..续本文上一页llness and darkness lacks a firm base and so drifts along, taking after the aggregates. When they take birth, it thinks that it”s born; when they age, it thinks that it”s aged; when they grow ill and disband, it gets mixed up along with them and so experiences stress and pain, its punishment for drifting along in the wake of its supposings.

　　If the mind doesn”t drift in this way, there is simply the disbanding of stress. The cause of stress and the path disband as well, leaving only the nature that doesn”t die: buddha, a mind that has bloomed and awakened. For the mind to bloom, it needs the fertilizer of virtue and concentration. For it to awaken and come to its senses, it needs discernment. The fertilizer of concentration is composed of the exercises of tranquillity and insight meditation. The mind then gains all-around discernment with regard to the aggregates — seeing the pain and harm they bring — and so shakes itself free and keeps its distance, which is why the term "arahant" is also translated as "one who is distant." In other words, the mind has had enough. It has had its fill. It”s no longer flammable, i.e., it offers no fuel to the fires of passion, aversion, and delusion, which are now dispersed once and for all through the power of discernment.

　　This is the supreme nibbana. Birth has been absolutely destroyed, but nibbana isn”t annihilation. Nibbana is the name for what still remains: the primal heart. So why isn”t it called the heart

　　 Because it”s now a heart with no preoccupations. Just as with the names we suppose for "tree" and "steel": If the tree is cut, they call it "lumber." If it”s made into a house, they call it "home." If it”s made into a place to sit, they call it a "chair." You never see anyone who would still call it a "tree." The same with steel: Once it”s been made into a car or a knife, we call it a "car" or a "knife." You never see anyone who would still call it a "steel." But even though they don”t call it a steel, the steel is still there. It hasn”t run off anywhere. It”s still steel just as it always was.

　　So it is with the heart when the expert craftsman, discernment, has finished training it: We call it nibbana. We don”t call it by its old name. When we no longer call it the "heart," some people think that the heart vanishes, but actually it”s simply the heart in its primal state that we call nibbana. Or, again it”s simply the heart untouched by supposing. No matter what anyone may call it, it simply stays as it is. It doesn”t take on anyone”s suppositions at all. Just as when we correctly suppose a diamond to be a diamond: No matter what anyone may call it, its real nature stays as it is. It doesn”t advertise itself as a diamond. It simply is what it is. The same with the heart: Once it gains release, it doesn”t suppose itself to be this or that. It”s still there. It hasn”t been annihilated. Just as when we call a diamond a diamond, it”s there; and when we don”t call it anything, it”s still there — it hasn”t vanished or disappeared — so it is with the hear that is nibbana: It”s there. If we call it a sun, a moon, heaven, Brahma world, earth, water, wind, fire, woman, man, or anything at all, it”s still there, just as before. It hasn”t changed in any way. It stays as it is: one heart, one Dhamma, free from the germs of defilement.

　　This is why the truest name to suppose for it is release. What we call heart, mind, intellect, form, feeling, labels, mental fashionings, consciousness: All these are true as far as supposing goes. Wherever supposing is, there release can be found. Take a blatant example: the five aggregates. If you look at their true nature, you”ll see that they”ve never said, "Look. We”re aggregates," or "Look. We”re the heart." So it is with the heart that”s nibbana, that has reached nibbana: It won”t proclaim itself as this or that, which is why we suppose it to be release. Once someone has truly reached release, that”s the end of speaking.

《The Eye of Discernment - From The Craft of the Heart》全文阅读结束。