..續本文上一頁then we further disturb things by wanting to make it calm. This very wanting is the cause. We don”t see that this wanting to calm the mind is tanha (craving). It”s just like increasing the burden. The more we desire calm the more disturbed the mind becomes, until we just give up. We end up fighting all the time, sitting and struggling with ourselves.

　　Why is this

　　 Because we don”t reflect back on how we have set up the mind. Know that the conditions of mind are simply the way they are. Whatever arises, just observe it. It is simply the nature of the mind, it isn”t harmful unless we don”t understand its nature. It”s not dangerous if we see its activity for what it is. So we practice with vitakka and vicara until the mind begins to settle down and become less forceful. When sensations arise we contemplate them, we mingle with them and come to know them.

　　However, usually we tend to start fighting with them, because right from the beginning we”re determined to calm the mind. As soon as we sit the thoughts come to bother us. As soon as we set up our meditation object our attention wanders, the mind wanders off after all the thoughts, thinking that those thoughts have come to disturb us, but actually the problem arises right here, from the very wanting.

　　If we see that the mind is simply behaving according to its nature, that it naturally comes and goes like this, and if we don”t get over-interested in it, we can understand its ways as much the same as a child. Children don”t know any better, they may say all kinds of things. If we understand them we just let them talk, children naturally talk like that. When we let go like this there is no obsession with the child. We can talk to our guests undisturbed, while the child chatters and plays around. The mind is like this. It”s not harmful unless we grab on to it and get obsessed over it. That”s the real cause of trouble.

　　When piti arises one feels an indescribable pleasure, which only those who experience can appreciate. Sukha (pleasure) arises, and there is also the quality of one-pointedness. There are vitakka, vicara, piti, sukha and ekaggata. These five qualities all converge at the one place. Even though they are different qualities they are all collected in the one place, and we can see them all there, just like seeing many different kinds of fruit in the one bowl. Vitakka, vicara, piti, sukha and ekaggata -- we can see them all in the one mind, all five qualities. If one were to ask, "How is there vitakka, how is there vicara, how are there piti and sukha

　　..." it would be difficult to answer, but when they converge in the mind we will see how it is for ourselves.

　　At this point our practice becomes somewhat special. We must have recollection and self-awareness and not lose ourselves. Know things for what they are. These are stages of meditation, the potential of the mind. Don”t doubt anything with regard to the practice. Even if you sink into the earth or fly into the air, or even "die" while sitting, don”t doubt it. Whatever the qualities of the mind are, just stay with the knowing. This is our foundation: to have sati, recollection, and sampajañña, self-awareness, whether standing, walking, sitting, or reclining. Whatever arises, just leave it be, don”t cling to it. Be it like or dislike, happiness or suffering, doubt or certainty, contemplate with vicara and gauge the results of those qualities. Don”t try to label everything, just know it. See that all the things that arise in the mind are simply sensations. They are transient. They arise, exist and cease. That”s all there is to them, they have no self or being, they are neither "us" nor "them." They are not worthy of clinging to, any of them.

　　When we see all rupa and nama [35] in this way with wisdom, then…

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