Linked Discourses 56.34
- In a Rosewood Forest
Clothes
“Mendicants, if your clothes or head were on fire, what would you do about it?”
“Sir, if our clothes or head were on fire, we’d apply extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness in order to extinguish it.”
“Mendicants, so long as you have not encompassed the four noble truths, regard your burning head or clothes with equanimity, ignore them, and apply extraordinary enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness to truly comprehending the four noble truths.
What four?
The noble truths of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.
That’s why you should practice meditation …”