..續本文上一頁ng of a thought, and the end of it, and the space around it. You”re looking at thought and concept in a perspective, rather than just reacting to them.

　　Say you”re angry with somebody. You think, ”That”s what he said, he said that and he said this and then he did this and he didn”t do that right, and he did that all wrong, he”s so selfish ... and then I remember what he did to so-and-so, and then ...” One thing goes on to the next, doesn”t it

　　 You”re just caught in this one thing going on to the next, motivated by aversion. So rather than just being caught in that whole stream of associated thoughts, concepts, deliberately think: ”He is the most selfish person I have ever met.” And then the ending, emptiness. ”He is a rotten egg, a dirty rat, he did this and then he did that”, and you can see, it”s really funny, isn”t it

　　 When I first went to Wat Pah Pong, I used to have tremendous anger and aversion arise. I”d just feel so frustrated, sometimes because I never knew what was really happening, and I didn ”t want to have to conform so much as I had to there. I was just fuming. Ajahn Chah would be going on -- he could give two hour talks in Lao -- and I”d have a terrible pain in the knees. So I”d have those thoughts: ”Why don”t you ever stop talking

　　 I thought Dhamma was simple, why does he have to take two hours to say something

　　” I”d become very critical of everybody, and then I started reflecting on this and listening to myself, getting angry, being critical, being nasty, resenting, ”I don”t want this I don”t want that, I don”t like this, I don”t see why I have to sit here, I don”t want to be bothered with this silly thing, I don”t know ...”, on and on. And I kept thinking, ”Is that a very nice person that”s saying that

　　 Is that what you want to be like, that thing that”s always complaining and criticising, finding fault, is that the kind of person you want to be

　　” ”No! I don”t want to be like that.”

　　But I had to make it fully conscious to really see it, rather than believe in it. I felt very righteous within myself, and when you feel righteous, and indignant, and you”re feeling that they”re wrong, then you can easily believe those kinds of thoughts: ”I see no need for this kind of thing, after all, the Buddha said ... the Buddha would never have allowed this, the Buddha; I know Buddhism!” Bring it up into conscious form, where you can see it, make it absurd, and then you have a perspective on it and it gets quite amusing. You can see what comedy is about! We take ourselves so seriously, ”I”m such an important person, my life is so terribly important, that I must be extremely serious about it at all moments. My problems are so important, so terribly important; I have to spend a lot of time with my problems because they”re so important.” One thinks of oneself somehow as very important, so then think it, deliberately think, ”I”m a Very Important Person, my problems are very important and serious.” When you”re thinking that, it sounds funny, it sounds silly, because really, you realise you”re not terribly important -- none of us are. And the problems we make out of life are trivial things. Some people can ruin their whole lives by creating endless problems, and taking it all so seriously.

　　If you think of yourself as an important and serious person, then trivial things or foolish things are things that you don”t want. If you want to be a good person, and a saintly one, then evil conditions are things that you have to repress out of consciousness. If you want to be a loving and generous type of being, then any type of meanness or jealousy or stinginess is something that you have to repress or annihilate in your mind. So whatever you are most afraid of in your life that you might really be, think it out, watch it. Make confessions:…

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