Know Where You're Going by Ayya Khema

Author:Ayya Khema
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

QUESTIONS

STUDENT: Isn’t the attachment to the senses the problem, rather than the senses themselves?

AYYA KHEMA: The senses themselves are, of course, not a problem, because we cannot live without them. But it is the mind’s explanations of them that creates the problem. I will tell you a story to illustrate this.

There was a married couple who one day had a big argument. The wife decided she was going to leave; she’d had enough. She put on all her best saris, one on top of the other, and all her golden jewelry, and ran away. After a while her husband repented and decided to go after her to bring her back. He hurried to catch up with her but couldn’t find her. As he hurried along a village road, he saw a monk walking by. He stopped the monk and said, “Sir, have you seen a pretty woman with long black hair, wearing a red sari and a lot of golden jewelry, coming along this road?”

The monk said, “I saw a set of teeth going by.”

Although the monk saw the woman, he did not start to explain to himself that this was a pretty woman with long black hair, a red sari, and golden jewelry. He knew how to calm his senses down to the point where he only saw teeth going by. It is not our senses that are the problem; we need them and can’t live very well without them. We would have a very difficult life if we were blind or deaf. The problem lies with our ideation.

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