Thoughts with Fangs
June 24, 2008
There’s a passage where the Buddha teaches Rahula how to take joy in the practice. He says, “If you reflect on the things you’ve done, the things you’ve said, the things you’ve thought and you see that you didn’t harm yourself, you didn’t harm other people, that in and of itself is reason enough to take joy.” Notice he doesn’t say that if you reflect and see that you did better than somebody else, take joy in that. Because how do you measure “better”? If you’re going to measure “better,” look at yourself. Are there areas where you used to act in a harmful way but now you’ve learned to act in a less harmful way? Are there areas in which you used to act unskillfully and now you are more skillful? If you are going to make a comparison, make that kind of comparison.