means to help the mind see the truth.”
Similes by Ajahn Chah
part 2
Householder
- What is the mind? The mind doesn’t have any form. That which receives impressions, both good and bad, we call mind. It is like the owner of a house. The owner stays at home while visitors come to see him. He is the one who receives the visitors. Who receives sense impressions? What is it that perceives? Who lets go of sense impressions? That is what we call mind. But people can’t see it. They think themselves around in circles. “What is the mind, what is the brain?” Don’t confuse the issue like that. What is that which receives impressions? Some impressions it likes and some it doesn’t like. Who is that? Is there one who likes and dislikes? Sure there is, but you can’t see it. That is what we call mind.
Ignorant Child
- Actually, you know, we human beings, the way we do things, the way we live, the way we are, are really like little children. A child doesn’t know anything. If an adult observes the actions of a child, the way it plays and jumps around, its actions don’t seem to serve much purpose. If our mind is untrained, it is like a child. We speak without awareness and act without wisdom. We may degenerate but not know it. A child is ignorant and so it just plays as children do. Our ignorant mind is the same. That is why the Buddha taught us to train this mind of ours.
Infant
- See like and dislike arising from sense contact, and do not attach to them. Don’t be anxious for quick results or instant progress. An infant has to crawl first before he learns to walk and run. Be determined in practicing virtue and keep on meditating.
Itchy Head
- If we don’t know how to handle suffering when it arises, we won’t be able to get any relief from it. It’s just as if we have an itch on our head and we scratch our leg! If it’s our head that’s itchy, then we’re obviously not going to get any relief by scratching our leg.
Key
- If we take the precepts simply out of tradition, then even though the master teaches the truth, our practice will be deficient. We may be able to study the teachings and repeat them, but we have to practice them if we really want to understand. If we do not develop the practice, this may well be an obstacle to our penetrating to the heart of Buddhism, and we will not get to the heart of Buddhism, and we will not get to understand the essence of the Buddhist religion.
The practice is like a key to a trunk. If we have the right key in our hand, no matter how tight or strong the lock may be, when we take the key and turn it, the lock falls open. If we have no key, we won’t be able to open the lock, and we will never know what is inside the trunk.
Lead for Gold
- The arahant is really different from ordinary people. The things that seem true and valuable to us are false and worthless to an arahant. Trying to interest an arahant in worldly things would be like offering lead in exchange for gold. We think, “Here is a whole pile of lead, so why won’t he want to trade his piece of gold which is so much smaller?”
Leaving an Old Friend
- Greed, hatred and delusion are the causes of all our suffering. We must learn to overcome them and free ourselves from their control. This is very hard to do. It is like having the Buddha tell us to leave a friend we have known and loved from the time we were still children. It is not easy to make the separation.
Light Switch and Bowl
- It is necessary to have concentration firmly established in our practice before wisdom can arise. To concentrate the mind can be likened to turning on a light switch, and wisdom to the light that appears as a result. If there were no switch, there would be no light. Likewise, concentration is like an empty bowl, and wisdom is like the food that you put in it. If there were no bowl, there would be no place to put the food.
Lizard
- The sutra gives us the simile of a certain man trying to catch a lizard which had run into a termite mound. The mound had six holes in it. Now if the lizard had run in there, how could the man catch it? He would have to close off five of the holes, and leave just one hole open. Then he would have to sit and guard that hole. When the lizard ran out – bop! – he got it. Observing the mind is like this. Closing off the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue and the body, one leaves only the mind. To close off means to restrain the five senses, leaving only the mind to be observed. Meditation is the same as catching the lizard.
Lost Something
- If you understand that good and bad, right and wrong, all lie within you, then you won’t have to go looking for them somewhere else. Just look for them where they arise. If you don’t, it’d be like losing something in one place and then going to look for it in another. If you lose something here, you must look for it here. Even if you don’t find it at first, keep looking where you dropped it. But, usually, you lose it here, then go looking over there. When will you ever find it? Good and bad actions lie within you. One day you’re bound to see it. Just keep looking right here.
