..續本文上一頁y all knew and saw the same sort of truth in line with the principles of that truth. So how can you make the mind be annihilated when it”s already utterly true

　　Birth and death, birth and death without ceasing: What is the cause

　　 The Buddha has taught us, beginning with avijja-paccaya sankhara, sankhara-paccaya viññana -- ”With unawareness as condition, there are formations. With formations as condition, there is cognizance.” These are the causes. They”re buried in the mind, which is why they cause us to take birth without ceasing. As soon as we destroy avijja-paccaya sankhara, what happens

　　 Avijjayatveva asesaviraga-nirodha sankhara nirodho -- ”All that is needed is for unawareness to be completely disbanded from the heart, then nirodho hoti -- everything else is disbanded.” What do you say to that

　　 Evametassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa nirodho hoti -- ”All that is needed is for unawareness to be utterly disbanded, and everything -- the entire mass of suffering and stress -- is disbanded.” And that which knows that unawareness is disbanded, that”s the pure one. How can that pure one disband or be annihilated

　　 It”s an utter truth. So look. Listen. We Buddhists take the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as our refuge, you know. We don”t take the defilements as our refuge.

　　We”re meditators, so we have to probe and explore so as to see the truth. Whoever may bring the entire cosmos to intimidate or take issue with us, we won”t bat an eye. Once we”ve seen and known the truth with our full hearts, how can anyone intimidate us

　　 Think for a minute: The Buddha was a single, solitary person. Why was he able to be the Teacher of all three levels of existence

　　 If he didn”t teach the truth that he had known and seen with his full heart, what did he teach

　　 He taught with courage. There has never been anyone who has excelled him in being thoroughly trained and bringing the pure truth to teach the world. He didn”t teach anything counterfeit or guessed at. To speak out of guess-work, scratching at fleas: That”s the science of unawareness -- the science of unawareness that lulls the world into bankruptcy. The principles of the genuine truth don”t teach us to be bankrupt, which is why we say that those other things are counterfeit. The Dhamma is a truth on which we can stake our life without question.

　　Defilements are false, the whole lot of them. 100 out of 100 are counterfeit. The Dhamma is true -- 100 percent all true. The Dhamma and defilement pass each other going in opposite directions, which is why they are adversaries. In the effort of the practice, if we don”t fight with the defilements, what will we fight with

　　 These are our adversaries. If we don”t fight with them, what will we fight with

　　 At the moment, the defilements are the adversaries of the Dhamma. They”re our adversaries. If we don”t fight with the defilements that are our adversaries and the Dhamma”s, what will we fight with

　　 Once we know all about the affairs of the defilements, what doubts will we have about the Dhamma

　　 In particular, what doubts will the mind have about the matter of death and rebirth or death and annihilation

　　 Find out just where things get annihilated, meditators. Whatever we hear is the voice of those filthy defilements. Aren”t we tired of washing our ears

　　 Listen to the voice of the foremost Teacher”s Dhamma. Our ears will then be clean, and our hearts pure.

　　So be earnest. Shilly-shallying around, thinking of sleep, thinking of our stomachs: These are habits long embedded in our hearts. They”re all an affair of defilement. So flip over a new leaf, making the heart an affair of the Dhamma, in keeping with the fact that we”re disciples of the Tathagata who have given ourselves to be ordained in his religion and to follow the principles of his Dhamma. That”s when we”ll attain a great treasure of infinite worth to rule our hearts. When the Dhamma rules the heart, how is it different from defilement ruling the heart

　　 As I”ve said before, the Dhamma ruling the heart is something supreme and magnificent: We”re fully free with our full heart -- not grasping, not hungry, not searching, not hoping to depend on anything -- for the Dhamma has filled the heart and that”s plenty enough.

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