The Deserted Village

THE DESERTED VILLAGE

The Path to Deliverance lies through the development of the perception of ‘not self’. Generally, we attribute a self to each of our sense-bases. There is an ‘I’ dwelling, at each of the six sense-bases - ‘I see’; ‘I hear’; ‘I smell’; ‘I taste’; ‘I touch’; ‘I think’. Knock at any of ‘My’ sense-doors, and ‘I’ answer. How can one ‘knock out’ the ‘I’?

The Buddha compares every one of the six sense-bases to a deserted village. The universal law of impermanence expels all dwellers from the village. Sense objects come and go but they seem to stay for a while just to be able to answer the knock at the door.

"Hello! Who is there?"
"Ah! It’s ME!"
Now, who is actually there? Is it ‘ME’?
No. It is only the ECHO of your knock at the door!

Listen: ‘..... Rooted in interest, friends, are all things; born of attention are all things; arising, from contact, are all things ....’ - A.N.V 106f.