..续本文上一页come you, your gunpowder may flame up in your hands. So don”t delay. Put your gunpowder into bullets so that whenever your enemies -- your defilements -- make an attack, you”ll be able to shoot them right down.

　　Whoever trains the mind to be centered gains a refuge. A centered mind is like a fortress. Discernment is like a weapon. To practice centering the mind is to secure yourself in a fortress, and so is something very worthwhile and important.

　　Virtue, the first part of the Path, and discernment, the last, aren”t especially difficult. But keeping the mind centered, which is the middle part, takes some effort because it”s a matter of forcing the mind into shape. Admittedly, centering the mind, like placing bridge pilings in the middle of a river, is something difficult to do. But once the mind is firmly in place, it can be very useful in developing virtue and discernment. Virtue is like placing pilings on the near shore of the river; discernment, like placing them on the far shore. But if the middle pilings -- a centered mind -- aren”t firmly in place, how will you ever be able to bridge the flood of suffering

　　There is only one way we can properly reach the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and that”s through the practice of mental development (bhavana). When we develop the mind to be centered and still, discernment can arise. Discernment here refers not to ordinary discernment, but to the insight that comes solely from dealing directly with the mind. For example, the ability to remember past lives, to know where living beings are reborn after death, and to cleanse the heart of the fermentations (asava) of defilement: These three forms of intuition -- termed ñana-cakkhu, the eye of the mind -- can arise for people who train themselves in the area of the heart and mind. But if we go around searching for knowledge from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations mixed together with concepts, it”s as if we were studying with the Six Masters, and so we can”t clearly see the truth -- just as the Buddha, while he was studying with the Six Masters, wasn”t able to gain Awakening. He then turned his attention to his own heart and mind, and went off to practice on his own, keeping track of his breath as his first step and going all the way to the ultimate goal. As long as you”re still searching for knowledge from your six senses, you”re studying with the Six Masters. But when you focus your attention on the breath -- which exists in each of us -- to the point where the mind settles down and is centered, you”ll have the chance to meet with the real thing: buddha, pure knowing.

　　Some people believe that they don”t have to practice centering the mind, that they can attain release through discernment (pañña-vimutti) by working at discernment alone. This simply isn”t true. Both release through discernment and release through stillness of mind (ceto-vimutti) are based on centering the mind. They differ only in degree. Like walking: Ordinarily, a person doesn”t walk on one leg alone. Whichever leg is heavier is simply a matter of personal habits and traits.

　　Release through discernment begins by pondering various events and aspects of the world until the mind slowly comes to rest and, once it”s still, gives rise intuitively to liberating insight (vipassana-ñana): clear and true understanding in terms of the four Noble Truths (ariya sacca). In release through stillness of mind, though, there”s not much pondering involved. The mind is simply forced to be quiet until it attains the stage of fixed penetration. That”s where intuitive insight will arise, enabling it to see things for what they are. This is release through stillness of mind: Concentration comes first, discernment later.

　　A pers…

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