..續本文上一頁 and then get tired of it. "Oh, well, off to the seaside." "Ah, here it”s nice and cool. This”ll do me fine." After a while they get tired of the seaside as well... Tired of the forests, tired of the mountains, tired of the seaside, tired of everything. This is not being tired of things in the right sense, [50] as Right View, it”s simply boredom, a kind of Wrong View. Their view is not in accordance with the way things are.

　　When they get back to the monastery..."Now, what will I do

　　 I”ve been all over and come back with nothing." So they throw away their bowls and disrobe. Why do they disrobe

　　 Because they haven”t got any grip on the practice, they don”t see anything; go to the north and don”t see anything; go to the seaside, to the mountains, into the forests and still don”t see anything. So it”s all finished... they "die." This is how it goes. It”s because they”re continually running away from things. Wisdom doesn”t arise.

　　Now take another example. Suppose there is one monk who determines to stay with things, not to run away. He looks after himself. He knows himself and also knows those who come to stay with him. He”s continually dealing with problems. For example, the Abbot. If one is an Abbot of a monastery there are constant problems to deal with, there”s a constant stream of things that demand attention. Why so

　　 Because people are always asking questions. The questions never end, so you must be constantly on the alert. You are constantly solving problems, your own as well as other people”s. That is, you must be constantly awake. Before you can doze off they wake you up again with another problem. So this causes you to contemplate and understand things. You become skillful: skillful in regard to yourself and skillful in regard to others. Skillful in many, many ways.

　　This skill arises from contact, from confronting and dealing with things, from not running away. We don”t run away physically but we "run away" in mind, using our wisdom. We understand with wisdom right here, we don”t run away from anything.

　　This is a source of wisdom. One must work, must associate with other things. For instance, living in a big monastery like this we must all help out to look after the things here. Looking at it in one way you could say that it”s all defilement. Living with lots of monks and novices, with many laypeople coming and going, many defilements may arise. Yes, I admit... but we must live like this for the development of wisdom and the abandonment of foolishness. Which way are we to go

　　 Are we going to live in order to get rid of foolishness or to increase our foolishness

　　We must contemplate. Whenever eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or mind make contact we should be collected and circumspect. When suffering arises, who is suffering

　　 Why did this suffering arise

　　 The Abbot of a monastery has to supervise many disciples. Now that may be suffering. We must know suffering when it arises. Know suffering. If we are afraid of suffering and don”t want to face it, where are we going to do battle with it

　　 If suffering arises and we don”t know it, how are we going to deal with it

　　 This is of utmost importance -- we must know suffering.

　　Escaping from suffering means knowing the way out of suffering, it doesn”t mean running away from wherever suffering arises. By doing that you just carry your suffering with you. When suffering arises again somewhere else you”ll have to run away again. This is not transcending suffering, it”s not knowing suffering.

　　If you want to understand suffering you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there. Where suffering lies is right where non-suffering will arise, it ceases at the place where it arises. If suffering arises you must co…

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