..續本文上一頁or refined — we take to be us or ours. Even when we become human beings and begin to have some sense of good and evil, we still have to believe that ”This is us,” or ”This is ours.” Of the five khandhas, the body (rupa) is ”us.” Vedana, sañña, sankhara, and viññana are ”us,” are ”ours.” These assumptions lie buried deep within us.

　　The Buddha thus teaches us to investigate. We investigate these things so as to see their truth clearly and then to uproot our mistaken assumptions and attachments that they are the self. We do this for the sake of freedom and for nothing else.

　　If we look at these things in their normal state, we might wonder why we should investigate them. Sights are simply sights; sounds are sounds; smells, smells; tastes, tastes; tactile sensations are simply natural phenomena as they”ve always been. They”ve never announced that they are our enemies. So why investigate them

　　We investigate them to know the truth of each one of them as it actually is, to realize our own delusions by means of this investigation and to extricate ourselves from them through knowledge — for the fact that the mind lays claim to the khandhas as its self, as belonging to itself, is because of delusion and nothing else.

　　Once we have investigated and clearly understood what these things are, the mind withdraws inwardly through knowledge, understanding, and discernment, with no more concern for these things. We investigate whichever khandha is most prominent. We needn”t conjecture or speculate about the fact that we haven”t contemplated the five khandhas in their entirety, or each khandha in turn. We needn”t conjecture at all. All we need to do is to see which khandha is prominent and merits investigation at the moment — which khandha we feel best suited to handle — and then investigate and explore it so that it becomes clear.

　　Take, for instance, the body, whichever aspect of the body is most prominent in your awareness — the aspect that has you most interested, that you want most to investigate. Latch onto that spot and focus on examining it so as to see its truth in terms of the question, ”What is stress

　　”

　　In the texts we are told that stress (dukkha) means ”unendurability,” but this doesn”t sit well with my own crass tastes, which is why — one man”s meat being another man”s poison — I prefer to translate stress as ”a constant squeeze.” This is more in keeping with my tastes, which are very crude. For example, the phrase, ”yampiccham na labhati tampi dukkham,” is right in line with my translation. In other words, ”Not attaining what is desired is stress.” How is it stress

　　 In that it puts a squeeze on us, or makes us uncomfortable.

　　If we don”t get what we want, we”re uncomfortable. Even if we get what we want but then lose it, we suffer stress. Stress in this sense fits the translation, ”a squeeze.” This squeeze is what”s meant by stress or unendurability. If it can”t endure, let it go its own way. Why mess with it

　　 Actually, no matter which khandha, no matter which of the three characteristics, the mind is the one at fault for getting attached, which is why we have to examine the khandhas until we have them clear.

　　Whatever aspect of the body, look so as to see it clearly. If we”re not yet clear about the filthiness in our ”physical heap,” we can look at the charnel ground within us so as to see it clearly. When we”re told to visit the charnel ground, this is where we make our visit. Even if we visit a charnel ground outside, the purpose is to reflect inwardly on the inner charnel ground — our own body.

　　As for the external charnel ground, in the days of the Buddha it was a place where corpses were scattered all over the place. The dead were hardly ever buried or cremated as they are today. So the Buddha tau…

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