“Venerable father, what is white like? It’s like white lime. What is white lime like? It’s like a pale sky. What’s a pale sky like? This never comes to an end because you don’t know the truth. Fish live in the water but don’t see the water. Earthworms live in the dirt but don’t see the dirt. Not seeing yourself, not knowing the truth, is like a person living with his skeleton and getting frightened by skeletons—because he doesn’t see the truth.

Listening to the Dhamma gives lots of merit in that it helps you to see that there’s a thorn in your foot. As soon as you see it, you take it out. The people who don’t benefit from listening to the Dhamma are those who don’t know the cause of stress, don’t know the cessation of stress, and don’t know the practices leading to the cessation of stress. In other words, they don’t really know suffering because they don’t contemplate it.”