..续本文上一页hem both, and he also knows how an unarisen fetter can arise, how an arisen fetter can be removed, and how a future arising fetter can be prevented. - MI61

　　The task of mindfulness then, is to observe the fetter that can arise in dependence on contact between sense and object. To develop awareness and detachment in regard to these six internal and external sense-spheres is of crucial importance for the progress of insight - especially in regard to the deeply rooted “sense of self” that assumes it is an independent experiencer of sense objects.

　　Orientation to a Sense-door

　　To make an orientation to a sense-door, you start by literally coming to your senses - seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. These are the five sense-doors or sense bases; the ”sixth sense” is ”consciousness of something”, which is the mind-base with its eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, etc. You also need to be aware of the senses internally as well as externally. That is, the organs and their sense objects: nose/smell, tongue/taste, body/tactile objects, ear/sound, mind/mind-objects or consciousness.

　　Attentiveness or ”presence of mind” at one of the sense-doors during a sense impression is the way to practice. For example, most people are predominantly visual, so being attentive at the eye-door allows you to notice the effects of the contact between the eye and the visible objects and how you are relating to them.

　　The process is this: there is the eye (the internal base), and a visible object (the external base). With contact or a sense impression between the sense-door and external object, consciousness arises followed by feeling. The moment of consciousness ordinarily is too rapid to catch while the feeling tone can be more easily known and apprehended.

　　This orientation to a sense-door brings awareness of what is happening during the moment of contact or the sense impression, and with it the ability to monitor the associated feelings and consciousness that arises. When this feeling tone is apprehended, the link to liking and disliking is broken and therefore one is free at that moment from conditioned suffering.

　　This strategy of wise attention at a sense-door ties in with the practical implementation of the teaching of Dependent Arising (patticcasamuppada). In fact these two teachings when combined will lead to the purification of mind and the realisation of Nirvana.

　　The Law of Dependent Arising is a deep subject. It is the very essence of the Buddha”s Teachings. In the words of the Buddha: "He who sees Dependent Arising sees the Dharma; he who sees the Dharma sees Dependent Arising."

　　There was an exchange between the Buddha and his personal attendant, Ananda, when Ananda casually remarked that he thought it was an easy thing to understand. The Buddha responded by saying, "Not so Ananda, don”t ever say such a thing. It is because people do not understand origination, that they are not able to penetrate it, that their minds are befuddled. Just as a ball of twine becomes all tangled up and knotted, just so are beings ensnared and unable to free themselves from the wheel of existence, the conditions of suffering and states of hell and ruin”.

　　”How to untangle the tangle

　　” This is a quote from the Visuddhimagga or The Path of Purification. The untangling can be done by insighting into Dependent Arising through the practice of attentiveness at a sense-door. What we are experiencing now is from a series of events that arose because of previous conditions and is linked as a causal chain of effects, that is, cyclic existence or samsara.

　　It is useful for the meditator to be familiar with the twelve links in the cycle of Dependent Arising: that is, the principle of conditionality, which lies at the heart of the Buddha”s Teaching. They form the c…

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