Building a staircase to Enlightenment

In one of the sutras, or discourses by the Buddha, he says that those who practice shamatha meditation, or dwelling in peace, are building a staircase toward enlightenment. To construct such a staircase to enlightenment requires precise measurement and carpentry. The boards have to be completely measured and properly built. The steps must be built properly, the angles must be looked at, and then finally we have to choose certain particular nails that can bear the pressure of people walking on them, and then we hammer them in. So when we talk about shamatha practice, the sitting practice of meditation, we are talking about building a staircase very deliberately, according to the instructions of Buddha. We might ask," A staircase to what? What's it like at the top of the stairs?" It doesn't really matter. It's just a staircase. We are just building a staircase. No promise. No blame. Let us simplify the whole situation. Let us build this particular
staircase very simply and directly.

Chogyam Trungpa. from Ocean of Dharma: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa. (365 Teachings on Living Life with Courage and Compassion). Number 133. [Unpublished excerpt from "Talk Two of Meditation: the Way of the Buddha," July, 1974, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado.]

Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Miracle of Mindfulness