It's like having a tiny splinter or thorn in our foot. As we walk along, there are times when it hurts and times when it doesn't. If we ram it into a stump, it hurts. So we feel around on our foot but don't feel the splinter, so we let the matter go. After a while, we're walking along and we stub our toe on a bump, and the splinter starts hurting again. This keeps happening over and over again. Why? Because the splinter or thorn is still in our foot. It hasn't yet come out. The pain keeps coming back. When it hurts, we feel for the splinter but we can't find it, so we let the matter go. After a while it hurts again, so we feel for it again. This keeps happening again and again. When pain arises, we have to determine what it is. We don't have to just let it go. When our foot hurts: "Oh. That damned thorn is still there." When the pain comes, the desire to take out the thorn comes along with it. If we don't take it out, the pain will keep coming back and back and back. Our interest in getting the thorn out is still there all the time. Eventually the day will come when we decide, no matter what, that we've got to get it out because it hurts. Our determination to put energy into the practice has to be like this. Wherever there's interference, wherever there's discomfort, we have to examine things right there, solve the problem right there — solve the problem of the thorn in our foot by digging it right out.
~ Ajaan Chah
