Ajahn Chah: What is "reality"?

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

I should meditate more to get it.

Problems occur because people cling to conventions and what they suppose things to be.

If we look closely, in the ultimate sense, however, we will see that things don’t really exist. Our house, our family, our money are simply conventions that we have invented.

Seen in the light of dhamma ["reality"], they don’t belong to us. Even this body is not really ours, and just because we suppose it to be so doesn’t make it so.

It would be like taking a handful of sand and agreeing to call it "salt." Could that, would that make it salt?

Well, yes, it would, but in name only and not in reality (dhamma). We still wouldn’t be able to cook with it, because no matter what we call it, it’s still sand. Supposing sand to be salt doesn’t make it so.