..續本文上一頁o”s leg. Whoever is stupid enough to scoop up the dirt as it falls off the plow and stick it in a bag will never get anywhere. Either his buffalo will get bogged down, or else he”ll trip over the bag and fall flat on his face right there in the middle of the field. The field will never get plowed, the rice will never get sown, the crop will never get gathered. He”ll have to go hungry.

　　Buddho, our meditation word, is the name of the Buddha after his Awakening. It means someone who has blossomed, who is awake, who has suddenly come to his senses. For six long years before his Awakening, the Buddha traveled about, searching for the truth from various teachers, all without success. So he went off on his own and on a full-moon evening in May sat down under the Bodhi tree, vowing not to get up until he had attained the truth. Finally, toward dawn, as he was meditating on his breath, he gained Awakening. He found what he was looking for -- right at the tip of his nose.

　　Nibbana doesn”t lie far away. It”s right at our lips, right at the tip of our nose. But we keep groping around and never find it. If you”re really serious about finding purity, set your mind on meditation and nothing else. As for whatever else may come your way, you can say, "No thanks." Pleasure

　　 "No thanks." Pain

　　 "No thanks." Goodness

　　 "No thanks." Evil

　　 "No thanks." Paths and fruitions

　　 "No thanks." Nibbana

　　 "No thanks." If it”s "no thanks" to everything, what will you have left

　　 You won”t need to have anything left. That”s nibbana. Like a person without any money: How will thieves be able to rob him

　　 If you get money and try to hold onto it, you”re going to get killed. This you want to take. That you want to take. Carry "what”s yours" around till you”re completely weighed down. You”ll never get away.

　　In this world we have to live with both good and evil. People who have developed disengagement are filled with goodness, and know evil fully, but don”t hold onto either, don”t claim either as their own. They put them aside, let them go, and so can travel light and easy. Nibbana isn”t all that difficult a matter. In the Buddha”s time, some people became arahants while going on their almsround, some while urinating, some while watching farmers plowing a field. What”s difficult about the highest good lies in the beginning, in laying the groundwork -- being constantly mindful and alert, examining and evaluating your breath at all times. But if you can keep at it, you”re bound to succeed in the end.

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　　The Care & Feeding of the Mind

　　May 7, 1959

　　The breath is a mirror for the mind. If the mirror is abnormal, it gives abnormal reflections. Say you look into a convex mirror: Your reflection will be taller than you are. If you look in a concave mirror, your reflection will be abnormally short. But if you look into a mirror that”s flat, smooth, and normal, it”ll give you a true reflection of yourself. If you polish the mirror so that it”s clean and bright -- in other words, if you use evaluation to adjust and expand the breath so that it”s comfortable -- your reflection will be sharp and clear.

　　* * *

　　Knowing how to adjust the breath, putting it in good order, is tantamount to putting the mind in good order as well and can give all kinds of benefits -- like a good cook who knows how to vary the foods she serves, sometimes changing the color, sometimes the flavor, sometimes the shape, so that her employer will never grow tired of her cooking. If she fixes the same thing all year around -- porridge today, porridge tomorrow, porridge the next day -- her employer is bound to go looking for a new cook. But if she knows how to vary her offerings so that her employer is always satisfied…

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