Things as They Are : A Collection of Talks on the Training of the Mind by Ācariya Mahā Boowa Ñāṇasampanno

Author:Ācariya Mahā Boowa Ñāṇasampanno [Ñāṇasampanno, Ācariya Mahā Boowa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Dhamma, Dharma, Buddha, Buddhism, Meditation, Discernment, Thai Forest Tradition, Theravada
Publisher: Metta Forest Monastery
Published: 2017-06-04T07:00:00+00:00

This seems to be enough explanation for the time being, so now, at the end of this talk, I ask that the power of the Triple Gem safeguard and protect each and every one of you so that you meet with ease in body and mind, and so that you progress in virtue, concentration, and discernment until you can overcome all obstacles to the realm of security and peace that is nibbāna.

Note

1. The Dhamma learned from practice, and not from the study of books.

The Work of a Contemplative

October 31, 1978

Here in this monastery we practice not in line with people’s wishes and opinions, but in line for the most part with the principles of the Dhamma and Vinaya, the principles of the religion. We do this for the sake of the public at large who rely on the religion as a guiding principle in what is good and right, and who rely on the good and right behavior of monks and novices, the religious leaders for Buddhists at large.

For this reason, I’m not interested in treating anyone out of a sense of deference over and above the principles of the Dhamma and Vinaya that are the basis of the religion. If our minds start to bend under the influence of the views and opinions of any one person or of the majority—who have no limits or standards—then monasteries and the religion will come to have no limits or standards. Monasteries that bend under the influence of the world, without any sense of reason as an underlying support, will have no order or standards, and will become monasteries without any of the substance of the religion remaining in them at all. Those who look for things of value to revere and respect—in other words, intelligent people—won’t be able to find anything good of any substance that will have a hold on their hearts, because there will be nothing but worthless and counterfeit things filling the monasteries, filling the monks, the novices, the nuns, filling everything everywhere. In homes as well as in monasteries, in the area of the world as well as the Dhamma, everything will get mixed into being one with what is counterfeit and lacking in any value or worth.

For this reason, we have to keep things in their separate places. The religion and the world, even though they may dwell together, are not the same thing. A monastery—whether it’s located in a village, outside of a village, or in a forest—is not the same as a village. The people who come to stay there are not the same as ordinary people. The monastery has to be a monastery. The monks have to be monks with their own independent Dhamma and Vinaya that don’t come under or depend on any particular individual. This is an important principle that can have a hold on the hearts of intelligent people who are searching for principles of truth to revere and respect or to be their inspiration. I view things from this angle more than from any other.

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