..續本文上一頁as still uncomfortable, so it would lie down. Then it would jump up again, running into the underbrush, the tree hollow, never staying still.

　　The Buddha said, "Monks, did you see that jackal this afternoon

　　 Standing it suffered, running it suffered, sitting it suffered, lying down it suffered. In the underbrush, a tree hollow or a cave, it suffered. It blamed standing for its discomfort, it blamed sitting, it blamed running and lying down; it blamed the tree, the underbrush and the cave. In fact the problem was with none of those things. That jackal had mange. The problem was with the mange."

　　We monks are just the same as that jackal. Our discontent is due to wrong view. Because we don”t exercise sense restraint we blame our suffering on externals. Whether we live at Wat Pah Pong, in America or in London we aren”t satisfied. Going to live at Bung Wai or any of the other branch monasteries we”re still not satisfied. Why not

　　 Because we still have wrong view within us, just that! Wherever we go we aren”t content.

　　But just as that dog, if the mange is cured, is content wherever it goes, so it is for us. I reflect on this often, and I teach you this often, because it”s very important. If we know the truth of our various moods we arrive at contentment. Whether it”s hot or cold we are satisfied, with many people or with few people we are satisfied. Contentment doesn”t depend on how many people we are with, it comes only from right view. If we have right view then wherever we stay we are content.

　　But most of us have wrong view. It”s just like a maggot! A maggot”s living place is filthy, its food is filthy... but they suit the maggot. If you take a stick and brush it away from its lump of dung, it”ll struggle to crawl back into it. It”s the same when the Ajahn teaches us to see rightly. We resist, it makes us feel uneasy. We run back to our "lump of dung" because that”s where we feel at home. We”re all like this. If we don”t see the harmful consequences of all our wrong views then we can”t leave them, the practice is difficult. So we should listen. There”s nothing else to the practice.

　　If we have right view wherever we go we are content. I have practiced and seen this already. These days there are many monks, novices and laypeople coming to see me. If I still didn”t know, if I still had wrong view, I”d be dead by now! The right abiding place for monks, the place of coolness, is just right view itself. We shouldn”t look for anything else.

　　So even though you may be unhappy it doesn”t matter, that unhappiness is uncertain. Is that unhappiness your "self"

　　 Is there any substance to it

　　 Is it real

　　 I don”t see it as being real at all. Unhappiness is merely a flash of feeling which appears and then is gone. Happiness is the same. Is there a consistency to happiness

　　 Is it truly an entity

　　 It”s simply a feeling that flashes suddenly and is gone. There! It”s born and then it dies. Love just flashes up for a moment and then disappears. Where is the consistency in love, or hate, or resentment

　　 In truth there is no substantial entity there, they are merely impressions which flare up in the mind and then die. They deceive us constantly, we find no certainty anywhere. Just as the Buddha said, when unhappiness arises it stays for a while, then disappears. When unhappiness disappears, happiness arises and lingers for a while and then dies. When happiness disappears, unhappiness arises again... on and on like this.

　　In the end we can say only this — apart from the birth, the life and the death of suffering, there is nothing. There is just this. But we who are ignorant run and grab it constantly. We never see the truth of it, that there”s simply this continual change. If we understand this then we don”t need to think very much, but we have much wisdom. If we don”t know it, then we will have more thinking than wisdom — and maybe no wisdom at all! It”s not until we truly see the harmful results of our actions that we can give them up. Likewise, it”s not until we see the real benefits of practice that we can follow it, and begin working to make the mind "good."

　　If we cut a log of wood and throw it into the river, and that log doesn”t sink or rot, or run aground on either of the banks of the river, that log will definitely reach the sea. Our practice is comparable to this. If you practice according to the path laid down by the Buddha, following it straightly, you will transcend two things. What two things

　　 Just those two extremes that the Buddha said were not the path of a true meditator — indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain. These are the two banks of the river. One of the banks of that river is hate, the other is love. Or you can say that one bank is happiness, the other unhappiness. The "log" is this mind. As it "flows down the river" it will experience happiness and unhappiness. If the mind doesn”t cling to that happiness or unhappiness it will reach the "ocean" of Nirvana. You should see that there is nothing other than happiness and unhappiness arising and disappearing. If you don”t "run aground" on these things then you are on the path of a true meditator.

　　This is the teaching of the Buddha. Happiness, unhappiness, love and hate are simply established in Nature according to the constant law of nature. The wise person doesn”t follow or encourage them, he doesn”t cling to them. This is the mind which lets go of indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain. It is the right practice. Just as that log of wood will eventually flow to the sea, so will the mind which doesn”t attach to these two extremes inevitably attain peace.

《A Taste Of Freedom - Right View — The Place of Coolness》全文閱讀結束。