Buddhism As Education

"Our practice here is not to grasp anything", a chief monk told a young monk. "But isn't it necessary to hold onto things sometimes?", the younger monk protested. "With the hands, yes, but not with the heart", the chief monk replied. "When the heart grasp what is painful, it is like being bitten by a snake and when through desire, it grasp what is pleasant, it is just grasping the tail of the snake. It only takes a little while longer for the head of the snake to come around to bite you. "Make this non grasping and mindfulness the guardian of your heart, like a parent. Then your likes and dislikes will come calling like children. 'I don't like that, mummy. I want more of that, Daddy'. Just smile and say, 'Sure, kid'. 'But mummy, I really want an elephant'. 'Sure, kid'. 'I want candy, can we go for an airplane ride?' There is no problem if you can let them come and go without grasping". ...

The Buddha taught that with things that come about of their own, once you have done your work, you can leave the results to nature, to the power of your accumulated karma. Yet your exertion of effort should not cease. Whether the fruit of wisdom comes quickly or slowly, you cannot force it, just as you cannot force the growth of a tree you have planted. The tree has its own pace. Your job is to dig a hole, water and fertilize it and protect it from insets. That much is your affair, a matter of faith.  But the way the tree grows is up to the tree itself. If you practice like this, you can be sure all will be well and your plant will grow. Thus, you must understand the difference between your work and the plant's work. Leave the plant's business to the plant and be responsible for your own. If the mind does not know what it needs to do, it will try to force the plant to grow and flower and give fruit in one day. This is a wrong view, a major cause of suffering. Just prac...

As you grow in Dharma, you should have a teacher to instruct and advise you. The matter of concentrating the mind, of samadhi, is much misunderstood, phenomena occur in meditation that otherwise do not normally arise. when this happens, a teacher's guidance is crucial, especially in those areas in which you have wrong understanding. Often where he corrects you will be just where you thought you were right. In the complexity of your thinking, one view may obscure the other and you get fooled. Respect your teacher and follow the rules or system of practise. If the teacher says to do something, do it. If he says to desist, then desist. This allows you to make an honest effort and leads to making knowledge and vision manifest in your mind. If you do as I am saying, you will see and know. True teachers speak only of the difficult practise of giving up or getting rid of the self. whatever may happen, do not abandon the teacher. Let him guide you, because it is easy to forget the p...

When you take a good look at it, this world of ours is just that much; it exists just as it is. ruled by birth, ageing, sickness and finally, death, it is only that much. Great or little is only that much. The wheel of life and death is only that much. Then, why are we still attached, caught up and not removed? Playing around with the objects of life gives us some enjoyment, yet this enjoyment is also just that much. Whatever is pleasurable, delicious, exciting, good, is just that much, it has its limitation, it is not as if it is anything outstanding. The Buddha taught that everything is just that much, of equal value. We should contemplate this point. Just look at the Western monks who have come here to practice. They have much pleasure and comfort in their lives, but it was only that much, trying to make more of it just drove them crazy. They became world travellers, let everything go, it was still only that much. Then they came here to the forest to learn to give it all up, ...