..續本文上一頁tentive ears, but they”re attending wrongly. Even the senior members of the community are like this, so everybody just leads each other into more delusion.

　　One who sees this will know that the true practice is almost opposite from where most people are going, the two sides can barely understand each other. How are those people going to transcend suffering

　　 They have chants for realizing the truth but they turn around and use them to increase their delusion. They turn their backs on the right path. One goes eastward, the other goes west -- how are they ever going to meet

　　 They”re not even close to each other.

　　If you have looked into this you will see that this is the case. Most people are lost. But how can you tell them

　　 Everything has become rites and rituals and mystic ceremonies. they chant but they chant with foolishness, they don”t chant with wisdom. They study, but they study with foolishness, not with wisdom. They know, but they know foolishly, not with wisdom. So they end up going with foolishness, living with foolishness, knowing with foolishness. That”s how it is. And teaching... all they do these days is teach people to be stupid. They say they”re teaching people to be clever, giving them knowledge, but when you look at it in terms of truth, you see that they”re really teaching people to go astray and grasp at deceptions.

　　The real foundation of the teaching is in order to see atta, the self, as being empty, having no fixed identity. It”s void of intrinsic being. But people come to the study of Dhamma to increase their self-view, so they don”t want to experience suffering or difficulty. They want everything to be cozy. They may want to transcend suffering, but if there is still a self how can they ever do so

　　Just consider... Suppose we came to possess a very expensive object. The minute that thing comes into our possession our mind changes..."Now, where can I keep it

　　 If I leave it there somebody might steal it"... We worry ourselves into a state, trying to find a place to keep it. And when did the mind change

　　 It changed the minute we obtained that object -- suffering arose right then. No matter where we leave that object we can”t relax, so we”re left with trouble. Whether sitting, walking, or lying down, we are lost in worry.

　　This is suffering. And when did it arise

　　 It arose as soon as we understood that we had obtained something, that”s where the suffering lies. Before we had that object there was no suffering. It hadn”t yet arisen because there wasn”t yet an object for it to cling to.

　　Atta, the self, is the same. if we think in terms of "my self," then everything around us becomes "mine." Confusion follows. Why so

　　 The cause of it all is that there is a self, we don”t peel off the apparent in order to see the Transcendent. You see, the self is only an appearance. You have to peel away the appearances in order to see the heart of the matter, which is Transcendence. Upturn the apparent to find the Transcendent.

　　You could compare it to unthreshed rice. Can unthreshed rice be eaten

　　 Sure it can, but you must thresh it first. Get rid of the husks and you will find the grain inside.

　　Now if we don”t thresh the husks we won”t find the grain. Like a dog sleeping on the pile of unthreshed grain. Its stomach is rumbling "jork-jork-jork," but all it can do is lie there, thinking "Where can I get something to eat

　　" When it”s hungry it bounds off the pile of rice grain and runs off looking for scraps of food. Even though it”s sleeping right in top of a pile of food it knows nothing of it. Why

　　 It can”t see the rice. Dogs can”t eat unthreshed rice. The food is there but the dog can”t eat it.

　　We may have learning but if we don”t practice accordingly we still don”t really know, just as oblivious as the dog sleeping…

《Food for the Heart》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…