..續本文上一頁se liver is not yet cooked. He does not know when he has had enough. He continues to indulge and drink carelessly. He”s caught badly and later suffers illness and pain.

　　Duck

　　Your practice is like raising a duck. Your duty is to feed it and give it water. Whether the duck grows fast or slowly is its business, not yours. Let it go and just do your own work. Your business is to practice. If it”s fast or slow, just know it, don”t try to force it. This kind of practice has a good foundation.

　　Empty Space

　　People want to go to Nibbana but when you tell them that there is nothing there, they begin to have second thoughts. But there”s nothing there, nothing at all! Look at the roof and floor here. Think of the roof as a "becoming" and the floor as a "becoming", too. You can stand on the roof and you can stand on the floor, but in the empty space between the roof and the floor there is no place to stand. Where there is no becoming, that”s where there”s emptiness, and to put it bluntly, we say that Nibbana is this emptiness. People hear this and they back up a bit. They don”t want to go. They”re afraid that they won”t see their children or relatives. That”s why whenever we bless the laity by wishing them long life, beauty, and strength, they become very happy. However, if we start talking about letting go and about emptiness they don”t want to hear about it. But have you ever seen a very old person with a beautiful complexion, or a lot of strength, or a lot of happiness

　　 No! But we wish them long life; beauty, happiness and strength, and they are all pleased. They”re attached to becoming, to the cycle of birth and death. They prefer to stand on the roof or on the floor. Few are they who dare to stand in the empty space between.

　　Family

　　If you want to find Dhamma, it has nothing to do with the forest with mountains or the caves. It”s only in the heart, and has its own language of experience. There is a great difference between concepts and direct experience. With a glass of hot water, whoever puts his finger into it will have the same experience - hot - which can be expressed in as many different words as there are different languages. Similarly, whoever looks deeply into the heart will have the same experience, no matter what his nationality, culture, or language may be. If in your heart you come to that taste of truth, of Dhamma, then you become like one big family - like mother and father, sisters and brothers - because you”ve tasted that essence of the heart which is the same for all.

　　Fertilizer

　　Our defilements are like fertilizer for our practice. It”s the same as taking filthy stuff like chicken manure and buffalo dung to fertilize our fruit trees so that the fruit will be sweet and abundant. In suffering, there is happiness; in confusion there is calm.

　　Fire

　　Nothing happens immediately, so in the beginning we can”t see any results from our practice. This is like the example that I have often given you of the man who tries to make fire by rubbing two sticks together. "They say there”s fire here!" He says, looking at his sticks. He then begins rubbing energetically. He rubs on and on, but soon becomes impatient. He wants to have that fire, but the fire just won”t come, so he gets discouraged and stops to rest for while. When he starts again the initial heat that he had worked up has already been lost so the going is slow. He just doesn”t keep at long enough. He rubs and rubs until he is tired and stops altogether. Not only is he tired, but he becomes more and more discouraged. "There is no fire here!" He finally decides and gives up completely. Actually he was doing the work, but there wasn”t enough heat to start the fire. The fire was there all the time, but he didn”t carry on to the end. Likewise with the mind. Until w…

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