..续本文上一页 this. This, too, is a defilement which we should practice to get rid of.

　　Vine

　　A growing child is like a growing vine. A vine will grow and attach itself to the nearest tree. It won”t follow some other tree or form, and it”s from that tree that it will get its shape and direction. If the tree is growing straight and upwards, the vine, too, will grow straight and upwards. If the tree is growing crooked and sideways, so will the vine. Understand that your teaching of a child really comes more from how you are and what the child sees than from anything you say. So your practice is not just your own, but also for your children . . . and others around you.

　　Vulture

　　Many people who have studied on a university level and attained graduate degrees and worldly success find that there is still s something missing in their lives. Although they think high thoughts and are intellectually sophisticated, their hearts are still filled with pettiness and doubt. It”s like a vulture: it flies high, but what does it feed on

　　Water in an Urn

　　If we keep on contemplating in meditation, energy will come to us. This is similar to the water in an urn. We put in water and keep it topped up. We keep on filling the urn with water so that the larvae which live in the water don”t die. Making effort and doing our everyday practice is just like this. We must keep it topped up.

　　Water Buffalo

　　Our thinking follows sense objects and pursues them wherever they go. Yet not any one of the sense objects is substantial. They are all impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. When they arise, observe them and see what happens. It is like looking after a buffalo in a rice paddy. When someone looks after a buffalo, he lets it walk around freely, but he keeps an eye on it. If the buffalo goes near the rice plants, he yells at it and the buffalo backs off. If it doesn”t obey, it gets to feel the hard end of a stick. The person watching the buffalo can”t doze off either, or he”ll get up finding the rice plants all eaten away.

　　The mind is like the buffalo, and the rice plants are like the sense objects. The one who knows is the owner. When observing the mind, the one who knows notices everything. It sees how the mind is when it follows sense objects, and how it is when it doesn”t follow them. When the one who knows observes the mind like this, wisdom will arise. When the mind meets an object, it”ll grab hold, just like the buffalo will bite on a rice plant when it sees one. So wherever the mind goes, you must watch it. When it goes near the rice plants, shout at it. If it will not obey you, just give it the stick.

　　Well and Orchard

　　You”ll have to work to find peacefulness in the world. It”s like reaching water for a well – it”s there but you have to dig for it. Or like an orchard that”s already planted – the fruit are there, but you have to pick them. They won”t just fall into your mouth.

　　Wooden Log

　　One can”t separate samatha and vipassana. Samatha is tranquility, vipassana is contemplation. In order to contemplate, one must be tranquil, and in order to be tranquil, one must contemplate to know the mind. Wanting to separate them would be like picking up a log of wood in the middle and wanting only one end of the log to come up. Both of its ends must come up at the same time. You can”t separate them. In our practice, it isn”t necessary to talk of samatha or vipassana. Just call it the practice of Dhamma, that”s enough.

　　Sweet Papayas

　　If you don”t understand the truth of suffering and how to get rid of it, all the factors of the path will be wrong – wrong speech and action, and wrong practice of concentration. It would be like wanting to travel to a certain village. You make a mistake and take the wrong road, but you find it comfortable to travel on and so continue walking in the wrong direction. No matter how comfortable and convenient the road may be, however, it won”t take you to where you want to go. With even a little intuitive wisdom we will be able to see clearly through the ways of the world. We will come to understand that everything in the world is a teacher. Trees and vines, for example, can reveal the nature of reality to us. With wisdom there is no need to question anyone, no need to study. WE can learn enough from Nature to be enlightened.

《A Tree in the Forest - PART 2》全文阅读结束。