Ajahn Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu

Something positive will stir up a positive kind of ego.

Something negative will stir up a negative kind of ego.

Either way, life bites its owner, either in a positive way or a negative way.

Stress creates conflict, turmoil, torment in the mind.

If you can successfully develop samadhi so that the mind is very firm, clear, awake and active, then one can practice successfully the insight aspects of mindfulness with breathing.

the results will be that positive and negative can no longer deceive you.

You'll no longer be tricked and made a fool out of positive and negative things.

Ordinarily, we think that the positive and negative are opposites.

But in this case we are speaking of today, there is no real difference.

Both the positive and the negative stir up ego in the same way.

They are equal in their ability to stir up attachments and dukkha.

They are basically the same in this way.

Ordinarily we may think of them as opposites, but in the way they affect the mind,

they fundamentally operate in the exact same way.

Both positive and negative stir up desire, attachment and lead to dukkha.

In our modern world with all the so-called development,

It's very easy to see how much humanity is clinging to the positive.

Open any magazine or watch a TV program and you will see nothing but a lot of clinging to the positive, to consumer goods, to all kinds of beautiful ideas.

The so-called New Age movement is another development of the same kind,

or the tourist industry.