A student asked the meditation teacher:
“Venerable teacher, what is most important in life? What is most important in meditation practice?”
The most important thing in life is to be free from wrong views (false understandings) and from attachment to this life. We can also say that the most important thing in life is to be free from the false belief that sentient beings and things are ultimately real.
The most important thing in meditation is to walk the Middle Path — using it only as a tool, practicing without attachment to the false notion that these practices are ultimately real in themselves.
These answers of mine will not be complete or accurate from the perspective of ordinary people.
— Venerable Ottamasara