..续本文上一页e are able to reach peace, the mind will continue in its confusion. For this reason the teacher says, "Just keep on doing it. Keep on with the practice!" Maybe we think, "If I don”t yet understand, how can I do it
" Until we”re able to practice properly, wisdom won”t arise. So we say just keep on with it.
Fish
We don”t want desire, but if there is no desire, why practice
We must have desire to practice. Buddha had desire too. It”s there all the time, but it”s only a condition of the mind. Those with wisdom, however, have desire but no attachment. Our desires are like catching a big fish in a net - we must wait until the fish loses strength and then we can catch it easily. But all the time we must keep on watching it so that it doesn”t escape.
Fish and Frog
If you attach to the senses, you”re the same as a fish caught on a hook. When the fisherman comes, you can struggle all you want, but you won”t be able to get loose. Actually you”re not caught like a fish, but more like a frog. A frog gulps down the whole hook right to its guts. A fish just gets it caught in its mouth.
Fish Trap
If you see clearly the harm in the benefit of something, you won”t have to wait for others to tell you about it. Consider the story of the fisherman who finds something in his fish trap. He knows something is in it because he can hear it flopping about inside. Thinking it”s a fish; he reaches his hand into the trap, only to grab hold of a different kind of animal. He can”t see it, so he”s not sure what it is. It could be an eel, but it could also be a snake. If he throws it away, he may regret it, for if it turns out to be in eel, he”ll have lost something nice for dinner. On the other hand, if he keeps on holding onto it and it turns out to be a snake, it may bite him. He”s just not sure. But his desire is so strong that he holds on, just in case it”s an eel. The minute he brings it out and sees that it”s a snake, however, he doesn”t hesitate to fling it away from himself. He doesn”t have to wait for someone to call out, "Hey, it”s a snake! Let go!" The site of the snake tells him what to do more clearly than words could ever do. Why
Because he sees the danger - snakes can bite and make you very sick or kill you. Who has to tell him about that
In the same way, if we practice until we see things as they are, we won”t meddle with things that are harmful.
Fisherman
Our practice of contemplation will lead us to understanding. Let us take the example of a fisherman pulling in his net with a big fish in it. How do you think he feels when pulling it in again
If he”s afraid that the fish will escape, he”ll rush and start to struggle with the net, grabbing and tugging at it. In this way, before he knows it, the big fish will have escaped. The fisherman mustn”t try to hard. In the old days, they taught that we should do it gradually, carefully gathering it in without losing it. This is how it is in our practice. We gradually feel our way with it, carefully gathering it in without losing it. Sometimes it happens that we don”t feel like practicing. Maybe we don”t want to look, or maybe we don”t want to know, but we keep on with it. We continue feeling for it. This is the practice. If we feel like doing it, we do it. If we don”t feel like doing it, we do it just the same. We just keep on doing it. If we are enthusiastic about our practice, the power of our faith will give us the energy needed to practice, but we will still be without wisdom. Being energetic alone won”t make us benefit much from our practice. On the contrary, after practicing energetically for long time, the feeling that we are not going to find the Way may arise. We may feel that we cannot find peace, or that we”re not sufficiently equipped to do the practice. Or maybe we feel th…
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