“You have to look for concentration, discernment, and virtue all together at the same time. When they develop, they develop together. When your perfections reach fullness, they’re full together. Your right views: When your discernment sees rightly, every factor in the eightfold path will be right. If it’s right only ten percent, then each of the ten perfections will be only ten percent.
It’s like a mango. When the fruit is ripe, the entire fruit is ripe. There’s no part that isn’t ripe. It’s ripe all together. When it’s half-ripe, the entire fruit is half-ripe. It doesn’t separate into different parts. If we separate things into different parts, we don’t understand anything and we create difficulties for ourselves.
So we’re taught to train ourselves in virtue, concentration, and discernment all at the same time. That way our virtue, our concentration, and our discernment will be in harmony with one another. Just like this mango: When it’s unripe, it’s all unripe in harmony. When it’s half-ripe, it’s all half-ripe in harmony. When it’s ripe, it’s all ripe in harmony in just the same way— because it’s a single fruit.”