Brother Shun Xiang shared this with us.
FISHERMAN
Our practice of contemplation will lead us to understanding.
Let us take the example of a fisherman pulling in his net with a big fish in it.
How do you think he feels when pulling it in again?
If he's afraid that the fish will escape, he'll rush and start to struggle with the net, grabbing and tugging at it.
In this way, before he knows it, the big fish will have escaped.
The fisherman mustn't try to hard. In the old days, they taught that we should do it gradually, carefully gathering it in without losing it.
This is how it is in our practice.
We gradually feel our way with it, carefully gathering it in without losing it.
Sometimes it happens that we don't feel like practising. Maybe we don't want to look, or maybe we don't want to know, but we keep on with it.
We continue feeling for it.
This is the practice.
If we feel like doing it, we do it. If we don't feel like doing it, we do it just the same.
We just keep on doing it.
If we are enthusiastic about our practice, the power of our faith will give us the energy needed to practise, but we will still be without wisdom.
Being energetic alone won't make us benefit much from our practice. On the contrary, after practising energetically for long time, the feeling that we are not going to find the Way may arise.
We may feel that we cannot find peace, or that we're not sufficiently equipped to do the practice.
Or maybe we feel that this Way just isn't possible anymore. So we give up!
At this point, we must be very, very careful.
We must use patience and endurance. It's just like pulling in the big fish - we gradually feel our way with it, we carefully pull it in.
The struggle won't be too difficult, so continue to pull it in without stopping.
Eventually, after some time, the fish becomes tired and stops fighting and we're able to catch it easily.
Usually this is how it happens.
We practise gradually and carefully, gathering it together.
It's in this manner that we do our contemplation.
~ Ajahn Chah 🙏
FISHERMAN
Our practice of contemplation will lead us to understanding.
Let us take the example of a fisherman pulling in his net with a big fish in it.
How do you think he feels when pulling it in again?
If he's afraid that the fish will escape, he'll rush and start to struggle with the net, grabbing and tugging at it.
In this way, before he knows it, the big fish will have escaped.
The fisherman mustn't try to hard. In the old days, they taught that we should do it gradually, carefully gathering it in without losing it.
This is how it is in our practice.
We gradually feel our way with it, carefully gathering it in without losing it.
Sometimes it happens that we don't feel like practising. Maybe we don't want to look, or maybe we don't want to know, but we keep on with it.
We continue feeling for it.
This is the practice.
If we feel like doing it, we do it. If we don't feel like doing it, we do it just the same.
We just keep on doing it.
If we are enthusiastic about our practice, the power of our faith will give us the energy needed to practise, but we will still be without wisdom.
Being energetic alone won't make us benefit much from our practice. On the contrary, after practising energetically for long time, the feeling that we are not going to find the Way may arise.
We may feel that we cannot find peace, or that we're not sufficiently equipped to do the practice.
Or maybe we feel that this Way just isn't possible anymore. So we give up!
At this point, we must be very, very careful.
We must use patience and endurance. It's just like pulling in the big fish - we gradually feel our way with it, we carefully pull it in.
The struggle won't be too difficult, so continue to pull it in without stopping.
Eventually, after some time, the fish becomes tired and stops fighting and we're able to catch it easily.
Usually this is how it happens.
We practise gradually and carefully, gathering it together.
It's in this manner that we do our contemplation.
~ Ajahn Chah 🙏
No comments:
Post a Comment