10 days at sea,
adrift I float,
Secure and serene in my
Dhamma boat.
Though the waves tower high,
Though the wind does whip,
Nothing can disturb me
In my unsinkable ship.
Mountains as Mountains, Rivers as Rivers
By | 7/18/2022
"Before
I had studied the Dharma for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and
rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to
the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are
not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For
it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once
again as rivers."
― Qingyuan Weixin, 9th Century
Right Understanding
By | 7/18/2022
Right understanding has to illuminate every single part of the practice of Vipassana.
The Buddha called it sammā-diṭṭhi. In Pāli, diṭṭhi literally meant a view, or a philosophy. Then as now, there were many different kinds of philosophies in currency. But sammā-diṭṭhi,
right understanding, has nothing to do any philosophy or intellectual
position. Even with great devotion, an absolute and total conviction in
every single word of the Buddha, will not liberate anybody. It merely
becomes a belief-system like any other, and so it becomes a trap. The
Buddha carefully used the word sammā meaning “right”, and sammā-diṭṭhi only becomes sammā when it is practiced. This is the critical difference, and this is what purifies the individual: the practice.
