One Thing Clear Through
June 26, 2006
A recurrent theme in the teachings of the forest ajaans is that all the steps of the practice are of a piece. In other words, having attained Awakening, they don’t say anything disparaging about the early steps in the practice, that they’re only elementary and that you have to drop them to move on to the more important stuff. As Luang Pu Dune put it, “The Dhamma is one thing clear through.” Or as Ajaan Maha Boowa once said, one of the realizations that comes when you hit Awakening is that everything is the same teaching, starting from generosity and gratitude, all the way up through Awakening. There are different levels of subtlety, but it’s all the same principle.