..續本文上一頁ing for—we can understand his advice on how to use faith and empiricism in a successful search. The best way to do this is to examine five of his similes illustrating how a search should be conducted.

　　The first simile illustrates search in its most raw and unfocused form: Two strong men have grabbed another man by the arms and are dragging him to a pit of burning embers. The Buddha notes, “Wouldn”t the man twist his body this way and that

　　”

　　The twisting of his body stands for the way we react to suffering. We don”t bother to ask if our suffering is predetermined or our actions have any hope of success. We simply put up a struggle and do what we can to escape. It”s our natural reaction.

　　The Buddha taught that this reaction is twofold: We”re bewildered—“Why is this happening to me

　　”—and we search for a way to put an end to the suffering. When he stated that he taught nothing but suffering and the end of suffering, he was responding to these two reactions, providing an explanation of suffering and its end so as to do away with our bewilderment, at the same time showing the way to the end of suffering so as to satisfy our search. He had no use for the idea that our suffering comes from our struggle to resist suffering; that the search for an end to suffering is precisely what keeps us from seeing the peace already there. In light of the above simile, simply relaxing into a total acceptance of the moment means relaxing into the prospect of being burned alive.

　　The second simile:

　　A man searching for fruit climbs up into a tree to eat his fill and to stuff his garments with fruit to take home. While he is there, another man searching for fruit comes along. The second man can”t climb the tree but he has an axe, so he chops the tree down. If the first man doesn”t quickly get out of the tree, he may break an arm or a leg, or even die. This simile shows the perils of looking for true happiness in the wrong place: sensual pleasures. If your happiness depends on anything other people can take away from you, you”re putting yourself in danger. As the Buddha notes, we hope for happiness in sensual pleasures not because they”ve ever really satisfied us but because we can”t imagine any other escape from pain and suffering. If we allowed ourselves to believe that there is another alternative, we”d be more willing to question our strong faith in our cravings and attachments, more willing to look for that alternative and give it a try. And, as the third simile argues, if we look in the right way, we”ll find it.

　　A person searching for milk tries to get milk out of a cow by twisting its horn. Another person searching for milk tries to get milk out of the cow by pulling at its udder. This simile is a response to the assertion that no human action can bring release from suffering. We can attain release, the Buddha said, as long as we follow the right method, like the person pulling at the udder of the cow. The right method starts with right understanding, and this is where faith in the Buddha”s Awakening comes in. As the Buddha once stated, he didn“t tell us everything he awakened to. What he told was like a handful of leaves; what he learned was like all the leaves in the forest. Still, the leaves in the handful contained all the lessons that would help others to awaken. Right understanding begins with learning what those specific lessons are.

　　The most important lesson, and the most important item of faith, is simply the fact of the Awakening itself. The Buddha achieved it through his own efforts, and he did so, not because he was more than human, but because he developed mental qualities we all have the potential to develop. To have faith in his Awakening thus means having faith in your own potential for Awakening. However, the specifics of what h…

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