..續本文上一頁eing born as humans is full of difficulties. And it”s not just that it”s been difficult for us so far—in the future there will also be difficulty. Young people will grow up, grownups will age, aged ones will fall ill, ill people will die. It keeps on going like this, the cycle of ceaseless transformation that never comes to an end.

　　So the Buddha taught us to meditate. In meditation, first we have to practice samadhi, which means making the mind still and peaceful. Like water in a basin. If we keep putting things in it and stirring it up, it will always be murky. If the mind is always allowed to be thinking and worrying over things, we can never see anything clearly.

　　If we let the water in the basin settle and become still, then we can see all sorts of things reflected in it. When the mind is settled and still, wisdom will be able to see things. The illuminating light of wisdom surpasses any other kind of light.

　　What was the Buddha”s advice on how to practice

　　 He taught to practice like the earth; practice like water; practice like fire; practice like wind.

　　Practice like the “old things,” the things we are already made of: the solid element of earth, the liquid element of water, the warming element of fire, the moving element of wind.

　　If someone digs the earth, the earth is not bothered. It can be shoveled, tilled, or watered. Rotten things can be buried in it. But the earth will remain indifferent. Water can be boiled or frozen or used to wash something dirty; it is not affected. Fire can burn beautiful and fragrant things or ugly and foul things—it doesn”t matter to the fire. When wind blows, it blows on all sorts of things, fresh and rotten, beautiful and ugly, without concern.

　　The Buddha used this analogy. The aggregation that is us is merely a coming together of the elements of earth, water, fire, and air. If you try to find an actual person there, you can”t. There are only these collections of elements. But for all our lives, we never thought to separate them like this to see what is really there; we have only thought, This is me, that is mine. We have always seen everything in terms of a self, never seeing that there is merely earth, water, fire, and air. But the Buddha teaches in this way. He talks about the four elements, and urges us to see that this is what we are. There are earth, water, fire, and air; there is no person here. Contemplate these elements to see that there is no being or inpidual, but only earth, water, fire, and air.

　　It”s deep, isn”t it

　　 It”s hidden deep—people will look but they can”t see this. We are used to contemplating things in terms of self and other all the time. So our meditation is still not very deep. It doesn”t reach the truth, and we don”t get beyond the way these things appear to be. We remain stuck in the conventions of the world, and being stuck in the world means remaining in the cycle of transformation: getting things and losing them, dying and being born, being born and dying, suffering in the realm of confusion. Whatever we wish for and aspire to doesn”t really work out the way we want, because we are seeing things wrongly.

　　Our grasping attachments are like this. We are still far, very far from the real path of Dharma. So please get to work right now. Don”t say, “After I”m aged, I will start going to the monastery.” What is aging

　　 Young people have aged as well as old people. From birth, they have been aging. We like to say, “When I”m older, when I”m older…” Hey! Young folks are older, older than they were. This is what “aging” means. All of you, please take a look at this. We all have this burden; this is a task for all of us to work on. Think about your parents or grandparents. They were born, then they aged, and in the end they passed away. Now we don”t know where they”ve g…

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