..續本文上一頁ell-provided, wherever you are. They are there, just like the Dhamma. The Dhamma is something which abounds everywhere. Right here, on land or in water... wherever... the Dhamma is always there. The Dhamma is perfect and complete, but it”s our practice that”s not yet complete.

　　The Lord, Fully Enlightened Buddha taught a means by which all of us may practice and come to know this Dhamma. It isn”t a big thing, only a small thing, but it”s right. For example, look at hair. If we know even one strand of hair, then we know every strand, both our own and also that of others. We know that they are all simply "hair." By knowing one strand of hair we know it all.

　　Or consider people. If we see the true nature of conditions within ourselves then we know all the other people in the world also, because all people are the same. Dhamma is like this. It”s a small thing and yet it”s big. That is, to see the truth of one condition is to see the truth of them all. When we know the truth as it is all problems come to an end.

　　Nevertheless, the training is difficult. Why is it difficult

　　 It”s difficult because of wanting, tanha. If you don”t "want" then you don”t practice. But if you practice out of desire you won”t see the Dhamma. Think about it, all of you. If you don”t want to practice you can”t practice. You must first want to practice in order to actually do the practice. Whether stepping forward or stepping back you meet desire. This is why the cultivators of the past have said that this practice is something that”s extremely difficult to do.

　　You don”t see Dhamma because of desire. Sometimes desire is very strong, you want to see the Dhamma immediately, but the Dhamma is not your mind -- your mind is not yet Dhamma. The Dhamma is one thing and the mind is another. It”s not that whatever you like is Dhamma and whatever you don”t like isn”t. That”s not the way it goes.

　　Actually this mind of ours is simply a condition of Nature, like a tree in the forest. If you want a plank or a beam it must come from the tree, but the tree is still only a tree. It”s not yet a beam or a plank. Before it can really be of use to us we must take that tree and saw it into beams or planks. It”s the same tree but it becomes transformed into something else. Intrinsically it”s just a tree, a condition of Nature. But in its raw state it isn”t yet of much use to those who need timber. Our mind is like this. It is a condition of Nature. As such it perceives thoughts, it discriminates into beautiful and ugly and so on.

　　This mind of ours must be further trained. We can”t just let it be. It”s a condition of Nature... train it to realize that it”s a condition of Nature. Improve on Nature so that it”s appropriate to our needs, which is Dhamma. Dhamma is something which must be practiced and brought within.

　　If you don”t practice you won”t know. Frankly speaking, you won”t know the Dhamma by just reading it or studying it. Or if you do know it your knowledge is still defective. For example, this spittoon here. Everybody knows it”s a spittoon but they don”t fully know the spittoon. Why don”t they fully know it

　　 If I called this spittoon a saucepan, what would you say

　　 Suppose that every time I asked for it I said, "Please bring that saucepan over here," that would confuse you. Why so

　　 Because you don”t fully know the spittoon. If you did there would be no problem. You would simply pick up that object and hand it to me, because actually there isn”t any spittoon. Do you understand

　　 It”s a spittoon due to convention. This convention is accepted all over the country, so it”s spittoon. But there isn”t any real "spittoon." If somebody wants to call it a saucepan it can be a saucepan. It can be whatever you call it. This is called "concept." If we fully know the spittoon, even…

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