The Essential Questions of Life

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

If we are willing to stand back from the relentless flow of our lives, we realize that the brevity, the unpredictability of our existence is asking us questions: What is and what is not essential? What is worthwhile? What is most worthwhile?

These are questions that surprisingly few people get around to addressing. We live in a time when so many of our smartest minds are committed to projects that are either harmful to themselves and others, or ultimately frivolous. So many people coming up with smart answers to foolish questions!

In the Dhammapada the Buddha said

“In the unessential they imagine the essential, in the essential they see the unessential – they who entertain such wrong thoughts never realize the essence.

What is essential, they regard as essential, what is unessential they regard as unessential – they who entertain such right thoughts realize the essence.”

(v.11-12) trs. Ven. Narada Thera

Buddhist meditation may be said to be the effort to reveal the essential questions of life, and to answer them.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.