..續本文上一頁ation, sensory deprivation. If you stay that way for a while then you feel very calm, because nothing is demanded of you at that time. There”s no kind of harsh or stimulating, exciting or frustrating, impingement.

　　If you”re mindful, you have an awareness of the purity of your mind which is blissful. Your true nature is blissful and serene and pure. But then, if you still have the wrong view about it you think, ”I have to have a sensory deprivation experience all the time. I can”t live in London any more - even the Buddhist Society is too noisy!”

　　If our peace and serenity depend upon conditions being a certain way, then we get very attached. We become enslaved, we want to control, and then we become even more angry and upset if anything disrupts or gets in the way of our peace. ”I”ve got to find some place, a cave. I”ve got to get my own sensory deprivation tank and find the ideal situation - set up all the conditions where I can keep everything at bay, so I can just abide in the blissful serenity of the purity of the mind.” But then you see, that”s coming from desire, isn”t it

　　 A self-view - wanting to have that experience because you remember it, liked it and want it again.

　　I remember one time on a retreat I got so attached to being peaceful that I heard this person - some person was having trouble swallowing. So I was sitting there, and that person would go ”gulp, gulp.” They weren”t very loud, but when you”re attached to total silence, even a gulp can upset you. So I got quite irritated, and wanted to throw that person out of the meditation hall. But then reflecting on it, I realise that the fault was in me, not in the person.

　　But mindfulness and understanding the Dhamma allow you to adapt and accept life - the total life experience - without having to control it. With mindfulness you don”t have to hold on to bits and pieces that you like, and then feel very threatened by the possibility of being separated from them. Right meditation really allows you to be very brave and adaptable, to be flexible with your life and all that that implies.

　　We don”t have all that much control, do we

　　 Much as we would like to be able to control our lives, we recognise we really don”t have that much control. Some things just get out of our control. Things happen and Mother Nature has her ways of letting us know that She”s not just going to follow our desires. Then there are fashions and revolutions, changing conditions, population problems, and airplanes, televisions, technology, pollution. How can we control it, and make it so that we are not being affected by any of it - or only affected in the ways we like

　　If we spend our lives trying to control everything, then we just increase the suffering. Even if we get a measure of control over things, we”re still going to be like me with the person gulping in the meditation hall; getting very angry when the neighbour turns on the radio too loud, or the airplane flies low, or the fire engine goes by.

　　Now one thing you can recognise is that when you have a body, you have to live with your body for a lifetime. And these bodies are conscious and sensitive forms. This is just the way it is, this is what being born means. Bodies grow up, then they start getting old, then there”s old age, sicknesses, diseases - this is a part of our human experience - and then death. We have to accept the death and separation of loved ones. This happens to all of us. Most of us will see our parents die, or even our children, or spouse or friends, loved ones. Part of all human experience is the experience of being separated from the loved.

　　By knowing the way it is, then you find yourself quite capable of accepting life and not being depressed and bewildered by the way life happens to be. Once you understand it an…

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