..续本文上一页e 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 …
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