Investigating Pain

　　We human beings are like trees: If we water a tree, fertilize it, and keep looking after it, it will be fresher and grow faster than it normally would if we let it fend for itself without our help. The mind, when we keep looking after it, will become more and more radiant and peaceful, step by step. If it isn”t trained, it”s like a tree that isn”t looked after. Whenever it lacks training, it begins to act tarnished and defiled because the things that tarnish and defile it are already there inside it.

　　When we look after the mind continually with meditation, it will gradually become more and more calm. When it”s calm, it will begin to develop radiance along with its calm. And once it”s calm, then when we contemplate anything, we can penetrate into the workings of cause and effect so as to understand in line with the truths that appear both within us and without. But if the mind is clouded and confused, its thoughts are all worthless. Right becomes wrong, and wrong becomes progressively even more wrong.

　　Thus we are taught to train the mind so that it will be quiet, calm, and radiant, able to see its shadows, just as when water is limpid and clear: We look down into the water and can see clearly whatever plants or animals there are. But if the water is muddy, we can”t see anything when we look down into it. No matter what”s there in the water — plants, animals, or whatever — we can”t see them at all.

　　The same holds true with the mind. If it”s clouded, then we can”t see the harm of whatever — big or small — is hidden within it, even though that harm has been bad for the mind all along. This is because the mind isn”t radiant. For this reason, a mind clouded with muddy preoccupations can”t investigate to the point of seeing anything, which is why we have to train the mind to make it radiant, and then it will see its shadows.

　　These shadows lie buried in the mind. In other words, they”re the various conditions that come out of the mind. They”re called shadows — and we”re forever deluded into being attached to these shadows that come from the thoughts constantly forming and coming out of the mind at all times. They catch us off guard, so that we think ”this” is us, ”that” is us, anything at all is us, even though they are simply shadows and not the real thing. Our belief or delusion, though, turns them into the ”real thing.” As a result, we end up troubled and anxious.

　　At present, the great respected meditation masters on whom we depend in the area of the practice and in the area of the mind are falling away one by one. Those who are left can barely take care of themselves. Physically, they are wearing out step by step — like Venerable Acariya Khao. To see him is really heart-rending. When the body reaches its final extremity, it”s as if it had never been strong or in radiant health. To lie down is painful, to sit is painful — whatever the position, it”s painful. When the time comes for pain to come thronging in, the khandhas are nothing but pain. But for people like this, it”s simply a matter of the body and the khandhas. In the area of the mind, they have no more problems about the behavior of the body or the khandhas at all.

　　But as for us, well, we”re always there welcoming such problems. No matter whether it”s the body or the thoughts of the mind that are acting adversely, the mind begins to act adversely as well. For example, if the body is malfunctioning, the mind begins to malfunction too, even though there is nothing really wrong with it. This is due to the mind”s own fear, caused by the fact that mindfulness and discernment aren”t up on the events surrounding the mind.

　　This is why we”re taught to train our mindfulness and discernment to be capable and bold, alert to events arising within the mind and ar…

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