Letter 1.5

Essentially, the Buddha's Teaching is a meditative system with a rather specific - and attainable - goal, and not the system of priest-preaching-laymen that is practiced here under the name of Buddhism but not in accord with the Teaching of the Buddha. The latter is a practice and the only way to understand if is to practice it. Study alone won't suffice. More than a practice, it's an experience. More than an experience, it’s meditation. More than meditation, it’s an attainment, and for me it is the means for which I’ve been searching for since before I left the US. I can look back on what I was when I became a monk and I can see the difference, and it's a very desirable difference, and since I can see a difference I know that, as opposed to all the other things I’ve tried - with the exception of the kibbutz - for the last 7 years or so, as a Buddhist monk, some progress is being made…