..续本文上一页to be seen as one, for who perceives sorrow but not the transience thereof has nothing but the pain without the hope of deliverance. But as soon as the unreality of life is understood, also the unreality of suffering will be seen.
From this understanding of unreality, insight in the nature of all things as processes (udayabbaya-.taa.na) will ripen. This does not merely mean the observation that things grow and decay, but the understanding that there is nothing but a process of becoming.
The understanding of the process of becoming will naturally lead to the next step, which is insight that becoming is ceasing (bha.nga-.taa.na). Though this step should follow quite logically, yet it is a difficult one for many who in the very fact of becoming find all their delight. But if becoming and ceasing are seen as two aspects of one process, then insight into what is to be feared (bhaya-.taa.na) will arise naturally. Fear should lead to understanding of the danger (aadiinava-.taa.na) inherent in clinging to mere processes of cessation, and of the reasons to be disgusted with such an empty show (nibbidaa .taa.na).
A desire to be set free and the knowledge thereof (mu.tcitukamyataa-.taa.na) will grow out into re-contemplation (pa.tisa.nkhaana-.taa.na), that is contemplation of the same three characteristics of transience, suffering and soullessness, but with the increased insight as seen from a higher plane.
Insight of indifference to the activities of this life (sa.nkhaarupekkhaa-.taa.na) will be a natural consequence of this disgust and deeper understanding, where even-mindedness is due not to lack of interest, but to lack of self-interest.
The climax of discernment finally is reached with the insight of adaptation (anuloma .taa.na), which is the gateway to emancipation (vimokkhamukha), where the mind is qualified for the Path of holiness.
No morbid asceticism can be the way leading to emancipation, but rather the well-being of a concentrated mind without worry, without agitation, without preoccupation, without craving or clinging to either good or bad. Not even striving in the good sense can procure one this blessed state. For striving is desire; and desire can only arise for something to be attached to. How can there be attachment for what is entirely beyond sensation and mental conception
There can be no desire for Nibbaana and the attainment of Deliverance is not dependent upon striving.[1] Nibbaana is non-conditioned (asa.nkhata), non-created, non-caused, non-made (akata). And what is non-composed is not decomposable, is permanent (dhuva) and indestructible (akkhara).
Like darkness cannot be made, but the light which prevents darkness can be extinguished, so Nibbaana cannot be made, but the passions which prevent it can be eradicated. The three roots of all evil inclinations are greed (lobha), hate (dosa) and delusion (moha). Greed and hate are opposed in character, for greed is desire to get more and hate is desire to get rid of. Thus, though opposed, they are only two forms of desire. And desire is always combined with delusion. We desire for things just because we do not know them, just because we do not realize their impermanent, woeful, soulless nature. We try to grasp the void, because delusion has created a phantom, which like the rainbow finds only existence in ourselves. Trying to grasp that spectre, the rainbow, the horizon, must bring about disillusion, because they have no real existence, but change with the position of the onlooker.
To realize this, is to give up craving for them, by which all suffering also will come to an end. And that is Nibbaana!
In the depth of our hearts we feel that bliss finally depends upon rest, upon changelessness. Even the tendency of the senses to attac…
《Touching the Essence - Six Lectures on Buddhism》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…