..续本文上一页e want to go to Nirvana — right there, you won”t get to Nirvana! It”s natural to want peace, but it”s not really correct. We must practice without wanting anything at all. If we don”t want anything at all, what will we get

　　 We don”t get anything! Whatever you get is just a cause for suffering, so we practice not getting anything.

　　Just this is called "making the mind empty." It”s empty but there is still doing. This emptiness is something people don”t usually understand, but those who reach it see the value of knowing it. It”s not the emptiness of not having anything, it”s emptiness within the things that are here. Like this flashlight: we should see this flashlight as empty, because of the flashlight there is emptiness. It”s not the emptiness where we can”t see anything, it”s not like that. People who understand like that have got it all wrong. You must understand emptiness within the things are here.

　　Those who are still practicing because of some gaining idea are like the brahman who makes a sacrifice just to fulfill some wish. Like the people who come to see me to be sprinkled with "holy water." When I ask them, "Why do you want this ”holy water”

　　" they say, "We want to live happily and comfortably and not get sick." There! They”ll never transcend suffering that way. The worldly way is to do things for a reason, to get some return, but in Buddhism we do things without any gaining idea. The world has to understand things in terms of cause and effect, but the Buddha teaches us to go above cause, beyond effect; to go above birth and beyond death; to go above happiness and beyond suffering. Think about it... there”s nowhere to stay. We people live in a "home." To leave home and go where there is no home... we don”t know how to do it, because we”ve always lived with becoming, with clinging. If we can”t cling we don”t know what to do.

　　So most people don”t want to go to Nirvana, there”s nothing there; nothing at all. Look at the roof and the floor here. The upper extreme is the roof, that”s an "abiding." The lower extreme is the floor, and that”s another "abiding." But in the empty space between the floor and the roof there”s nowhere stand. One could stand on the roof, or stand on the floor, but not on that empty space. Where there is no abiding, that”s where there”s emptiness, and, to put it bluntly, we say that Nirvana is this emptiness. People hear this and they back up a bit, they don”t want to go. They”re afraid they won”t see their children or relatives.

　　This is why, when we bless the laypeople, we say "May you have long life, beauty, happiness and strength." This makes them really happy, "Sadhu!" 23 they all say. They like these things. If you start talking about emptiness they don”t want it, they”re attached to abiding. But have you ever seen a very old person with a beautiful complexion

　　 Have you ever seen an old person with a lot of strength, or a lot of happiness

　　... No... But we say, "Long life, beauty, happiness and strength" and they”re all really pleased, every single one says "Sadhu!" This is like the brahman who makes oblations to achieve some wish. In our practice we don”t "make oblations," we don”t practice in order to get some return. We don”t want anything. If we still want something then there is still something there. Just make the mind peaceful and have done with it! But if I talk like this you may not be very comfortable, because you want to be "born" again.

　　So all you lay practitioners should get close to the monks and see their practice. To be close to the monks means to be close to the Buddha, to be close to his Dhamma. The Buddha said, "Ananda, practice a lot, develop your practice! Whoever sees the Dhamma sees me, and whoever sees me sees the Dhamma." Where is the Buddha

　　 We may think the Buddha has b…

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