..续本文上一页ou should see and know for yourselves in this very life.

　　These days, those of us who still have doubts about the practice hear these things and say, "Oh, how can I do that

　　" Sometimes we feel happy, sometimes troubled, pleased or displeased. For what reason

　　 Because we don”t know Dhamma. What Dhamma

　　 Just the Dhamma of Nature, the reality around us, the body and the mind.

　　The Buddha said, "Don”t cling to the five khandhas, let them go, give them up!" Why can”t we let them go

　　 Just because we don”t see them or know them fully. We see them as ourselves, we see ourselves in the khandhas. Happiness and suffering, we see as ourselves, we see ourselves in happiness and suffering. We can”t separate ourselves from them. When we can”t separate them it means we can”t see Dhamma, we can”t see Nature.

　　Happiness, unhappiness, pleasure and sadness — none of them is us but we take them to be so. These things come into contact with us and we see a lump of ”atta”, or self. Wherever there is self there you will find happiness, unhappiness and everything else. So the Buddha said to destroy this "lump" of self, that is to destroy sakkaya ditthi. When atta (self) is destroyed, anatta (non-self) naturally arises.

　　We take Nature to be us and ourselves to be Nature, so we don”t know Nature truly. If it”s good we laugh with it, if it”s bad we cry over it. But Nature is simply sankharas. As we say in the chanting, Tesam vupasamo sukho — pacifying the sankharas is real happiness. How do we pacify them

　　 We simply remove clinging and see them as they really are.

　　So there is truth in this world. Trees, mountains and vines all live according to their own truth, they are born and die following their nature. It”s just we people who aren”t true! We see it and make a fuss over it, the Nature is impassive, it just is as it is. We laugh, we cry, we kill, but Nature remains in truth, it is truth. No matter how happy or sad we are, this body just follows its own nature. It”s born, it grows up and ages, changing and getting older all the time. It follows Nature in this way. Whoever takes the body to be himself and carries it around with him, will suffer.

　　So Añña Kondañña recognized this "whatever is born" in everything, be it material or immaterial. His view of the world changed. He saw the truth. Having got up from his sitting place he took that truth with him. The activity of birth and death continued but he simply looked on. Happiness and unhappiness were arising and passing away but he merely noted them. His mind was constant. He no longer fell into the woeful states. He didn”t get over-pleased or unduly upset about these things. His mind was firmly established in the activity of contemplation.

　　There! Añña Kondañña had received the Eye of Dhamma. He saw Nature, which we call sankharas, according to truth. Wisdom is that which knows the truth of sankharas. This is the mind which knows and sees Dhamma, which has surrendered.

　　Until we have seen the Dhamma we must have patience and restraint. We must endure, we must renounce! We must cultivate diligence and endurance. Why must we cultivate diligence

　　 Because we”re lazy! Why must we develop endurance

　　 Because we don”t endure! That the way it is. But when we are already established in our practice, have finished with laziness, then we don”t need to use diligence. If we already know the truth of all mental states, if we don”t get happy or unhappy over them, we don”t need to exercise endurance, because the mind is already Dhamma. The ”One who knows” has seen the Dhamma, he is the Dhamma.

　　When the mind is Dhamma, it stops. It has attained peace. There”s no longer a need to do anything special, because the mind is Dhamma already. The outside is Dhamma, the inside is Dhamma. The ”One who knows” is Dhamma. The state is Dhamma and that which knows the state is Dhamma. It is one. It is free.

　　This Nature is not born, it does not age nor sicken. This Nature does not die. This Nature is neither happy nor sad, neither big nor small, heavy nor light; neither short nor long, black nor white. There”s nothing you can compare it to. No convention can reach it. This is why we say Nirvana has no color. All colors are merely conventions. The state which is beyond the world is beyond the reach of worldly conventions.

　　So the Dhamma is that which is beyond the world. It is that which each person should see for himself. It is beyond language. You can”t put it into words, you can only talk about ways and means of realizing it. The person who has seen it for himself has finished his work.

《A Taste Of Freedom - Opening the Dhamma Eye》全文阅读结束。