..续本文上一页st be present from beginning to end. This kind of samadhi has no danger.

　　You may wonder where does the benefit arise, how does the wisdom arise, from samadhi

　　 When right samadhi has been developed, wisdom has the chance to arise at all times. When the eye sees form, the ear hears sound, the nose smells odor, the tongue experiences taste, the body experiences touch or the mind experiences mental impressions — in all postures — the mind stays with full knowledge of the true nature of those sense impressions, it doesn”t "pick and choose." In any posture we are fully aware of the birth of happiness and unhappiness. We let go of both of these things, we don”t cling. This is called Right Practice, which is present in all postures. These words "all postures" do not refer only to bodily postures, they refer to the mind, which has mindfulness and clear comprehension of the truth at all times. When samadhi has been rightly developed, wisdom arises like this. This is called "insight," knowledge of the truth.

　　There are two kinds of peace — the coarse and the refined. The peace which comes from samadhi is the coarse type. When the mind is peaceful there is happiness. The mind then takes this happiness to be peace. But happiness and unhappiness are becoming and birth. There is no escape from samsara 6 here because we still cling to them. So happiness is not peace, peace is not happiness.

　　The other type of peace is that which comes from wisdom. Here we don”t confuse peace with happiness; we know the mind which contemplates and knows happiness and unhappiness as peace. The peace which arises from wisdom is not happiness, but is that which sees the truth of both happiness and unhappiness. Clinging to those states does not arise, the mind rises above them. This is the true goal of all Buddhist practice.

　　"...The Buddha laid down Morality, Concentration and Wisdom as the Path to peace, the way to enlightenment. But in truth these things are not the essence of Buddhism. They are merely the Path... The essence of Buddhism is peace, and that peace arises from truly knowing the nature of all things..."

　　The Middle Way Within

　　The teaching of Buddhism is about giving up evil and practicing good. Then, when evil is given up and goodness is established, we must let go of both good and evil. We have already heard enough about wholesome and unwholesome conditions to understand something about them, so I would like to talk about the Middle Way, that is, the path to escape from both of those things.

　　All the Dhamma talks and teachings of the Buddha have one aim — to show the way out of suffering to those who have not yet escaped. The teachings are for the purpose of giving us the right understanding. If we don”t understand rightly, then we can”t arrive at peace.

　　When the various Buddhas became enlightened and gave their first teachings, they all declared these two extremes — indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain. 7 These two ways are the ways of infatuation, they are the ways between which those who indulge in sense pleasures must fluctuate, never arriving at peace. They are the paths which spin around in samsara.

　　The Enlightened One observed that all beings are stuck in these two extremes, never seeing the Middle Way of Dhamma, so he pointed them out in order to show the penalty involved in both. Because we are still stuck, because we are still wanting, we live repeatedly under their way. The Buddha declared that these two ways are the ways of intoxication, they are not the way of a meditator, nor the ways to peace. These ways are indulgence in pleasure and indulgence in pain, or, to put it simply, the way of slackness and the way of tension. If you investigate within, moment by moment, you will see that the tense way is anger, the way of sorro…

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