..续本文上一页ontact. When the sensation is pleasant, you react with craving; when the sensation is unpleasant, you react with aversion. If this link is missing you are not working at the depth of your mind, you are simply working at the surface.

　　People who work only with the conscious mind fool themselves, and it doesn”t actually help them. You have to go to the depth, limit your attention to your own mind-and-matter phenomenon, and observe the interaction taking place there. The unconscious mind deep inside is constantly in contact with the bodily sensations. Mind and matter are so interrelated that every moment anything that happens in the mind influences the body, and anything that happens at the physical level influences the mind.

　　The Buddha was the first person in this era (there were many Buddhas before who had discovered the same thing) to find out this truth, and with compassion and goodwill to place it before people, Look, this is the law. Understand this law with your own experience, and come out of your misery.

　　Someone might forget this truth and say, Whether I go to this or that teacher the meditation is the same. I would reply, If the guru teaches you to feel bodily sensations and develop equanimity towards them, then it is the same. It doesn”t matter whether it is called Vipassana or not, whether it is the teaching of the Buddha or anyone else. But if the guru does not teach you to work like this, and still you say, His teaching is the same, you are harming yourself because you are forgetting your bodily sensations, to which you keep reacting with craving and aversion.

　　This ash that covers the truth inside must be removed. Any object of meditation that helps this ash to grow is not a useful object of meditation; any object of meditation that removes the ash and makes us feel the misery inside is helpful.

　　This is the first noble truth, Look how much burning is going on, how much tension there is. This can only be experienced when you start feeling sensations within the body. Every bodily sensation is a misery because out of ignorance you react and generate suffering. How can this be stopped

　　 How can the mind that is so enslaved by this habit pattern be freed from slavery

　　It can only be done by practice; intellectual discussions, debates, or accepting the truth at the devotional level will not help. These can give us guidance and show us how we should work, but then we actually have to work. Those who want to progress on the path of Dhamma have to understand what Vipassana meditators are doing and the real reason why we work in this way.

　　Of course you should not despise others. Those who teach meditation techniques that work only at the intellectual level are also helping people; at least the conscious mind is purified to some extent and this is helpful. But for your own work understand that liberation will only come when you go to the root cause of misery. Unless you eradicate the root of the misery, you can”t eradicate your misery.

　　Dhamma is so simple and yet people have made it so complicated. There cannot be anything simpler than Dhamma. It has been made complicated by adding this or that philosophy, this or that belief. Just practise; don”t make it complicated. Those who have made it complicated have harmed themselves and harmed others. You have the true path but it”s a long path. To change the habit pattern of the mind takes time; but a beginning has been made. Even if you have taken one course, a good beginning has been made. Make use of this and start to decondition the mind at the deepest level.

　　As you go deeper in your meditation while practising all the five silās, you will start understanding that any breakage of silā increases the ash on the surface of the mind, and simultaneously increases the burning inside. So realize the truth of burning, the misery within. Don”t be deluded by this surface ash, by this small part of the so-called conscious mind.

　　Also understand that only by practising Dhamma can you benefit from Dhamma. If you take one course but do not practise every day you will be helped, but only to a small extent. Or if you take one course every year but you don”t practise daily, the habit pattern of your mind cannot be changed; and that blind habit pattern has to be changed. Every time you meditate you change this habit pattern little by little, you decondition your mind little by little until you reach the stage where the mind is totally unconditioned; all the past habit patterns evaporate.

　　For this, you have to work seriously. You have this wonderful facility here, and you have made good use of it. I find the vibrations here have become quite good within these few years, and now you can share this vibration with others.

　　Once Dhamma starts growing, it keeps growing and nobody can stop it. Grow externally and a large number of people will benefit. Grow internally and deep inside you will benefit. If you yourself do not benefit and you only think of benefiting others, it won”t work.

　　Develop in Dhamma for your own benefit and for the benefit of others; for your own welfare and for the welfare of others; for your own liberation and the liberation of others.

　　Bhavatu sabba mangalam!

　　May all beings be happy!

《The Essence of Dhamma》全文阅读结束。