..续本文上一页lderness, we get to train ourselves — like training ourselves to grow rice. Once we plant it, it grows gradually. If nothing eats it, it”s okay. But what happens

　　 As soon as the rice grains begin to appear, a baby water buffalo comes to eat them. We chase it away and look after the plant, but as soon as more grains appear the baby water buffalo comes to eat them again, keeps on eating as soon as the grains begin to fill out. If that”s the case, how are we going to get any rice

　　The strategies you”ll need will grow from within the mind. Whoever has discernment gains intuitive knowledge. Whoever has intuitive knowledge gains discernment. That”s the way it is. Are intuitive knowledge and discernment different from each other

　　 If you say they aren”t, why are there two different words

　　 One is called intuitive knowledge; one is called discernment. Can you have only intuitive knowledge

　　 No. You need to have discernment, too. Can you have only discernment

　　 No. You need to have intuitive knowledge, too. Whoever has discernment gains intuitive knowledge. Whoever has intuitive knowledge gains discernment. These things arise from your own experience. You can”t go looking for them in this book or that. They arise in your own mind. Don”t be timid.

　　I once read in a Jataka tale about our Buddha when he was still a bodhisatta. He was like you: He had ordained and encountered a lot of difficulties, but when he thought of disrobing he was ashamed of what other people would think — that he had ordained all these years and yet still wanted to disrobe. Still, things didn”t go the way he wanted, so he thought he”d leave. He came across a squirrel whose baby had been blown into the ocean by the wind. He saw the squirrel running down to the water and then back up again. He didn”t know what it was doing. It ran down to the water and stuck its tail in the water, and then ran up to the beach and shook out its tail. Then it ran down and stuck its tail in the water again. So he asked it, "What are you doing

　　"

　　"Oh, my baby has fallen into the water. I miss it and I want to fetch it out."

　　"How are you going to do that

　　"

　　"I”m going to use my tail to bail water out of the ocean until it”s dry so that I can fetch my baby out."

　　"Oho. When will the ocean ever go dry

　　"

　　"That”s not the issue. This is the way it is with the practice. You keep bailing out the water, bailing out the water, and don”t care whether it ever goes dry. When you”re going to be a Buddha, you can”t abandon your efforts."

　　When the bodhisatta heard this, it flashed in his heart. He got up and pushed through with his efforts. He didn”t retreat. That”s how he became the Buddha.

　　It”s the same with us. Wherever things aren”t going well, that”s where they will go well. You make them happen where they aren”t yet happening. Wherever you”re deluded, that”s where knowledge will arise. If you don”t believe me, spit right here. That”ll make it dirty. But when you wipe it away, it”ll be clean right here — right where it”s dirty. It won”t become clean out there in the grounds of the monastery. Keep coming back to the same place over and over again.

　　Ajahn Thongrat once said to me, "Chah, drill the hole right in line with the dowel."

　　That”s all he said. I had just started practicing and didn”t understand what he was saying.

　　"If it comes low, jump over its head." That”s what he said.

　　"If it comes high, slip under it."

　　I didn”t know what he was saying. So I went off to meditate and kept contemplating it.

　　Actually, he was telling me how to solve my problems. "Drill the hole right in line with the dowel" means, "Wherever the problem arises, contemplate right there; wherever you”re deluded, contemplate right there. If you”re attached to a sight, contemplate the sight. Right around right there." That”s wh…

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