..續本文上一頁 suffering has a squeeze on them, they, too, try to seek a way out.

　　Hen or Rooster

　　Teaching people with different levels of understanding is very difficult. Some people have certain set ideas. You tell them the truth and they say it”s not true: "I”m right, you”re wrong!" There”s no end to this. If you don”t let go there will be suffering. It”s like the four men who go into the forest and hear a rooster crowing. One of them wonders if it is a rooster or a hen. Three of them decide it”s a hen, but the curious one insists it”s a rooster. "How could a hen crow like that

　　" he asks. They answer, "Well, it has a mouth, doesn”t it

　　" They argue and get really upset, but in the end they are all wrong. Whether you say a hen or a rooster, they”re only names. We say a rooster is like this, a hen is like that. This is how we get stuck in the world! Actually if you just say that there”s really no hen and no rooster, then that”s the end of it.

　　Herbal Medicine

　　The theory of Dhamma is like a textbook on herbal medicine, and going out to look for the plants is like the practice. Having studied the book, we know what it says about herbal medicine, but we do not know what the actual herbs look like. All we have are some sketches and names. But if we already have the textbook on herbal medicine, we can then go looking for the plants themselves, and do so often enough so that we can recognize them easily when we see them. In this way we give the textbook value.

　　The reason we were able to recognize the various herbs is because we studied the textbook. The textbook on herbal medicine was our teacher. The theory of Dhamma has this kind of value. However, if we depend completely on practice and do not take time to learn, then it would be like going out looking for herbal plants without having first done some study. Without knowing what we were looking for, we would not succeed in finding any. So both theory and practice are important.

　　Host and Guests

　　Your mind is like the owner of a house and the feelings are like the guests that come and go. But have only one chair in your house so you can see each guest clearly. See the moods and emotions that come to bother you, then let them go. Keep mindfulness in every posture. If you just follow your moods, you won”t see them.

　　Hot Iron Ball

　　The cultivators of old saw that there is only the arising and ceasing of dhammas. There is no abiding entity. They contemplated from all angles and saw that there was nothing stable. While walking or sitting, they saw things in this way. Wherever they looked, there was only suffering. It”s just like a big iron ball which has just come out of a blast furnace. It”s hot all over. If you touch the top, it”s hot. If you touch the sides, they”re hot. If you touch the bottom, it”s hot, too. There isn”t any place on it which is cool.

　　Hot Iron Bar and Candy

　　It is unlikely that we can really affect the state of mind of a dying person very much, either positively or adversely. It”s like if I took a hot iron bar and poked you in the chest with it, and then I held out a piece of candy with my other hand. How much could the candy distract you

　　 We should treat dying people with love and compassion and look after them as best we can, but if we don”t turn it inwards to contemplate our own inevitable death, there is little real benefit for us.

　　Hotel

　　We are all born with nothing, and we die with nothing. Our house is like a hotel and so is our body. We”ll have to move out of them both one day and leave them behind.

　　Householder

　　What is the mind

　　 The mind doesn”t have any form. That which receives impressions, both good and bad, we call mind. It is like the owner of a house. The owner stays at home while visitors come to see him. He is the one who receives the visitors.…

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