..续本文上一页ring convention into the world to fulfill a need.

　　Even this body is not really ours, we just suppose it to be so. It”s truly just a supposition. If you try to find a real, substantial self within it, you can”t. There are merely elements which are born, continue for a while and then die. Everything is like this. There”s no real, true substance to it, but it”s proper that we use it. It”s a tool for your use. If it breaks there is trouble, so even though it must break, you should try your utmost to preserve it. And so we have the four supports 21 which the Buddha taught again and again to contemplate. They are the supports on which a monk depends to continue his practice. As long as you live you must depend on them, but you should understand them. Don”t cling to them, giving rise to craving in your mind.

　　Convention and liberation are related like this continually. Even though we use convention, don”t place your trust in it as being the truth. If you cling to it, suffering will arise. The case of right and wrong is a good example. Some people see wrong as being right and right as being wrong, but in the end who really knows what is right and what is wrong

　　 We don”t know. Different people establish different conventions about what”s right and what”s wrong, but the Buddha took suffering as his guide-line. If you want to argue about it there”s no end to it. One says, "right," another says, "wrong." One says "wrong," another says "right." In truth we don”t really know right and wrong at all! But at a useful, practical level, we can say that right is not to harm oneself and not to harm others. This way fulfills a use.

　　So, after all, both rules and conventions and liberation are simply dhammas. One is higher than the other, but they go hand in hand. There is no way that we can guarantee that anything is definitely like this or like that, so the Buddha said to just leave it be. Leave it be as uncertain. However much you like it or dislike it, you should understand it as uncertain.

　　Regardless of time and place, the whole practice of Dhamma comes to completion at the place where there is nothing. It”s the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden. This is the finish. It”s not like the person who says, "Why is the flag fluttering in the wind

　　 I say it”s because of the wind." Another person say”s it”s because of the flag. The other retorts that it”s because of the wind. There”s no end to this! The same as the old riddle, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg

　　" There”s no way to reach a conclusion, this is just Nature.

　　All these things we say are merely conventions, we establish them ourselves. If you know these things with wisdom then you”ll know impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. This is the outlook which leads to enlightenment.

　　You know, training and teaching people with varying levels of understanding is really difficult. Some people have certain ideas, you tell them something and they don”t believe you. You tell them the truth and they say it”s not true. "I”m right, you”re wrong..." There”s no end to this. If you don”t let go there will be suffering. I”ve told you before about the four men who go into the forest. They hear a chicken crowing, "Kak-ka-dehhh!" One of them wonders, "Is that a rooster or a hen

　　" Three of them say together, "It”s a hen," but the other doesn”t agree, he insists it”s a rooster. "How could a hen crow like that

　　" he asks. They retort, "Well, it has a mouth, hasn”t it

　　" They argue till the tears fall, really getting upset over it, but in the end they”re all wrong. Whether you say a hen or a rooster, they”re only names. We establish these conventions, saying a rooster is like this, a hen is like that; a rooster cries like this, a hen cries like that... and this is how we get stuck…

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