THINGS AS THEY ARE – AJAAN MAHA BOOWA

“Just as if there were a pool of water in a mountain glen – clear, limpid, and unsullied – where a man with good eyes standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles, and also shoals of fish swimming about and resting, and it would occur to him, ‘This pool of water is clear, limpid, and unsullied. Here are these shells, gravel, and pebbles, and also these shoals of fish swimming about and resting;’ so too, the monk discerns as it actually is, that ‘This is suffering… This is the origin of suffering… This is the stopping of suffering… This is the way leading to the stopping of suffering… These are mental outflows… This is the origin of mental outflows… This is the stopping of mental outflows… This is the way leading to the stopping of mental outflows.’ His heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, is released from the effluent of sensuality, released from the effluent of becoming, released from the effluent of ignorance. With release, there is the knowledge, ‘Released.’ He discerns that, ‘Birth is no more, the holy life is fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’

“This, great king, is a reward of the contemplative life, visible here and now, more excellent than the previous ones and more sublime. And as for another visible reward of the contemplative life, higher and more sublime than this, there is none.”

Sãmaññaphala Sutta Dïgha Nikãya