Escaping the Infinite Rut
Ajahn Amaro
We begin another day, reflecting on the tasks that we all have, the lists of things to do, the never-ending need to attend to the kitchen, the various work projects, guest-monk duties, construction, and so forth.
There’s a sense of continuity, of things carrying on from where we were before, going on and on. Ajahn Chah once came up with a wonderful simile: “Saṃsāra is like the ruts left behind the wheels of a cart. As the wheels turn, the trail that’s left behind them goes on and on.”
There’s a sense of repetition, a continuous extension through time. But the wheel itself is very stable; it simply pivots around its axle. Even though the wheel is finite in length, it leaves an infinite trail behind it.
Often we can focus on the infinite trail of the things we’ve done or need to do. We get caught up by the sense of past and future, endlessly stretching out behind and before us. But the essential aspect is that one point where the wheel meets the ground.
If we establish a quality of real attention, then that’s all there is. It’s simply this one moment as the edge of the wheel meets the ground, this one particular space of experience, this place where we know the qualities of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, memory, and planning.
It all happens here, in this moment, in the space of this mind. Right now, I’m sitting here, listening to these words of the Ajahn, having tea in silence, the weight of the body on the ground, feelings of coolness, warmth, tiredness. It’s all happening here in the space of our awareness. This is the wheel meeting the ground.
There’s a quality of great simplicity, stillness, and stability to this.
This reflection by Ajahn Amaro is from the book Beginning Our Day, Volume One, (pdf) pp. 134-135.
