..续本文上一页at this Way just isn”t possible anymore. So we give up! At this point, we must be very, very careful. We must use patience and endurance. It”s just like pulling in the big fish - we gradually feel our way with it, we carefully pull it in. The struggle won”t be too difficult, so continue to pull it in without stopping. Eventually, after some time, the fish becomes tired and stops fighting and we”re able to catch it easily. Usually this is how it happens. We practice gradually and carefully, gathering it together. It”s in this manner that we do our contemplation.

　　Flashlight

　　In Buddhism we are endlessly hearing about letting go and about not clinging to anything. What does this mean

　　 It means to take hold of but not to cling. Take this flashlight, for example. We wonder: "What is this

　　" So we pick it up: "Oh, it”s a flashlight." Then we put it down again. We take hold of things, even of wanting, in this way. If we didn”t take hold of wanting, what could we do

　　 We couldn”t do walking meditation or anything else. It”s wanting, yes, a defilement, that”s true, but later on that leads to perfection. So we must take hold of things first. It is like coming here. First you had to want to come here. If you didn”t want to, you wouldn”t be here today. We do things because of wanting, but when wanting arises, we don”t cling to it, just like we don”t cling to that flashlight - "What”s this

　　" We pick it up. "Oh, it”s a flashlight." We then put it down again. This is what "holding but not clinging" means. We know and then we let go. We don”t foolishly cling to things, but we "hold" them with wisdom and then let them go. Good or bad, we let them all go.

　　Freeway

　　Not having full, clear knowledge of the true nature of things, we will go on thinking that we are the sankharas or that we are happiness and unhappiness. The truth is that we can”t force things to follow our desires. They follow the way of Nature. A simple comparison is this: Suppose you go and sit in the middle of a freeway with the cars and trucks speeding down toward you. You can”t get angry at the cars, shouting, "Don”t drive over here! Don”t drive over here!" It”s a freeway. You can”t tell them that. So what can you do

　　 You get off the road. The road is the place where cars run. If you don”t want the cars to be there, you suffer. It”s the same with sankharas. We say they disturb us, like when we sit in meditation and hear a sound. We think, "Oh, that sound”s bothering me!" If we understand that the sound bothers us, then we suffer accordingly. If we investigate a little deeper, we will see that it”s we who go out and disturb the sound. The sound is simply sound. If we understand it in this way, then there”s nothing more to it. We leave the sound alone. We see that the sound is one thing and we are another. This is real knowledge of the truth. We see both sides, so we have peace. If we see only one side there is suffering. Once we see both sides, then we follow the Middle Way. This is the right practice of the mind. This is what we call straightening out our understanding. In the same way, impermanence and death are the nature of all sankharas, but we don”t want it that way. We want the opposite to be true. We want to find truth within the things that aren”t true. Whenever someone sees like this and clings to the sankharas as being himself, he suffers. The Buddha told us to contemplate this.

　　Frog

　　The more you neglect the practice, and the more you neglect going to the monastery to listen to the Teachings, the more your mind will sink down into a bog, like a frog going into a hole. Later when someone comes along with a hook, the frog”s days are over. He doesn”t have a chance. All he can do is stretch out his neck and be caught. So watch out you don”t back yourself up into a hol…

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