Is that boulder heavy?

February 01, 2020

This morning I listened to a conversation between Sam Harris (Wikipedia) and Jack Kornfield (Wikipedia) on the Waking Up course about their experiences in practice.

Jack tells this story that I thought worth noting:

I remember walking with [my teacher] Ajahn Chah across a field one morning with our alms bowls and he points to a big boulder across the field, and he says to the monks, “Is that boulder heavy?”

And you know, being Ivy League educated and all, “Of course it is.”

And he said: “Not if you don’t pick it up.”

Don’t pick up things that you don’t need to carry.

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