..續本文上一頁ow, unattached to knowledge, unattached to knowing. When you can separate these things, you”ve mastered the skill of release -- in other words, when you know what forms the beginning, what forms the end and what lies in between, letting them be as they are on their own, in line with the phrase,

　　sabbe dhamma anatta

　　All phenomena are not-self.

　　To be attached to the things that cause us to know -- the elements, khandhas, the senses and their objects -- is termed clinging to sensuality (kamupadana). To be attached to knowledge is termed clinging to views (ditthupadana). To be unacquainted with pure knowing in and of itself (buddha) is termed clinging to precepts and procedures (silabbatupadana). And when we cling in this way, we are bound to be deluded by the factors that fabricate the body, speech, and the mind, all of which arise from obscured awareness.

　　The Buddha was a complete master of both cause and effect, without being attached either to low causes and low effects, or to high causes and high effects. He was above cause and beyond effect. Stress and ease were both at his disposal, but he was attached to neither of them. He fully knew both good and evil, was fully equipped with both self and not-self, but wasn”t attached to any of these things. He had at his disposal the objects that can act as the basis for the cause of stress, but wasn”t attached to them. The Path -- discernment -- was also at his disposal: He knew how to appear either ignorant or shrewd, and how to use both ignorance and shrewdness in his work of spreading the religion. And as for the disbanding of stress, he had it at his disposal but didn”t cling to it, wasn”t attached to it, which is why we can truly say that his mastery was complete.

　　Before the Buddha was able to let go of these things in this way, he first had to work at giving rise to them in full measure. Only then could he put them aside. He let go from abundance, unlike ordinary people who "let go" out of poverty. Even though he let these things go, they were still at his disposal. He never dismissed the virtue, concentration, and discernment he had worked at perfecting up to the day of his Awakening. He continued using every aspect of virtue, concentration, and discernment to the day he entered total Liberation (parinibbana). Even the moment he was about to "nibbana," he was practicing his full command of concentration -- in other words, his total Liberation occurred when he was between the jhanas of form and formlessness.

　　So we shouldn”t dismiss virtue, concentration, and discernment. Some people won”t observe the precepts because they”re afraid of getting tied to them. Some people won”t practice concentration because they”re afraid of becoming ignorant or going insane. The truth of the matter is that normally we”re already ignorant, already insane, and that to practice centering the mind is what will end our ignoranc, e and cure our insanity. Once we”ve trained ourselves properly, we”ll give rise to pure discernment, like a cut jewel that gives off light by its very nature. This is what qualifies as true discernment. It arises for us inpidually and is termed paccattam: We can give rise to it, and know it, only for ourselves.

　　Most of us, though, tend to misunderstand the nature of discernment. We take imitation discernment, adulterated with concepts, and use it to smother the real thing, like a man who coats a piece of glass with mercury so that he can see his reflection and that of others, thinking he”s found an ingenious way of looking at the truth. Actually, he”s nothing more than a monkey looking in a mirror: One monkey becomes two and will keep playing with its reflection until the mercury wears off, at which point it becomes crestfallen, not knowing what the reflection came f…

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