..續本文上一頁g on to the vedana, the pleasure or pain.

　　Remember, a lot of people think that attachment is all about what”s out there. The cause of attachment is not so much what”s out there, it”s what”s holding on inside. The claw, I call it. It”s a claw inside which keeps on going outside into the world and attaching to particular things. No matter how many times you put things down, you let go, and let go and let go, you”ll never be able to end attaching until you see that claw and cut it off. It”s the claw which needs to be looked at, seen, and eradicated. That”s the only way to stop attaching once and for all. And that claw is the illusion that all these things belong to us, especially vedana. To see that this is just the play of nature. In the same way that a person who understands why there is light and why there is shadow under a tree realises that it”s nothing to do with them. They leave the light and shadow alone, knowing that if they prefer one or the other then soon it will change. If you prefer suffering or if you prefer happiness, it doesn”t matter, it”ll just change and then go it”ll go back again. Up and down, coming and going, that”s pleasure and pain in life. So after the jhana, you do the second satipatthana, you investigate this vedana, seeing it as it truly is, not as you want it to be, realising it”s completely out of your control no matter how wise, skilful or powerful you are. The idea of getting just pleasant vedana and avoiding the unpleasant, you see, is a complete impossibility, it goes against nature, it cannot be done. So you give up, you let go.

　　Also, one of the deeper places where a person thinks they exist (and I”ve already mentioned this) is the will. And that”s part of the fourth satipatthana, the doer, the chooser. That”s a very hard thing to see. You can see its results, with all of the controlling, the disturbing, which has been going on for the last nine days, caused by this thing - the doer. But even so, it”s so hard to give this thing up. Even so, that you know that letting go is a way into jhana, but you can”t somehow achieve that letting go, you can”t do the letting go. And once I describe it that way it”s obvious why you can”t "do" the letting go… you have to allow it to happen. The biggest problem that people have with the jhanas is that they try and "do" it, they try and control it, they try and will it, they try and steer their vehicle into a jhana. You”ve got to have your hands completely off the steering wheel. In fact, you”ve got to dismantle the steering wheel before you get into jhanas. There”s an entry fee to jhanas, something you have to give up at the door, and that”s "you". A lot of people would like to go into jhanas but they”d like to be there at the same time. They want to take the doer in there, to have control. And that”s why they can”t get in. That”s why it takes "something" to get into a jhana. You see the beautiful jhana in there but you want to take "you" with you. And you can”t. So after a while, you leave "you" outside and go in and have fun. Then you realise just how "you", the doer, has been such a burden, such a terrible companion for you, causing all kinds of pain and suffering. That”s what the Buddha called "the house-builder".

　　Once you”ve been in a jhana you”ll never trust this doer so much again. You never trust that within you which is, even now, trying to do something, think something, say something, control something. That doer, to see that is not you, is completely caused, arises and passes away according to natural laws,. If you can see that then you”ve got a very powerful insight. Half, fifty percent, of the illusion of self is then completely gone, and life becomes so much easier. You can flow with things rather than always controlling them, because you haven”t …

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