The teachings of Ajahn Chah💠
If you see clearly the harm and benefit of something, you don't have to wait for others to tell you about it. Consider the story of the fisherman who finds something in his fish trap. He knows something is in there. He can hear it flopping about inside. Thinking it's a fish, he reaches his hand into the trap, only to find a different kind of animal. He can't see it, so he's not sure what it is. It could be an eel, something nice for dinner. On the other hand, it could be a snake. If he throws it away, he may regret it. But if he keeps holding on to it and it turns out to be a snake it may bite him.
He's just not sure. But his desire is so strong that he holds on, just in case it's an eel. The minute he brings it out and sees that it's a snake, however, he doesn't hesitate to fling it away from him. He doesn't have to wait for someone to call out, "Hey, it's a snake! let go!" The sight of the snake tells him what to do more clearly than words could do.
Why? Because he sees the danger - snakes can bite and make you very sick or kill you.
Who has to tell him about that?
In the same way, if we practice until we see things as they are we won't meddle with things that are harmful.
~ Ajahn Chah
No comments:
Post a Comment