itslikethis-ajahn-chah

Awakening to the CobraMost of us, when we hear the words, “awakening to the Dhamma,”understand that it’s something so high and far away that we probably won’tawaken in this lifetime. That’s how we understand things. Actually, ifsomething is evil and we don’t clearly see that it’s evil, then we can’t abandonit. That means we haven’t awakened much to the Dhamma. But if we listen,contemplate, and practice until we see it clearly, we’ll see the drawbacks forsure that that thing is evil and we won’t dare ever do it again. We won’t darestore it up as seeds to plant again. We’ll have to throw it away because we’veseen the harm it does.Before, we heard that it was evil, and we even said that it was evil, but westill did evil. We still did things that were wrong. That was when we hadn’tyet awakened to the Dhamma.When someone awakens to the Dhamma, it’s like seeing a cobra, apoisonous snake slithering past. We know that this snake is poisonous, and itspoison is dangerous. If it bites anyone, that person will die or suffer horribly.If we see a cobra or a banded krait, we know that its poison is fierce. Anyoneit bites will have to die; if he doesn’t die, he’ll be close to death. This meansthat we know the snake for what it actually is. We don’t dare catch hold of it.No matter who tells us to catch it, we wouldn’t dare. This is called awakeningto the Dhamma—awakening to the cobra, to the banded krait. We awaken to itspoison.It’s the same with all forms of evil. If we clearly see the harm they do, it’snot hard. We know for ourselves. All I ask is that you keep on practicing,contemplating, and you’ll know for yourselves. When you awaken to theDhamma, the mind will be Dhamma. You’ll know the Dhamma.