Better & Better

When discernment arises, you can abandon your defilements. As your discernment grows, your behavior will change. You’ll abandon your old ways.

It’s like going into the forest to look for fruit. At first you find some fruit that’s not especially good, but even though it’s sour, you take it. You carry it in your basket until you find fruits that are better than that. You throw the old fruits out of your basket. It’s because you see that the new ones are better that you change what you’re carrying.

The same with the mind: When you see the harm and drawbacks of your old ways, you keep on abandoning them. The more you look, the more you keep on abandoning. When you practice, you’ll think, “This is it. This is good.” But when you practice further—“Oh. What happened then wasn’t really refined.” So you abandon that, too.”

This reflection by Ajahn Chah Subhaddo is from the Thai Forest Ajaans book, It’s Like This: 108 Dhamma Similes, translated from Thai by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.