Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 T H E L AW 06to get over the worst of it. He also used it to catch up on writing his diary,which could get days behind when we were on the road.The last morning the guards made us parothas, flat round breads friedinghee,forbreakfast,andwegavethemoneof ourphotos.Thedaybeforethey had refused my offers to pay for the food, and the photos seemed avery small gift for their hospitality. We made our goodbyes, and the sameguard who had led us in now led us out, onto the road to Bettiah.A J A H N S U C I T T OEven so have I, bhikkhus, seen an ancient path, an ancient roadtraversed by the rightly enlightened ones of former times....this Noble Eightfold Path, that is: right views, right intention,right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness,and right concentration. This, bhikkhus, is that ancientpath, that ancient road traversed by the rightly enlightened ones offormer times. Along that I have gone, and going along it I have fullycome to know decay-and-death, I have fully come to know the arisingof decay-and-death, I have fully come to know the ceasing ofdecay-and-death, I have fully come to know the way going to theceasing of decay-and-death.Dhamma practise often entails confronting the unpalatable untilone’s reactions have cooled; then by holding the attention steady itbecomes clear that “things” are actually only “the way things appear,”an appearance compounded by reactions and assumptions, reinforcedby the resistance to change and letting go, but observation alone is notenough when the mind’s eye is clouded. Heart-centred action is neededso practise becomes a moving thing, a pilgrimage. Keep going, says theBuddha, hold steady, relax the will-to-be, and you arrive at a place ofpeace...“an island which you cannot go beyond...a place of non-possession andof non-attachment…I call it Nibbana.”1 2 1