..续本文上一页ion in real money is better than ten million in counterfeit bills. When you speak, stay right with your speaking. Whatever you do, stay right with what you”re doing. When you eat, stay with your eating; when you stand, stay with your standing; when you walk, stay with your walking; when you”re sitting, stay with your sitting; when you”re lying down, stay with your lying down. Don”t let your mind get ahead of the truth.

　　*

　　The heart is like food in a serving dish. Mindfulness is like a cover over the dish. If you lack mindfulness, it”s as if you left the dish uncovered: Flies (defilements) are sure to come and land on it and contaminate it with all sorts of germs so that the food becomes toxic and can make you sick. So you always have to be careful to keep the dish covered. Don”t let flies land on it. That way your heart will be clean and pure, and will give rise to wisdom and knowledge.

　　*

　　A deserted house, a house where someone has died, gives you the chills. Only if there are people in the house will you feel secure. A person who is not mindful of the present is like a deserted house. When you see such a person, you don”t feel secure.

　　*

　　Defilements are like sand bars or stumps in a river that will keep our boat from getting to shore. In other words, passion is something that snags us, anger is something that bumps into us, and delusion is something that makes us spin around and sink. There”s a story they tell of two men who were hired to row a boat along the rivers and canals to sell plowshares, shovels, and hoes. If they sold all the wares in the boat, their employer would give them their full wages of one kahapana, which was equal to about four dollars, a day. The first day their employer went out with them, and they sold all their wares. After that, he didn”t go out with them, so the two of them went out to sell their wares on their own. One day, as they were out rowing along, calling out, "Plowshares, shovels, and hoes!" their minds wandered and they started getting drowsy. All of a sudden they crashed smack into a stump and ran aground on a sandbar. Even after they got free they were so shaken up that instead of calling out, "Plowshares, shovels, and hoes!" they started calling out, "Sandbars and stumps! Sandbars and stumps!" all along the river, but nobody wanted to buy.

　　When evening came, they rowed back to their employer”s house, their boat still full of plowshares, shovels, and hoes. They hadn”t been able to sell a thing. So the employer gave them each only a dollar for their day”s wages. One of the men took the money back to his wife, who was surprised to see that she was getting only one dollar, instead of the usual four. "Maybe he”s given the rest of the money to another woman," she thought, so she gave him a piece of her mind. No matter how much he tried to explain things, she wouldn”t listen. So he told her to go ask the employer. If what he said wasn”t true, he”d be willing to let her hit him once on the head. The wife, impatient because she was so angry, said, "No, let me hit you first, and then I”ll go ask." As she said this, she reached for a shovel handle, but all she could grab was the stick they used to drive the dog out of the house, so she used that to bash her husband three times on the head. Later, of course, she found out the truth, but by that time it was too late, for the husband had already gotten three free hits on the head.

　　This story shows the harm that can come from not being mindful. If you let your mind wander away from what you”re doing, you can end up getting yourself into trouble.

　　*

　　There”s danger that comes from being good. If you”re not especially good, nobody gets fixated on you. The important thing is that you know how to use your goodness to your benefit. If you”re a good pe…

《The Skill of Release - The Treasures of the Dhamma》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…