..續本文上一頁lot of undesirable events overwhelmed the senior officials in the Interior Ministry — loss of wealth, loss of status, criticism, and suffering. And of course, the pain and sorrow spread to affect their wives and children as well. So one day some of their wives came to pay respect to Luang Pu and told him of their suffering so that he might advise them on how to overcome it.
He told them,
"One shouldn”t feel sad or miss things external to the body that are past and gone, for those things have performed their function correctly in the most consummate way."
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55. The truth is always the same
Many well-read people would comment that Luang Pu”s teachings were very similar to those of Zen or the Platform Sutra. I asked him about this many times, and finally he replied in an impersonal way,
"All the truths of the Dhamma are already present in the world. When the Buddha awakened to those truths, he brought them out to teach to the beings of the world. Now, because those beings had different propensities — coarse or refined — he had to use up a lot of words: 84,000 sections of Dhamma in all. When wise people try to select the words best suited to explain the truth to those who aim at the truth, they have to use the methods of the truth that, on reflection, are the most correct and complete, without worrying about the words or getting fixated on the letters of the texts in the least way at all."
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56. Refined
Ajaan Bate of Khoke Mawn Forest Monastery came to converse with Luang Pu about the practice of concentration, saying, "I”ve been practicing concentration for a long time, to the point where I can enter fixed penetration (appana samadhi) for long periods. When I leave meditation, there are times when I feel a rapturous sense of ease long afterwards. Sometimes there”s a sense of bright light, and I can fully understand the body. Is there anything else I should do next
"
Luang Pu answered,
"Use the power of that fixed penetration to examine the mind. Then let go of all preoccupations so that there”s nothing left at all."
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57. Empty
At a later time, Ajaan Bate, together with two other monks and a large number of lay people, came to pay respect to Luang Pu. After Luang Pu had advised the newcomers on how to do the practice, Ajaan Bate questioned Luang Pu further on the advice he had received on his last visit. "Letting go of all objects is something I can do only momentarily," he said. "I can”t stay that way for long periods of time."
Luang Pu said,
"Even if you can let go of all objects for a moment, if you aren”t really observant of the mind, or your mindfulness isn”t completely all-around, it may be that you”ve simply let go of a blatant object to move to a more refined object. So you have to stop all thoughts and let the mind settle on nothingness."
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58. Not all that clear
Someone said: "I”ve read the passage in your biography where it says that, while you were wandering, you came to a good understanding about the issue of the mind concocting defilements and defilements concocting the mind. What does that mean
"
Luang Pu answered,
"”The mind concocting defilements” refers to the mind”s forcing thoughts, words, and deeds to make external things come into being, making them good, making them bad, giving rise to the results of kamma, and then latching onto those things, thinking, ”That”s me. That”s my self. That”s mine. That”s theirs.”
"”Defilements concocting the mind” refers to external things coming…
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