Lotus Leaf
- The Buddha said that the Enlightened Ones were far from defilements. This doesn’t mean that they ran away from defilements. They did not. Defilements were there. He compared it to a lotus leaf in a pond of water. The leaf and the water exist together. They are in contact but the leaf doesn’t become wet. The water can be compared to defilements and the lotus leaf to the enlightened mind. The mind of one who practices doesn’t run anywhere. It stays right where it is. Good and evil, happiness and unhappiness right and wrong they all arise, and he knows them all. The meditator simply knows them, but does not allow them to wet his mind. In other words, he does not cling to any of them.
Lotuses
- We can compare the mind to lotuses in a pond. Some of the lotuses are still stuck in the mud, some have grown through the mud but are still underwater, some have reached the surface of the water, and some have opened in the sun. Which lotus do you want to be? If you want to be below the surface, be careful – the fish and turtles will bite!
Lump of Ice v
- How does the body decline? Consider a lump of ice. Originally it was simply water. We then freeze it and it becomes ice for awhile, and then it melts and turns into water again. We can see how the ice declines much the same as the body. We all, without exception, are lumps of deterioration. When we are born we bring this inherent nature of dissolution with us. We can’t avoid it. At birth we bring old age, sickness and death along with us. Right now the lump is hard, just like the lump of ice. But look at the body closely. It’s ageing every day. It declines just like the lump of ice, following the way of nature. Soon, like the lump of ice, the body will melt away and be all gone, too.
Mango
- We speak of wisdom and concentration as separate things, but in essence they are one and the same. They arise fro the same place but take different directions. It’s like a mango. A mango is first small and green. It then grows larger and larger until it is ripe. The small mango, the large one and the ripe one are the same mango, not different mangoes. Only its conditions have changed. In Dhamma practice, one condition is called concentration, and the later condition is called wisdom, but in actuality samadhi and pañña are both the same thing, just like the mango.
Market Lady
- Don’t be disappointed if you don’t see quick results in your practice. What is important is simply to continue your practice with determination and perseverance. Don’t give up so readily, like a market lady who wants to sell her goods and doesn’t give up. She keeps on yelling, “Coconu-u-u-ts, rice c-a-a-akes! Get your coconuts and rice cakes here!” She’s determined to sell them and won’t give up until she does.
Meat
- All that people want these days is money. They think that if they just get enough of it, everything will be all right. So they spend all their time looking for money. They don’t look for goodness. This is like wanting meat, but not wanting salt to preserve it. You just leave the meat around the house to rot. Those who want money should know not only how to find it, but also how to look after it. If you want meat, you can’t expect to buy it and then just leave it lying around the house. It’ll just go rotten. Goodness arises from a cause. Whenever we create good actions, goodness arises in the mind. If we understand causes in this way, we can create those causes and the results will naturally follow. But people don’t usually create the right causes. They want goodness so much and yet they don’t work to bring it about. This kind of thinking is wrong, and the result of wrong thinking is rotten results – just turmoil and confusion.
Meat Between Your Teeth
- It’s hard to give up sensual pleasure. Consider sensual pleasure like eating some meat which gets stuck between your teeth. When you get it out, you feel some relief for a while. Maybe you even think that you won’t eat any more meat. But when you see it again, you can’t resist it. You eat some more and it gets stuck, you have to pick it out again, which gives some relief once more, until you eat some more meat. That’s all there is to it. Sensual pleasures are just like this. When the meat gets stuck in your teeth, there’s discomfort. You take a toothpick and pick it out and experience some relief. There’s nothing more to it than this with sensual desire.
Millipede
- If many people live together, as we do here in the monastery, they can still practice comfortably if their views are in harmony. It’s not true to say that there will be disharmony just because there are many of us. Just look at a millipede. A millipede has many legs, doesn’t it? Just looking at it you’d think it would have difficulty walking, but actually it doesn’t. It has its own order and rhythm. In our practice it’s the same. If we practice properly, even if we number in the hundreds or thousands, no matter how many we are, we will live in harmony.
