..续本文上一页 it”s a sensitive place. It is not always going to soothe you and make you feel happy, secure and positive. Life is full of things that can offend, hurt, wound or shatter. This is life. It is this way. If somebody speaks in a cross tone of voice, you are going to feel it. But then the mind can go on and be offended: ”Oh, it really hurt when she said that to me; you know, that was not a very nice tone of voice. I felt quite wounded. I”ve never done anything to hurt her.” The proliferating mind goes on like that, doesn”t it — you have been shattered, wounded or offended! But then if you contemplate, you realise it”s just sensitivity.
When you contemplate this way, it is not that you are trying not to feel. When somebody talks to you in an unkind tone of voice, it”s not that you don”t feel it at all. We are not trying to be insensitive. Rather, we are trying not to give it the wrong interpretation, not to take it on a personal level. Having balanced emotions means that people can say things that are offensive and you can take it. You have the balance and emotional strength not to be offended, wounded or shattered by what happens in life.
If you are someone who is always being wounded or offended by life, you always have to run off and hide or you have to find a group of obsequious sycophants to live with, people who say: ”You”re wonderful, Ajahn Sumedho.” ”Am I really wonderful
” ”Yes, you are.” ”You”re just saying that; aren”t you
” ”No, no, I mean it from the bottom of my heart.” ”Well, that person over there doesn”t think I”m wonderful.” ”Well, he”s stupid!” ”That”s what I thought.” It”s like the story of the emperor”s new clothes, isn”t it
You have to seek special environments so that everything is affirmed for you — safe and not threatening in any way.
HARMONY
When there is Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, then one is fearless. There is fearlessness because there is nothing to be frightened of. One has the guts to look at things and not take them in the wrong way; one has the wisdom to contemplate and reflect upon life; one has the security and confidence of sila, the strength of one”s moral commitment and the determination to do good and refrain from doing evil with body and speech. In this way, the whole thing holds together as a path for development. It is a perfect path because everything is helping and supporting; the body, the emotional nature (the sensitivity of feeling), and the intelligence. They are all in perfect harmony, supporting each other.
Without that harmony, our instinctual nature can go all over the place. If we have no moral commitment, then our instincts can take control. For example, if we just follow sexual desire without any reference to morality, then we become caught up in all kinds of things that cause self-aversion. There is adultery, promiscuity and disease, and all the disruption and confusion that come from not reining in our instinctual nature through the limitations of morality.
We can use our intelligence to cheat and lie, can”t we, but when we have a moral foundation, we are guided by wisdom and by samadhi; these lead to emotional balance and emotional strength. But we don”t use wisdom to suppress sensitivity. We don”t dominate our emotions by thinking and by suppressing our emotional nature. This is what we have tended to do in the West; we”ve used our rational thoughts and ideals to dominate and suppress our emotions, and thus become insensitive to things, to life and to ourselves.
However, in the practice of mindfulness through vipassana meditation, the mind is totally receptive and open so that it has this fullness and an all-embracing quality. And because it is open, the mind is also reflective. When you concentrate on a point, your mind is no longer…
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