..續本文上一頁ss. Set them down. But it feels like they”re kicking us around. First they kick us from one side, ”0w!”, then they kick us from the other, ”0w!” We feel like the clapper in our wooden bell, knocked back and forth from side to side. The Middle Way is all about letting go of happiness and unhappiness, and the right practice is the practice in the middle. When the craving for happiness hits and we don”t satisfy it, we feel the pain.

　　Walking down the Middle Path of the Buddha is arduous and challenging. There are just these two extremes of good and bad. If we believe what they tell us, we have to follow their orders. If we become enraged at someone, we immediately go searching for a stick to attack them. No patient endurance. If we love someone we want to caress them from head to toe. Am I right

　　 These two sidetracks completely miss the middle.

　　This is not what the Buddha recommended. His teaching was to gradually put these things down. His practice was a path leading out of existence, away from rebirth - a path free of becoming, birth, happiness, unhappiness, good, and evil.

　　Those people who crave existence are blind to what”s in the middle. They fall off the Path on the side of happiness and then completely pass over the middle on their way to the other side of dissatisfaction and irritation. They continually skip over the center. This sacred place is invisible to them as they rush back and forth. They don”t stay in that place where there is no existence and no birth. They don”t like it, so they don”t stay. Either they go down out of their home and get bitten by a dog or fly up to get pecked by a vulture. This is existence.

　　Humanity is blind to that which is free from existence with no rebirth. The human heart is blind to it, so it repeatedly passes it by and skips it over. The Middle Way walked by the Buddha, the Path of correct Dhamma practice, transcends existence and rebirth. The mind that is beyond both the wholesome and the unwholesome is released. This is the path of a peaceful sage. If we don”t walk it we”ll never be a sage at peace. That peace will never have a chance to bloom. Why

　　 Because of existence and rebirth. Because there”s birth and death. The path of the Buddha is without birth or death. There”s no low and no high. There”s no happiness and no suffering. There”s no good and no evil. This is the straight path. This is the path of peace and stillness. It”s peacefully free of pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow. This is how to practice Dhamma. Experiencing this, the mind can stop. It can stop asking questions. There”s no longer any need to search for answers. There! That”s why the Buddha said that the Dhamma is something that the wise know directly for themselves. No need to ask anybody. We understand clearly for ourselves without a shred of doubt that things are exactly as the Buddha said they were.

　　DEDICATION TO THE PRACTICE

　　So I”ve told you a few brief stories about how I practiced. I didn”t have a lot of knowledge. I didn”t study much. What I did study was this heart and mind of mine, and I learned in a natural way through experimentation, trial and error. When I liked something, then I examined what was going on and where it would lead. Inevitably, it would drag me to some distant suffering. My practice was to observe myself. As understanding and insight deepened, gradually I came to know myself.

　　Practice with unflinching dedication! If you want to practice Dhamma, then please try not to think too much. If you”re meditating and you find yourself trying to force specific results, then it”s better to stop. When your mind settles down to become peaceful and then you think, ”That”s it! That”s it, isn”t it

　　 Is this it

　　”, then stop. Take all your analytical and theoretical knowledge, wrap it up and store it …

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