Millipede and Chicken
- Westerners are very “clever” and can’t accept many principles of Dhamma. I once asked some learned people if they had ever seen a millipede. It has many legs, but how fast can it run? Can it outrun a chicken? No! Yet a chicken has only two legs. How come this animal with so many legs can’t even keep up with a chicken?
Money, Wax, and Chicken Dung
- Rules and conventions are established to make things more convenient, that’s all. Let’s take money, for example. In olden times, people used materials and goods to barter as money. But they were difficult to keep, so they started to use coins and notes. Perhaps in the future we’ll have a new royal decree saying only lumps of wax can be used as money throughout the country, or chicken dung. Then people would start fighting and killing each other over wax or chicken dung. This is just the way it is. What we use for money is simply a convention that we have set up. It is money because we have decided it to be so, but in reality what is money? Nobody can say. When there is a popular agreement about something, then a convention comes about to fulfill the need. The world is just conventions.
- But it is difficult to get ordinary people to understand this. Our money, house, family, our children and relatives are simply conventions that we have invented, and we really believe they are all ours, but seen in the light of Dhamma, they don’t belong to us. It’s when we think that they do that we suffer.
Monkey
- When we know that it is the nature of the mind to be constantly changing, we will understand it. We have to know when the mind is thinking good and bad, that it’s changing all the time. If we understand this, then even while we are thinking we can be at peace. For example, suppose at home you had a pet monkey. Monkeys don’t stay still for long. They like to jump around and grab onto things. That’s how monkeys are. Now you come to the monastery and see the monkey here. This monkey doesn’t stay still either, does it? It jumps around, too, but it doesn’t bother you. Why doesn’t it bother you? Because you are raising a monkey yourself so you know what they’re like. If you know just one monkey, no matter how many provinces you go to, no matter how many monkeys you see, you won’t be bothered by them, because you’re someone who understands monkeys. If we understand monkeys, then we won’t become like a monkey. If we don’t understand monkeys, we may become like one ourselves. When we see it reaching for this and that, we shout, “Hey!” We get angry. But if we understand the nature of monkeys, we’ll then see that the monkey at home and the monkey at the monastery are just he same. Why should we get annoyed by them? When we see what monkeys are like, that’s enough. We can be at peace.
Nest of Red Ants
- Sensual pleasure is like a nest full of red ants. We take a piece of wood and poke at the nest until the ants come running out, crawling down the wood and into our faces, biting our eyes and ears. And yet we still don’t see the difficulty we are in. In the teaching of the Buddha, it is said that if we’ve seen the harm of something, no matter how good it may seem to be, we know that it’s harmful. Whatever we haven’t yet seen the harm of, we just think it’s good. If we haven’t yet seen the harm of anything, we can’t get out of it.
Old Granny
- Most people wait until they get old before they start going to a monastery and start practicing the Dhamma. Why do they leave it till they get old? It’s like old grandma. You say, “Hey, Granny, let’s go to the monastery!” “Oh, you go ahead,” she answers. “My ears aren’t so good anymore.” You see what I mean? When she had good ears what was she listening to? Finally if she does go to the temple, she listens to the sermon but hasn’t got an idea of what’s being said. Don’t wait until you’re all used up before you start thinking of practicing the Dhamma.
Old Liar
- Our habits try to deceive us over and over again, but if we remain aware of it, we will eventually be able to ignore them altogether. It’s like having an old person come around and tell us the same old lies time after time. When we realize what he’s up to, we won’t believe him any longer. But it takes a long time before we realize it, because deception is always there.
Old Rag
- If we see everything as uncertain, then their value fades away. All things become insignificant. Why should we hold onto things that have no value? We should treat things as we do an old rag that we keep only to wipe our feet with. We see all sensations as equal in value because they all have the same nature, that of being uncertain.
Paddy Worker
- Practice consistently and not in spurts like the way some people work in their rice paddy. At first they work very hard and then they stop. They don’t even bother to pick up their tools. They just walk off and leave them behind. Later on when the soil has all caked up, they remember their work and do a bit more, only to leave it again shortly afterwards. Doing things this way you’ll never get a decent paddy. Our practice is the same.
