..續本文上一頁ey have no meaning in and of themselves, that they are like ””this” or ”that.” The mind simply gives them meanings, and then falls for its own meanings, making itself glad or sad over those things without end. Thus the stress and suffering that result from thought-formations have no end, no point of resolution, just as if we were floating adrift in the middle of the sea waiting to breathe our last breath.
The Buddhas all reached Awakening here in this human world because the human world is rich in the Noble Truths. It”s where they are plain to see. The Noble Truth of stress (dukkha) lies in the human body. Human beings know about stress — because they”re smarter than common animals. The Noble Truth of the origin of stress: This lies in the human heart. The Noble Truth of the path — the path of practice to cure defilement (kilesa), craving (tanha), and mental effluents (asava), which are the things that produce stress: This, human beings also know. What is the path
To put it briefly: virtue, concentration, and discernment. These things human beings know and can put into practice. The Noble Truth of the cessation of stress: This, human beings also know. No matter which of these truths, all human beings know them — although they may not know how to behave toward them or take interest in behaving in line with them, in which case there is no way the Dhamma can help them at all.
The Buddhas thus taught the Dhamma in the human world, because the human world lies in the center of all the levels of existence. We have been born in the center of existence, in the midst of the religion. We should conform correctly to the central point of the religion, so as to comprehend the religion”s teachings that lie in the center of our heart.
The superlative Dhamma lies right here. It doesn”t lie anywhere else. The mind is what can reach the Dhamma. The mind is what knows all dhammas. The affairs of the Dhamma, then, do not lie beyond the mind, which is a fitting vessel for them. Good, evil, pleasure, pain: The mind knows these things before anything else knows them, so we should develop mindfulness and discernment to be resourceful, to keep up with the events that are always becoming involved with the mind in the course of each day.
If we”re intent on investigating the origin of stress, which fans out from our various thought-formations, we will find that it arises without stop. It arises right here in the mind. It”s fashioned right here. Even though we try to make it quiet, it won”t be still. Why
Because of the ”unquietness”, the thoughts with which the mind disturbs itself, which it forms and sends out towards its preoccupations (arammana) all the time. Once the mind sends out its thoughts, it then gathers in stress for itself. It keeps at it, in and out like this. What goes out is the origin of stress, and what comes back in is stress. In other words, thoughts form and go out as the origin of stress, and when the results come back to the heart, they”re stressful. These things are constantly being manufactured like this all the time.
When we want the mind to have even just a little bit of calm, we really have to force it; and even then these things still manage to drive the mind into forming thoughts whenever we let down our guard. This is how it is with the origin of stress, which is constantly producing suffering. It lies in the heart and is always arising. For this reason, we must use mindfulness and discernment to diagnose and remedy the origin of stress, to keep an eye out for it, and to snuff it out right there, without being negligent. Wherever we sit or stand — whatever our activity — we keep watch over this point, with mindfulness alert to it, and discernment unraveling it so as to know it constantly for what it truly is.
All those w…
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