..续本文上一页e that but will they ever finish and get it all in order

　　 There”s no end to it. They pay up their debts with another loan, they pay off that one and do it all again. A merchant thinks that if he frees himself from debt he will be happy, but there”s no end to paying things off. That”s the way worldliness fools us - we go around and around like this never realizing our predicament.

　　Constant Practice

　　In our practice we just look directly at the mind. Whenever our practice begins to slacken off, we see it and make it firm - then shortly after, it goes again. That”s the way it pulls you around. But the person with good mindfulness takes a firm hold and constantly re-establishes himself, pulling himself back, training, practicing and developing himself in this way.

　　The person with poor mindfulness just lets it all fall apart, he strays off and gets side-tracked again and again. He”s not strong and firmly rooted in practice. Thus he”s continuously pulled away by his worldly desires - something pulls him here, something pulls him there. He lives following his whims and desires, never putting an end to this worldly cycle.

　　Coming to ordain is not so easy. You must determine to make your mind firm. You should be confident in the practice, confident enough to continue practicing until you become fed up with both your like and dislikes and see in accordance with truth. Usually, you are dissatisfied with only your dislike, if you like something then you aren”t ready to give it up. You have to become fed up with both your dislike and your likes, your suffering and your happiness.

　　You don”t see that this is the very essence of the Dhamma! The Dhamma of the Buddha is profound and refined. It isn”t easy to comprehend. If true wisdom has not yet arisen, then you can”t see it. You don”t look forward and you don”t look back. When you experience happiness, you think that there will only be happiness. Whenever there is suffering, you think that there will only be suffering. You don”t see that wherever there is big, there is small; wherever there is small, there is big. You don”t see it that way. You see only one side and thus it”s never-ending.

　　There are two sides to everything; you must see both sides. Then, when happiness arises, you don”t get lost; when suffering arises, you don”t get lost. When happiness arises, you don”t forget the suffering, because you see that they are interdependent.

　　In a similar way, food is beneficial to all beings for the maintenance of the body. But actually, food can also be harmful, for example when it causes various stomach upsets. When you see the advantages of something, you must perceive the disadvantages also, and vice versa. When you feel hatred and aversion, you should contemplate love and understanding. In this way, you become more balanced and your mind becomes more settled.

　　The Empty Flag

　　I once read a book about Zen. In Zen, you know, they don”t teach with a lot of explanation. For instance, if a monk is falling asleep during meditation, they come with a stick and ””whack!”” they give him a hit on the back. When the erring disciple is hit, he shows his gratitude by thanking the attendant. In Zen practice one is taught to be thankful for all the feelings which give one the opportunity to develop.

　　One day there was an assembly of monks gathered for a meeting. Outside the hall a flag was blowing in the wind. There arose a dispute between two monks as to how the flag was actually blowing in the wind. One of the monks claimed that it was because of the wind while the other argued that it was because of the flag. Thus they quarreled because of their narrow views and couldn”t come to any kind of agreement. They would have argued like this until the day they died. However, their teacher intervened and said, ”…

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