..續本文上一頁d you see it in the right way, then you”re not going to create any wrong views about it. You”re not going to add to it with fears, and desires, and bitterness, and resentments and blame. We have the ability to accept the way life happens to us as inpidual beings. Even though we”re terribly sensitive, we”re also tough survivors in this universe.

　　You look at where human beings manage to live, like Eskimos up in the Arctic and people in deserts. In the most uninviting places on this planet there”s usually human habitation. When forced to, we can survive anywhere.

　　Understanding Dhamma then allows us also to have a fearless attitude. We being to realise that we can accept whatever happens. There”s really nothing to be afraid of. Then you can let go of life; you can follow it, because you”re not expecting anything out of it, and you”re not trying to control it. You have the wisdom, the mindfulness, the ability to roll with the flow, rather than to be drowned by the tidal waves of life.

　　When you learn to take time to be silent, listen to yourself. Just use the breathing and the body, just the natural rhythm, the feeling - the way your body feels now. Put your attention onto the body, because the body is a condition in nature - it”s not really you. It”s not ”my” breathing any more, it”s not personal. You breathe even if you”re crazy, or sick - and if you”re asleep you”re still breathing. The body breathes. From birth to death it will be breathing. So breath is something that we use as an object to focus on, to turn to. If we think too much, our thoughts get very convoluted and complicated, but if we bring attention just to the ordinary breathing of the body at this moment, at that moment you”re actually not thinking - you”re attentive to a natural rhythm.

　　Then you might start making problems out of it, ”Oh, I can”t concentrate on my breath, blah, blah, blah ….” Then it becomes ”me” again, trying to be mindful of my breath. But actually in any one moment where you”re just with the breath, there”s no self. Your self will arise when you start thinking. When you”re not thinking, there”s no self; and when you”re mindful, then the thought isn”t coming from the wrong view that ”I am a self.” So thought can be a way of reflection, a way of focussing attention on Dhamma, rather than creating problems, criticism or anxiety about myself and humanity.

　　Just contemplate, when you get angry you have to think, don”t you

　　 If you stop thinking, the anger will go away. To be angry you have to think, ”He said that to me, how dare he. That dirty so and so!”” But if you should stop thinking and just use the breath, eventually the feeling of the body that comes with anger will fade out, and then there is no anger. So if you feel angry, just reflect on what it feels like as a physical feeling. It”s the same with any mood: contemplate, reflect on the mood that you”re in. Just work with it - not to analyse it or criticise it - but merely to reflect on it how it is.

　　Sometimes people say, ”I get very confused when I meditate - how can I get rid of confusion

　　” Wanting to get rid of confusion is the problem. Being confused and not wanting it is just creating confusion. So what does confusion feel like

　　 Some of the more stimulating passions that we can have are quite obvious. What we tend to not pay any attention to or dismiss are the more subtle states like slight confusion, or hesitation, or doubt, insecurity and anxiety. And of course, one side of us just wants to get rid of it, just stomp it out - how do I get rid of it

　　 If I meditate, how can I get rid of my fears, anxiety

　　With the right understanding, we see that the very desire-to-get-rid-of is suffering. We can bear with the feeling of insecurity if we know what it is, and that it changes, it”s impermanent. So you begin to feel more and more confident in just being aware and mindful, rather than trying to develop your practice in order to become an enlightened person. The assumption is that right now you”re not enlightened, you”ve got a lot of problems, you”ve got to change your life, you”ve got to make yourself different. You”re good enough the way you are right now, so you have to meditate, and hopefully some time in the future you”ll become something that you”d like to become.

　　If you never see the delusion of that way of thinking, then it just carries on. You never really become what you should be, no matter how much effort you put into your meditations. After years of trying to become enlightened, you always feel like a failure, because you”ve still got the wrong attitude about it all.

　　Forest Sangha Newsletter: July 1990, Number 13

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