..續本文上一頁leaving just the mind, firmly intent, leaning neither to the left, toward being displeased; nor to the right, toward being pleased. Keep the mind still, quiet, neutral, impassive -- set tall. And there you are: Right Concentration.

　　When Right Concentration arises in the mind, it has a shadow. When you can catch sight of the shadow appearing, that”s vipassana: liberating insight.

　　The knowledge you gain from Right Concentration doesn”t come in the form of thoughts or ideas. It comes as Right Views. What looks wrong to you is really wrong. What looks right is really right. If what looks right is really wrong, that”s Wrong View. If what looks wrong is really right, again -- Wrong View. With Right View, though, right looks right and wrong looks wrong.

　　To put it in terms of cause and effect, you see the four Noble Truths. You see stress, and it really is stressful. You see the cause of stress arising, and that it”s really causing stress. These are Noble Truths: absolutely, undeniably, indisputably true. You see that stress has a cause. Once the cause arises, there has to be stress. As for the way to the disbanding of stress, you see that the path you”re following will, without a doubt, lead to Liberation. Whether or not you go all the way, what you see is correct. This is Right View. And as for the disbanding of stress, you see that there really is such a thing. You see that as long as you”re on the path, stress does in fact fall away. When you come to realize the truth of these things in your heart, that”s vipassana-ñana.

　　To put it even more simply: You see that all things, inside as well as out, are undependable. The body is undependable, aging is undependable, death is undependable. They”re slippery characters, constantly changing on you. To see this is to see inconstancy. Don”t let yourself be pleased by inconstancy. Don”t let yourself be upset. Keep the mind neutral, on an even keel. That”s what”s meant by vipassana.

　　As for stress: Say we hear that an enemy is suffering. "Glad to hear it," we think. "Hope they hurry up and die." The heart has tilted. Say we hear that a friend has become wealthy, and we become happy; or a son or daughter is ill, and we become sad. Our mind has fallen in with suffering and stress. Why

　　 Because we”re unskilled. The mind isn”t centered -- i.e., it”s not in Right Concentration. We have to look after the mind. Don”t let it fall in with stress. Whatever suffers, let it suffer, but don”t let the mind suffer with it. The body may be in pain, but the mind isn”t pained. Let the body go ahead and suffer, but the mind doesn”t suffer. Keep the mind neutral. Don”t be pleased by pleasure -- pleasure is a form of stress, you know. How so

　　 It can change. It can rise and fall. It can be high and low. It can”t last. That”s stress. Pain is also stress: double stress. When you gain this sort of insight into stress -- when you really see stress -- vipassana has arisen in the mind.

　　As for anatta, not-self: Once we”ve examined things and seen them for what they really are, we don”t make claims, we don”t display influence, we don”t try to show that we have the right or the power to bring things that are not-self under our control. No matter how hard we try, we can”t prevent birth, aging, illness, and death. If the body is going to be old, let it be old. If it”s going to hurt, let it hurt. If it has to die, let it die. Don”t be pleased by death, either your own or that of others. Don”t be upset by death, your own or that of others. Keep the mind neutral. Unruffled. Unfazed. This is sankharupekkha-ñana: letting sankharas -- all things fashioned and fabricated -- follow their own inherent nature.

　　This, briefly, is vipassana: You see that all fabrications are inconstant, stressful, and not-self. You …

《Keeping the Breath in Mind and Lessons in Samadhi》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…