Rev. Danny Fisher

Today’s quote comes to us from my first Buddhist teacher, the late Godwin Samararatne (1932-2000).

Godwin was a well-known and well-regarded meditation teacher and librarian in Sri Lanka.  He taught primarily at Nilambe Meditation Centre near Kandy, but was called to teach all across Europe and Asia as well.  His posthumously-published books include Talks on Buddhist Meditation and Discovering Meditation.

I studied vipassana meditation with Godwin and Anagarika Shri Munindra when I was a student on Antioch Education Abroad’s Buddhist Studies in India Program in 1999.  I don’t know that I will ever be able to fully convey the extent of his effect on me.  He was my “heart teacher,” and the most “awake” person I have ever known.

Here’s the quote:

A very interesting practice in everyday life is, whenever you suffer, whenever you are disappointed, whenever you are frustrated, at that moment can you see for yourself that the image which you have is now clashing with what is actually happening. This is why the Buddha emphasised learning to see things as they are. But what we are doing is, we want to see things the way they should be, as they must be according to our way, my way.

What we are doing is making demands about how we should behave, we are making demands about how others should behave, we are making demands about how life should be. If these demands are met life is okay, life is wonderful, it is beautiful. If these demands are not met there is suffering, frustration, disappointment, hurt; most of these emotions can arise as a result of that. So I would suggest that an enlightened human being goes through life without any images, and because of that he or she can never suffer.

Another aspect related to this is, if you can really understand the nature of life, then you realise it is not possible to form any conclusion about how life should be. In the Dhamma there is something very deep, which is to be open to the uncertainty of life. But we hold onto this idea of certainty because we assume things can be controlled. But when we think deeply we realise that in actual fact we have no control.