Pure Inspiration

Chittapala – 104
There is less trouble for vinaya practice if one has only three robes, no
shoes and does not accept invitations, etc.
Happiness comes from following the dhamma. Learn to see
defilements as impermanent, not yours, and they won’t be so
troublesome. If one can’t do bhāvanā (meditation) as one would wish,
then just accept it – that is the way things are. One has to be
independent of everything external to oneself. In the first five years,
learn to accept whatever conditions prevail – see to one’s duties
between teacher and pupil properly. If one is training properly, one
should be able to be independent of the teacher after those five years.
There is a danger in solitude wrongly grasped, if one is unhappy or
happy to receive visitors, or if one is unhappy or happy not to receive
visitors, learn to see that all these mental states as dukkha.
The bhikkhu (monk) should just look to the present. One has broken
with one’s past, family and friends. Why renew old fetters or take on
new ones? Don’t go back to what one has renounced already. Thoughts
about the future, expectations, ‘what will I experience?’ etc. are all
motivated by unwholesomeness, by craving. One should just aim to
have a pleasant state of mind in the present, without greed, hatred or
delusion. This can only condition pleasant states in the future. One can
do no more than that.
A bhikkhu should not have a mind of depression, dejection or
disappointment. Having learnt Buddha’s dhamma, we have to apply it.
Having come to this state, being a bhikkhu, don’t go back to the past.
If you are in a suitable place with a teacher, seclusion, etc., don’t go
craving to be anywhere else or do anything else. Study the dhamma
and follow it. Nothing else will give happiness. One has to give up the