A Single Excellent Night

|
I found these four paragraphs by the Buddha from a talk given by Shaila Catherine titled "What is Vipassana?":

"Let me not revive the past
Or on the future build my hopes;
For the past has been left behind
And the future has not been reached.

Instead with Insight let me see
Each presently arisen state;
Let me know that and be sure of it,
Invincibly, unshakably.

Today the effort must be made;
Tomorrow Death may come, who knows?
No bargain with Mortality
Can keep him and his hordes away.

But one who dwells thus ardently,
Relentlessly, by day , by night.
It is she, the Peaceful Sage has said,
Who has had a single excellent night."

- from Buddha's Discourses MN 131

The lines state the case for contemplation, for awareness, for wakefulness in such a precise, clear and obvious manner.

0 comments: