..续本文上一页ilibrium, but also activates those that are sluggish and restrains those that are too intense.

　　Mindfulness, though seemingly of a passive nature, is in fact an activating force. It makes the mind alert, and alertness is indispensable for all purposeful activity. In the present inquiry, however, we shall examine how it makes for disentanglement and detachment, and how it positively helps in the development of the mental qualities required for the work of deliverance.

　　In practicing bare attention, we keep still at the mental and spatial place of observation, amidst the loud demands of the inner and outer world. Mindfulness possesses the strength of tranquillity, the capacity for deferring action and applying the brake, for stopping rash interference and for suspending judgment while pausing to observe facts and to reflect upon them wisely. It also brings a wholesome slowing down in the impetuosity of thought, speech and action. Keeping still and stopping, pausing and slowing down — these will be our key words when speaking now of the restraining effect of bare attention.

　　An ancient Chinese book states:

　　"In making things end, and in making things start,

　　there is nothing more glorious than keeping still."

　　In the light of the Buddha”s teaching, the true "end of things" is Nibbana which is called the "stilling of formations" (sankharanam vupasamo), that is, their final end or cessation. It is also called "the stopping" (nirodha). The "things" or "formations" meant here are the conditioned and impersonal phenomena rooted in craving and ignorance. The end of formations comes to be by the end of "forming," that is, by the end of world-creating kammic activities. It is the "end of the world" and of suffering, which the Buddha proclaimed cannot be reached by walking, migrating or transmigrating, but can be found within ourselves. That end of the world is heralded by each deliberate act of keeping still, stopping, or pausing. "Keeping still," in that highest sense, means stopping the accumulation of kamma, abstaining from our unceasing concern with evanescent things, abstaining from perpetually adding to our entanglements in samsara — the round of repeated birth and death. By following the way of mindfulness, by training ourselves to keep still and pause in the attitude of bare attention, we refuse to take up the world”s persistent challenge to our dispositions for greed or hatred. We protect ourselves against rash and delusive judgments; we refrain from blindly plunging into the whirlpool of interfering action with all its inherent dangers.

　　"He who abstains from interfering is everywhere secure"

　　— Sutta Nipata, v.953

　　"He who keeps still and knows where to stop will not meet danger"

　　— Tao-Te-Ching, Chapter 44

　　The Chinese saying quoted earlier states in its second part that there is nothing more glorious in making things start than in keeping still. Explained in the Buddhist sense, these things effectively started by keeping still are "the things (or qualities) making for decrease of kammic accumulation." In dealing with them, we may follow the traditional pision of mental training into morality (or conduct), concentration (or tranquillity) and wisdom (or insight). All three are decisively helped by the attitude of keeping still cultivated by bare attention.

　　1. Conduct. How can we improve our conduct, its moral quality and its skill in taking right decisions

　　 If we earnestly desire such an improvement, it will generally be wisest to choose the line of least resistance. If we turn too quickly against those shortcomings deeply rooted in old habits or in powerful impulses, we might suffer discouraging defeat. We should pay attention first to our blemishes of action and speech and our errors of judgment caused by thoughtlessness and rashn…

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