Wisdom Library

All conditioned things are impermanent — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

All conditioned things are unsatisfactory — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

Form is like a lump of foam, feeling like a water bubble; perception is like a mirage, volitions like a plantain trunk, and consciousness like an illusion. However one may ponder it and carefully investigate, it appears but hollow and void when one views it carefully.

Impermanent are all compounded things. Their nature is to rise and fall. Having arisen, they cease. Their stilling is bliss.

Conditions are subject to ceaseless change. Strive onward with diligence.

Whatever is impermanent is subject to change. Whatever is subject to change is subject to suffering.

Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering.

Attachment is the root of suffering.

From craving springs grief, from craving springs fear. For one who is wholly free from craving there is no grief, much less fear.

Whatever suffering arises has a reactive response as its cause. With the cessation of all reactive responses, there is no more arising of suffering.

All things are not-self — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

Form is not self. If form were self, then form would not lead to affliction, and one could command form: 'Let my form be thus; let my form not be thus.' But because form is not self, form leads to affliction, and one cannot command form.

Any form whatsoever — past, future, or present; internal or external; gross or subtle; inferior or superior; far or near — is to be seen as it actually is with right wisdom: 'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.'

Whatever is not yours, let go of it. Your letting go of it will be for your long-term happiness and benefit.

This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realisation of Nibbana — namely, the four foundations of mindfulness.

A monk remains focused on the body in and of itself — ardent, alert, and mindful — putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.

He abides contemplating the nature of arising in the body, the nature of passing away in the body, and the nature of both arising and passing away in the body. Mindfulness that 'there is a body' is established in him to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and continuous mindfulness. He abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world.

Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful die not. The heedless are as if dead already.

The wise man guards heedfulness as his supreme treasure.

Be an island unto yourself! Strive quickly; be wise. When your impurities are purged and you are free from guilt, you will enter the heavenly stage of the noble ones.