..续本文上一页shionings arise

　　 What are their causes

　　 How do they disappear

　　 How does consciousness arise by way of the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and ideation

　　 What are its causes

　　 How does it disappear

　　Altogether there are four levels to each of the five aggregates (khandhas): external and internal, staying in place and streaming outward. These can be known at all times, but only people who have the discernment that comes from training the mind in tranquillity and insight meditation will be able to know death on this level.

　　The discernment that arises in this way has been termed ”pubbenivas-anussati-ñana, i.e., understanding past sensations, future sensations, and sensations in the present. These sensations differ in the way they arise and pass away. To know this is to have mastered one cognitive skill.

　　Cutupapata-ñana: With discernment of this sort, we”re able to keep track of the states of our own mind as they arise and disappear, sometimes good as they arise and good as they disappear, sometimes bad as they arise and bad as they disappear, sometimes good as they arise and bad as they disappear, sometimes bad as they arise and good as they disappear. To be able to keep track in this way is to know states of being and birth.

　　Asavakkhaya-ñana: When the discernment of this skill arises, it leads to disenchantment with the way sensations and mental acts arise and disappear and then arise again, simply circling about: coarser sensations going through the cycle slowly, more refined sensations going quickly; coarser mental acts going slowly, more refined mental acts going quickly. When you can keep track of this, you know one form of stress. Now focus attention back on your own mind to see whether or not it”s neutral at that moment. If the mind approves of its knowledge or of the things it knows, that”s kamasukhallikanuyoga — indulgence in pleasure. If the mind disapproves of its knowledge or of the things it knows, that”s attakilamathanuyoga, indulgence in self-infliction. Once you”ve seen this, make the mind neutral toward whatever it may know: That moment of awareness is the mental state forming the Path. When the Path arises, the causes of stress disband. Try your best to keep that mental state going. Follow that train of awareness as much as you can. The mind when it”s in that state is said to be developing the Path — and at whatever moment the Path stands firm, disbanding and relinquishing occur.

　　When you can do this, you reach the level where you know death clearly. People who know death in this way are then able to reduce the number of their own deaths. Some of the Noble Ones have seven more deaths ahead of them, some have only one more, others go beyond death entirely. These Noble Ones are people who understand birth and death, and for this reason have only a few deaths left to them. Ordinary people who understand their own birth and death on this level are hard to find. Common, ordinary birth and death aren”t especially necessary; but people who don”t understand the Dhamma have to put up with birth and death as a common thing.

　　So whoever is to know death on this level will have to develop the cognitive skill that comes from training the mind. The skill, here, is knowing which preoccupations of the mind are in the past, which are in the future, and which are in the present. This is cognitive skill (vijja). Letting go of the past, letting go of the future, letting go of the present, not latching onto anything at all: This is purity and release.

　　As for unawareness, it”s the exact opposite: not knowing what”s past, not knowing what”s future, not knowing what”s present — that is, the arising and falling away of sensations and mental acts, or body and mind — or at most knowing only on the level of labels and concepts remembered from what other people have said, not knowing on the level of awareness that we”ve developed on our own. All of this is classed as avijja, or unawareness.

　　No matter how much we may use words of wisdom and discernment, it still won”t gain us release. For instance, we may know that things are inconstant, but we still fall for inconstant things. We may know about things that are stressful, but we still fall for them. We may know that things are not-self, but we still fall for things that are not-self. Our knowledge of inconstancy, stress, and not-self isn”t true. Then how are these things truly known

　　 Like this:

　　Knowing both sides,

　　letting go both ways,

　　shedding everything.

　　”Knowing both sides” means knowing what”s constant and what”s inconstant, what”s stress and what”s ease, what”s not-self and what”s self. ”Letting go both ways” means not latching onto things that are constant or inconstant, not latching onto stress or ease, not latching onto self or not-self. ”Shedding everything” means not holding onto past, present, or future: Awareness doesn”t head forward or back, and yet you can”t say that it”s taking a stance.

　　Yavadeva ñanamattaya patissatimattaya anissito ca viharati

　　na ca kiñci loke upadiyati.

　　”Simply mindful and aware, the mind remains independent,

　　not attached to anything in the world.”

《The Eye of Discernment - From Basic Themes》全文阅读结束。