..续本文上一页, and not in a ruinous way — i.e., by not doing good. You can”t hold on even to your opinions, much less to material things. When you do good, you do it for the sake of the living beings of the world, for your children and grandchildren. You do everything in the best way possible, but you”re not attached to it, because you know that all things fashioned are inconstant. This way your heart can be clear and bright like a jewel. If you get caught up on praise or blame, you”re foolish. It”s like drinking other people”s saliva. When you act rightly, there are people who will say that you”re right and those who will say that you”re wrong. When you act wrong, there are people who will say that you”re wrong and those who will say that you”re right. There”s nothing constant about good or evil, right or wrong.

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　　Evil comes from good, and good from evil. For example, when we eat rice we say it”s delicious, but then as it goes down through the body it turns into something just the opposite. Thieves come from rich people. If people didn”t have possessions and treasures, where would there be any thieves to steal from them

　　 The Buddha saw that evil isn”t something you can depend upon. Good isn”t something you can depend upon. That”s why he let go of both good and evil by not connecting their wires into his heart. He gained release from all good and evil and so transcended all the affairs of the world (loka-dhamma). That was how he entered the highest happiness.

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　　The power of good and evil is like a magnet that pulls the mind to do good or evil and then be born in good or evil places in line with its pull. If we do good or evil, it”s as if we leave magnets behind in the world. Those magnets will pull our minds to their level. People who aren”t intelligent enough to know how to avoid or extract themselves from the power of good and evil are sure to be pulled along by the force field of these magnets. They”ll have to keep swimming around in the world of rebirth. This is why wise people try to find a way to cut the force field so that they can escape its power and float free. In other words, they do good and cut the force field. They do things that may not be good, and they cut the force field. They don”t let these things connect. In other words, they don”t get attached to the things they”ve done. They don”t keep fondling them. This is what it means to be discerning: knowing how to cut the force fields of the world.

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　　The mind is neither good nor evil, but it”s what knows good and knows evil. It”s what does good and does evil. And it”s what lets go of good and lets go of evil.

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　　It”s not the case that things will progress if we cling to them, or deteriorate if we let them go.

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　　Attachment is like a bridge. If there”s no bridge, who”s going to walk across it

　　 There”s just this side of the river and the other side. The eye exists, so it can see both sides, but there”s no connection. The mind that isn”t caught up on its preoccupations is like a lotus leaf in the water. The water can”t seep into the leaf. It simply rolls around as a bead across the surface. There”s awareness, but no attachment.

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　　Awareness without attachment is like electricity without a wire. There”s just brightness. When there”s no wire, no one can get electrocuted. Or you could say that it”s like a flame that doesn”t need a lamp. No wick gets used up, no oil gets consumed, and yet there”s light.

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　　If we separate the body and the mind from each other, our ordinary awareness disappears, but that doesn”t mean that awareness is annihilated. It”s still there, but it”s a special awareness that doesn”t have to depend on the body or mind. It”s the same as when we separate the wax of a candle from its wick: The flame disappears, but the fire potential isn”t annihilated. Whether or not there”s fuel, it exists in the world by its very nature. This is the awareness of nibbana.

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　　Arahants can speak and act, but they don”t speak or act the way ordinary people do. They know how to separate things. Like a person speaking over the radio: Even though we may hit the radio, it doesn”t reach the person speaking.

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　　The experience of release has no sense of "before" or "after," or even any "present."

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　　When the heart is empty, it feels light and free, with no preoccupations at all. Like a bird: Even though it has feet, it doesn”t leave any tracks in the air. In the same way, when the mind is empty, even if people criticize you there”s no writing in the air. Nothing gets stuck in the heart.

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　　Tranquillity meditation means to keep the mind quiet in craving. Insight meditation means knowing both the mind with craving and the mind without craving. Knowing perceptions of past and future for what they are is intuitive knowledge. This kind of knowledge isn”t stuck on any perceptions at all. This is called the skill of release. It”s not stuck on the mind with craving or the mind without craving. It”s like writing letters in the air. The air doesn”t get used up, the writing doesn”t require any effort, and you can”t read what it says at all. Whether you write good or bad things, you can”t read what they say. The air is there, but as for shapes in the air, there are none.

《The Skill of Release - Letting Go》全文阅读结束。