Accepting the Way Things Are

We are not here to become anything or to get rid of anything, to change anything or to make anything for ourselves, or to demand anything, but to awaken more and more, to reflect, observe and know the Dhamma. Don’t worry that it might change for the worse. Whatever way it changes, we have the wisdom to adapt to it. And that I can see is the real fearlessness of the alms-mendicant life. We can adapt, we can wisely learn from all conditions, because this life span is not our real home.

This life-span is a transition we’re involved in. This is a journey through the sensory realm and there are no nests, no homes, no abiding in this sensory realm. It’s all very impermanent, subject to disruption and change at any moment. That is its nature. That’s the way it is. There is nothing depressing about that if you no longer make the demand for security in it.

The reality of existence is that there isn’t any home here. So the homeless life, the going forth into mendicancy is what they call a heavenly messenger, because the religious spirit is no longer sharing the delusions of the worldly mind, which is very determined to have a material home and security. You have the trust in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha and the teaching and the opportunities as mendicants and meditators for the insight and understanding to free the mind from the anxieties that come from the attachment to the sensory realm as a home.

The idea of owning and hanging on to things is the illusion of the worldly life. The view of the self sends forth all these delusions in which we have to protect ourselves all the time. We’re always endangered. There’s always something to be worried about, something to be frightened of. But when that illusion is punctured with wisdom, then there is fearlessness. We see this is a journey, a transition from the sensory realm and we are willing to learn the lessons it teaches us, no matter what those lessons might be.

This reflection by Luang Por Sumedho is from the book, The Way It Is, p. 64. (Also in the Ajahn Sumehho Anthology, Volume 3, pp. 72-73.)