To Be Debt Free
December 20, 2022
We come to the practice indebted to others. The Thais have the concept of what they call your kamma-debt collectors, the people you’ve harmed in the past. And as Ajaan Lee points out, we’re in debt to all those whose flesh we’ve eaten and to all the farmers who’ve provided us with vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. We’re in debt to our parents for having raised us, to our teachers for having taught us. As we come to the practice, this is one way of getting ourselves out of debt. But first we put ourselves in debt to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. We take on these better debts—let’s put it that way—and we practice, eventually to get out of debt even to them. As the Buddha said, the arahants are totally without debt
