..續本文上一頁m, just like a chicken that is put in a coop. Once inside the coop, the chicken is unable to wander outside, but it is still able to walk around within the confines of the coop. The action of walking to and fro doesn”t lead to any great harm because the chicken is always inside the coop. Some people don”t want to experience any feelings or thoughts when they meditate, but thoughts and feelings do arise. The awareness that is present when the mind is calm, however, keeps the mind from getting agitated. This means that whenever there are thoughts or sensations walking around in the mind, they do so within the coop of calm, and so cannot cause you any harm or disturbance.

　　Child

　　If you don”t oppose and resist your mind, you just follow its moods. This is not right practice. It would be like indulging a child”s every whim. Will that child be a good child

　　 If the parents give their child everything it wishes is that good

　　 Even if they do so at first, by the time it can speak they may start to spank it occasionally because they”re afraid it”ll end up spoiled and helpless. The training of your mind must be like this. Don”t indulge its whims.

　　Crooked Tree

　　The essence of our practice is to watch intention and examine the mind. You must have wisdom. Don”t discriminate. Don”t get upset with others if they are different. Would you get upset at a small and crooked tree in the forest for not being tall and straight like some of the others

　　 That would be silly. Don”t judge other people. There are all varieties. No need to carry the burden of wishing to change them all. If you want to change anything, change your ignorance to wisdom.

　　Dirty Tray

　　Many people contend that since the mind is inherently pure, since we all have Buddha nature, it”s not necessary to practice. But this is like taking something clean, like this tray, for example, and then I come and drop some dung on it. Will you say that this tray is originally clean, and so you don”t have to do anything to clean it now

　　Downstairs, Upstairs

　　We invent names for the sake of study, but actually nature is just as it is. For example, we are sitting here downstairs on this stone floor. The floor is the base. It”s not moving or going anywhere. Upstairs is what has risen out of this floor. Upstairs is like everything that we see in our minds: form, feeling, memory, and thinking. They don”t really exist in the way we presume they do. They are merely the conventional mind. As soon as they arise, they pass away again. They don”t really exist in themselves.

　　Drops of Water

　　Keep your precepts. At first you”ll make mistakes. When you realize it, stop, come back and establish your precepts again. Maybe you”ll go astray and make another mistake. When you realize it, re-establish yourself. If you practice like this, your mindfulness will improve and become more consistent, just like the drops of water falling from a kettle. If we tilt the kettle just a little bit, the water drips out slowly - plop! . . .plop! . . . plop! If we tilt the kettle a little bit more, the drops fall faster - plop, plop, plop! If we tilt the kettle even further, the water doesn”t drip anymore but turns into a steady stream. Where do the plops go

　　 They don”t go anywhere. They simply change into a steady stream of water. This is how your increasing mindfulness will be.

　　Duck

　　However much we want the body to go on living for a long, long time, it won”t do that. Wanting it to do so would be as foolish as wanting a duck to be a chicken. When we see that that”s impossible, that a duck has to be a duck, that a chicken has to be a chicken, and that the body has to be the body and get old and die, then we will find strength and energy when we have to face the changes of the body.

　　Earthworm

　　Some people come and…

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