Freedom Undefined
December 17, 2004
There’s a passage in the Dhammapada where the Buddha says that life as a householder is difficult, life as a monk gone forth is difficult. Then he ends by saying, “So be neither.” Of course, what he means by that is to find a way of not having to be anything at all. That requires practice. It’s a skill — the skill we’re working on right here, the skill that takes you out of having to live the household life or have to live the life of a monk. Without this skill, those are the only choices you have. Derived from them are lots of other little choices, but they’re all trapped inside those two categories.