Ultimately you can make yourself a full-fledged member of the noble Sangha. We honor wonderful people in the past because they show us the way that we can find completeness in our lives as well.

"This is why as we practice meditation. It’s not just a question of being mindful and alert, it also means developing a sense of ease and fullness in the present moment: the realization that you can just sit here and breathe, and you can have a strong sense of ease, refreshment, rapture even in the present moment. This nourishes the mind. When the mind is nourished, it can look at a situation with a lot more equanimity, a lot more objectivity, whatever the situation, and see what it needs to be done, what would be the skillful thing, the harmless thing to do right now, and it’s willing and able to do it

This is how the mind achieves completion, fullness, by developing a sense of fullness in the present moment in the breath, and then working on that to develop fullness of understanding, fullness of discernment, till ultimately you can make yourself a full-fledged member of that noble Sangha as well. Because this is the other part of the teaching that’s always relevant: The teachings are not there just to say there were wonderful people in the past, people we want to honor. We honor them because they show us the way that we can find completeness in our lives as well.

So take their lesson to heart."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Asalha Puja — Completeness"

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