❖ How long does it take to get enlightened? ❖

❖ How long does it take to get enlightened? ❖

This question may be answered with an old story:

A monk is walking through the countryside. He asks an old lady sitting by the side of the road how long it will take him to get to the mountain. She ignores him. He asks her again and she ignores him again. 

And so for a third time. The monk assumes that the woman must be deaf. As he walks on he hears her shout out: “Seven days!” The monk returns to the woman: “Grandmother, I asked you this question three times and you ignored me each time. Why did you wait until I had walked on by before shouting out the answer?” The old lady said, “Before I could answer I had to look at how fast you were walking and how determined you looked.”

Buddhists who are convinced that there is such a thing as enlightenment and that they have the potential to realize it, and who are following the path to that realization, give little time to speculating on how long it will take. 

Seven days, seven months, seven years, seven lifetimes—however long it takes, there is no alternative route.

~ by Ajahn Jayasaro ~

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To read the ebook, please visit ‘Without and Within', by Ajahn Jayasaro:

http://www.withoutandwithin.net/ebook/

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For other teachings by Ajahn Jayasaro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website:

https://www.jayasaro.panyaprateep.org/

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To request the print book, please register: https://www.bia.or.th/wowi/

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Photo: ‘Without and Within’

25 July 2023