..续本文上一页ecause we don”t understand our own mind. It can take an incredibly long time before we realize that playing around with these things is a mistake. Finally, when we consider it clearly we see, ”Oh, these things come because I call them”.

　　Craving not to experience something, craving to be at peace, craving not to be distracted and agitated: it”s all craving. It”s all a red-hot chunk of iron. But never mind. Just get on with the practice. Whenever we experience a mood or emotion, examine it in terms of its impermanence, un-satisfactoriness, and selfless qualities, and toss it into one of these three categories. Then reflect and investigate: these defiled emotions are almost always accompanied by excessive thinking. Wherever a mood leads, thinking straggles along behind. Thinking and wisdom are two very different things. Thinking merely reacts to and follows our moods, and they carry on with no end in sight. But if wisdom is operating, it will bring the mind to stillness. The mind stops and doesn”t go anywhere. There”s simply knowing and acknowledging what”s being experienced: when this emotion comes, the mind”s like this; when that mood comes, it”s like that. We sustain the ”knowing”. Eventually it occurs to us, ”Hey, all this thinking, this aimless mental chatter, this worrying and judging : it”s all insubstantial nonsense. It”s all impermanent, unsatisfactory and not me or mine”. Toss it into one of these three all-encompassing categories, and quell the uprising. You cut it off at its source. Later when we again sit meditation, it will come up again. Keep a close watch on it. Spy on it.

　　It”s just like raising water buffalos. You”ve got the farmer, some rice plants, and the water buffalo. Now the water buffalo, it wants to eat those rice plants. Rice plants are what water buffalos like to eat, right

　　 Your mind is a water buffalo. Defiled emotions are like the rice plants. The knowing is the farmer. Dhamma practice is just like this. No different. Compare it for yourself. When tending a water buffalo, what do you do

　　 You release it, allowing it to wander freely, but you keep a close eye on it. If it strays too close to the rice plants, you yell out. When the buffalo hears, it backs away. But don”t be inattentive, oblivious to what the buffalo is doing. If you”ve got a stubborn water buffalo that won”t heed your warning, take a stick and give it a stout whack on the backside. Then it won”t dare go near the rice plants. But don”t get caught taking a siesta. If you lie down and doze off, those rice plants will be history. Dhamma practice is the same: you watch over your mind; the knowing tends the mind.

　　”Those people who keep a close watch over their minds will be liberated from Mara”s[8] snare.” And yet this knowing mind is also the mind, so who”s the one observing the mind

　　 Such ideas can make you extremely confused. The mind is one thing, the knowing another; and yet the knowing originates in this very same mind. What does it mean to know the mind

　　 What”s it like to encounter moods and emotions

　　 What”s it like to be without any defiled emotions whatsoever

　　 That which knows what these things are is what is meant by the ”knowing”. The knowing observantly follows the mind, and it”s from this knowing that wisdom is born. The mind is that which thinks and gets entangled in emotions, one after another - precisely like our water buffalo. Whatever directions it strays in, maintain a watchful eye. How could it get away

　　 If it mosies over to the rice plants, yell out. If it won”t listen, pick up a stick and stride over to it. ”Whack!” This is how you frustrate its craving.

　　Training the mind is no different. When the mind experiences an emotion and instantly grabs it, it”s the job of the knowing to teach. Examine the mood to see if it”s goo…

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