The practice of Dhamma is not dependent on being a monk, a novice or a layperson; it depends on straightening out your understanding. If our understanding is correct, we arrive at peace. Whether you are ordained
or not it’s the same, every person has the chance to practice Dhamma, to contemplate it. We all contemplate the same thing. If you attain peace, it’s all the same peace; it’s the same path, with the same methods.
Therefore the Buddha didn’t discriminate between laypeople and monks, he taught all people to practice in order to know the truth of the saṅkhārā. When we know this truth, we let them go. If we know the truth there will be no more becoming or birth. How is there no more birth? There is no way for birth to take place because we fully know the truth of saṅkhārā. If
we fully know the truth, then there is peace. Having or not having, it’s all the same. Gain and loss are one. The Buddha taught us to know this. This is peace; peace from happiness, unhappiness, gladness and sorrow.
Ajahn Chah