..續本文上一頁 the Buddha”s Teaching. In fact we can say that clinging to the Path of the Buddha doesn”t bring suffering, because the Path is simply "let go" of every single dhamma!
For the ultimate in the practice of Buddhist Meditation, the Buddha taught the practice of "letting go." don”t carry anything around! Detach! If you see goodness, let it go. If you see rightness, let it go. These words, "let go," do not mean that we don”t have to practice. It means that we have to practice following the method of "letting go" itself. The Buddha taught us to contemplate all dhammas, to develop the Path through contemplating our own body and heart. The Dhamma isn”t anywhere else. It”s right here! Not someplace far away. It”s right here in this very body and heart of ours.
Therefore a meditator must practice with energy. Make the heart grander and brighter. Make it free and independent. Having done a good deed, don”t carry it around in your heart, let it go. Having refrained from doing an evil deed, let it go. The Buddha taught us to live in the immediacy of the present, in the here and now. Don”t lose yourself in the past or the future.
The Teaching that people least understand and which conflicts the most with their own opinions, is this Teaching of "letting go" or "working with an empty mind." This way of talking is called "Dhamma language." When we conceive this in worldly terms, we become confused and think that we can do anything we want. It can be interpreted this way, but its real meaning is closer to this: It”s as if we are carrying a heavy rock. After a while we begin to feel its weight but we don”t know how to let it go. So we endure this heavy burden all the time. If someone tells us to throw it away, we say, "If I throw it away, I won”t have anything left!" If told of all the benefits to be gained from throwing it away, we wouldn”t believe them but would keep thinking, "If I throw it away, I will have nothing!" So we keep on carrying this heavy rock until we become so weak and exhausted that we can no longer endure, then we drop it.
Having dropped it, we suddenly experience the benefits of letting go. We immediately feel better and lighter and we know for ourselves how much of a burden carrying a rock can be. Before we let go of the rock, we couldn”t possibly know the benefits of letting go. So if someone tells us to let go, an unenlightened man wouldn”t see the purpose of it. He would just blindly clutch at the rock and refuse to let go until it became so unbearably heavy that he just had to let go. Then he can feel for himself the lightness and relief and thus know for himself the benefits of letting go. Later on we may start carrying burdens again, but now we know what the results will be, so we can now let go more easily. This understanding that it”s useless to carry burdens around and that letting go brings ease and lightness is an example of knowing ourselves.
Our pride, our sense of self that we depend on, is the same as that heavy rock. Like that rock, if we think about letting go of self-conceit, we are afraid that without it, there would be nothing left. But when we can finally let it go, we realize for ourselves the ease and comfort of not clinging.
In the training of the heart, you mustn”t cling to either praise or blame. To just want praise and not to want blame is the way of the world. The Way of the Buddha is to accept praise when it is appropriate and to accept blame when it is appropriate. For example, in raising a child it”s very good not to just scold all the time. Some people scold too much. A wise person knows the proper time to scold and the proper time to praise. Our heart is the same. Use intelligence to know the heart. Use skill in taking care of your heart. Then you will be one who is clever in the tra…
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