Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

suffering even to the point that it might take away one’s life.
If the only alternative is partiality, one had better save one’s
mind than let the mind go to waste in favour of this decaying
husk of a body.
If one is constantly running away from one’s ailments, one
will never fully open up to objective reality and one’s
practice will never succeed. In our practice of the Buddha’s
teaching, we should strive to be open to even unpleasant
situations, trying to simply see them for what they are
instead of judging them as good or bad, me or mine. This is
the fourth aspect of a comprehensive Buddhist practice.
Avoiding
The fifth aspect of practice is in regards to avoiding.
Whereas most phenomena must be endured, there are
indeed certain experiences that must be avoided. We can
see from this that the Buddha did not require us to bear with
every experience like an ordinary animal without any sense
of judgement or reason.
The Buddha gives an example of a monk walking through the
forest who comes upon a thorn bush blocking the path. If we
were to believe that we must bear with every experience,
never avoiding anything, one might think it advisable for the
monk to walk right through the thorn bush and bear with the
suffering and inconvenience that followed. The Buddha
explained, however, that this is an example of something
that should indeed be avoided as a matter of course.
If one comes upon a pitfall of any sort and one can just go
around it, one should do the obvious thing and avoid it. Wild
beasts, natural or unnatural disasters, dangerous situations,
just about anything that poses a sincere danger to one’s life
and limb, one should not think, “my karma will take care of
me and if I’m meant to be killed, then let me be killed.”
One’s life and physical well-being should indeed be guarded
in such circumstances, rather than blindly trusting in one’s
past good deeds or good luck to protect oneself.
One must be able to judge every situation carefully and
decide wisely on the proper course of action. Certain
experiences are unavoidable and some are harmless but
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