..續本文上一頁because it had made the break. ”This is how it”s supposed to be. It”s been simply a matter of the mind painting pictures to deceive itself, getting excited over its shadows. Those external things aren”t passion, aversion, and delusion The mind is what has passion, aversion, and delusion.” As soon as the mind knew this clearly, it extricated itself from external affairs and came inward. As soon as the mind would ”blip” outward, it knew that these inner affairs were displaying themselves. So now the image of unattractiveness appeared exclusively within the mind.

　　I then focused and investigated within the mind. But now it wasn”t a matter of that sort of passion. It was something very different. The affairs of worldly passion now were all gone. The mind understood clearly that things had to make the break that way. It had passed its verdict. It had understood. So now that there was the image appearing within, the mind focused within. As soon as it focused within, it knew clearly that this internal image came from the mind. When it disappeared, it disappeared here and didn”t go anywhere else. The instant after I”d focus on making it appear, it would vanish. Before I had focused on it for long, it would vanish.

　　After that, it was just like a lightning flash: As soon as I focused on making an image, it would vanish immediately, so there was no time to elaborate on its being attractive or anything at all, because of the speed of the arising and disappearing. The instant it would appear — blip! — it would vanish.

　　From that point on, there were no more images in the mind. The mind became a completely empty mind. As for external unattractiveness, that problem had already been taken care of. I had understood it from the moment it was sucked in toward the mind, and the mind had immediately let go of external unattractiveness. It let go of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, everything external — because the mind was what had been the deceiver. Once I understood this point clearly, those other things were no longer a problem. The mind had understood immediately and let go of external things once and for all.

　　After the internal images had all disappeared, the mind was empty. Completely empty. Whatever I focused on was completely empty. I”d look at trees, mountains, buildings, and see them simply as shades, as shadows. The major part — the mind — was empty all through. Even when I”d look at my own body, I”d see it simply as a shadow. As for the mind itself, it was empty clear through — to the point where I exclaimed to myself, ”Is the mind really this empty

　　” It was empty at all times. Nothing passed into it.

　　Even though it was that empty, I would form mental pictures as a way of exercising it. Whatever image I”d form would be a means of exercising the mind to make it even more adept at emptiness, to the point where after a single blip it”d be empty — a single blip and it”d be empty. The moment anything was formed — blip! — it”d be empty right then.

　　At this point — the point where the mind was empty in full measure — this awareness was also prominent in full measure. It fully comprehended rupa, vedana, sañña, sankhara and viññana. It fully let go of them on its own, without anything left. All that was left was awareness. There was a feeling of relatedness and intimacy, a very subtle sensitivity for this awareness that is hard to describe in line with its reality. There was a feeling of absorption exclusively for this awareness. Any other condition that arose would vanish in the same instant.

　　I kept watch over it. Mindfulness and discernment on this level: If this were the time of the Buddha, we would call them super-mindfulness and super-discernment, but in our day and age we shouldn”t reach for those labels. It”s e…

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