..續本文上一頁When you unwind out of all that, you become free and at peace.
Seedling
In meditation, you must continuously be attentive, just like when planting a seedling. If you plant a seedling in one place, then after three days you pull it up and plant it in another place, and after three more days, pull it up again and plant it somewhere else, it will just die and not grow up and bear any fruit. Meditation is the same. If you do a seven-day meditation retreat and after leaving it, for seven months you go around "soiling" the mind, and then come back and do another seven-day retreat where you don”t speak and you keep to yourself, it”s like the tree. Your meditation practice won”t be able to grow and it will die with out producing any real results.
Sharp Knife
When we say that the mind stops, we mean that it feels as if it”s stopped, that it does not go running about here and there. It”s as if we have a sharp knife. If we go and cut away at things randomly, like stones, bricks and glass, without choosing carefully, our knife will quickly become blunt. We must cut only those things which are useful to cut. Our mind is the same. If we let our mind wander after thoughts or feelings which have no use or value, the mind will become weak because it has no chance to rest. If the mind has no energy, wisdom will not arise, because the mind without energy is a mind without concentration.
Snake
People want happiness, not suffering. But in fact happiness is just a refined form of suffering. Suffering itself is the coarse form. We can compare them to a snake. The snake”s head is unhappiness. The snake”s tail is happiness. The snake”s head is really dangerous. It has the poisonous fangs. If we touch it, it”ll bite right away. But never mind the head
Even if we go and hold onto the tail, it will turn around and bite us just the same, because both the head and tail belong to the one snake. Likewise happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and sadness, arise from the same snake: wanting. So when we”re happy, the mind isn”t really peaceful. For example, when we get the things we like, such as wealth, prestige, praise or happiness, we become pleased, but the mind remains uneasy for fear of losing them. That very fear isn”t a peaceful state. Later we may really lose those things, then we truly suffer. So if we”re not aware, even when happy, suffering is imminent. It”s just like grabbing the snake”s tail - if we don”t let go, it”ll bit. So be it the snake”s conditions they”re all just characteristics of the Wheel of Existence, of endless change.
Spider
Watching a spider can give rise to wisdom. A spider spins its webs in any convenient niche and then sits in the center, staying still. Later a fly comes along and lands on its web. As soon as the fly touches and shakes the web - boop! ” the spider pounces on it and winds it up in thread. It stores the insect away and then returns again to collect itself silently in the center of its web. This is not at all different from our own minds. Our mind is comparable to the spider, and our moods and mental impressions to the various insects. The senses constantly stimulate the mind. When any of them contacts something, it immediately reaches the mind. The mind then investigates and examines it thoroughly, after which it returns to the center. "Coming to the center" means living mindfully with clear comprehension, being always alert and doing everything with precision - this is our center. There”s really not a lot for us to do. We just carefully live in this way. But that doesn”t mean that we live heedlessly thinking, "No need to do sitting or walking meditation!" and so forget all about our practice. We can”t be careless. We must remain alert like the spider waiting to snatch up insects for its food. This is h…
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