..續本文上一頁 or to practise his teachings seriously as a lay person.

　　Lending an Ear

　　An important aspect of the path, in addition to virtue and good conduct, is the study of the Buddha”s teachings. The Buddha put it very beautifully in his discourses: one lends an ear, bends the ear, listens with interest, and applies the mind, so that what one hears can enter deep within the mind, and it can settle there. As it settles, over the weeks, months, and years, it will grow and bear fruit. One day this fruit will be so sweet, it will be the fruit of Enlightenment.

　　As one lends an ear to the Dhamma., contemplating it, and allowing it to sweep over the mind like a beautiful breeze on a warm day, allowing it to soak in and to penetrate deep into the mind, it penetrates deeper than the thought, deeper than the intellect, far deeper than the fault finding mind, deeper than the familiar mind. The Dhamma. penetrates into that part of the mind that one has yet to know -- waiting there, waiting until, through the practice of meditation, one enters those very refined, beautiful, and subtle states of mind where these seeds of the Dhamma. are resting, waiting to bear fruit and waiting to give the bliss of Enlightenment.

　　One has faith and confidence because one knows that others have done this in the past. Sometimes people think that the great masters, the great monks and nuns of the old, were somehow supermen and superwomen. But many of them started off no different from most practitioners today. Sometimes the most unlikely candidates became the greatest saints. They took up the training to the best of their abilities; they persevered in their attempts to get hold of the mind and to calm it, to lead it to one pointedness, to stillness. Then one day, through the accumulation of all their learning, and of their reflections, and their small insights, they eventually succeeded in breaking through the barriers that separated them from their goal.

　　One Drop at a Time

　　The Buddha compares the practice of the Dhamma. to a pot filling up one drop at a time. There comes the moment when just one more drop falls into the pot, and then the pot overflows: the Dhamma. is seen. One never knows when the time for that last drop has arrived. The ordinary, unenlightened inpidual can never see this pot filling because it”s in a part of the mind which he or she as yet has no access to -- but little by little it”s getting filled. One day it will become completely full, and it will spill over into the mind as you know it now and then lead one to the source, into this innermost mind, which is usually hidden by the defilements and the hindrances. This is when one starts to see the source, which the Buddha called "the house-builder," the creator of birth and suffering.

　　So whether you are a monastic, or one with lay precepts, you never give up the effort and you never give up the training. This is a theme which runs throughout the Buddha”s teachings. If one gives up the training in virtue, meditation, and wisdom, one has no chance of success. But if one continues with the training, if one continues following the Buddha”s instructions, one will find that this training only leads one way. It leads to Nibbana.

　　This message is beautifully encapsulated in some of the best advice I ever got, given to me from a highly respected monk in Sri Lanka. It”s a piece of advice which I always value and keep in mind. He told me that at the end of each day, it doesn”t matter so much to what stage one has attained, or what you have achieved. What really matters is whether you have really practised to the limit of your ability that day -- whether you have really tried your best -- or whether you have been slack, and heedless, forgetting the Buddha”s teachings, and forgetting one”s faith that these teachi…

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