Daily Reading ~ December 23

Hoa Vo Uu (Buddha Dharma Education Association)
Venerable Shravasti Dhammika

The Buddha’s Words of Wisdom

“That which is not yours—put it away. Putting it away will be to your welfare and happiness. And what is not yours? Body, feeling, perception, mental constructs and consciousness are not yours. So put them away. Putting them away will be to your profit and welfare. It is just as if a man should gather up, burn, or do whatever he wanted with all the grass, sticks and branches here in Jeta Grove—would you say: “This man is gathering us, he is burning us, he is doing what he wants with us?”

“No, Lord.”

“And why not?”

“Because this is not ourselves, it is not us.”

“Even so, body, feeling, perception, mental constructs and consciousness are not yours.”