..续本文上一页t. Cognitive skill (vijja), here, is a high level of knowledge, termed pariññaya dhamma: thorough comprehension that arises within from having explored the four Noble Truths, beginning with stress (dukkha), which is the result of such causes (samudaya) as ignorance and craving. Knowledge arises, enabling us to cut the tap root of stress by performing the task of abandoning the cause. When this is done, stress disbands and ceases; the cause doesn”t flare up again: This is nirodha. And the knowledge that steps in to eliminate the cause of stress is the Path (magga), the way leading to release from all stress and suffering, made possible by the eye of the mind composed of —

　　ñana-cakkhu: intuition as a means of vision;

　　pañña-cakkhu: discernment as a means of vision;

　　vijja-cakkhu: cognitive skill as a means of vision.

　　This is the eye of the mind.

　　In short, we have: dukkha, physical and mental stress; and samudaya, the cause of stress. These two are one pair of cause and effect functioning in the world. Another pair is: nirodha, the disbanding and cessation of all stress, and magga-citta, the mind following the right path, causing the causes of stress — ignorance and craving — to disband. In other words, when the physical and mental stress from which we suffer is ended through the power of the mind on the Path, the mind is freed from all disruptions and fermentations, and doesn”t latch onto cause or effect, pleasure or pain, good or evil, the world or the Dhamma. It abandons all supposings, assumptions, wordings, and conventions. This is deathlessness (amata dhamma), a quality that doesn”t arise, doesn”t change, doesn”t vanish or disband, and that doesn”t fasten onto any quality at all. In other words, it can let go of conditioned phenomena (sankhata dhamma) and doesn”t fasten onto unconditioned phenomena (asankhata dhamma). It lets go of each phenomenon in line with that phenomenon”s own true nature. Thus the saying: "Sabbe dhamma anatta" — No phenomenon is the self; the self isn”t any phenomenon. All supposings and assumptions — all meanings — are abandoned. This is nibbana.

　　All of this is called seeing mental qualities in and of themselves — i.e., seeing the higher aspect of mental qualities that arises from their more common side.

　　VIII. Right Concentration, the way to discernment, knowledge and release: If we class concentration according to how it”s practiced in general, there are two sorts: right and wrong.

　　A. Wrong Concentration: Why is it called wrong

　　 Because it doesn”t give rise to the liberating insight that leads to the transcendent qualities. For example, after attaining a certain amount of concentration, we may use it in the wrong way, as in magic — hypnotizing other people or spirits of the dead so as to have them in our power, or exerting magnetic attraction so as to seduce or dupe other people — all of which causes the heart to become deceitful and dishonest. Or we may use concentration to cast spells and practice sorcery, displaying powers in hopes of material reward. All of these things are based on nothing more than momentary (khanika) concentration.

　　Another type of Wrong Concentration is that used to develop forms of knowledge falling outside of the Buddha”s teachings and belonging to yogic doctrines an, d practices: for example, staring at an external object — such as the sun or the moon — or at certain kinds of internal objects. When the mind becomes steady for a moment, you lose your sense of the body and become fastened on the object to the point where your mindfulness and alertness lose their moorings. You then drift along in the wake of the object in whatever direction your thoughts may take you: up to see heaven or down to see hell, seeing true things and false mixe…

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