..续本文上一页ay to the monastery – but you have to follow the road if you want to reach the monastery.

　　You could say that neither sila, samadhi nor panna form the heart of Buddhism, but they do form the pathway by which the heart of Buddhism can be reached. Once you have practiced with sila, samadhi and panna to the highest level, peace arises as a result. This is the ultimate aim of the practice. Once the mind is calm, even if you hear a sound it doesn”t disturb it. Having attained such calm, you no longer create anything in the mind. The Buddha taught letting go. So whatever you experience, you don”t have to fear or worry. The practice reaches the point where it is truly paccatam and because you have direct insight, you no longer simply have to believe what other people say.

　　Buddhism is not founded on anything strange or unusual. It doesn”t depend on different kinds of miraculous displays of psychic powers or super human abilities. The Buddha did not praise or encourage those things. Such powers might exist and with your practice of meditation it might be possible to develop them, but the Buddha didn”t praise or encourage them because they are potentially deluding. The only people he did praise were those beings who were able to free themselves from suffering. To do this they had to depend on the practice – our tools which are dana (generosity), sila, samadhi and panna. These are what we have to train with.

　　These things form the way which leads inwards, but in order to reach the final destination, there must first be panna to ensure the development of magga. Magga or the Eightfold Noble Path means sila, samadhi and panna. It cannot grow if the mind is covered over with kilesa. If magga is strong it can destroy the kilesa; if the kilesa are strong they can destroy magga. The practice simply involves these two things battling it out until the end of the path is reached. We have to struggle continuously, not ceasing, until the goal is reached.

　　The tools and supports of the practice are things which involve hardship and difficulty. We must depend on patience and endurance, restraint and frugality. We must do the practice for ourselves, so that it arises from within and really has transformed our own minds.

　　Scholars however, tend to doubt a lot. When they are sitting in meditation, as soon as there is a little bit of calm they start to wonder if perhaps they have reached first jhana. They tend to think like this. But as soon as they start proliferating, the mind turns away from the objects and they become completely distracted from the meditation. In a moment they”re off again, thinking that it”s second jhana already. Don”t start proliferating about such matters. There aren”t any signposts that tell you which level of concentration you have reached; it”s completely different. There are no signs which sprout up and say, “This way to Nong Pah Pong”. There isn”t anything for you to read along the way. There are many famous teachers who have given descriptions of the first, second, third and fourth jhana, but this information exists externally in the books. If the mind has really entered into such deep levels of calm, it doesn”t know anything about such descriptions. There is awareness, but this is not the same as the knowledge you gain from studying the theory. If those who have studied the theory hang on to what they have learnt when they sit in meditation, taking notes on their experience and wondering whether they have reached jhana yet, their minds will be distracted right there and turn away from the meditation. They won”t gain real understanding. Why is that

　　 Because there is desire. As soon as tanha (craving) arises, whatever the meditation you are doing, it won”t develop because the mind withdraws. It is essential that you learn how to …

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