..續本文上一頁 we are talking about the way of Samatha practice, the practice of developing calm. If the object which we are using is right and appropriate for us, it will lead to this kind of experience. This is the beginning, but there is enough in this practice to take us all the way, or at least to where we can see clearly and continue in strong faith. If we keep on with contemplation in this manner, energy will come to us. This is similar to the water in an urn. We put in water and keep it topped up. We keep on filling the urn with water and thereby the insects which live in the water don”t die. Making effort and doing our everyday practice is just like this. It all comes back to practice. We feel very good and peaceful.

　　This peacefulness comes from our one-pointed state of mind. This one-pointed state of mind, however, can be very troublesome, since we don”t want other mental states to disturb us. Actually, other mental states do come and, if we think about it, that in itself can be the one-pointed state of mind. It”s like when we see various men and women, but we don”t have the same feeling about them as we do about our mother and father. In reality all men are male just like our father and all women are female just like our mother, but we don”t have the same feeling about them. We feel that our parents are more important. They hold greater value for us.

　　This is how it should be with our one-pointed state of mind. We should have the same attitude towards it as we would have towards our own mother and father. All other activity which arises we appreciate in the same way as we feel towards men and women in general. We don”t stop seeing them, we simply acknowledge their presence and don”t ascribe to them the same value as our parents.

　　Undoing the Knot

　　When our practice of Samatha arrives at calm, the mind will be clear and bright. The activity of mind will become less and less. The various mental impressions which arise will be fewer. When this happens great peace and happiness will arise, but we may attach to that happiness. We should contemplate that happiness as uncertain. We should also contemplate unhappiness as uncertain and impermanent. We”ll understand that all the various feelings are not lasting and not to be clung to. We see things in this way because there”s wisdom. We”ll understand that things are this way according to their nature.

　　If we have this kind of understanding it”s like taking hold of one strand of a rope which makes up a knot. If we pull it in the right direction, the knot will loosen and begin to untangle. It”ll no longer be so tight or so tense. This is similar to understanding that it doesn”t always have to be this way. Before, we felt that things would always be the way they were and, in so doing, we pulled the knot tighter and tighter. This tightness is suffering. Living that way is very tense. So we loosen the knot a little and relax. Why do we loosen it

　　 Because it”s tight! If we don”t cling to it then we can loosen it. It”s not a permanent condition that must always be that way.

　　We use the Teaching of Impermanence as our basis. We see that both happiness and unhappiness are not permanent. We see them as not dependable. There is absolutely nothing that”s permanent. With this kind of understanding we gradually stop believing in the various moods and feelings which come up in the mind. Wrong understanding will decrease to the same degree that we stop believing in it. This is what is meant by undoing the knot. It continues to become looser. Attachment will be gradually uprooted.

　　Disenchantment

　　When we come to see impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self in ourselves, in this body and mind, in this world, then we”ll find that a kind of boredom will arise. This isn”t the everyday boredom that makes us …

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