Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

ancient sages.
e. The Obstacle of Avoiding Obstacles
At one of our last meetings, Mr. Chen added
another obstacle. The transcriber intended to go to
Thailand to practice meditation where, he thought,
conditions were more favorable. The yogi exclaimed,
"There is another obstacle: The obstacle of avoiding
obstacles! If you always seek quiet places for
meditation then you will become attached to
quietness. Then, how can you ever succeed in
meditating where there is noise?" Bhante pointed
out, "There are always sounds in the quietest place,
even if it is only the birds in the trees or jackals
howling in the distance. Unless you have an
underground room, complete silence is impossible
to find." Mr. Chen disapproved of going
underground to escape from noise and then
continued: "A silent place may be helpful to the
neophyte but it may prove a hindrance to further
development."
To give another example, he told the following story:
There was once a monk in China who kept the Vinaya
very strictly. He never let his eyes wander toward girls
and women. Whenever any visiting patron brought with
him a wife or daughter, the monk kept his gaze fixed on
the ground in front of him. Because he was so mindfully
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