Luang Por Liem: The Ways of the Peaceful - Wat Pah Nanachat

Sometimes the situations that arise are good, sometimes bad. In
our lives we are not going smoothly over all the ups and downs.
Until we reach the aim of our practice this is naturally just the
way things are.
Although we accept that anything that is still in a stage of
development is not yet as good as it ideally should be, we still
need to make changes and improvements. And for doing this we
need to know what we are supposed to do, so we can try to direct
the development towards our aim. Whatever doesn’t accord with
our plan, we seek to put down, keep away from, or not respond to.
The things which aren’t alright will come to an end in this way.
They won’t be allowed to become part of our behaviour patterns
or habitual attitudes.
Everybody has goodness, everybody has perfection and purity
right inside himself. Surely every one of us possesses at least
some personality traits which could be brought into awareness in
a way that is useful for oneself. Make these complete and perfect
them. It is like with the flames of a fire: in the places where the
flames rise up there wasn’t any fire before. But once they are
ignited and kindled, the flames appear out of the darkness – and
eventually the flames are burning right there. With us it’s the
same as with the flames: everyone of us has to come from dark
places, come from being a child, being someone who has no
strength, is not yet mature. Naturally, of course, this brings
disorientation. That someone at this level could experience full
confidence and clarity just can’t be. To be able to experience
purity straight from the start is impossible. One has to gradually
develop oneself like this.
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