..续本文上一页y say it gives them energy. This isn”t natural eating. It”s the way of ghosts and demons mired in sensual craving. It”s eating coals, eating fire, eating everything everywhere. This sort of desire is what is called tanha. There is no moderation. Speaking, thinking, dressing, everything such people do goes to excess. If our eating, sleeping, and other necessary activities are done in moderation, then there is no harm in them. So you should be aware of yourselves in regard to these things, and then they won”t become the source of suffering. If we know how to be moderate and thrifty in our needs, we can be comfortable.

　　Practicing meditation, creating merit and virtue, are not really such difficult things to do, provided we understand them well. What is wrongdoing

　　 What is merit

　　 Merit is what is good and beautiful, not harming ourselves or others with our thinking, speaking, and acting. Then there is happiness. Nothing negative is being created. Merit is like this. Skillfulness is like this.

　　It”s the same with making offerings and giving charity. When we give, what is it that we are trying to give away

　　 Giving is for the purpose of destroying self-cherishing, meaning belief in a self along with selfishness. Selfishness is powerful, extreme suffering. Selfish people always want to be better than others and to get more than others. A simple example is how after they eat, they don”t want to wash their dishes. They let someone else do it. If they eat in a group, they will leave it to the group. After they eat, they take off. This is selfishness, not being responsible, and it puts a burden on others. What it really amounts to is someone who doesn”t care about himself, who doesn”t help himself, and who really doesn”t love himself. In practicing generosity, we are trying to cleanse our hearts of this attitude. This is called creating merit through giving, in order to have a mind of compassion and caring towards all living beings without exception.

　　If we people can be free of just this one thing, selfishness, then we will be like the Lord Buddha. He wasn”t out for himself, but sought the good of all. If we people have the path and fruit arising in our hearts like this, we can certainly progress. With this freedom from selfishness, then all the activities of virtuous deeds, generosity, offerings, and meditation will lead to liberation. Whoever practices like this will become free and go beyond—beyond all convention and appearance.

　　The basic principles of practice are not something beyond our understanding. In practicing generosity (for example), if we lack wisdom, there won”t be any merit. Without understanding, then we think that generosity merely means giving things. “When I feel like giving, I”ll give. If I feel like stealing something, I”ll steal it. Then if I feel generous, I”ll give something.” It”s like having a barrel full of water. You scoop out a bucketful, then you pour back in a bucketful. Scoop it out again, pour it in again, scoop it out and pour it in—like this, when will you empty the barrel

　　 Can you see an end to it

　　 Can you see such practice becoming a cause for realizing Nibbana

　　 Will the barrel become empty

　　 One scoop out, one scoop in--can you see when it will be finished

　　Going back and forth like this is vatta, the cycle itself. If we”re talking about really letting go, giving up good as well as evil, then there”s only scooping out. Even if there”s only a little bit, you scoop it out. You don”t put in anything more, and you keep scooping out. Even if you only have a small scoop to use, you do what you can, and in this way the time will come when the barrel is empty. If you”re scooping out a bucket and pouring back a bucket, scooping out and then pouring back—well, think about it. When will you see an empty barre…

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