..續本文上一頁e need to get rid of. According to the way of spiritual cultivation, we should give up our bodies, give up ourselves. We have to resolve to give our lives. We can see the example of great renunciants, such as the Buddha. He was a noble of the warrior caste, but he was able to leave it all behind and not turn back. He was the heir to riches and power, but he could renounce them.

　　If we speak the subtle Dharma, most people will be frightened by it. They won”t dare to enter it. Even saying, "Don”t do evil," most people can”t follow this. That”s how it is. So I”ve sought all kinds of means to get this across, and one thing I often say is, no matter we are delighted or upset, happy or suffering, shedding tears or singing songs, never mind--living in this world, we are living in a cage. We don”t get beyond this condition of being in a cage. Even if you are rich, you are living in a cage. If you are poor, you are living in a cage. If you sing and dance, you”re singing and dancing in a cage. If you watch a movie, you”re watching it in a cage.

　　What is this cage

　　 It is the cage of birth, the cage of aging, the cage of illness, the cage of death. In this way, we are imprisoned in the world. "This is mine." "That belongs to me." We don”t know what we really are or what we”re doing. Actually all we are doing is accumulating suffering for ourselves. It”s not something far away that causes our suffering, but we don”t look at ourselves. However much happiness and comfort we may have, having been born we cannot avoid aging, we must fall ill, and we must die. This is dukkha itself, here and now.

　　The time we can be afflicted with pain or illness is always. It can happen at any time. It”s like we”ve stolen something. They could come to arrest us at any time because we”ve done that. That”s our situation. There is danger and trouble. We exist among harmful things; birth, aging, and illness reign over our lives. We can”t go elsewhere and escape them. They can come catch us at any time--it”s always a good opportunity for them. So we have to cede this to them and accept the situation. We have to plead guilty. If we do, the sentence won”t be so heavy. If we don”t, we suffer enormously. If we plead guilty, they”ll go easy on us--we won”t be incarcerated too long.

　　When the body is born, it doesn”t belong to anyone. It”s like our meditation hall. After it”s built, spiders come to stay in it. Lizards come to stay in it. All sorts of insects and crawling things come to stay in it. Snakes may come to live in it. Anything may come to live in it. It”s not only our hall; it”s everything”s hall.

　　These bodies are the same. They aren”t ours. People come to stay in and depend on them. Illness, pain, and aging come to reside in them, and we are merely residing along with them. When these bodies reach the end of pain and illness and finally break up and die, that is not us dying. So don”t hold on to any of this. Instead you have to contemplate the matter, and your grasping will gradually be exhausted. When you see correctly, wrong understanding will stop.

　　It is birth that has created this burden for us. But generally, we people can”t accept this. We think that not being born would be the greatest evil. Dying and not being born would be the worst thing of all. That”s how we view things. We usually only think about how much we want in the future. And then we desire further, "In the next life, may I be born among the gods, or may I be born as a wealthy person."

　　We”re asking for an even heavier burden! But we think that will bring happiness.

　　To really penetrate the Dharma purely is thus very difficult. We need to rely on serious investigation.

　　Such thinking is an entirely different way from what the Buddha teaches. That way is heavy. The Buddha said to l…

《Understanding Dukkha》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…