Old Path White Clouds: The Life Story of the Buddha

“Bhikkhus, the five aggregates are the basic elements of a person. Form does not contain a self, because form cannot exist independently. Within form exist feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. It is the same for feelings. Feelings do not possess a self because feelings cannot exist independently. Within feelings are form, pe

devote your efforts to breaking through birth and death. Learn to look at birth and death as mere illusions, like the stars one sees in one’s eyes after rubbing them.”

“From interdependent origins all things arise and all things pass away. So teaches the Perfectly Enlightened One.”

“Community, the teaching on dependent co-arising will enable you to overcome every obstacle and trap. Contemplate the nature of interdependence in your daily life—in your body, feelings, mind, and objects of mind.”

“My friends, you are already qualified to discern which things to accept and which things to discard. Believe and accept only those things which accord with your own reason, those things which are supported by the wise and virtuous, and those things which in practice bring benefit and happiness to yourselves and others. Discard things which oppose

Bhikkhus remain celibate and childless, not as a practice of austerity, but as a means of being more free to help others.

there is one truth you must accept, and that is the presence of suffering. Suffering has causes which can be illuminated in order to be removed. The things I teach will help you attain detachment, equanimity, peace, and liberation.

“There are three kinds of views of self. The first is that this body is the self, or these feelings, perceptions, mental formations, or consciousness are the self. This is ‘the belief in skandha as self,’ and it is the first wrong view. But when one says, ‘The skandhas are not the self,’ one may fall into the second wrong view and believe that the

“Patacara, you have suffered terribly. But life is not only suffering and misfortune. Be brave! Practice the Way of Enlightenment, and one day you will be able to smile even at your most painful sufferings. You will learn how to create new peace and joy in the present and for the future.”