Published Sunday, 05 February 2023
Like a spoon is unable to taste
the flavour of the soup,
are the fools who cannot see truth,
even though they live
all their lives with the wise.
Dhammapada v.64
Learning to be susceptible to new ways of perceiving life is essential in this spiritual practice. In the time of the Buddha there were monks who lived alongside him who were thoroughly uninformed about that which is true and that which is false. The Buddha referred to them as fools. Merely believing in teachings that we have heard from others is not enough. Repeating ideas that we have read is not enough. The Buddha wants us to understand for ourselves. This means letting go of the false sense of security that comes from clinging to ideas about the cause of suffering, and being vulnerable; actually feeling the suffering of life, here and now, in the whole body-mind, and not merely thinking about it. From such a perspective there is a better chance we will learn something actually new.