In my Dhamma talks, I’ve explained how all people in the world are fundamentally the same. Calling them Europeans, Americans, or Thais just indicates where they were born or the colour of their hair, but they all have basically the same kind of minds and bodies; all belong to the same family of people being born, growing old, and dying. When you understand this, differences become unimportant.
Outer customs and language may appear different, but the human mind has natural characteristics that are the same for all people. Greed and hatred are the same in an Eastern or a Western mind. Suffering and the cessation of suffering are the same for all people.
I teach this way to enable people to let go of their attachments to various concepts and to see what is happening in a straight forward and natural way.
– Ajahn Chah, A Still Forest Pool