Party Revelers
- People go through life blindly, ignoring death like revelers at a party feasting on fine foods. They ignore that later they will have to go to the toilet, so they do not bother to find out where there is one. When nature finally calls, they have no idea where to g and are in a mess.
Pedal Sewing Machine
- When we sit in meditation, we only watch the breath. We don’t try to control it. If we force our breath to be too long or too short, we won’t feel balanced and our mind won’t become peaceful. We must just let our breathing happen naturally. It’s like using a pedal sewing machine. We can’t force the pedal. We push it up and down and let it go naturally. If we force it, the sewing won’t be smooth and easy. So before we actually start to sew anything, we first practice pedaling the machine to get our co-ordination right, then the machine can do its work naturally. Watching the breath is similar. We don’t get concerned over how long or short, weak or strong it is. We just note it. We simply let it be natural and follow it.
Piece of Cake
- If you still have happiness and still have suffering, you are someone who is still not yet full. It’s as if you’re eating a piece of your favorite cake, but before you can finish eating it, it falls out of your hand. You regret the loss, don’t you? When you feel the loss, you suffer, don’t you? So you need to throw away both happiness and suffering. They’re only food for those who are not yet full. In truth, happiness is suffering in disguise, but in such a subtle form that you don’t see it. If you cling to happiness, it’s the same as clinging to suffering, but you don’t despair, don’t lose yourself in it. See that happiness and suffering have the same equal value.
Planting Fruit Trees
- Our practice can be likened to planting fruit trees. As with fruit trees, it’s possible to get fruit quickly by taking a cutting and planting it, but the tree won’t be long-lasting or resilient. Another way is to take a seed and cultivate the tree right from the seed. In this way it will be strong and enduring. This is the same with our practice.
Poisonous Injection
- There are two kinds of suffering: ordinary suffering and extra-ordinary suffering: ordinary suffering is the suffering that is the inherent nature of all conditioned phenomena. Extra-ordinary suffering is the kind that creeps in from the outside. Let’s see how they differ by using the following example: Suppose you are sick and go to see a doctor. The doctor decides to give you an injection. When the needle pierces the skin, there is some pain, which is only natural. When the needle is withdrawn, the pain disappears. This is like the ordinary kind of suffering. It’s no problem; everybody experiences it. The extra-ordinary kind of suffering is the suffering that arises from grasping onto things. This is like having an injection with a syringe filled with poison. This is no longer an ordinary kind of pain. It is the pain which ends in death.
Precious Pen
- If you don’t understand what peace is, you’ll never be able to find it. For example, suppose you had a very expensive pen which you usually carry in the right front picket of your shirt. But one day you put it somewhere else and forgot. Later when you reach for the pen in its usual place, it’s not there. You get a fright. You think you’ve lost it. You get a fright because of wrong understanding. You don’t see the truth of the matter and so you suffer as a result. Whatever you do, you can’t stop regretting having lost your precious pen: “Such a shame! I spent so much money on it and now it’s gone!” But then you remember, “Oh, of course! When I went to bathe I put the pen in the back pocket of my pants!” The moment you remember this you already feel better, even if you still haven’t seen the pen. You no longer worry about it. And as you’re walking along, you run your hand over your back pocket, and there it is. Your mind was deceiving you all along. The worry came from your ignorance. Now, seeing your pen again, you are beyond doubt, beyond worry. This sort of peace comes from seeing the cause of the problem, the cause of suffering. As soon as you remember that the pen was in your back pocket, your suffering ended. Knowing the truth brings peace.
Raging Tiger
- This heart of ours is like a raging tiger that lives in a cage. If it can’t get what it wants, it growls and makes trouble. It must be tamed with meditation. Our defilements are also like a raging tiger. This tiger we should put in a solid cage made of mindfulness, energy, patience, and endurance. We then don’t feed it its habitual desires, and it’ll slowly starve to death.
