..续本文上一页luded by what”s good. When good isn”t just right, it”s not good, you know. Have you noticed the rainfall this year

　　 It was so good that it went past just right, flooding people”s houses. This is what happens when good goes, past just right.

　　The Buddha taught us to be intelligent.

　　"If it comes high, slip under it."

　　"If it comes low, jump over its head."

　　"Drill the hole right in line with the dowel."

　　Take these three principles with you. Focus right there, and the problem won”t get away from you. This is the genuine truth. This is what it”s like. Don”t focus on whether you”re old or young, or how many days and nights have passed, or which day of the week it is. Just keep working on your mind in this way.

　　In practicing, don”t think that you have to sit in order for it to be meditation, that you have to walk back and forth in order for it to be meditation. Don”t think like that. Meditation is simply a matter of practice. Whether you”re giving a sermon, sitting here listening, or going away from here, keep up the practice in your heart. Be alert to what”s proper and what”s not.

　　Don”t decide that it”s okay to observe the dhutanga practices during the Rains retreat and then drop them when the retreat is over. It”s not okay. Things don”t balance out in that way. It”s like clearing a field. We keep cutting away, cutting away, and then stop to rest when we”re tired. We put away our hoe and then come back a month or two later. The weeds are now all taller than the stumps. If we try to clear away the area we cleared away before, it”s too much for us.

　　Ajaan Mun once said that we have to make our practice the shape of a circle. A circle never comes to an end. Keep it going continually. Keep the practice going continually without stop. I listened to him and I thought, "When I”ve finished listening to this talk, what should I do

　　"

　　The answer is to make your alertness akaliko: timeless. Make sure that the mind knows and sees what”s proper and what”s not, at all times.

　　It”s like the water in this kettle. If you tilt it so that there”s a long time between the drops — glug... glug — those are called water drops. If you tilt it a little further, the drops become more frequent: glug-glug-glug. If you tilt it a little bit further, the water flows in a stream. What does the stream of water stream come from

　　 It comes from the drops of water. If they”re not continuous, they”re called drops of water.

　　The water here is like our awareness. If you accelerate your efforts, if your awareness is continuous, your mindfulness will become full. Both by day and by night, it”ll keep staying full like that. It becomes a stream of water. As we”re taught, the noble ones have continuous mindfulness. The water is a stream of water. Make your awareness continuous. Whenever there”s anything wrong or lacking in any way, you”ll know immediately. Your awareness will be a circle, all around. That”s the shape of the practice.

　　It”s not that you have to drive yourself really hard. Some people get really earnest when they sit in concentration: "Let my blood drain away, let my skin split open, if I don”t gain awakening I”m willing to die." They”ve read that in the biography of the Buddha, but when it comes to them, the body starts pulsating in pain all the way up to the base of the skull. Their determination gradually deflates, until they finally open their eyes to look at the incense stick burning in front of them.

　　"Gosh, I thought it”d be almost burned out, but there”s still a lot left!"

　　So they take a deep breath and make the determination that as long as the incense stick hasn”t burned all the way out, they won”t open their eyes no matter what. But after a while the pain gets really heavy and dull at the base of the skull, so they open their eyes.

　　"Gosh, I thought…

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