..续本文上一页itator.

　　This is what we call separating the mind from the feeling. If we are clever we don”t attach, we leave things be. We become the ”one who knows”. The mind and feeling are just like oil and water; they are in the same bottle but they don”t mix. Even if we are sick or in pain, we still know the feeling as feeling, the mind as mind. We know the painful or comfortable states but we don”t identify with them. We stay only with peace: the peace beyond both comfort and pain.

　　You should understand it like this, because if there is no permanent self then there is no refuge. You must live like this, that is, without happiness and without unhappiness. You stay only with the knowing, you don”t carry things around.

　　As long as we are still unenlightened all this may sound strange but it doesn”t matter, we just set our goal in this direction. The mind is the mind. It meets happiness and unhappiness and we see them as merely that, there”s nothing more to it. They are pided, not mixed. If they are all mixed up then we don”t know them. It”s like living in a house; the house and its occupant are related, but separate. If there is danger in our house we are distressed because we must protect it, but if the house catches fire we get out of it. If painful feeling arises we get out of it, just like that house. When it”s full of fire and we know it, we come running out of it. They are separate things; the house is one thing, the occupant is the other.

　　We say that we separate mind and feeling in this way but in fact they are by nature already separate. Our realization is simply to know this natural separateness according to reality. When we say they are not separated it”s because we”re clinging to them through ignorance of the truth.

　　So the Buddha told us to meditate. This practice of meditation is very important. Merely to know with the intellect is not enough. The knowledge which arises from practice with a peaceful mind and the knowledge which comes from study are really far apart. The knowledge which comes from study is not real knowledge of our mind. The mind tries to hold onto and keep this knowledge. Why do we try to keep it

　　 Just lose it! And then when it”s lost we cry!

　　If we really know, then there”s letting go, leaving things be. We know how things are and don”t forget ourselves. If it happens that we are sick we don”t get lost in that. Some people think, "This year I was sick the whole time, I couldn”t meditate at all." These are the words of a really foolish person. Someone who”s sick and dying should really be diligent in his practice. One may say he doesn”t trust his body, and so he feels that he can”t meditate. If we think like this then things are difficult. The Buddha didn”t teach like that. He said that right here is the place to meditate. When we”re sick or almost dying that”s when we can really know and see reality.

　　Other people say they don”t have the chance to meditate because they”re too busy. Sometimes school teachers come to see me. They say they have many responsibilities so there”s no time to meditate. I ask them, "When you”re teaching do you have time to breathe

　　" They answer, "Yes." "So how can you have time to breathe if the work is so hectic and confusing

　　 Here you are far from Dhamma."

　　Actually this practice is just about the mind and its feelings. It”s not something that you have to run after or struggle for. Breathing continues while working. Nature takes care of the natural processes — all we have to do is try to be aware. Just to keep trying, going inwards to see clearly. Meditation is like this.

　　If we have that presence of mind then whatever work we do will be the very tool which enables us to know right and wrong continually. There”s plenty of time to meditate, we just don”t fully understand the practice…

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