Red-Hot Coal and Bird
- The household life is easy and difficult at the same time. It’s easy to understand what to do, but difficult to do it. It’s as if you were holding a piece of red-hot coal in your hand and came to me complaining about it. I’d tell you to simply let go of it, but you’d refuse saying, “I want it to be cold.” Well, either you drop it, or you must learn to be very, very patient. “How can I just drop it?” you ask, “how can I just drop my family?” Just drop them in your heart. Let go of your attachment to them. Of course you still have obligations to your family. You are like a bird that has laid eggs. You have the responsibility to sit on them and look after them after they have hatched. Just don’t think in terms of can I just drop my family?” Just drop them in your heart. Let go of your attachment to them. Of course you still have obligations to your family. You are like a bird that has laid eggs. You have the responsibility to sit on them and look after them after they have hatched. Just don’t think in terms of my family. This kind of thinking is just another cause of suffering. Don’t think either that your happiness depends upon whether you’re living alone or with others. Just live with the Dhamma and find true happiness.
Restless Monkey
- The mind out of control is like a restless monkey jumping here and there senselessly. You have to learn to control it. See the real nature of the mind: impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. Don’t just follow it as it jumps around. Learn to master it. Chain it down and let it wear itself out and die. Then you have a dead monkey, and you’re finally at peace.
Rivers and Streams
- When people enter the stream of Dhamma, it’s the one Dhamma. Even though they may come from different places, they harmonize, they merge. Just like the rivers and streams that flow to the sea . . . once they enter the sea, they all have the same taste and color. It’s the same with people.
Rope
- Trying to end suffering without first understanding the cause is like pulling on a rope that’s stuck. You just pull the end of the rope over here. The other end of the rope is still stuck over there so it never comes. What to do to make it come? It does not come free because you never seek out the source, the root. You just get lost in pulling on this end. What is it stuck on? It must be stuck on something, and that’s why it doesn’t come. Go to the source, untie the knot, and be free.
Sand and Salt
- Problems occur because people cling to conventions and what they suppose things to be. If you look closely, in the absolute sense, however, you will see that things don’t really exist. Our house, our family, our money are simply conventions that we have invented. Seen in the light of Dhamma, they don’t belong to us. Even this body is not really ours, and just because we suppose it to be so doesn’t make it so.
It would be like taking a handful of sand and agreeing to call it salt. Would that make it salt? Well, yes, it would, but in name only and not in reality. You still wouldn’t be able to cook with it, because no matter what you call it, it’s still sand. Supposing sand to be salt doesn’t make it so.
School boy
- Practicing Dhamma is like a child learning to write. At first he doesn’t write nicely – big, long loops and squiggles. He writes like a child. After a while the writing improves through practice. Practicing the Dhamma is like this. At first you are awkward, sometimes calm, sometimes not. You don’t really know what’s what. Some people get discouraged. But don’t slacken off. Live with effort, just like the schoolboy. As he gets older he writes better and better. From writing badly he grows to write beautifully, all because of the practice from childhood.
Spillway
- When you make a dam, you must make a spillway, too. Then when the water rises too high, the water can flow off safely. When it’s full to the brim, you open your spillway. You have to have a safety valve like this. Understanding impermanence is the safety valve of the Noble Ones. If you also have this safety valve, you will also be at peace.
Splinter in Your Foot
- The Buddha taught us to escape from suffering using wisdom. For example, suppose you had a splinter embedded in your foot. Sometimes you step on a stone that presses on the splinter, and it really hurts. So you feel around your foot. But not finding anything, you shrug it off and walk on a bit more. Eventually you again step on something else, and the pain is there again. This happens many times. What is the cause of that pain? The cause is that splinter in your foot. Whenever the pain arises, you may take a look and feel around a bit, but not seeing the splinter, you let it go. The pain recurs again and again until the desire to take it out is constantly with you. Finally it reaches a point where you make up your mind once and for all to get that splinter out – because it hurts! Our effort in the practice must be like this. Wherever it huts, wherever there’s friction, we must investigate. We must confront the problem head on and not just shrug it off. Just take the splinter out of your foot. Wherever your mind gets stuck you must take note. As you look into it, you will know it, see it and experience it as it is.
