..续本文上一页 I paid no attention to the sounds there was silence, I couldn”t hear anything. But if I wanted I could hear them and without feeling disturbed. It was as if inside my mind there were two different objects placed side by side, but not connected to one another. I could see that the mind and the object were separate and distinct, just like this water kettle and the spittoon here. As a result I understood that when the mind is calm in samadhi, if you direct your attention towards sounds, you can hear them, but if you remain with the mind, in its emptiness, it remains quiet. If a sound arises into consciousness and you watch what happens, you see that the knowing and the mind-object are quite separate.
So I reflected: “If this isn”t it, then what else could be. This is the way it is – the two phenomena aren”t connected at all.” I continued to contemplate until I realized the importance of this point: when santati (the continuity of things) was broken, the result was santi (peace of mind). Formally there was santati and now santi had emerged from it. The experience of this gave me energy to persist with my meditation. I put intense effort into the practice and was indifferent to everything else, the mind didn”t lose it”s mindfulness even for an instant. If I”d wanted to stop formal practice, was there any laziness, tiredness or irritation
None at all. The mind was completely free from such defilements. What was left was the sense of complete balance or “just-rightness” in the mind. If I was going to stop, it would just have been to rest the body, not for anything else.
Eventually I did take a break. I just stopped sitting so formally, but the mind didn”t stop. It remained in the same state and continued with the meditation as before. I pulled over my pillow and prepared to rest. As I lay down, my mind was still just as calm. As I was about to lay my head on the pillow, the mind inclined inwards – I didn”t know where it was headed, but it kept moving deeper and deeper within. It was as if someone had turned on a switch and sent an electric current along a cable. With a deafening bang, the body exploded from the inside. The awareness inside the mind at that moment was at it”s most refined. Having passed beyond a certain point, it was as if the mind was cut loose and had penetrated to the deepest, quietest spot inside. It settled there in a realm of complete emptiness. Absolutely nothing could penetrate it from outside. Nothing could reach it. Having stayed in there for a while, awareness then withdrew. I don”t mean to say that I made it withdraw; I was merely watching – just witnessing what was going on. Having experienced these things, the mind gradually withdrew and returned to it”s normal state.
Once the mind had returned to normal, the question arose: “What happened
” The reply came to it was, “These things are natural phenomena which occur according to causes and conditions; there”s no need to doubt about them.” I only needed to reflect a little like this and the mind accepted it. Having paused for a while, it inclined inwards again. I didn”t make any conscious effort to direct the mind, it went by itself. As it continued to move deeper and deeper inwards, it hit the same switch like before. This time the body shattered into the most minute and refined particles. Again, the mind was cut loose and slipped deep inside itself. Silence. It was at an even deeper level of calm than before – nothing could penetrate it. Following it”s own momentum, the mind stayed like that some time and then withdrew as it wished. Everything was happening automatically. There was no one influencing or directing events; I didn”t try to make things happen, to enter that state or withdraw from it in any particular way. I was simply keeping with the knowin…
《The Key to Liberation》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…