..续本文上一页o in the mind, but the mind itself, like the space in this room, stays just at it is. The space in this room has no quality to elate or depress, does it

　　 It is just at it is. To concentrate on the space in the room we have to withdraw our attention from the things in the room. If we concentrate on the things in the room we become happy or unhappy. We say, “Look at that beautiful Buddha image,” or if we see something we find ugly we say, “Oh, what a terrible disgusting thing.” We can spend our time looking at the people in the room, thinking whether we like this person or dislike that person.

　　We can form opinions about people being this way or that way, remember what they did in the past, speculate about what they will do in the future, seeing others as possible sources of pain or gratification to ourselves.

　　However, if we withdraw our attention it doesn”t mean that we have to push everyone else out of the room. If we don”t concentrate on or absorb into any of the conditions, then we have a perspective, because the space in the room has no quality to depress or elate. The space can contain us all, all conditions can come and go within it.

　　Moving inwards, we can apply this to the mind. The mind is like space, there”s room in it for everything or nothing. It doesn”t really matter whether it is filled or has nothing in it, because we always have a perspective once we know the space of the mind, its emptiness. Armies can come into the mind and leave, butterflies, rainclouds or nothing. All things can come and go through, without us being caught in blind reaction, struggling resistance, control and manipulation.

　　So when we abide in the emptiness of our minds we”re moving away — we”re not getting rid of things, but no longer absorbing into conditions that exist in the present or creating any new ones. This is our practice of letting go. We let go of our identification with conditions by seeing that they are all impermanent and not-self. It is what we mean by vipassana meditation. It”s really looking at, witnessing, listening, observing that whatever comes must go. Whether it”s coarse or refined, good or bad, whatever comes and goes is not what we are. We”re not good, we”re not bad, we”re not male or female, beautiful or ugly. These are changing conditions in nature, which are not-self. This is the Buddhist way to enlightenment: going towards Nibbana, inclining towards the spaciousness or emptiness of mind rather than being born and caught up in the conditions.

　　Now you may ask, “Well if I”m not the conditions of mind, if I”m not a man or a woman, this or that, then what am I

　　, Do you want me to tell you who you are

　　 Would you believe me if I did

　　 What would you think if I ran out and started asking you who I am

　　 It”s like trying to see your own eyes: you can”t know yourself, because you are yourself. You can only know what is not yourself — and so that solves the problem, doesn”t it

　　 If you know what is not yourself, then there is no question about what you are. If I said, “Who am I

　　 I”m trying to find myself,” and I started looking under the shrine, under the carpet, under the curtain, you”d think, “Venerable Sumedho has really flipped out, he”s gone crazy, he”s looking for himself.” “I”m looking for me, where am I

　　” is the most stupid question in the world. The problem is not who we are but our belief and identification with what we are not. That”s where the suffering is, that”s where we feel misery and depression and despair. It”s our identity with everything that is not ourselves that is dukkha. When you identify with that which is unsatisfactory, you”re going to be dissatisfied and discontented — it”s obvious, isn”t it

　　So the path of the Buddhist is a letting go, rath-er than trying to find anything. The problem is the b…

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