itslikethis-ajahn-chah

Grabbing Hold of a DogEven when you see that something is true, you can’t grab hold of it. It’s likea dog: Try grabbing hold of a dog’s leg without letting go, and it will turnaround and bite you. Or a snake: Try grabbing hold of its tail, grabbing holdwithout letting go. It’ll simply bite you. So don’t hold on. Let it go. Put it down.It’s the same with conventions. We act in line with conventions, but we’retaught not to grab hold of them. They’re there to use, to provide us withconveniences so that we can live. They’re not there to grab hold of them, tolatch onto them to the point of giving rise to suffering and stress. The things thatyou understand to be right: If you latch onto them, you separate your mind intotwo parts—because your views have turned wrong.When the Bees Leave the HiveWhen we see emptiness, the King of Death can’t catch up with us. Deathcan’t reach us. Why? Because there’s no “us.” There are just piles of form,piles of feelings, piles of perceptions, piles of fabrications, piles ofconsciousness, that’s all. So where’s the person? Like that beehive over there:If all the bees leave and you try to take the hive, will you touch any bees? No,because it’s empty. All you’ll touch will be the beeswax. You don’t knowwhere the bees went, because they don’t live there anymore.That’s how the Buddha taught. Take your views outside of “self” in thatway, and you run out of questions. And not only do you run out of questions,there are also no answers. No questions. No one to answer the questions.That’s where everything runs out. You know what it’s like when things run out?“Running out” means there’s nothing there.