..续本文上一页oughts do arise, don”t go latching onto their contents. If they”re thoughts that won”t aid in calming the mind, suppress them — and even once they”re suppressed, you have to keep up your guard.

　　As for the four physical properties, when you”ve perceived any one of them clearly, you”ve perceived them all, because they all share the same inherent characteristics.

　　Once you see that the mind has firmly settled down, you can stop your mental repetition and then fix your attention on the real culprit: The mind itself. When you fix your attention on the mind, keep everything focused down on your present awareness. Whatever arises, consider its three inherent characteristics — inconstancy, stress, and "not-selfness" — until the mind becomes detached and reverts to its conditioning factor (bhavanga), i.e., the underlying preoccupation with which the mind identifies and that determines its basic level, which in this case is either the level of sensuality or the level of form. (See ”On The Levels of the Mind,” below.)

　　This is experienced in a variety of ways, either suddenly or gradually. The mind may enter this state for only a moment and then retreat, or else may stay there for a while. It may or may not be aware of what”s happening. If your powers of reference are weak, your mind will lose its bearings. If a vision arises, you may latch onto it. You may lose all sense of where you are and what you”re meditating on. If this happens, your concentration becomes moha samadhi, miccha samadhi, or miccha vimutti — i.e., deluded concentration, wrong concentration, or wrong release. So when your tranquillity of mind reaches this level, you should be especially careful to keep your alertness always strong. Don”t lose track of your body and mind.

　　By and large, when the mind reaches this level, it”s apt to lose its bearings and perceive visions. Perhaps we may decide beforehand that we want to see a vision, and so when the desired vision arises we feel pleased, latch onto it, and drift along after it. If this happens, we miss out on the level of concentration that”s truly resolute, strong, and discerning — simply because a vision got in the way, preventing insight from arising. So for this reason, you should let go of your visions and make the mind firmly set, not letting it be swayed by anything at all.

《The Craft of the Heart - Methods For Attaining Tranquillity》全文阅读结束。