..續本文上一頁t arises in our body. Focus on whichever one point is very pronounced. Investigate it — whichever point is more painful than the rest. When we focus on that as a starting point, our investigation will spread to all other feelings because no matter where they arise, they all become involved with the one mind. As soon as we investigate a feeling, the mind and the feeling immediately fly toward each other, and then we separate them out, because the four foundations of mindfulness — contemplation of body, feelings, mind, and mental events — are interrelated in this way. ”External feelings” refer to physical feelings, feelings of pleasure, pain, and neither pleasure nor pain in the various parts of the body. ”Internal feelings” refer to the feelings of pain, pleasure, and neither pleasure nor pain in the heart. These are also counted as feelings that occur in the hearts of ordinary people everywhere.
These three kinds of feelings: Even when we”re meditating and the mind enters into stillness, it still has a feeling of pleasure. But ordinarily, people usually have feelings of pain and discontent within the heart. If we don”t investigate — for example, if we”ve never practiced the Dhamma — these three feelings also exist, but they”re worldly feelings, not the feelings connected with the Dhamma of those who practice meditation.
When we practice, and the mind is still and calm, there is a feeling of pleasure. If the mind doesn”t settle down and grow still as we want it to, feelings of bodily and mental pain or distress arise. Sometimes the mind is vacant, drifting, indifferent, something of the sort. You can”t call it pleasure or pain. It”s simply vacant and drifting — something like that — in the mind of the meditator. This doesn”t mean vacant and drifting in the sense of someone completely oblivious. It”s simply a state in the mind. This is called a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain.
At present, we aren”t yet aware of these things — even now, when they”re very pronounced. We aren”t yet aware because we don”t yet have the discernment. When the mind becomes more refined, then whatever appears, whatever state arises, we are bound to know, and to know increasingly, in line with the strength of our own mindfulness and discernment. Actually, these things are the bosses, lording it over the heart: Okay, for once let”s call them what they are, because that”s what they”ve actually been all along.
The heart is their vessel, their seat. That”s where they sit. Or you could say it”s their toilet, because that”s where they defecate. Whichever one comes along, it gets right up there on the heart. Now pain jumps up there and defecates. Now pleasure gets up there and defecates. Now a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain gets up there and defecates. They keep defecating like this, and the heart is content to let them do this, because it doesn”t have the mindfulness or discernment to shake them off and not let them defecate. This is why we have to develop a great deal of mindfulness and discernment so that we can fight them off.
Mindfulness is crucial. It has to keep track constantly, because it”s the supervisor of the work. No matter where discernment goes scrutinizing, no matter what it thinks about, mindfulness sticks right with it. Discernment contemplates and mindfulness follows right along with it. This is why it doesn”t turn into sañña. As soon as we let mindfulness lapse, discernment turns into sañña, in accordance with the weakness of the mind just learning how to explore. But once we become more proficient in the areas of both mindfulness and discernment, the two stick so close together that we can say that there”s never a moment when the mind”s attention lapses — except when we sleep, at which time mindfulness…
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