NonDiscriminating Loving-Kindness

I was quite grateful that, um, I actually received a letter the other day, um, from another abbot teacher, and pointing out that the meaning of the word ekagata, I had used it in slightly the wrong way in one of my talks.

I said it was eka is like one and gata like gone, gone to, but it's actually eka, aga, like the highest, aga is the highest.

A-G-G-A is a very good word in Pali.

It's a word that I've contemplated quite a bit.

And it's like Lompar Kun who visited us last year.

His Pali name is Agadamo, the highest Dhamma.

So it's a good word to contemplate because Ekagata usually gets translated as one-pointedness.

The Aga is like the highest or the summit or the point the top point of something or the tip of something.

So these words that the Buddha chose to use are very interesting to contemplate how he was using them, the meaning of them.

And it certainly doesn't mean laser-pointed focus and exclusion to everything else, because... you can have one pointedness and the thinking faculty can still work, can still function.

So I quite like the translation of like singleness of purpose or another possibility would be unification.

Of course, we're not going to be able to probably hit the nail on the head with English in terms of the intention of the Buddha and then using that word.

But I think applying it to practice is like we develop a long enduring mind and then we persevere.

So it's like keeping our aim in mind, keeping our purpose in mind, keeping our single-pointed focus on what our aim is because the mind changes quickly and it's easy to get distracted, easy to get diverted.

So perseverance is another thing of like adhitana, following through with things.

So when we develop an intention to do something wholesome, then to follow through with it.

And when we persevere, there's going to be all sorts of times when we make mistakes, don't do things correctly, but we keep trying.

And sometimes we have to begin again.

Sometimes we have to start over.

Sometimes we have to scrap what we did already and begin again.

And then it still doesn't work, so we have to begin again and again and again.

And then if we persevere, then there will be a point when it works, and it's almost unbelievable when it does.