Ajahn Chah and Buddhist Transmission Modes

"At this time Ajahn Chah was wrestling with a crucial problem. He had studied the teachings on morality, meditation and wisdom, which the texts presented in minute and refined detail, but he could not see how they could actually be put into practice. Ajahn Mun told him that although the teachings are indeed extensive, at their heart they are very simple. With mindfulness established, if it is seen that everything arises in the heart-mind. ..right there is the true path of practice. This succinct and direct teaching was a revelation for Ajahn Chah, and transformed his approach to practice. The Way was clear."

from a bio: http://dhammatalks.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=36:ajahn-chah&Itemid=65

Ajahn Chah was a Buddhist Teacher in the Thai Forest tradition, and he taught many western students who still teach here today.

It strikes me that in this case, as in many others in many Buddhist traditions, the person who has a very powerful experience of transformation or enlightenment usually has it in a state of meditation, as the Buddha did, or a vision, or through a "conversation" with a teacher.  It rarely seems to happen when they are reading books or text, although in many cases there were no texts to read.

Most students who became enlightened in some sense did study texts, or the verbal early teachings, and recited them, over and over, which in some cases seem to prepare them for the final teaching and sometimes not.  In our age as we go over books and words on the internet, how much value is there in this?  Is there enough value placed on the meditative state of the Buddha or the one-on-one chats like Ajahn Chah?  I have to say that one of my most powerful connections was with youtube videos of Pema Chodron and my physical connection of darshan with Amma.  The first was both energetic and verbal manifesting in thought and a feeling, metta, compassion or lovingkindness which extended as far as I could be aware.  The latter was energetic and not words, more Zen really, in that sense, the tradition I have focused on most of my life.  

Amma is not Buddhist nor does she attach to any school or path.  Because I feel an affinity with Vedic teaching and Buddhist schools, I feel comfortable in the realm of Amma or Tibetan Buddhism as they hold or encompass many views or stages.