..续本文上一页ss. Seeing like this is not full, clear knowledge of the true nature of things. The truth is that we can”t force all these things to follow our desires, they follow the way of nature.

　　A simple comparison is this: suppose you go and sit in the middle of a freeway with the cars and trucks charging down at you. You can”t get angry at the cars, shouting, "Don”t drive over here! Don”t drive over here!" It”s a freeway, you can”t tell them that! So what can you do

　　 You get off the road! The road is the place where cars run, if you don”t want the cars to be there, you suffer.

　　It”s the same with sankharas. We say they disturb us, like when we sit in meditation and hear a sound. We think, "Oh, that sound”s bothering me." If we understand that the sound bothers us then we suffer accordingly. If we investigate a little deeper, we will see that it”s we who go out and disturb the sound! The sound is simply sound. If we understand like this then there”s nothing more to it, we leave it be. We see that the sound is one thing, we are another. One who understands that the sound comes to disturb him is one who doesn”t see himself. He really doesn”t! Once you see yourself, then you”re at ease. The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it

　　 You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound. This is real knowledge of the truth. You see both sides, so you have peace. If you see only one side, there is suffering. Once you see both sides, then you follow the Middle Way. This is the right practice of the mind. This is what we call "straightening out our understanding."

　　In the same way, the nature of all sankharas is impermanence and death, but we want to grab them, we carry them about and covet them. We want them to be true. We want to find truth within the things that aren”t true! Whenever someone sees like this and clings to the sankharas as being himself, he suffers. The Buddha wanted us to consider this.

　　The practice of Dhamma is not dependent on being a monk, a novice, or a layman; it depends on straightening out your understanding. If our understanding is correct, we arrive at peace. Whether you are ordained or not it”s the same, every person has the chance to practice Dhamma, to contemplate it. We all contemplate the same thing. If you attain peace, it”s all the same peace; it”s the same Path, with the same methods.

　　Therefore the Buddha didn”t discriminate between laymen and monks, he taught all people to practice to know the truth of the sankharas. When we know this truth, we let them go. If we know the truth there will be no more becoming or birth. How is there no more birth

　　 There is no way for birth to take place because we fully know the truth of sankharas. If we fully know the truth, then there is peace. Having or not having, it”s all the same. Gain and loss are one. The Buddha taught us to know this. This is peace; peace from happiness, unhappiness, gladness and sorrow.

　　We must see that there is no reason to be born. Born in what way

　　 Born into gladness: When we get something we like we are glad over it. If there is no clinging to that gladness there is no birth; if there is clinging, this is called "birth." So if we get something, we aren”t born (into gladness). If we lose, then we aren”t born (into sorrow). This is the birthless and the deathless. Birth and death are both founded in clinging to and cherishing the sankharas.

　　So the Buddha said. "There is no more becoming for me, finished is the holy life, this is my last birth." There! He knew the birthless and the deathless! This is what the Buddha constantly exhorted his disciples to know. This is the right practice. If you don”t reach it, if you don”t reach the Middle Way, then you won”t transcend suffering.

《A Taste Of Freedom - The Middle Way Within》全文阅读结束。