Medicine ...It's like a doctor handing a bottle of medicine to a patient with a fever. On the outside of the bottle is a label telling the different diseases the medicine can cure. As for the medicine that cures the diseases, it's inside the bottle. If the patient spends all his time reading the l
The Way to the Monastery Virtue, concentration, and discernment: These three things the Buddha called a path. The path isn't the religion, and it's not what the Buddha really wanted, but they're the way we get there. It's the same as your coming from Bangkok to Wat Nong Pah Pong. You didn't want
Planting Peppers The Buddha our Teacher said that the way things go is up to them. If we stick with our effort in the practice, we can't control whether it'll go quickly or slowly. It's like planting a pepper tree. The tree knows what it's doing. If we want it to grow fast, we have to know that th
Sweeping Our routines give us lots of strength. Wherever in the monastery you can do them — regardless of whether it's your own hut or someone else's: If it's dirty or messy, straighten it out. You don't have to do it for anyone's sake. You don't have to do it to impress anyone. You do it for the
The Millipede When lots of us come to live together, it's easy to practice if our views are correct and in line with one another. When we're willing to bend and abandon our pride in the same way, we all come together at the level of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. You can't say that having a lot o
Making Tables & Chairs It's good to make the mind pure and at peace, but it's hard. You have to start with the externals — your bodily actions and words — and work your way in. The path that leads to purity, to being a contemplative, is a path that can wash away greed, anger, and delusion. You
Supposed Monks, Genuine Monks Once you've been ordained in the Buddha's teachings, you've been supposed into being a monk. But you're not yet a genuine monk, you know. You're a monk as far as your body: the shaved head, the yellow robes. You're a monk on the level of supposition. It's the same as
Water & Oil Water is different from oil, just as smart people are different from stupid people. The Buddha lived with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas, but he was an arahant, so he saw these things as "just that," that's all. He kept on letting go, ever s
The Heart Its Own Teacher Each of us here is the same. We're no different from one another. We have no teacher at present — for if you're going to awaken to the Dhamma, the heart has to teach itself. If it doesn't teach itself, then no matter how much you have other people teach you, it won't l...
No Match for an Ox An ox that's been pulling a loaded wagon a long way — the closer the sun lowers to the horizon and evening comes on, the faster it walks, because it wants to reach its destination quickly. It misses its home. We human beings, the older we get, the sicker we get, the closer we a
Balloons In the Buddha's time, there were those who broke through to the highest level of Dhamma while sitting and listening to the Dhamma. They were fast. Like a balloon: The air in the balloon has the force to push itself out. As soon as you prick it just a little bit with a needle, it all comes
Your Inner Tape Recorder The teachings I've given you today: If listening to this Dhamma has made your mind empty and still, that's good enough. You don't have to memorize anything. Some of you may not believe this. If you make your mind still and then allow whatever you hear to pass by, pass by,
Picking Mangoes If a mango is five meters off the ground and we want it, we can't use a ten-meter picking pole to pick it, because it's too long. We can't use a two-meter picking pole either, because it's too short. Don't go thinking that a person with a PhD. has an easy time practicing the Dhamm
A Cup of Dirty Water Lots of people come here with a high position in society and views about things: about themselves, about the practice of meditation, about the Buddha's teachings. Some of them are wealthy merchants, some have degrees, some are teachers or government officials. Their brains are
Vines Children are like vines. Wherever a vine sprouts up, it has to look for a tree to climb up. If one tree is 15 centimeters away and another 10 meters away, which tree do you think the vine will climb up? It'll climb up the nearest tree. It's probably not going to climb up the tree 10 meters a
A Mold You schoolteachers are a mold for forming people, so you should turn toward the direction of the Dhamma and practice the Dhamma. Behave yourselves in a way that can be an example for others. You're like a mold for making Buddha amulets. Have you ever seen one? Just a single mold: They carve
Water in a Jar When no forms of evil are in our hearts, all our troubles disappear. A sense of coolness arises because we look after ourselves. The mind becomes virtuous. When it grows still, it becomes concentrated. When it's still, it starts to bloom into discernment. We know how to make the min
A Leaky Basin If we do evil and then try to plug the leak by doing good, it's like plugging a leak in the bottom of a pot and pouring water in. Or like plugging a leak in the bottom of a basin and pouring water in. The bottom of the pot, the bottom of the basin, isn't in good shape. Our abandoning
An Upside-down Basin Once we've abandoned doing evil, then even when we make merit only a bit at a time, there's still hope that our perfections will grow full. Like a basin set upright out in the open: Even if rain falls only a drop at a time, there's a chance that the basin will get full. But i
Salt If you do merit for the sake of putting an end to suffering, you have to make merit and develop skillful qualities in the mind at the same time. If you don't develop skillful qualities, no discernment will arise. Merit on its own is like raw meat or raw fish. If you just let it sit out like t