..續本文上一頁ings when they arise and strive to understand their true nature. Confront the challenge head on. Don”t try to avoid the pain by focusing your attention elsewhere. And resist any temptation to wish for the pain to go away. The purpose of the investigation must be a search for true understanding. The neutralization of pain is merely a by-product of the clear understanding of the principles of truth. It cannot be taken as the primary objective. That will only create the conditions for greater emotional stress when the relief one wishes for fails to materialize. Stoic endurance in the face of intense pain will not succeed either. Nor will concentrating single-mindedly on pain to the exclusion of the body and the citta. In order to achieve the proper results, all three factors must be included in the investigation. The investigation must always be direct and purposeful.

　　THE LORD BUDDHA TAUGHT US to investigate with the aim of seeing all pain as simply a phenomenon that arises, remains briefly and then vanishes. Don”t become entangled in it. Don”t view the pain in personal terms, as an inseparable part of who you are, for that runs counter to pain”s true nature. It also undermines the techniques used to investigate pain, preventing wisdom from knowing the reality of feelings. Don”t create a problem for yourself where none exists. See the truth as it arises in each moment of pain, observing as it remains briefly and vanishes. That”s all there is to pain.

　　 When you have used mindfulness and wisdom to isolate the painful feeling, turn your attention to the citta and compare the feeling with the awareness that knows it to see if they really are inseparable. Turn and compare the citta and the physical body in the same manner: are they in any way identical

　　 Focus clearly on each one and don”t allow your concentration to wander from the specific point you are investigating. Keep it firmly fixed on the one aspect. For instance, focus your full attention on the pain and analyze it until you understand its distinguishing characteristics; then turn to look at the citta and strive to see its knowing nature distinctly. Are the two identical

　　 Compare them. Are the feeling and the awareness that knows it one and the same thing

　　 Is there any way to make them so

　　 And the body, does it share similar characteristics with the citta

　　 Is it like the feeling

　　 Are any of these three similar enough to be lumped together

　　 The body is physical matter—how can it be likened to the citta

　　 The citta is a mental phenomenon, an awareness that knows. The physical elements that make up the body have no intrinsic awareness, they have no capacity to know. The earth, water, wind and fire elements know nothing; only the mental element—the manodhatu—knows. This being the case, how can the citta”s essential knowing nature and the body”s physical elements possibly be equated. They are obviously separate realities.

　　 The same principle applies to pain. It has no intrinsic awareness, no capacity to know. Pain is a natural phenomenon that arises in conjunction with the body, but it is unaware of the existence of the body or of itself. Painful feelings depend on the body as their physical basis. Without the body they could not occur. But they have no physical reality of their own. Sensations that arise in conjunction with the body are interpreted in such a way that they become indistinguishable from the area of the body that is affected. Instinctively, body and pain are equated, so the body itself seems to hurt. We must remedy this instinctive reaction by investigating both the characteristics of pain as a sense phenomenon and the purely physical characteristics of that part of the body where that pain is felt acutely. The objective is to determine clearly wheth…

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