The things of this world are merely conventions of our own making. Having established them we get lost in them and refuse to let go, clinging to our personal views and opinions. This clinging never ends as it is samsara flowing endlessly on. It has no completion.

Now, if we know conventional reality, we’ll know liberation. If we clearly know liberation, we’ll know conventional reality. This is to know the Dhamma. Here there is completion.

Accepting, giving up, letting go—this is the way of lightness. Wherever you’re clinging, there’s becoming and birth right there. There’s danger right there. The Buddha taught about conventions and how to undo them in the right way and thereby reach liberation.

This is freedom, not to cling to conventions. All things in this world have a conventional reality. Having established them, we should not be fooled by them, because getting lost in them really leads to suffering. This point concerning rules and conventions is of utmost importance. Once you can get beyond them is beyond suffering.

They are, however, characteristic of our world. Take Mr. Boonmah, for instance; he used to be just one of the crowd, but now he’s been appointed district commissioner. It’s just a convention, but it’s a convention we should respect. It’s part of the world of people.

If you think, “Oh, before we were friends, we used to work at the tailor’s together,” and then you go out and pat him on the head in public, he’ll get angry. It’s not right there; he’ll resent it. So we should follow the conventions in order to avoid giving rise to resentment. It’s useful to understand conventions. Know the right time and place; know the person.

Why is it wrong to go against conventions? It’s wrong because of people! You should know both convention and liberation. Know the right time for each. If we know how to use the rules and conventions comfortably, then we are skilled. If we try to behave at a higher level of reality at an inappropriate time, this is wrong. Where is it wrong? It’s wrong with people’s defilements, that’s where!

Everyone has defilements. In one situation, we behave one way; in another situation, we must behave in another way. We should know the ins and outs because we live within conventions.

Problems occur because people cling to them. If we suppose something to be, then it is. It’s there because we suppose it to be there. But if you look closely, in the absolute sense, these things don’t really exist.

The word liberation is itself just a convention, but it refers to that which lies beyond convention. Having achieved freedom, having achieved liberation, we’ll still refer to it conventionally as “liberation.” If we didn’t have conventions, we couldn’t communicate, so it does have its uses.

For example, people have different names, but they are all people just the same. If we didn’t have names and we wanted to call out to somebody standing in a crowd, we’d have to yell, “Hey, person! person!” and that would be useless.

You couldn’t indicate who you were calling to because they’re all “person.” But if you called, “Hey, John!” then John would come. Names fulfill just this need. Through them we can communicate; they provide the basis for social behavior.

So, you should know both convention and liberation. Conventions have a use, but in reality there really isn’t anything there. Even people are non-existent. They are merely groups of elements, born of causal conditions, dependent on conditions, existing for a while, and then disappearing in the natural way.

No one can oppose or control all this. But without conventions we would have nothing to say; we’d have no names, no practice, no work. Rules and conventions are established to give us a language, to make things convenient, and that’s all.

This is conventional reality, but to get ordinary people to understand liberation is really difficult. Our money, our house, our family, our children and relatives are simply conventions that we have invented, but really, seen in the light of Dhamma, they don’t belong to us.

Maybe if we hear this we don’t feel so good, but reality is like that. These things have value only through established conventions. If we establish that it doesn’t have value, then it doesn’t have value. If we establish that it does have value, then it does have value. This is the way it is. We bring convention into our world to fill a need.

Even this body is not really ours; we just suppose it to be so. It’s truly just an assumption on our part. If you try to find a real, substantial self within it, you can’t. There are merely elements that are born, continue for a while, and then die. There’s no real, true substance in it, but it’s proper that we use it.

It’s like a cup. Sooner or later the cup will break, but while it’s there you should use it and look after it well. It’s a tool for your use. If it breaks, there is trouble, so even though it must break, you should try your utmost to preserve it.

Convention and liberation are related like this continually. Even though we use conventional reality, don’t place your trust in it as being the truth. If you cling to it, suffering will arise. The case of right and wrong is a good example. Some people see wrong as being right and right as being wrong, but in the end who really knows what is right and what is wrong? We don’t know.

Different people establish different conventions about what’s right and what’s wrong, but the Buddha took suffering as his guideline. In truth, we don’t know. But as a useful, practical level, we can say that right is not to harm oneself or others. This way fulfills a constructive purpose for us.

After all, both rules and conventions and liberation are simply dhammas. One is higher than the other, but they go hand in hand. There is no way that we can guarantee that anything is definitely like this or like that, so the Buddha said to just leave things be. Leave them as uncertain. However much you like or dislike them you should understand them as uncertain.

All these things we say are merely conventions; we establish them ourselves. If you know these things with wisdom, you’ll know impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self. This is the outlook that leads to enlightenment.

Ajahn Chah (1918-1992)

excerpted from Food for the Heart – The Collected Teaching of Ajahn Chah 2002