..续本文上一页. He was trying to awaken us to truth so that we could see things clearly.

　　Once there is that clarity and seeing in the right way, then there is no suffering. You can still feel hunger. You can still need food without it becoming a desire. Food is a natural need of the body. The body is not self; it needs food otherwise it will get very weak and die. That is the nature of the body — there is nothing wrong with that. If we get very moralistic and high-minded and believe that we are our bodies, that hunger is our own problem, and that we should not even eat — that is not wisdom; it is foolishness.

　　When you really see the origin of suffering, you realise that the problem is the grasping of desire, not the desire itself. Grasping means being deluded by it, thinking it”s really ”me” and ”mine”: ”These desires are me and there is something wrong with me for having them”; or, ”I don”t like the way I am now. I have to become something else”; or, ”I have to get rid of something before I can become what I want to be.” All this is desire. So you listen to it with bare attention not saying it”s good or bad, but merely recognising it for what it is.

　　LETTING GO

　　If we contemplate desires and listen to them, we are actually no longer attaching to them; we are just allowing them to be the way they are. Then we come to the realisation that the origin of suffering, desire, can be laid aside and let go of.

　　How do you let go of things

　　 This means you leave them as they are; it does not mean you annihilate them or throw them away. It is more like setting them down and letting them be. Through the practice of letting go we realise that there is the origin of suffering, which is the attachment to desire, and we realise that we should let go of these three kinds of desire. Then we realise that we have let go of these desires; there is no longer any attachment to them.

　　When you find yourself attached, remember that ”letting go” is not ”getting rid of” or ”throwing away”. If I”m holding onto this clock and you say, ”Let go of it!”, that doesn”t mean ”throw it out”. I might think that I have to throw it away because I”m attached to it, but that would just be the desire to get rid of it. We tend to think that getting rid of the object is a way of getting rid of attachment. But if I can contemplate attachment, this grasping of the clock, I realise that there is no point in getting rid of it — it”s a good clock; it keeps good time and is not heavy to carry around. The clock is not the problem. The problem is grasping the clock. So what do I do

　　 Let it go, lay it aside — put it down gently without any kind of aversion. Then I can pick it up again, see what time it is and lay it aside when necessary.

　　You can apply this insight into ”letting go” to the desire for sense pleasures. Maybe you want to have a lot of fun. How would you lay aside that desire without any aversion

　　 Simply recognise the desire without judging it. You can contemplate wanting to get rid of it — because you feel guilty about having such a foolish desire — but just lay it aside. Then, when you see it as it is, recognising that it”s just desire, you are no longer attached to it.

　　So the way is always working with the moments of daily life. When you are feeling depressed and negative, just the moment that you refuse to indulge in that feeling is an enlightenment experience. When you see that, you need not sink into the sea of depression and despair and wallow in it. You can actually stop by learning not to give things a second thought.

　　You have to find this out through practice so that you will know for yourself how to let go of the origin of suffering. Can you let go of desire by wanting to let go of it

　　 What is it that is really letting go in a given moment

　　 You have to contempla…

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