..续本文上一页dha”s teaching. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking, we hear the Buddha”s teaching. The Buddha is just this ”One who knows” within this very mind. It knows the Dhamma, it investigates the Dhamma. It”s not that the Buddha-nature, the ”one who knows”, arises. The mind becomes illumined.

　　If we establish the Buddha within our mind then we see everything, we contemplate everything, as no different from ourselves. We see various animals, trees, mountains and vines as no different from ourselves. We see poor people and rich people — they”re no different! They all have the same characteristics. One who understands like this is content wherever he is. He listens to the Buddha”s teaching at all times. If we don”t understand this, then even if we spend all our time listening to teachings from the various Ajahns, we still won”t understand their meaning.

　　The Buddha said that enlightenment of the Dhamma is just knowing Nature, 13 the reality which is all around us, the Nature which is right here! If we don”t understand this Nature we experience disappointment and joy, we get lost in moods, giving rise to sorrow and regret. Getting lost in mental objects is getting lost in Nature. When we get lost in Nature then we don”t know Dhamma. The Enlightened One merely pointed out this Nature.

　　Having arisen, all things change and die. Things we make, such as plates, bowls and dishes, all have the same characteristic. A bowl is molded into being due to a cause, man”s impulse to create, and as we use it, it gets old, breaks up and disappears. Trees, mountains and vines are the same, right up to animals and people.

　　When Añña Kondañña, the first disciple, heard the Buddha”s teaching for the first time, the realization he had was nothing very complicated. He simply saw that whatever thing is born, that thing must change and grow old as a natural condition and eventually it must die. Añña Kondañña had never thought of this before, or if he had it wasn”t thoroughly clear, so he hadn”t yet let go, he still clung to the khandhas. As he sat mindfully listening to the Buddha”s discourse, Buddha-nature arose in him. He received a sort of Dhamma "transmission," which was the knowledge that all conditioned things are impermanent. Any thing which is born must have aging and death as a natural result.

　　This feeling was different from anything he”d ever known before. He truly realized his mind, and so "Buddha" arose within him. At that time the Buddha declared that Añña Kondañña had received the Eye of Dhamma.

　　What is it that this Eye of Dhamma sees

　　 This Eye sees that whatever is born has aging and death as a natural result. "Whatever is born" means everything! Whether material or immaterial, it all comes under this "whatever is born." It refers to all of Nature. Like this body for instance — it”s born and then proceeds to extinction. When it”s small it "dies" from smallness to youth. After a while it "dies" from youth and becomes middle-aged. Then it goes on to "die" from middle-age and reach old-age, finally reaching the end. Trees, mountains and vines all have this characteristic.

　　So the vision or understanding of the ”One who knows” clearly entered the mind of Añña Kondañña as he sat there. This knowledge of "whatever is born" became deeply embedded in his mind, enabling him to uproot attachment to the body. This attachment was sakkayaditthi. This means that he didn”t take the body to be a self or a being, or in terms of "he" or "me." He didn”t cling to it. He saw it clearly, thus uprooting sakkayaditthi.

　　And the vicikiccha (doubt) was destroyed. Having uprooted attachment to the body he didn”t doubt his realization. Silabbata …

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