..续本文上一页over it – everybody likes to avoid the difficult bits.

　　There was once a monk who came here and asked permission to stay with me, saying that he was interested in the practice. He inquired about the monastic regulations and discipline here, so I explained that in this monastery we practice according to the Vinaya (Code of Discipline) and that the monks can”t keep personal funds of money or stores of requisites. He said that he practiced non-attachment. I said that I didn”t know how he practiced or what he meant by that. Then he asked whether he could use money, if he didn”t attach or giving any special importance to it. I said he could use it, in the same way as he could use any salt which he could find that wasn”t salty. The monk was really just trying to impress people with the way he talked, but actually, he was too lazy to bother practicing with what he saw as lots of trifling and unnecessarily meticulous rules which to him just made life difficult. If ever he could find some salt which didn”t taste salty, I would be ready to believe him. If it really wasn”t salty, he should bring a whole basket full and try eating it! Could it really not be salty

　　 Non-attachment is not something which can be experienced simply through talking about it or trying to guess what it”s like. It”s not like that. Having displayed his views on the practice in that way, it became clear that the monk would be unable to live here, so he left and went on his own way.

　　You have to keep putting forth effort into the practice of sila and the various dhutanga practices. It”s not different for lay people either. Even if you are living at home, at the very least keep the five precepts. Try to compose and discipline your speech and actions. Keep putting forth your best effort, and your practice will gradually progress.

　　Don”t give up the practice of samatha just because you have tried it a few times and found that the mind doesn”t get calm. That”s the wrong way to go about it. You really have to train yourself over a long period of time. Why does it have to take so long

　　 Think about it. How many years have you let pass by without practicing

　　 When thoughts arise pulling the mind in one direction, you rush after them, when they start pulling it in another, you still rush after them with your mental proliferation. If you are going to try and stop the flow of the mind and make it stay still, right there in the present moment, a couple of months is just not long enough. Contemplate this. Think about what it might take to have a mind which is at peace with the flow of the different issues and events which affect it and is at peace with the mind-objects it experiences. When you first start to practice, the mind has so little steadiness that as soon as it comes into contact with a mind-object, it gets agitated and confused. Why does it get agitated

　　 Because it”s under the influence of tanha. You don”t want it to think. You don”t want it to experience any mind-objects. This not wanting is a form of craving. It”s vibhava-tanha (craving for non-existence). The more you desire not to experience any agitation and confusion, the more you encourage and usher it in. “I don”t want this impingement, why does it come

　　 I don”t want the mind to be agitated, why is it like this

　　” That”s it – there”s craving for the mind to be in a peaceful state. It”s because you don”t know your own mind. That”s all. You persist in getting caught up with the mind and its craving, and yet it takes an incredibly long time before you realize where you are going wrong. When you think about it clearly, you can see that all this distraction and agitation comes because you tell it to come! There is craving for it to be otherwise; there is craving for it to be peaceful; there is craving for the mind not to …

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