Having nothing,
clinging to nothing:
that is the Island,
there is no other;
that is Nibbæna, I tell you,
the total ending of ageing and death.
~ SN 1094
This is why the metaphor of ‘The Island that you cannot go beyond’ is so
very powerful, because it points to the principle of an awareness that you can’t get
beyond. It’s very simple, very direct, and you can’t conceive it. You have to trust
it. You have to trust this simple ability that we all have to be fully present and fully
awake, and begin to recognize the grasping and the ideas we have taken on about
ourselves, about the world around us, about our thoughts and perceptions and
feelings.
The way of mindfulness is the way of recognizing conditions just as they
are. We simply recognize and acknowledge their presence, without blaming them
or judging them or criticizing them or praising them. We allow them to be, the
positive and the negative both. And, as we trust in this way of mindfulness more
and more, we begin to realize the reality of ‘The Island that you cannot go
beyond.’
It is a place, as Ajahn Chah said, where you experience “the reality of non-grasping.”
The Island
AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE
BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS
ON NIBBANA
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And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.