..续本文上一页tion in your practice. You will see into your own heart.
The Dhamma is paccattam, you must know it for yourself. To know for yourself means to practice for yourself. You can depend on a teacher only fifty percent of the way. Even the teaching I have given you today is completely useless in itself, even if it is worth hearing. But if you were to believe it all just because I said so you wouldn”t be using the teaching properly.
If you believed me completely then you”d be foolish. To hear the teaching, see its benefit, put it into practice for yourself, see it within yourself, do it yourself... this is much more useful. You will then know the taste of Dhamma for yourself.
This is why the Buddha didn”t talk about the fruits of the practice in much detail, because it”s something one can”t convey in words. It would be like trying to describe different colors to a person blind from birth, "Oh, it”s so white," or "it”s bright yellow," for instance. You couldn”t convey those colors to them. You could try but it wouldn”t serve much purpose.
The Buddha brings it back down to the inpidual -- see clearly for yourself. If you see clearly for yourself you will have clear proof within yourself. Whether standing, walking, sitting or reclining you will be free of doubt. Even if someone were to say, "Your practice isn”t right, it”s all wrong," still you would be unmoved, because you have your own proof.
A practicer of the Dhamma must be like this wherever he goes. Others can”t tell you, you must know for yourself. Sammaditthi, Right View, must be there. The practice must be like this for every one of us. To do the real practice like this for even one month out of five or ten rains retreats would be rare.
Our sense organs must be constantly working. Know content and discontent, be aware of like and dislike. Know appearance and know transcendence. The Apparent and the Transcendent must be realized simultaneously. Good and evil must be seen as co-existent, arising together. This is the fruit of the Dhamma practice.
So whatever is useful to yourself and to others, whatever practice benefits both yourself and others, is called "following the Buddha." I”ve talked about this often. The things which should be done, people seem to neglect. For example, the work in the monastery, the standards of practice and so on. I”ve talked about them often and yet people don”t seem to put their hearts into it. Some don”t know, some are lazy and can”t be bothered, some are simply scattered and confused.
But that”s a cause for wisdom to arise. If we go to places where none of these things arise, what would we see
Take food, for instance. If food doesn”t have any taste is it delicious
If a person is deaf will he hear anything
If you don”t perceive anything will you have anything to contemplate
If there are no problems will there be anything to solve
Think of the practice in this way.
Once I went to live up north. At that time I was living with many monks, all of them elderly but newly ordained, with only two or three rains retreat. At the time I had ten rains. Living with those old monks I decided to perform the various duties -- receiving their bowls, washing their robes, emptying their spittoons and so on. I didn”t think in terms of doing it for any particular inpidual, I simply maintained my practice. If others didn”t do the duties I”d do them myself. I saw it as a good opportunity for me to gain merit. It made me feel good and gave me a sense of satisfaction.
On the uposatha [52] days I knew the required duties. I”d go and clean out the uposatha hall and set out water for washing and drinking. The others didn”t know anything about the duties, they just watched. I didn”t criticize them, because they didn”t know. I did the duties myself, and havin…
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