Sometimes I spin off into my idealistic ambitions. All I need to do is read this, a quote by Ajahn Sumedho in the book After the Ecstasy, The Laundry by Jack Kornfield, to set me straight:
"For minds obsessed by compulsive thinking and grasping, you simplify your meditaiton practices to just two words -- 'let go' -- rather than try to develop this practice, and then develp that, achieve this, and go into that. The grasping mind wants to read the suttas, to study the Abhidamma, and to learn Pali and Sanskrit, then the Madhyamika and the Prajna Paramita, get ordinations in the Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, write books and become a renowned authority on Buddhism.
"Instead of becoming the world's expert on Buddhism and being invited to great international conferences, why not just 'let go, let go, let go'?... Some of you might have the desire to become the Buddha of the age, Maitreya, radiating love throughout the world. Instead, just be an earthworm who knows only two words -- 'let go, let go, let go.' You see, ours is called the Lesser Vehicle, the Hinayana, so we only have these poverty-stricken practices."
For my brother Craig following his suicide
3 years ago
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