Sunday, January 1, 2012

Liking without clinging


     "One day a group of attractive young women came to (the monastery) ... from the local nursing college ... Ajahn Chah gave them a Dharma talk and chatted with their teachers, professors, and so on. Ajahn Sumedho sat next to him for the several hours that this session went on. Sitting in the company of several dozen attractive young women at such close quarters was not something that happened often to the young Bhikku Sumedho.
     ... after the party from the college had gone, Ajahn Chah turned around and asked, 'So, Sumedho, how do you feel? What did that do to your mind?' ... And Ajahn Sumedho said ... 'I like, but I don't want.' Ajahn Chah was very pleased with this response. In fact, he was so impressed by it, that at every Dharma talk for the next two or three weeks, he referred to it, 'This is the essential practice of the Dharma. There is the acknowledgement that this is attractive, this is beautiful, but then there is also the choice: Do I really want it? Do I have to possess it? Do I need to chase after it? No, I don't have to. Without fear, repression, or aversion, there is a turning away.'"

Amaro Bikkhu "Small boat, great mountain." 2003
www.amaravati.org/downloads/pdf/SmallBoat.pdf

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