..续本文上一页 Who receives sense impressions

　　 What is it that perceives

　　 Who lets go of sense impressions

　　 That is what we call mind. But people can”t see it. They think themselves around in circles. "What is the mind, what is the brain

　　" Don”t confuse the issue like that. What is that which receives impressions

　　 Some impressions it likes and some it doesn”t like. Who is that

　　 Is there one who likes and dislikes

　　 Sure there is, but you can”t see it. That is what we call mind.

　　Ignorant Child

　　Actually, you know, we human beings, the way we do things, the way we live, the way we are, are really like little children. A child doesn”t know anything. If an adult observes the actions of a child, the way it plays and jumps around, its actions don”t seem to serve much purpose. If our mind is untrained, it is like a child. We speak without awareness and act without wisdom. We may degenerate but not know it. A child is ignorant and so it just plays as children do. Our ignorant mind is the same. That is why the Buddha taught us to train this mind of ours.

　　Infant

　　See like and dislike arising from sense contact, and do not attach to them. Don”t be anxious for quick results or instant progress. An infant has to crawl first before he learns to walk and run. Be determined in practicing virtue and keep on meditating.

　　Itchy Head

　　If we don”t know how to handle suffering when it arises, we won”t be able to get any relief from it. It”s just as if we have an itch on our head and we scratch our leg! If it”s our head that”s itchy, then we”re obviously not going to get any relief by scratching our leg.

　　Key

　　If we take the precepts simply out of tradition, then even though the master teaches the truth, our practice will be deficient. We may be able to study the teachings and repeat them, but we have to practice them if we really want to understand. If we do not develop the practice, this may well be an obstacle to our penetrating to the heart of Buddhism, and we will not get to the heart of Buddhism, and we will not get to understand the essence of the Buddhist religion.

　　The practice is like a key to a trunk. If we have the right key in our hand, no matter how tight or strong the lock may be, when we take the key and turn it, the lock falls open. If we have no key, we won”t be able to open the lock, and we will never know what is inside the trunk.

　　Lead for Gold

　　The arahant is really different from ordinary people. The things that seem true and valuable to us are false and worthless to an arahant. Trying to interest an arahant in worldly things would be like offering lead in exchange for gold. We think, "Here is a whole pile of lead, so why won”t he want to trade his piece of gold which is so much smaller

　　"

　　Leaving an Old Friend

　　Greed, hatred and delusion are the causes of all our suffering. We must learn to overcome them and free ourselves from their control. This is very hard to do. It is like having the Buddha tell us to leave a friend we have known and loved from the time we were still children. It is not easy to make the separation.

　　Light Switch and Bowl

　　It is necessary to have concentration firmly established in our practice before wisdom can arise. To concentrate the mind can be likened to turning on a light switch, and wisdom to the light that appears as a result. If there were no switch, there would be no light. Likewise, concentration is like an empty bowl, and wisdom is like the food that you put in it. If there were no bowl, there would be no place to put the food.

　　Lizard

　　The sutra gives us the simile of a certain man trying to catch a lizard which had run into a termite mound. The mound had six holes in it. Now if the lizard had run in there, how could the man catch it

　　 He would have to close off five of the holes, and lea…

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