..續本文上一頁ommentary on the Satipatthana Sutta:

　　 Monk is a term to indicate a person who earnestly endeavors to accomplish the practice of the teaching. Though there are others, gods and men, who earnestly strive to accomplish the practice of the teaching, yet because of the excellence of the state of a monk by way of practice, the Master spoke here of a monk... Verily, he who follows the teaching, be he a deity or a human being, is called a monk.

　　The Here and the Beyond (ora-param)

　　Now what is it that should be given up finally and without regret

　　 Our text calls it "the here and the beyond," using Pali words that originally signified the two banks of a river. The "here" is this world of our present life experience as human beings; the "beyond" is any world beyond the present one to which our willed actions (kamma) may lead us in our future existences in samsara, the round of rebirths. It may be a world of heavenly bliss, or one of hell- like suffering, or a world which our imagination creates and our heart desires; for life in any world beyond the present one belongs as much to the totality of existence as life on earth, Nibbana alone being the "beyond of existence."

　　The phrase "the here and the beyond" also applies to all those various discriminations, dichotomies and pairs of opposites in which our minds habitually move: the lower and the higher, the inner and the outer, the (life-affirming) good and the bad, acceptance and rejection. In brief, it signifies the ever-recurring play of opposites, and as this play maintains the game of life with its unresolvable dissatisfactions, disappointment and suffering, the Buddha calls on us to give it up.

　　The overcoming of the opposites, the detachment from "both sides," is one of the recurrent themes of the Sutta Nipata. Among the various pairs of opposites structuring our thoughts, attitudes and feelings, the most prominent is that of "the lower and the higher." All the numerous religious, ethical, social and political doctrines devised by man employ this dichotomy, and though their definitions of these two terms may differ enormously, they are unanimous in demanding that we give up the low and attach ourselves, firmly and exclusively, to whatever they praise as "high," "higher" or "highest."

　　 Espousing among views his own as highest,

　　Whatever he regards as "best,"

　　All else he will as "low" condemn;

　　Thus one will never get beyond disputes.

　　Sutta Nipata, v.796 21

　　However, in any area of human concern, secular or religious, clinging to discriminations of "high and low" is bound to result in suffering. When we are attached to anything "high," if the object changes, we will meet with sorrow; if our attitudes change, we will find ourselves feeling flustered and discontent. But despite their repeated experience of transiency, and despite all their prior disappointments, men still foster the vain hope that what they cherish and cling to will remain with them forever. Only those few "with little or no dust in their eyes" understand that this play of opposites, on its own level, is interminable; and only one, the Buddha, has shown us how to step out of it. He, the Great Liberator, showed that the way to genuine freedom lies in relinquishing both sides of the dichotomy, even insisting that his own teaching is only a raft built for crossing over and not for holding on to:

　　 "You, O monks who understand the Teaching”s similitude to a raft, you should let go even of good teachings, how much more the false ones."

　　Majjhima Nikaya 22

　　"Do you see, my disciples, any fetter, coarse or fine, which I have not asked you to discard

　　"

　　Majjhima Nikaya 66

　　One should, however, know well and constantly bear in mind that the relinquishing of both sides, the transcending of the opposites, is the final goal — a goal whic…

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