Thanissaro Bhikkhu's Dhamma Teachings:--

Thanissaro Bhikkhu's Dhamma Teachings:--

"We see the power of the present moment in [the Buddha's] analogy of the lump of salt. 

He said that you may have bad karma coming in from the past, but think of it as being like a big lump of salt. If you were to put the salt in a little tiny cup of water, you couldn’t drink the water because the salt would be too much for the amount of water. 

But if you put that same lump of salt into a large, clean, clear river, you could still drink the water in the river because the amount of water is so much greater than the salt.

The water here stands for your state of mind in the present moment. The large river represents a mind that is developing thoughts of unlimited goodwill [mettā], compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. 

It’s developed in virtue and developed in discernment. And it’s trained so as to not be overcome easily by either pleasure or pain. When your mind has these qualities, it’s like the large river, so that whatever past karma you’ve done in the past doesn’t really pain you that much. This gives you a sense of how things are not totally determined by the past. They’re determined largely also by your state of mind in the present moment.

In fact, the Buddha actually gives priority to the present moment, and especially to what the mind is doing right now. There are some statements to this effect scattered around the Canon. It’s interesting that they’re rarely discussed. One is the pair of verses that starts the Dhammapada: “The mind is the forerunner of all things.” This means that everything you experience is shaped first by the mind. That’s quite a radical statement, as is another statement, that all dhammas, all things you experience through the senses, are rooted in desire. It’s because of your desires that you have these experiences. So you’re not simply on the receiving end of experience. The mind is not just a byproduct of physical processes. The mind, through its desires, is actually the agent making things happen."

~"The Anatomy of the Present"

Antony Wood.😁 Thank you.

25 February 2023