say: “I’ve always spoken about things that must be developed and things that must be abandoned, but in reality, there is nothing that needs to be developed and nothing that needs to be abandoned.”