..续本文上一页ana, 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 mouth is closed,

　　Closed — the world, the ocean of rebirth,

　　Fashionings, this mass of suffering and stress —

　　Leaving, yes, the highest, most exalted ease,

　　Free from birth, aging,

　　Disease, and death.

　　This is called niramisa-sukha, pleasure not of the flesh. Pleasures of the flesh are dependent on defilement, craving, conceits, and views, and are unable to let go of the elements, aggregates, and sense media. As these sorts of pleasure ripen, they can bring pain, just as ripe fruit or cooked rice are near to turning rotten and moldy, or as ripening bananas cause their tree to come crashing down so that only birds and crows will eat them. So it is with the heart: When it enters into its various preoccupations and takes them as belonging to itself, it”s bound for pain and suffering. Just as when an unwary traveler leaves the road to enter the shade of a bael tree with ripening fruits: If the wind blows, the ripe fruits are bound to drop on his head, giving him nothing but pain, so it is with the heart: If it doesn”t have a Dhamma, a timeless principle to give it shelter, it”s bound to be beaten and trampled by suffering and pain. (The wind blowing through the bael tree stands for the eight ways of the world (loka-dhamma). The bael tree stands for the body, and the branches for the senses. The fruits are visual objects, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas, which drop on the heart stupid enough to sit preoccupied with this mass of elements, aggregates and sense media.)

　　People of wisdom are those who search for the highest form of pleasure — free from defilement, craving, conceits, and views — by cleansing the heart of all its unwise preoccupations. This is the deathless nibbana, which the Buddha praised:

　　nibbanam paramam sukham:

　　Nibbana is the ultimate ease.

　　nibbanam paramam suññam:

　　Nibbana is the ultimate void (i.e., void of defilement; free from preoccupations; uninvolved with elements, aggregates, sense media, passion, aversion, and delusion; free from the lineage of unawareness and craving: This is the way in which nibbana is "void," not the way ordinary people conceive it).

　　nibbanam paramam vadanti buddha:

　　Those who know say that nibbana is the ultimate.

　　tanhaya vippahanena nibbanam iti vuccati:

　　Because of the complete abandonment of craving, it is called nibbana.

　　akiñcanam anadanam etam dipam anaparam

　　nibbanam iti nam brumi jara-maccu-parikkhayam

　　Free from entanglements, free from attachments (that fasten and bind), there is no better island than this. It is called nibbana, the absolute end of aging and death.

　　nibbanam yogakkhemam anuttaram:

　　Nibbana is the unexcelled relief from the yoke

　　(of preoccupations).

　　etam santam etam panitam yadidam sabba-sankhara-samatho sabbupadi-patinissaggo tanhakkhayo virago nirodho nibbanam:

　　This is peace (from the coupling of preoccupations), this is sublime: i.e., the stilling of all fashionings, the relinquishment of all mental paraphernalia, the ending of craving, the fading of passion (for attractions), dispersal (of the darkness of unawareness), nibbana.

　　We who say we are Buddhists, who believe in the teachings of the Lord Buddha — theory, practice, attainment, paths, fruitions, and nibbana — should search for techniques to rectify our hearts through the practice of tranquillity and insight meditation, at the same time nurturing:

　　conviction — in the theory, practice, and attainment taught by the Buddha;

　　persistence — in persevering with virtue, concentration, and discernment until they are complete;

　　mindfulness — so as not to be complace…

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