..續本文上一頁 our knowledge of the various things that arise and vanish — that doesn”t vanish. We can say that the mind can”t vanish. We can say that the mind can”t arise. A mind that has been purified thus has no more problems concerning the birth and death of the body and the khandhas; and thus there is no more birth here and there, appearing in crude forms such as inpiduals or as living beings, for those whose minds have been purified.
But those whose minds are not purified: They are the ones who take birth and die, setting their sights on cemeteries without end, all because of this undying mind.
This is why the Lord Buddha taught the world, and in particular the world of human beings, who know right and wrong, good and evil; who know how to foster the one and remedy the other; who understand the language of the Dhamma he taught. This is why he taught the human world above and beyond the other worlds: so that we could try to remedy the things that are harmful and detrimental, removing them from our thoughts, words, and deeds; try to nourish and foster whatever goodness we might already have, and give rise to whatever goodness we don”t yet have.
He taught us to foster and develop the goodness we already have so as to nourish the heart, giving it refreshment and well-being, giving it a standard of quality, or goodness, so that when it leaves its present body to head for whatever place or level of being, this mind that has been constantly nourished with goodness will be a good mind. Wherever it fares, it will fare well. Wherever it takes birth, it will be born well. Wherever it lives, it will live well. It will keep on experiencing well-being and happiness until it gains the capacity, the potential, the accumulation of merit it has developed progressively from the past into the present — in other words, yesterday is today”s past, today is tomorrow”s past, all of which are days in which we have fostered and developed goodness step by step — to the point where the mind has the firm strength and ability, from the supporting power of this goodness, that enables it to pass over and gain release.
Such a mind has no more birth, not even in the most quiet or refined levels of being that contain any latent traces of conventional reality (sammati) — namely, birth and death as we currently experience it. Such a mind goes completely beyond all such things. Here I”m referring to the minds of the Buddhas and of the arahants.
There”s a story about Ven. Vangisa that has a bearing on this. Ven. Vangisa, when he was a layman, was very talented in pining the level of being in which the mind of a dead person was reborn — no matter who the person was. You couldn”t quite say he was a fortuneteller. Actually he was more a master of psychic skills. When anyone died, he would take that person”s skull and knock on it — knock! knock! knock! — focus his mind, and then know that this person was reborn there, that person was reborn here. If the person was reborn in hell or in heaven, as a common animal or a hungry ghost, he could tell in every case, without any hesitation. All he needed was to knock on the skull.
When he heard his friends say that the Buddha was many times more talented than this, he wanted to expand on his knowledge. So he went to the Buddha”s presence to ask for further training in this science. When he reached the Buddha, the Buddha gave him the skull of an arahant to knock on.
”All right, see if you can tell where he was reborn.”
Ven. Vangisa knocked on the skull and listened.
Silence.
He knocked again and listened.
Silence.
He thought for a moment.
Silence.
He focused his mind.
Silence.
He couldn”t see where the owner of the skull was reborn. At his wit”s end, he confessed frankly that he didn”t know where the arahant was reborn.
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