Lost Something? Piece of Cake

Lost Something?
If you understand that good and bad, right and wrong, all lie within you, then you won’t have to go looking for them somewhere else. Just look for them where they arise.

If you don’t, it’d be like losing something in one place and then going to look for it in another. If you lose something here, you must look for it here. Even if you don’t find it at first, keep looking where you dropped it.

But, usually, you lose it here, then go looking over there. When will you ever find it? Good and bad actions lie within you. One day you’re bound to see it. Just keep looking right here.

Piece of Cake
If you still have happiness and still have suffering, you are someone who is still not yet full. It’s as if you’re eating a piece of your favourite cake, but before you can finish eating it, it falls out of your hand. You regret the loss, don’t you? When you feel the loss, you suffer, don’t you? So you need to throw away both happiness and suffering. They’re only food for those who are not yet full.

In truth, happiness is suffering in disguise, but in such a subtle form that you don’t see it. If you cling to happiness, it’s the same as clinging to suffering, but you don’t realize it.

So be careful! When happiness arises, don’t be overjoyed, don’t get carried away. When suffering comes, don’t despair, don’t lose yourself in it. See that happiness and suffering have the same equal value.

These reflections by Ajahn Chah are from the book, A Tree in a Forest, (pdf) pp. 94, 103.