..續本文上一頁nderstand what you come to see and know, and this in turn can be destructive in many ways. (1) You may lose whatever respect you had for the practice, deciding that there”s no truth to it. (2) You may gain only a partial grasp of things, leading you to decide that other people can”t practice or are practicing wrongly, and in the end you”re left with no way to practice yourself. So you decide to "let go" simply through conjecture and speculation. But the truth is that this simply won”t work. True and complete letting go can come only from the principles well-taught by the Buddha: virtue, concentration, and discernment, which are a synopsis of the eightfold path he taught in his first sermon.

　　So in our practice we should consider how virtue, concentration, discernment, and release can be brought into being. Virtue forms the basis for concentration; concentration, the basis for discernment (liberating insight or cognitive skill); and discernment, the basis for release from ignorance, craving, and attachment. Thus in this book, which is a guide to developing Right Concentration, I would like to recommend to other meditators a method that, in my experience, has proven safe and productive, so that they can test it for themselves by putting it into practice until they start seeing results.

　　The main concern of this book is with the way to mental peace. Now, the word "peace" has many levels: A mind infused with virtue has one level of peace and happiness; a mind stilled through concentration has another level of peace and happiness; a mind at peace through the power of discernment has still another level of happiness; and the peace of a mind that is released is yet another level, with a happiness completely apart from the rest.

　　In these matters, though, meditators tend to prefer the results to the causes. They aren”t as interested in abandoning their own defilements through the principles of the practice as they are in standing out among society at large. They appropriate the ideas and observations of other people as being their own, but by and large their wisdom is composed of bahira pañña — remembered "outsights," not true insight.

　　So when you want the reality of the principles taught by the Buddha, you should first lift your mind to this principle — Right Concentration — because it”s an excellent gathering of the energies of your mind. All energy in the world comes from stopping and resting. Motion is something that destroys itself — as when our thinking goes all out of bounds. Take walking for instance: When we walk, energy comes from the foot at rest. Or when we speak, energy comes from stopping between phrases. If we were to talk without stopping, without resting between phrases, not only would it waste energy, but the language we”d speak wouldn”t even be human. So it is with practicing the Dhamma: Release comes from concentration and discernment acting together. Release through the power of the mind (ceto-vimutti) requires more concentration and less discernment; release through discernment (pañña-vimutti), more discernment and less concentration — but there is no way that release can be attained without the stillness of concentration.

　　Thus, resting the mind provides the strength needed to support all the qualities developed in the practice, which is why it”s such an essential part of Right Concentration. It forms a well-spring and a storage place for all knowledge, whether of the world or of the Dhamma. If you aren”t acquainted with this basic principle, skilled awareness won”t arise. And if you don”t have skilled awareness, how will you be able to let go

　　 You”ll have to go groping around in unskilled awareness. As long as the mind is in the grips of unskilled awareness, it”s bound to be deluded by …

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