“This bell here: Do you think it’s large or small? [A layman answers: “Small, sir.”] Small, eh? It’s not large? Hmm. Is that how you see it? This bell is a physical phenomenon. Your feeling about it is a mental…
“When we speak about the Dhamma, it’s all a matter of strategy for understanding what’s right there. It’s matter of suppositions, a strategy. The genuine Dhamma exists, but it’s something you can’t see. We have to bring in other things…
“Samadhi means firm concentration. Bhavana, meditation, means making the mind have a single preoccupation. You don’t have to do a lot of things. It’s kind of like taking this glass and setting it here for a minute, then lifting it…
“If you were to break the law, and in seven days they were going to execute you, how would you feel? If you were sentenced to death, and in seven days they were going to execute you, what would you…
“When you go looking for teachings on how to meditate, you have to look for people who are pure, monks who are pure, who really act in line with what they say: people who are content with little, who practice…
“What do stress and suffering come from? It’s like lifting this bowl and feeling that it’s heavy. If you put it down, it’s not heavy any more. As soon as you lift it up again, it’s heavy again. So what…
“When you see the harm of what you’re doing, you can stop. You watch it until you can stop, until you can give it up. It’s like lighting a lantern and letting your child loose. The child doesn’t know anything.…
“I’ll ask you a question. Suppose there’s a hunk of lead weighing one kilogram and a hunk of gold weighing one kilogram. If you were to ask people to take one of them, which one would they take? It’s the…
“Knowledge is like a knife. You hone it until it’s sharp—really sharp. Then you put it away. The knife can cause both benefits and harm. When a person of discernment uses it, it’s sharp. A person of discernment can get…
“It’s like going up on the roof or coming down to the floor. When someone climbs up there, he gets on the roof. When he comes down, he comes down to the floor. If he climbs up to the roof…