..续本文上一页m to be that way. When the mind is quiet, we want it to keep on being quiet. We don”t want it to get stirred up. We want to be at our ease. Our views are in opposition to the truth. The Buddha taught us first to see these things all around, from all sides. Only then will the mind really be quiet and still. As long as we don”t know these things, as long as we don”t understand our moods, we become a moody person. We lay claim to our moods. This turns into stubbornness and pride.

　　When we see this happening, the Buddha tells us to turn our attention to contemplating right there: "This kind of thinking is thinking; this kind of knowing is knowing; when things are like this, they”re like this." Tell yourself that these things simply follow their own nature. This is what moods are like. This is what the mind is like. When this is the way things are, what can you do to be at your ease

　　 What can you do to be at your ease

　　 Well, just contemplate right there.

　　We don”t want things to be like that: That”s the reason for our discomfort. No matter where you go to run away from these things, they”re still just like that. So we should understand that these things are just the way they are, that”s all. That”s the truth. To put it simply, that”s the Buddha, but we don”t see him there. We think it”s Devadatta, not the Buddha at all. The inconstancy of the Dhamma — inconstancy, stress, and not-self: There”s nothing wrong with these things. They”re just the way they are. We place too many labels and intentions on them. When you can see that happening, it”s really good.

　　To put in simple terms: Suppose that when you sit in concentration today the mind is still. You think to yourself, "Mmm. This is really nice." Just sitting there, you feel at ease. This keeps up for two or three days. "Mmm. I really like this." Then the next day when you sit down to meditate, it”s like sitting on a red ants” nest. You can”t stay seated. Nothing works. You”re all upset. You ask yourself, "Why isn”t it like the other day

　　 Why was it so comfortable then

　　" You can”t stop thinking about the other day. You want it to be like the other day. Right there is where you”re deluded.

　　Preoccupations change. They”re not constant or sure; they”re not stable. They just keep following their nature. The Buddha taught us to see that that”s the way they are. Whatever arises is just old stuff coming back. There”s nothing to it, but we fix labels and make rules about things: "This I like. This I don”t like." Whatever we like makes us happy — happy because of our delusion: happy because of our delusion, not happy because it”s right.

　　When the mind is quiet, the Buddha tells us not to be intoxicated by it. When it”s distracted, he tells us not to be intoxicated by it. Things happen in all kinds of ways. There”s addition, subtraction, multiplication, and pision. That”s how we can calculate numbers, but we want there to be just multiplication so that we can have lots of everything. We want to do away with addition, do away with subtraction, do away with pision — and our calculations will all be stupid. If we had nothing but multiplication, would we have any space to put everything

　　 If that”s how we think, we”ll stay in a turmoil. The Buddha said that that sort of thinking has no discernment.

　　Stillness of mind — tranquility — comes from being far away from preoccupations. If you don”t hear much of anything, the mind settles down and is still. To get this kind of stillness, you have to go off into seclusion, to a place that”s quiet and still. If you can get away from your preoccupations, not seeing this, not knowing about that, the mind can settle down. But that”s like a disease, a disease like cancer. There”s a swelling but it doesn”t yet hurt. It”s not yet tormenting us, it doesn”t yet hurt, s…

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