..续本文上一页ental hospital for the diseases of the worldly mind. All afternoon as he wandered past students, he would call out to them, "Get well soon. I hope you get well soon."
Because people react differently, we must pick suitable practices. Body practices are especially suitable for persons with excessive lust or for forest monks.
In the body meditations, look at the body. See its parts, its real constituents. Start with the head, hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, see it everywhere. Separate them from the other body parts. Mentally peel off the skin, and see the inside. Do you want it
Seeing the true nature of the body can cut off the first three fetters:
Own-body view, sense of self. We will see that it is neither us nor ours, that nothing in this world is ours.
Skeptical doubt. Knowing things as they are puts an end to doubt.
Attachment to a path based on rites and ritual. While still in doubt, we may think, "Perhaps this way is not so good." But once we see clearly what the body is-that it, like all things, is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of self-this uncertainty is cleared up.
When meditating on the body, you need not contemplate all its thirty-two parts. If you concentrate on one and see it as it is-impermanent, unsatisfactory, empty, unclean-you will see that your body and the bodies of others are like this. If there are thirty-two ice cubes, you need only touch one to know the coldness of all.
When we develop the meditation on the impurity of the body, we are also developing the meditation on death. Indeed, when we develop one of the Dharmas, we develop them all. If we understand the fact of our own death, we can become very sensitive to all life in the world. We will naturally avoid wrongdoing and want to spend our days wisely, feeling a common bond with all beings.
Learning Concentration
In our practice, we think that noises, cars, voices, sights, are distractions that come and bother us when we want to be quiet. But who is bothering whom
Actually, we are the ones who go and bother them. The car, the sound, is just following its own nature. We bother things through some false idea that they are outside us and cling to the ideal of remaining quiet, undisturbed.
Learn to see that it is not things that bother us, that we go out to bother them. See the world as a mirror. It is all a reflection of mind. When you know this, you can grow in every moment, and every experience reveals truth and brings understanding.
Normally, the untrained mind is full of worries and anxieties, so when a bit of tranquility arises from practicing meditation, you easily become attached to it, mistaking states of tranquility for the end of meditation. Sometimes you may even think you have put an end to lust or greed or hatred, only to be overwhelmed by them later on. Actually, it is worse to be caught in calmness than to be stuck in agitation, because at least you will want to escape from agitation, whereas you are content to remain in calmness and not go any further.
When extraordinarily blissful, dear states arise from insight meditation practice, do not cling to them. Although this tranquility has a sweet taste, it too must be seen as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. Absorption is not what the Buddha found
essential in meditation. Practice without thought of attaining absorption or any special state. Just know whether the mind is calm or not and, if so, whether a little or a lot. In this way it will develop on its own.
Nevertheless, concentration must be firmly established for wisdom to arise. To concentrate the mind is like turning on the switch, and wisdom is the resulting light. Without the switch, there is no light, but we should not waste our time playing with the switch. Likewise, c…
《A Still Forest Pool》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…