Ladle
If you listen to the Dhamma teachings but don”t practice, you”re like a ladle in a soup pot. The ladle is in the soup pot every day, but it doesn”t know the taste of the soup. You must reflect and meditate.
Leaking Roof
Most of us just talk about practice without having really done it. This is like the man whose roof is leaking on one side so that he sleeps on the other side of the house. When the sunshine comes in on that side, he rolls over to the other side, all the time thinking, "When will I ever get a decent house like everyone else
" If the whole roof leaks, then he just gets up and leaves. This is not the way to do things, but that”s how most people are.
Leaves
Right now we are sitting in a peaceful forest. Here, if there”s no wind, the leaves remain still. When a wind blows, they flap and flutter. The mind is the same. When it contacts a mental impression, it, too, flaps and flutters. According to the nature of that mental impression. And the less we know of Dhamma, the more the mind will continually pursue mental impressions. Feeling happy, it succumbs to happiness. Feeling suffering, it succumbs to suffering. It”s in a constant flap.
Letter
Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer, see it, know it, and be empty. It”s like a letter - you have to open it before you can know what”s in it.
Log
If we cut a log of wood and throw it into a river, it floats downstream. If that log doesn”t rot or get stuck on one of the banks of the river, it will finally reach the ocean. Likewise, the mind that practices the Middle Way and doesn”t attach to either extreme of sensual indulgence or self-mortification will inevitably attain true peace.
The log in our analogy represents the mind. The banks of the river represent, on one side, love, and on the other, hate. Or you can say that one bank is happiness and the other unhappiness. To follow the Middle Way is to see love, hate, happiness and unhappiness for what they really are - only feelings. Once this understanding has been achieved, the mind will not easily drift toward them and get caught. It is the practice of the understanding mind not to nurture any feelings that rise or to cling to them. The mind then freely flows down the river unhampered and eventually flows into the "ocean" of Nibbana.
Lumber
If you don”t bother to train your heart, then it remains wild, following the ways of nature. It”s possible to train that nature, however, so that it can be used to advantage. This is comparable to trees. If we just left trees in their natural state, then we would never be able to build houses with them. We couldn”t make planks or anything of use to build houses with. However, if a carpenter came along wanting to build a house, he would go looking for trees in their natural state. He would take raw material and use it to advantage. In a short time he could have a house built. Meditation and developing the heart are similar to this. You must take this natural, untrained heart as you would take a tree in its natural state in the forest, and train it so that it is more refined, more aware of itself, and more sensitive.
Maggot
Contentment doesn”t depend on how many people we are with. It comes only from right view. If we have right view, then wherever we stay, we are content.
But most of us have wrong view. It”s just like a maggot living in a pile of dung. It lives in filth, its food is filth, but it suits the maggot. If you take a stick and dislodge it from its lump of dung, it”ll squirm and wiggle back to its home. We are the same. The teacher advises us to see rightly but we squirm about and are uncomfortable. We quickly run back to our old habits and views because that”s where we feel at home. If …
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