Dirty Clothes: Beauty or Beast (Ajahn Chah)

Ajah Chah, Dhamma Garden (trans.); Ananda (DBM), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why beautiful women date, have sex, and marry average-looking men (esquire.com)

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It's an abyss. There's no filling it no matter what!

A hole too deep? I read a second meaning into that simile, dating as I do. It's too much, yet it's not enough. Nothing is ever enough! I like this story by Thai Forest Meditation Master Ajahn Chah, like the Buddhist tale of the Yakkha Alavaka that bargains with a father in "Beauty and the Beast."

It is only natural that when we put on dirty clothes and our bodies are dirty that our minds, too, will feel uncomfortable and depressed.

However, if we keep our bodies clean and wear clean and neat clothes, it makes our minds cheerful and light.

So, too, when virtue is not kept, our bodily actions and speech are dirty. And this is a cause for making mind miserable, distressed, and heavy (a cumbersome drag to haul around).

We are separated from right practice, and this prevents us from penetrating into the essence of the Dhamma in our minds (hearts).

The wholesome bodily actions and speech themselves depend on the mind properly trained because, after all, mind orders body and speech.

Therefore, we must continue to practice by training our hearts/minds.