..續本文上一頁mma practice will have a hard time succeeding.
Skillfulness on the sensual plane is like a truck running along a road or a boat running along a river, but in either case it”s not as good as a truck stopped still at a warehouse or a boat stopped still at a dock. Now, there are benefits that come when a truck runs along a road or a boat runs along a river. (1) It can carry freight or passengers. (2) It can collect fare from the passengers or shipping charges for the freight. But when our truck stops at the warehouse or our boat stops at the dock, we get greater benefits many times over. (1) We get time to rest our weary bones. (2) We get to unload all our old freight and pick up new freight. (3) If we keep stopping at the same dock often enough, we”ll get more and more familiar with the person who runs the dock and the people native to the area. Ultimately we”ll get so that they”ll share food with us without our having to pay for our dinner, or let us spend the night without having to pay for our room. This is because we get more intimate and familiar with one another, so that they come to like us. Ultimately, they”ll trust us so much that we can share the same bed. When this happens, we may get to ask them their family secrets: how many wives and children they have, how they make their money, where they keep the family treasures. They”ll tell us everything.
In the same way, if our mind stops running after its preoccupations and stays still at its dock -- the body -- we”ll reap the same three kinds of benefits. (1) The mind will get to rest and recover from its weariness. (2) It will pick up a sense of peace, pleasure, and ease. (3) It will become more familiar and intimate with the four properties, which are like the natives in this area. We”ll come to know thoroughly the workings of the body and mind. When we stay with the earth property, we”ll know the affairs of the earth property. When we stay with the water property, we”ll know the affairs of the water property. When we stay with the wind property, we”ll know the affairs of the wind property. When we stay with the fire property, we”ll know the affairs of the fire property. We”ll give rise to the three and the eight cognitive skills. We”ll know all the affairs of the body to the point where we have no more doubts. That will enable us to let the body go.
Knowing in line with labels, in line with books or with what people say, is imitation knowing, not the real thing. It”s like the shadow of knowing. Real knowing is the knowing that arises within yourself. It”s paccattam: entirely personal. It”s the kind of knowing that can”t be taught and can”t be told. It has to arise within you. Only then will you know what”s inconstant, stressful, and not-self; and what”s constant, easeful, and self. Change-of-lineage knowledge (gotarabhu-ñana) sees both sides and lets go of both. The truth of the Dhamma is Dhammathiti, the aspect of mind that stays in place without changing. The movements and characteristics of the mind are simply shadows or imitations of knowing. In practicing the Dhamma, you want true knowing. If you don”t really practice, you”ll meet up only with the shadows of the Dhamma. For this reason we should practice so that true knowing will appear within us.
This body of ours has parts that are constant and those that are inconstant, both ease and stress, both self and not-self. For example, the properties of earth, water, wind, and fire are constant in that they”ve never turned into anything else. The earth property has never turned into water, the water property has never turned into wind, the wind property has never turned into fire. Whatever they”ve been since the beginning of the world, that”s what they”ll be until the world falls to pieces. Take water as an e…
《Shelter》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…