..续本文上一页if they didn”t have bones how would they be

　　 Would they be able to walk about like that

　　 But they ride their cars to Wat Ba Pong, go into the main hall, see the skeletons and run straight back out again! They”ve never seen such a thing before. They”re born with it and yet they”ve never seen it. It”s very fortunate that they have a chance to see it now. Even older people see the skeletons and get scared... What”s all the fuss about

　　 This shows that they”re not at all in touch with themselves, they don”t really know themselves. Maybe they go home and still can”t sleep for three or four days... and yet they”re sleeping with a skeleton! They get dressed with it, eat food with it, do everything with it... and yet they”re scared of it.

　　This shows how out of touch people are with themselves. How pitiful! They”re always looking outwards, at trees, at other people, at external objects, saying "this one is big," "that”s small," "that”s short," "that”s long." They”re so busy looking at other things they never see themselves. To be honest, people are really pitiful. They have no refuge.

　　In the ordination ceremonies the ordinees must learn the five basic meditation themes: kesa, head hair; loma, body hair; nakha, nails; danta, teeth; taco, skin. Some of the students and educated people snigger to themselves when they hear this part of the ordination ceremony..."What”s the Ajahn trying to teach us here

　　 Teaching us about hair when we”ve had it for ages. He doesn”t have to teach us about this, we know it already. Why bother teaching us something we already know

　　" Dim people are like this, they think they can see the hair already. I tell them that when I say to "see the hair" I mean to see it as it really is. See body hair as it really is, see nails, teeth and skin as they really are. That”s what I call "seeing" -- not seeing in a superficial way, but seeing in accordance with the truth. We wouldn”t be so sunk up to the ears in things if we could see things as they really are. Hair, nails, teeth, skin ... what are they really like

　　 Are they pretty

　　 Are they clean

　　 Do they have any real substance

　　 Are they stable

　　 No... there”s nothing to them. They”re not pretty but we imagine them to be so. They”re not substantial but we imagine them to be so.

　　Hair, nails, teeth, skin... people are really hooked on these things. The Buddha established these things as the basic themes for meditation, he taught us to know these things. They are Transient, Imperfect and Ownerless; they are not "me" or "them." We are born with and deluded by these things, but really they are foul. Suppose we didn”t bathe for a week, could we bear to be close to each other

　　 We”d really smell bad. When people sweat a lot, such as when a lot of people are working hard together, the smell is awful. We go back home and rub ourselves down with soap and water and the smell abates somewhat, the fragrance of the soap replaces it. Rubbing soap on the body may make it seem fragrant, but actually the bad smell of the body is still there, temporarily suppressed. When the smell of the soap is gone the smell of the body comes back again.

　　Now we tend to think these bodies are pretty, delightful, long lasting and strong. We tend to think that we will never age, get sick or die. We are charmed and fooled by the body, and so we are ignorant of the true refuge within ourselves. The true place of refuge is the mind. The mind is our true refuge. This hall here may be pretty big but it can”t be a true refuge. Pigeons take shelter here, geckos take shelter here, lizards take shelter here...We may think the hall belongs to us but it doesn”t. We live here together with everything else. This is only a temporary shelter, soon we must leave it. People take these shelters for refuge.

　　So the Buddha said…

《Why Are We Here

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