..續本文上一頁g from them. In other words, we must step out of our ruts, regain a direct vision of things, and make a fresh appraisal of our habits in the light of that vision.
If we look once again over the list of potential dangers deriving from uncontrolled associative thinking, we shall better understand the Buddha”s insistence upon getting to the bedrock of experience. In the profound and terse stanzas called "The Cave," included in the Sutta Nipata, the Buddha says that the "full penetration of sense impression (phassa) will make one free from greed" and that "by understanding perception (sañña), one will be able to cross the flood of samsara" (stanza 778 f.).[10] By placing mindfulness as a guard at the very first gate through which thoughts enter the mind, we shall be able to control the incomers much more easily, and shut out unwanted intruders. Thus the purity of "luminous consciousness" can be maintained against "adventitious defilements" (Anguttara, 1:51).
The Satipatthana Sutta provides a systematic training for inducing direct, fresh, and undistorted vision. The training covers the entire personality in its physical and mental aspects, and includes the whole world of experience. The methodical application of the several exercises to oneself (ajjhatta), to others (bahiddha), and alternatingly to both, will help uncover erroneous conceptions due to misdirected associative thinking and misapplied analogies.
The principal types of false associative thinking are covered, in the terminology of the Dhamma, by the four kinds of misapprehension or perverted views (vipallasa), which wrongly take (1) what is impermanent for permanent, (2) what is painful, or conducive to pain, for happiness, (3) what has no self and is unsubstantial for a self or an abiding substance, and (4) what is impure for beautiful. These perverted views arise through a false apprehension of the characteristic marks of things. Under the influence of our passions and false theories, we perceive things selectively in a one-sided or erroneous way, and then associate them wrongly with other ideas. By applying bare attention to our perceptions and impressions, gradually we can free them from these misapprehensions, progressing steadily towards the direct vision of things as they really are.
THE SENSE OF URGENCY
One who has clear and direct vision, stirred to a sense of urgency (samvega) by things which are deeply moving, will experience a release of energy and courage enabling him to break through his timid hesitations and his rigid routine of life and thought. If that sense of urgency is kept alive, it will bestow the earnestness and persistence required for the work of liberation.
Thus said the teachers of old:
"This very world here is our field of action.
It harbors the unfoldment of the holy path,
And many things to break complacency,
Be stirred by things which may well move the heart,
And being stirred, strive wisely and fight on!"
Our closest surroundings are full of stirring things. If we generally do not perceive them as such, that is because habit has made our vision dull and our heart insensitive. The same thing happens to us even with the Buddha”s teaching. When we first encounter the teaching, we receive a powerful intellectual and emotional stimulation; but gradually the impetus tends to lose its original freshness and impelling force. The remedy is to constantly renew it by turning to the fullness of life around us, which illustrates the Four Noble Truths in ever new variations. A direct vision will impart new lifeblood even to the most common experiences of every day, so that their true nature appears through the dim haze of habit and speaks to us with a fresh voice. It may well be just the long accustomed sight of the beggar at the stre…
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