Karuna Taimao

Desire is a defilement, but we must first have desire in order to start practicing the way. Suppose you went to buy coconuts at the market and while carrying them back someone asked:

"Why did you buy those coconuts?"
"I bought them to eat."
"Are you going to eat the shells too?"
"Of course not!"
"I don't believe you. If you're not going to eat the shells, then why did you buy them?"


Well, What do you say? How are you going to answer that question?

We practise with desire to begin with. If we didn't have desire, we wouldn't practice. Contemplating in this way can give rise to wisdom, you know. For example, those coconuts: Are you going to eat the shells as well? Of course not. Then why do you take them? They're useful for wrapping up the coconuts in. If after eating the coconuts, you throw the shells away, there is no problem.

Our practice is like this. We're not going to eat the shells, but it's not yet time to throw them away. We keep them first, just like we do with desire. This is how the practice is. If somebody wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, that's their business. We know what we're doing.