Stubborn Horse
- The mind is as stubborn as a horse and as hard to train. What do you do when you’ve got a horse that’s stubborn? Don’t feed it for a while and it will soon come around again. And when it listens to your command, feed it a little. We can train the mind in the same way. With right effort, wisdom will arise.
Stump
- You should get at the root causes of things. It’s like you are going for a walk and you trip over a stump. So you get a hatchet and cut it, but it grows back and you trip over it again. So you cut it again. But it keeps n growing back. You’d better get a tractor and plow it up. But don’t put it off. It’s like saying to yourself, “Should I go today? Should I . . . ? Maybe I’ll go tomorrow . . . ?” Then the next day, “Should I go, or shouldn’t I?” And you keep on doing this day after day until you die and you never go anywhere. You’ve got to think, “Go!” and that’s it!
Sweet Dessert
- Practice is a matter of directly looking at the mind. This is wisdom. When you have examined and understood the mind, then you have the wisdom to know the limitations of concentration or books. If you have practiced and understood not0clinging, you can then return to the books. They will be like a sweet dessert. They can help you to teach others. Or you can go back to practicing absorption, because now you have the wisdom to know not to hold onto anything.
Sweet Mango
- Dhamma is in your mind, not in the forest. Don’t believe others. Just listen to your own mind. You don’t have to go and look anywhere else. Wisdom is in yourself, just like a sweet ripe mango is already in a young green one.
Sweet Papayas
- Defilements can be useful if used skillfully. It’s like taking chicken and buffalo dung and putting them into the ground to help make our papaya trees grown. Dung is filthy stuff, but when the trees give fruit, the papayas are so nice and sweet. Whenever doubt arises, for example, look at it, investigate right there. This will help your practice grow and bear sweet fruit.
Tape Recorder
- If listening to Dhamma makes your heart peaceful, that’s good enough. You don’t need to make an effort to remember anything. Some of you may not believe this, but if your heart is peaceful and you just listen to what is being said, letting it pass by while contemplating continuously, then you’ll be like a tape recorder. After some time, when you turn on, everything will be there. Have no fear that there won’t be anything. As soon as you turn on your tape recorder, everything will be there.
Thief and Boxer
- People who have wrong understanding practice meditation like a thief who, after having got caught, hires a clever lawyer to get him out of trouble. Once he is out, however, he starts stealing again. Or they are like a boxer who gets beaten up, nurses his wounds, and then goes to fight again which only brings him fresh wounds. And this cycle goes on endlessly. The purpose of meditation is more than just calming ourselves from time to time, getting ourselves out of trouble, but seeing and uprooting the causes which make us not calm to begin with.
Thieves and Murderers
- Your body and mind are like a gang of thieves and murderers. They keep trying to drag you into the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion. They cheat you through the pleasures of the senses. They call in sweet melodic voices from the other side of the door, saying, “Oh, come here, please come here.” And when you open the door, they shoot you.
Tightly Woven Net
- Know and watch your heart. It’s pure but emotions come to color it. So let your mind be like a tightly woven net to catch emotions and feelings that come, and investigate them before you react.
Tree
- Fostering the practice of Buddhism can be likened to a tree. A tree has roots, a trunk, branches and leaves. Every single leaf and branch, including the trunk, depends on the roots to absorb nutriment and send it up to them. A tree is dependent on the roots for sustenance. We are the same. Our actions and our speech are like the trunk, branches, and twigs. The mind is like the root, which absorbs nutriment and sends it out to sustain them, which in turn bears fruit. Whatever state the mind is in, be it based in wrong view or right view outwardly through our actions and speech. So nurturing Buddhism through the practical application of the Teachings is very important.
Trees Growing Outward
- Does anyone order the trees to grow the way they do? They can’t talk nor can they move around, and yet they grow away from obstacles. Wherever it’s cramped and growing will be difficult, they bend outwards. Trees by nature don’t know anything. They act on natural laws, yet they do know enough to grow away from danger, to incline toward a suitable place. People are like this. We want to transcend suffering, and if that which we like and that which we don’t like are suffering, we should then not go so close to them, not be cramped by them. When we incline toward the Buddha, suffering will lessen and eventually come to a complete end.
