..续本文上一页hinking, "Oh wonderful! This is pleasant, this is good." Then you recall the words of your teacher or the Buddha: "Oh no, this also is impermanent, impermanent." But a part of your mind still clings to it.

　　To judge whether you are clinging or not, you have to examine yourself when the free flow passes away. What happens then

　　 Do you feel dejected, disappointed, defeated, depressed, as if you have regressed

　　 If any trace of such feeling is present, it shows that there was clinging. Even after you first experience dissolution, from time to time unpleasant sensations keep coming. At that time you must examine yourself: "Now that these gross sensations have come again, is a part of my mind still craving for the dissolution I experienced some time back

　　" If the thought arises, " I must get it again, I must get it again!" then certainly there is aversion towards the unpleasant sensations and craving for pleasant ones; you are not coming out of the old habit pattern. Strive to come out of it. When a pleasant sensation arises and even a part of your mind starts relishing it, no matter how slightly, at that time wisdom should arise: "Oh dangerous! This is a truly frightening situation. This is Māra”s snare. This is what has been happening for millions of lives."

　　At a very superficial level one appears to take pleasure in a vision, sound, smell, taste, touch or thought. One thinks, "Indulging in such pleasures is a bondage. One must come out of them. One should not become entangled in pleasures." But with the practice of Vipassana, it becomes clear that whatever one called pleasure was nothing but a pleasant sensation on the body. Whatever the outside object whether a vision, a sound, something tangible, a smell, a taste or a thought along with it there occurred a very pleasant sensation on the body. One understands, "This is what I used to call pleasure. And its opposite as well was only apparently an outside object; actually there was unpleasant sensation on the body. Reacting to sensations was a game I had been playing all my life and for countless lives in the past."

　　Now you find that in the name of Vipassana you are playing the same game. What is the difference

　　 Now too, when you experience a free flow of very subtle sensations, you think, "Oh, very pleasant!" And when it disappears you feel depressed, as if you had lost ground. When it returns you feel you are progressing: "Now I have got it again!"

　　You have heard this before and understood it at the intellectual level. But examine yourself. If you are still playing the same game the understanding is very superficial; you have not grasped Dhamma properly. Liberation is far, far away. As the Buddha very emphatically said, if there is a sensation and, along with it, craving or aversion, nibbāna is far, far away.

　　Understand his words of warning, especially when you are passing through a situation of very pleasant, subtle sensations. This is a very dangerous, even frightening situation.

　　If you really start understanding this, you will want to come out of the experience. It becomes impossible for you to relish it. It is so dangerous, so frightening; what is there to relish

　　 Instead one feels disgusted: "What is there in this pleasant sensation

　　" Only then does one start coming out of it to experience the nibbānic stage.

　　So long as the relishing persists, so long as one is not disgusted with the relishing, so long as one does not see any danger in the relishing, one is far, far away from nibbāna. That is why it is so important to work with the bodily sensations properly. You have started feeling sensation; good. But how are you feeling it

　　 Is saññā [perception] still working in the same mad way, or is it changing into anicca-saññā

　　 Do you understand what M…

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