Part II
Correcting Our Views
When you pick mushrooms. Achaan Chah cautions, you must know what to look for. When you understand spiritual practice you must also know what attitudes to nourish, what dangers to avoid, and what mental qualities to encourage.
Here he emphasizes the power of training our endurance and courage, developing a willingness to find the Middle Path and follow it despite temptation and defilement. When greed, hatred, or delusion arise, he says, don't give in to them. Don't be discouraged. Just stay mindful and strong in your resolve.
As your training develops you will see that every single experience you pass through is impermanent, and thus unsatisfactory. You will discover firsthand the endless truth of these characteristics in all existence and begin to learn the way of freedom, of nonattachment. But Achaan Chah reminds us that this requires a willingness to investigate both our sufferings and our joys with the an equal mind.
When the heart becomes calm and the mind clear, we come closer to the truth of what Achaan Chah calls," Just that much." The Dhamma, the truth, is really very simple. All things that arise and pass, the whole world of changing phenomena, is really only "that much!" When we truly discover what this means, then here in our world we can come to peace.
