..續本文上一頁r own minds in the present moment. So that depending on the condition of the mind, we can say that we are continually being born in these different states. For instance, when the mind is on fire with anger then we have fallen from the Human State and have been born in Hell right here and now.

　　4. Lit. creatures with soft horns on their chest.

　　5. Mara: the Buddhist "Tempter" figure. He is either regarded as the deity ruling of the highest heaven of the Sensuous Sphere or as the personification of evil and passions, of the totality of worldly existence and of death. He is the opponent of liberation and tried in vain to obstruct the Buddha”s attainment of Enlightenment.

　　6. Worldly dhamma: the eight worldly conditions are: gain and loss, honor and dishonor, happiness and misery, praise and blame.

　　7. Path: (the Eightfold Path) comprises 8 factors of spiritual practice leading to the extinction of suffering: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.

　　8. Nourishment for contemplation, to feed wisdom.

　　9.N.B. in this translation "heart" is used where "mind" was used in the other translations.

　　10.Ajahn Mun: probably the most respected and most influential Meditation Master of this century in Thailand. Under his guidance the Ascetic Forest Tradition (Dhutanga Kammatthana) became a very important tradition in the revival of Buddhist meditation practice. The vast majority of recently deceased and presently living great Meditation Masters of Thailand are either direct disciples of the Venerable Ajahn or were substantially influenced by his Teachings. Ajahn Mun passed away in November 1949.

　　11.Ajahn Sao: Ajahn Mun”s Teacher.

　　12. Dukkha: refers to the implicit unsatisfactoriness, incompleteness, imperfection, insecurity of all conditioned phenomena, which, because they are always changing, are always liable to cause suffering. Dukkha refers to all forms of unpleasantness from gross bodily pains and the suffering implicit in old age, sickness and death, to subtle feelings such as being parted from what we like or associated with what we dislike, to refined mental states such as dullness, boredom, restlessness, agitation, etc. This is one of the most misunderstood concepts and one of the most important for spiritual development.

　　13. Dhamma and dhamma: please note the various meanings of the words "Dhamma" (the liberating law discovered and proclaimed by the Buddha), and "dhamma" (any quality, thing, object of mind and/or any conditioned or unconditioned phenomena). Sometimes the meanings also overlap.

　　14. Suffering in this context refers to the implicit unsatisfactoriness of all compounded existence as distinct from suffering as merely the opposite of happiness.

　　15. Samsara: lit. perpetual wandering, is a name by which is designated the sea of life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering and dying.

　　16. Pañña: has a wide range of meanings from general common sense to knowledgeable understanding, to profound insight into Dhamma. Although each use of the word may have a different meaning, implicit in all of them is an increasing understanding of Dhamma culminating in profound Insight and Enlightenment.

　　17. On another occasion the Venerable Ajahn completed the analogy by saying that if we know how to guard our own minds, then it is the same as observing all of the numerous rules of the Vinaya.

　　18. Translators” Note: One must imagine Ajahn Chah sitting on his Abbot”s cushion, surrounded by the Assembly of newly-ordained Monks and Novices, chuckling, teasing and spontaneously picking objects near him to illustrate his points more simply. Trying to keep the bounce of his words, his humour, and his joy on paper is difficult. However, the conversational tone has been kept and Lao slang replaced by American slang in most places.

　　19. "are standing on their heads": the Venerable Ajahn used a common Lao expression which literally means: "raise their ass to the sky."

　　20. "BUD-DHO": a Parikamma or "Mantra" commonly used to maintain one”s attention when used in conjunction with other methods such as mindfulness of the in-and out-breath or in the walking meditation or by itself as a recollection on the Buddha.

　　21. sabai: a Thai word generally meaning "comfortable," "content" or physical and/or mental well-being, as opposed to discomfort or dis-ease. In meditation it can imply positive happiness or neutral contentment.

　　22. clear mindfulness: in Pali it is Sati-Sampajañña, lit. mindfulness and clear comprehension or more generally, a clear presence of mind and self-knowing.

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