Vanity
- Worldly people usually speak out of vanity. For example, suppose there was a certain person whom you hadn’t seen for a long time, and then one day you happen to meet on the train: “Oh, I’m so glad to see you! I was just thinking to look you up!” Actually it’s not so. You hadn’t even thought of him at all, but you just say so at the time out of gladness. And so it becomes a lie. Yes, it’s lying out of heedlessness. This is a refined form of lying, and people tend to speak like this. This, too, is a defilement which we should practice to get rid of.
Vine
- A growing child is like a growing vine. A vine will grow and attach itself to the nearest tree. It won’t follow some other tree or form, and it’s from that tree that it will get its shape and direction. If the tree is growing straight and upwards, the vine, too, will grow straight and upwards. If the tree is growing crooked and sideways, so will the vine. Understand that your teaching of a child really comes more from how you are and what the child sees than from anything you say. So your practice is not just your own, but also for your children . . . and others around you.
Vulture
- Many people who have studied on a university level and attained graduate degrees and worldly success find that there is still s something missing in their lives. Although they think high thoughts and are intellectually sophisticated, their hearts are still filled with pettiness and doubt. It’s like a vulture: it flies high, but what does it feed on?
Water in an Urn
- If we keep on contemplating in meditation, energy will come to us. This is similar to the water in an urn. We put in water and keep it topped up. We keep on filling the urn with water so that the larvae which live in the water don’t die. Making effort and doing our everyday practice is just like this. We must keep it topped up.
Water Buffalo
- Our thinking follows sense objects and pursues them wherever they go. Yet not any one of the sense objects is substantial. They are all impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. When they arise, observe them and see what happens. It is like looking after a buffalo in a rice paddy. When someone looks after a buffalo, he lets it walk around freely, but he keeps an eye on it. If the buffalo goes near the rice plants, he yells at it and the buffalo backs off. If it doesn’t obey, it gets to feel the hard end of a stick. The person watching the buffalo can’t doze off either, or he’ll get up finding the rice plants all eaten away.
- The mind is like the buffalo, and the rice plants are like the sense objects. The one who knows is the owner. When observing the mind, the one who knows notices everything. It sees how the mind is when it follows sense objects, and how it is when it doesn’t follow them. When the one who knows observes the mind like this, wisdom will arise. When the mind meets an object, it’ll grab hold, just like the buffalo will bite on a rice plant when it sees one. So wherever the mind goes, you must watch it. When it goes near the rice plants, shout at it. If it will not obey you, just give it the stick.
Well and Orchard
- You’ll have to work to find peacefulness in the world. It’s like reaching water for a well – it’s there but you have to dig for it. Or like an orchard that’s already planted – the fruit are there, but you have to pick them. They won’t just fall into your mouth.
Wooden Log
- One can’t separate samatha and vipassana. Samatha is tranquility, vipassana is contemplation. In order to contemplate, one must be tranquil, and in order to be tranquil, one must contemplate to know the mind. Wanting to separate them would be like picking up a log of wood in the middle and wanting only one end of the log to come up. Both of its ends must come up at the same time. You can’t separate them. In our practice, it isn’t necessary to talk of samatha or vipassana. Just call it the practice of Dhamma, that’s enough.
Sweet Papayas
- If you don’t understand the truth of suffering and how to get rid of it, all the factors of the path will be wrong – wrong speech and action, and wrong practice of concentration. It would be like wanting to travel to a certain village. You make a mistake and take the wrong road, but you find it comfortable to travel on and so continue walking in the wrong direction. No matter how comfortable and convenient the road may be, however, it won’t take you to where you want to go. With even a little intuitive wisdom we will be able to see clearly through the ways of the world. We will come to understand that everything in the world is a teacher. Trees and vines, for example, can reveal the nature of reality to us. With wisdom there is no need to question anyone, no need to study. WE can learn enough from Nature to be enlightened.
