..续本文上一页derneath; or if we drink the scum, we may catch a disease. A person who is bad to you is like someone sunk in filth. If you”re stupid enough to hate or be angry with such people, it”s as if you wanted to go sit in the filth with them. Is that what you want
Think about this until any thoughts of ill will and anger disappear.
c. Samma-ditthi: abandoning wrong views and mental darkness. If our minds lack the proper training and education, we may come to think that we and all other living beings are born simply as accidents of nature; that ”father” and ”mother” have no special meaning; that good and evil don”t exist. Such views deviate from the truth. They can dissuade us from restraining the evil that lies within us and from searching for and fostering the good. To believe that there”s no good or evil, that death is annihilation, is Wrong View — a product of faulty thinking and poor discernment, seeing things for what they aren”t. So we should abandon such views and educate ourselves, searching for knowledge of the Dhamma and associating with people wiser than we, so that they can show us the proper path. We”ll then be able to reform our views and make them Right, which is one form of mental uprightness.
Virtue on this level, when we can maintain it well, will qualify us to be heavenly beings. The qualities of heavenly beings, which grow out of human values, will turn us into human beings who are pine in our virtues, for to guard our thoughts, words, and deeds means that we qualify for heaven in this lifetime. This is one aspect of the merit developed by a person who observes the middle level of virtue.
3. Uparima-sila: higher virtue, where virtue merges with the Dhamma in the area of mental activity. There are two sides to higher virtue —
a. PAHANA-KICCA: qualities to be abandoned, which are of five sorts —
(1) Kamachanda: affection, desire, laxity, infatuation.
(2) Byapada: ill will and hatred.
(3) Thina-middha: discouragement, drowsiness, sloth.
(4) Uddhacca-kukkucca: restlessness and anxiety.
(5) Vicikiccha: doubt, uncertainty, indecision.
Discussion
(1) Ill will (byapada) lies at the essence of killing (panatipata), for it causes us to destroy our own goodness and that of others — and when our mind can kill off our own goodness, what”s to keep us from killing other people and animals as well
(2) Restlessness (uddhacca) lies at the essence of taking what is not given (adinnadana). The mind wanders about, taking hold of other people”s affairs, sometimes their good points, sometimes their bad. To fasten onto their good points isn”t too serious, for it can give us at least some nourishment. As long as we”re going to steal other people”s business and make it our own, we might as well take their silver and gold. Their bad points, though, are like trash they”ve thrown away — scraps and bones, with nothing of any substance — and yet even so we let the mind feed on them. When we know that other people are possessive of their bad points and guard them well, and yet we still take hold of these things to think about, it should be classed as a form of taking what isn”t given.
(3) Sensual desires (kamachanda) lie at the essence of sensual misconduct. The mind feels an attraction for sensual objects — thoughts of past or future sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations — or for sensual defilements — passion, aversion, or delusion — to the point where we forget ourselves. Mental states such as these can be said to overstep the bounds of propriety in sensual matters.
(4) Doubt (vicikiccha) lies at the essence of lying. In other words, our minds are unsure, with nothing reliable or true to them. We have no firm principles and so drift along under the influence of all kinds of thoughts and preoccupations.
(5) Drowsines…
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