..續本文上一頁y ask. Or they vow to push beyond or die, and then feel terribly guilty when they stop only one hour later. These people are controlled by desire.

　　Do not pay attention to the time. Just maintain your practice at a steady pace, letting it progress gradually. You do not need to make vows. Just keep striving to train yourself, just do your practice and let the mind become calm of itself. Eventually, you will find that you can sit a long time at your ease, practicing correctly.

　　As to pain in the legs, you will find that it goes away by itself. Just stay with your contemplation.

　　If you practice in this way, a change will take place in you. When you go to sleep, you will be able to settle your mind into calmness and sleep. Formerly, you may have snored, talked in your sleep, gnashed your teeth, or tossed and turned. Once your heart has been trained, all of that will vanish. Although you will sleep soundly, you will awaken refreshed instead of sleepy. The body will rest, but the mind will be awake day and night. This is Buddho, the one who knows, the Awakened One, the Happy One, the Brilliant One. This one does not sleep, does not feel drowsy. If you make your heart and mind firm like this in your practice, you may not sleep for two or three days, and when you get sleepy, you can enter samadhi for five or ten minutes and arise refreshed, as if you had slept all night long. At this point, you need not think about your body, although with compassion and understanding, you will still consider its needs.

　　Some Hints on Practicing

　　As you practice, various images and visions may arise. You see an attractive form, hear a sound that stirs you-such an image must be observed too. This kind of vipassana image can have even more energy than one that may arise from simple concentration. Whatever arises, just watch.

　　Someone recently asked me, "As we meditate and various thing arise in my mind, should we investigate them or just note them coming and going

　　" If you see someone passing by whom you do not know, you may wonder, "Who is that

　　 Where is he going

　　 What is he up to

　　" But if you know the person, it is enough just to notice him pass by.

　　Desire in practice can be friend or foe. At first, it spurs us. to come and practice; we want to change things, to understand, to end suffering. But to be always desiring something that has not yet arisen, to want things to be other than they are, just causes more suffering.

　　Someone asked, "Should we just eat when hungry, sleep when tired, as the Zen masters suggest, or should we experiment by going against the grain at times

　　 And if so, how much

　　" Of course, one should experiment, but no one else can say how much. All of this is to be known within oneself. At first, in our practice, we are like children learning to write the alphabet. The letters come out bent and sloppy, time and again-the only thing to do is to keep at it. And if we do not live life like this, what else is there for us to do

　　A good practice is to ask yourself very sincerely, ”Why was I born

　　" Ask yourself this question three times a day, in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. Ask everyday.

　　The Buddha told his disciple Ananda to see impermanence, to see death with every breath. We must know death; we must die in order to live. What does this mean

　　 To die is to come to the end of all our doubts, all our questions, and just be here with the present reality. You can never die tomorrow, you must die now. Can you do it

　　 Ah, how still, the peace of no more questions.

　　Real effort is a matter of the mind, not of the body. Different methods of concentration are like ways of earning a living-the most important thing is that you feed yourself, not how you manage to get the food. Actually, when the mind is freed from desires, concentrat…

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